2011 - 2018 Explorer Power Steering Issue

[peterk9]

My leased 2011 Explorer was taken in 'on trade' on my new vehicle on April 1st and quickly sold. When the recall came out, I checked the site that shows recalls and my former Explorer was listed. I then sent an email to inform the new owner about it. As I mentioned in my previous post, yours may not show since the recall apparently applies to 2011 - 2013 models.

Peter

 

[DelSil]

I wasn't able to view your repair order, but Fred Beans in West Chester replaced the Electronic Power Steering Unit (HE Gear Assembly - Steering) although it's hard to identify the part number on my invoice. Parts and labor came to $1936.44. We were out of warranty.

The good news is that we followed up with the dealer immediately after hearing about the recall last week, and are supposed to receive our reimbursement check this week. I'd suggest that anyone who has paid for these repairs out of pocket follow up with their dealer instead of wait for the recall paperwork to be issued in July. Fred Beans has done a remarkable job in resolving our issue.

I don't know why it is not showing up. Anyway that was the same repair I had. Funny how the dealerships know what the repair is but there was no recall prior.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Thanks for the response, but this was a known problem for years and Ford not only failed to recognize and address the problem, but held off the recall until a week ago. Not sure a recall search would have shown anything for most of us suffering with this engineering failure. What hasn't been mentioned IDs that this failure also prevents the signal lights from functioning, yet the Ford dealer said it's ok to drive the car for three weeks while waiting for parts. The four wheel drive, signal lights, anti-skid, and other systems are affected by this failure and no guarantee that Ford has done anything to resolve the problem. Is there an upgrade to the existing steering gear assembly with the replacement parts?

Again, thanks for your response, but dealers should research and inform the customer of existing unresolved maintenance issues as part of the excellent customer service that has been part of the Ford customer experience for generations.

A couple things.. if you read the recall description it states that if someone has had a failure then it will be replaced. If you haven't had a failure, then they are reflashing the software which is suppose to fix the issue. How I am understanding this is that the software is causing the failures and once it has failed, something is damaged physically.. Software fixed, hardware fixed.

Second, it's not possible for a dealer to let all their customers know about a recall, that is Ford's responsibility. Dealers/techs/service advisors CAN'T see recalls for a specific vehicle unless they run each and every VIN to see if that vehicle falls under the guidelines. No dealer is going to go through every sales order and run each individual VIN and then send out notices that they are not responsible for.

By no means am I defending Ford.. Ford should have stepped this up when it started happening over and over again.

Last thing I found interesting is that Ford is pretty much being forced to do this. It was in April, the NHTSA had driven an Explorer that Ford duplicated the issue so the NHTSA could experience it. After they did that, they had a conversation with Ford about it and what do you know.. a recall a month later.

 

[Bruce1]

All good points. Let's consider the cost of checking for recalls as part of the sales process. They have the VIN already entered into their database. This can, and should be linked to the computer system at Ford with the VIN's that have recalls. Upon sale, the potential recalls can be listed on the Sales Order. This is only one of several very quick and low cost ways to offer a needed service to Ford customers.

As to the root cause of the failure, if this was only a software issue that resulted in excessive stress on the electrical and/or the mechanical parts of the steering gear assembly, then the problem would have gone away on all new vehicles after the software upgrade. Our Explorer is a 2014 that failed with under 2500 miles. This is a four wheel drive, off road vehicle. The electrical and mechanical stress on the front end during normal driving conditions is insignificant compared to off-road conditions. I strongly suspect that Ford has used the software to lessen the stress on a poorly designed steering rack and that failures will continue, but at a lower rate that Ford may be able to live with. I suspect that their reasoning is that the difficult steering is experienced primarily at low speeds lessening the risk to the occupants when failure occurs. U-turns in traffic are high exposure since oncoming traffic is not at low speeds. Off-roading is also high risk as are front ire failure and driving on rough roads. These scenarios are a low percentage of normal driving, so when the risk analysis is done, odds are in favor of approving an otherwise faulty product. I will not trust this steering rack in serious off-road conditions until we see more data on the failure rate with the new software upgrade. Anyone have a date when the software was "fixed"?

Hard to accept that this failure did not show up during the original road tests that are done prior to approving for production.

Our new steering gear assembly is due in next week. I, for one, will continue to monitor this site to see if the failure rate drops off with new software and hardware. My hopes are that it does, but unless a change was also made to the steering gear assembly, I only expect to see a reduction in failures and a serious design change on 2015 or 2016 models. Will those driving rough roads and those taking the vehicles off road may still be at risk? Interesting that after 4-years, Ford still doesn't have that answer.

