I would note that during my time with my 2011 Explorer, I had six instances of my steering shutting down. One time my car completely powered down simultaneously. Three of the times, I was on the highway. The last time my car powered down, several alerts popped up, then my steering locked up. The time before that, I hit my brakes and the power steering light popped up, steering locked up and brakes did not work. I actually hit the car in front of me. Ford repair said they saw no alerts from that incident. Ford has replaced the steering rack three times and completed a reprogramming. Two of the times they said they did not see any alerts and told me it was my battery. Ford covered replacement of two of the steering racks and the reprogramming. One steering rack replacement occurred right before the first recall came out. They said it was not covered under the recall so I had to pay. Ford is a large company so I find it hard to believe they didn't see the recall coming when I was in with this the first time and then received a recall shortly after. In any case, the last problem occurred on the highway with my kids in the car and I was so tired of ford telling me they didn't see the alerts and problems that I traded it in after their repair department gave it a "clean bill of health." I didn't want it in my conscious when some other family gets the defective vehicle. My advice, get a different car. Good luck and be safe. Travel in the right lane so when your steering does lock up and you cannot steer you can hopefully just put your blinkers on and ride it out like I had to several times.
