Torque Steer Severe Today

I just experienced some major torque steer in my AWD Explorer XLT today. Today, I was making a right after a stop and it was way more severe than before and the car pulled to the 2nd lane which wasn't good. I accelerated like I normally would and I held pretty tight to the steering wheel and it still went a few feet with some grinding noise going on but I can't tell what it is. I don't know if I have a drivetrain issue/ problem with the differential or what but I'm really concerned after today.

1995E said:

I just experienced some major torque steer in my AWD Explorer XLT today. Today, I was making a right after a stop and it was way more severe than before and the car pulled to the 2nd lane which wasn't good. I accelerated like I normally would and I held pretty tight to the steering wheel and it still went a few feet with some grinding noise going on but I can't tell what it is. I don't know if I have a drivetrain issue/ problem with the differential or what but I'm really concerned after today.

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I think this is mostly driver error. The "grinding" noise you hear, may have been the Traction Control System trying to correct your poor/abrupt driver inputs.

Hilarious

Bill #4 Explorer said:

I think this is mostly driver error. The "grinding" noise you hear, may have been the Traction Control System trying to correct your poor/abrupt driver inputs.

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Hey Bill,
Could you expand on poor/abrupt driver inputs. LOL

chimoman said:

Hey Bill,
Could you expand on poor/abrupt driver inputs. LOL

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The list is long:

1) Turn in
2) Late or early apex
3) Track out
4) Tail braking
5) Throttle inputs

If you are truly serious, I suggest a performance drive school, or DE Events with local sports car clubs.

This stuff can also be applied to daily driving, and even a +6,000 pound truck.

I'm not slamming the throttle, I do the normal thing. Stop. Inch out a little so I can see the traffic coming, then apply some throttle to complete the turn and increase a bit when I'm turning the wheel back to its normal position. I did the same thing that day and it just turned out bad with it understeering a bit. After the dealer checks it out and find nothing, then I'll go to driving school.

I was having a similar issue. The dealer is replacing the restraint control module. My Explorer has been in the shop two days as they figured out what the issue was.

Did you have a grinding noise that was caused by that part?

Yes, but it ended up being the brake system activating during the slow speed turn. Mine only did it when making slow speed turns. I could feel the braking system in the front wheels kicking in.

That could be why. My father complained about brakes or something going on and we got that inspected 2 weeks ago with no problems found. They took apart the brakes, inspected everything, and found nothing.

What was the outcome here? Did it ever repeat and did the dealer ever find a problem?

If it was a one-time event, I wonder if there was oil or something on the road...

Mine definitely has some mild torque steer but only under full throttle at low speed.

The dealer found the problem to be a sensor. A lot of the torque was sent to the right wheel while I made a right turn which probably caused the torque steer. I also had the brakes inspected twice because it felt like the brakes were applied while I was turning.

the torque steer is crap, unnatural and if i had known it was gonna do this never woulda bought one...

have driven many fwd vehicles, never felt anything like this

I just got back from lunch and drove a rental 2011 Ex for about 45 minutes, and hammered it multiple times on our parkway to try this. Is there some? Yes. Noticeable? Yes. Was it all over the road and uncontrollable? Absolutely not. Every FWD vehicle I've had or driven near full or full throttle has had some degree of torque steer.

I have had my Limited now for almost 5 months and have yet to experience any torque steer.

What is torque steer?

DDF said:

What is torque steer?

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Torque steer is common in higher HP FWD vehicles. During hard acceleration either in a straight line or around corners the steering wheel will tend to try and turn in the opposite direction of the power applied to the tires.

There are many things you can do during design of the vehicle to help reduce this including making the wheel drive shafts the same length.

DDF said:

What is torque steer?

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Torque steering is the influence of engine torque on the steering for some front-wheel drive vehicles. For example, during heavy acceleration the steering may pull to one side, which may be disturbing to the driver. The effect is manifested either as a tugging sensation in the steering wheel, or a veering of the vehicle from the intended path. Torque steer is directly related to differences in the forces in the contact patches of the left and right drive wheels. The effect becomes more evident when high torques are applied to the drive wheels either because of low transmission gearing, high engine torque, or some combination of the two. Torque steering is distinct from steering kickback.

DDF said:

What is torque steer?

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My other car is a 1993 Saab 900 Turbo. Let me tell you about torque steer ...

I have experienced the same with my 2012 LTD FWD. I have driven many FWD vehicles and yes there should be some Torque Steer, but not to the extent I am experiencing when I have to fight to hold the steering.

This week I was at the 2013 Ford Fleet Preview in Dearborn MI. There we got the opportunity to take any of the Ford/Lincoln line up vehicles out for a street drive of your choice.

I took out the 13 Taurus SHO and 13 Ex EcoBoost I4 so I could compare it to my 11 Ex for torque steer.

Amazingly neither 13MY vehicle had any torque steer at all, so the new PTU computer and software they have put into the 13MY really makes a difference from the 11MY

Problem for us is when I spoke to one of the AWD/TMS engineers he told me he hasn't heard of any complaints coming in about the 11/12 MY torque steer. So I had to reply with "If you didn't have any knowledge there was an issue then why would you change the PTU computer and software?"

For that there was no answer other then its just an ongoing improvement in the product line and technology.

So anyone with torque steer still needs to complain through the dealer so they get enough complaints to have the engineers update the software.