 

[blwnsmoke]

As to the root cause of the failure, if this was only a software issue that resulted in excessive stress on the electrical and/or the mechanical parts of the steering gear assembly, then the problem would have gone away on all new vehicles after the software upgrade. Our Explorer is a 2014 that failed with under 2500 miles. This is a four wheel drive, off road vehicle. The electrical and mechanical stress on the front end during normal driving conditions is insignificant compared to off-road conditions. I strongly suspect that Ford has used the software to lessen the stress on a poorly designed steering rack and that failures will continue, but at a lower rate that Ford may be able to live with. I suspect that their reasoning is that the difficult steering is experienced primarily at low speeds lessening the risk to the occupants when failure occurs. U-turns in traffic are high exposure since oncoming traffic is not at low speeds. Off-roading is also high risk as are front ire failure and driving on rough roads. These scenarios are a low percentage of normal driving, so when the risk analysis is done, odds are in favor of approving an otherwise faulty product. I will not trust this steering rack in serious off-road conditions until we see more data on the failure rate with the new software upgrade. Anyone have a date when the software was "fixed"?.

I agree on many things you have said. I will say the failure rate seems to have drastically dropped in the 14s.. Just reading over this thread alone and how much of an issue it was in the 11-12 models and some 13s. Clearly it is still an issue if the 14s are having issues and I'm sure 15s will see it too.

The whole "low risk" from Ford is a bunch of crap. The fact that one can barely steer if it fails is a major issue. My wife is 5'5" and 120lbs and I can tell you that if it failed on her in the middle of a turn or at an intersection pulling a U-turn, she'd go right off the road or into another vehicle. There is no warning.. at the time it chimes, that's the time it fails.

What Ford needs to do is explain in detail to us owners (which they won't) what the true cause of the issue is. The 3 things they found wrong during the NHTSA investigation had been corrected yet we are still seeing the same failures (at a lower rate). There are many vehicles on the road today that have EPAS systems.. there should be no reason for these failures.

What Ford should do is extend the warranty on this part for all Explorer owners for lets say 10 years, 150,000 miles. With all the failures, we should not have to worry in the back of our heads about when this $1,900 failure is going to happen on our vehicle.

 

[new to ford]

Anybody that is part of this recall received any kind of notification in the mail?
Our explorer is part of the recall, and other than reading about it in the news, we have received absolutely no notification from FORD....

 

[peterk9]

I believe the recall was just issued at the end of May. It is likely, I hope, that letters to owners of affected vehicles will receive letters in the coming weeks.

Peter

 

[expls2014]

Does that mean we will get some software patch for 2014 explorer as well in July?? I don't want to drive the car on the highway while worrying about power steering failure

 

[xAgustinx]

I got this message:

2014 Ford Explorer

Currently, there are no listed recalls for your vehicle.

A recall is an action by the Company to remedy a safety or emissions-related concern related to a vehicle defect or regulatory requirement. It may require that you return your vehicle to the dealer for service. If your vehicle is not affected, it may be because it was built at a different time or using a different part than the affected vehicles.



Should I worry? I have read here some explorers 2014 have had this problem.

 

[peterk9]

The recall initially applied to 2011 - 2013 Explorers. I checked the recall notice to see if it had been updated to include 2014 models and it had not.
http://api.viglink.com/api/click?fo...ww-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/...tsa_ids=14V286

If anyone has official information that says otherwise, please advise.

Peter

 

[182RG]

Realize this recall doesn't fix the underlying problem with the steering rack (ribbon cable wear / pin misalignment). It's a software patch to prevent the system from disabling itself if it detects a problem. The possibility still is there for a failure, and a $2,000 repair out of warranty. Ford is not exactly stepping up to the plate on this one.

 

[MTN]

Does anyone know when the software update will be available?

 

[peterk9]

I think you'd likely have to check with your dealer as it probably is a dealer install only program.

Peter

 

[tropicvi]

According to information I saw on the recall, the letters will be going out as of July 25th.

 

[GWA1]

Ditto July 25

 

[new to ford]

Finally got the recall notice in the mail yesterday 7/28/14.

 

[gdecamp]

Got my notice today. I called and the nearest appointment is September 9th!!

She said they have lots to do and can only do a certain number a day.

 

[blwnsmoke]

Got mine yesterday and mine is going in on Tuesday.

 

[new to ford]

Got my notice today. I called and the nearest appointment is September 9th!!

She said they have lots to do and can only do a certain number a day.

That's crazy, I got an appointment this morning for Wednesday the 6th.

 

[pingbling23]

got my letter yesterday.