Multiple steering faults

[AidansCars]

So I've been a creeper on the forum for years. I've commented, helped, and learned. I'm hoping I can learn some more.

About a month ago, my 15 exploder sport 3.5 Ecoboost AWD 92k started jerking me around on the highway. My steering wheel started locking up here and there and becoming hard to drive. I just chalked it up to it being a bad power steering pump. I continued my journey and about an hour later I had a message on my left screen saying "steering failure safely stop driving" or something of the sorts; so I pulled over and checked my tie rods, struts, rotors, and axles. All looked good, so I continued on. Later we stop for gas and to stretch our legs and when we return, the steering wheel is completely locked up as the car is running and I cannot turn the wheels. I called one mechanic and he called me back after calling some Ford mechanics and told me it could be my electronic rack and pinion system or my power steering assist motor and to pull the battery and try to reset the system. It didn't work so I had it flat bedded to my destination where I pulled the assist motors 3 plugs and still didn't do **** for me.

From what everyone was telling me, I needed a new rack and pinion ($800-1200) and I had to wait for that money, so I was stranded in a state I was visiting with no job, no support, nothing.

I gathered the money and instead had it towed back to my warehouse/job and left it there for about a week.

Today, about 3 weeks to a month later, I've learned a bunch and learned a lot about what my specific car has been through. It was a northern car that has a bit of under body rust and sometimes it can cause the steering system to prematurely wear. Today I also finally picked up a nice scan tool and found out exactly what I've been thinking since I've learned more: a steering angle sensor. I was getting multiple codes, then I charged my battery, reset the codes, and miraculously before read em again, my wheel started to turn normally with the exception of a light grinding sound like you could hear every gear the pinion was grabbing. I only have one that correlates now: U2013-63 CM
Switch Pack - Circuit/Component Protection Time- Out

Should I replace the sasm and see what happens or should I do further testing?


Attached are the pictures of the codes before I charged the battery, once again, most are lining up with steering angle sensor and the others are due to low battery

 

[peterk9]

FYI, the 5th gen Explorer doesn't have a power steering pump. It has Electric Power-Assisted Steering (EPAS).
As for your issue being caused by a low battery charge, I haven't read about that before. I've had multiple low battery conditions with my previous Explorers and none resulted in a loss of power steering.
The steering angle could be the issue, but then again, the earlier models were prone to steering faults that were corrected by replacing the steering rack. There are several threads on that issue.

Peter

 

[AidansCars]

Can anyone please help?

 

[AidansCars]

FYI, the 5th gen Explorer doesn't have a power steering pump. It has Electric Power-Assisted Steering (EPAS).
As for your issue being caused by a low battery charge, I haven't read about that before. I've had multiple low battery conditions with my previous Explorers and none resulted in a loss of power steering.
The steering angle could be the issue, but then again, the earlier models were prone to steering faults that were corrected by replacing the steering rack. There are several threads on that issue.

Peter

I've read into them all. Nothing like my car has been doing. I know it doesn't come with power steering, I was saying it felt that same as no power steering in a car. The epas is awesome when it works, and sucks when it doesn't. The steering angle sensor being bad wouldn't cause a small misalignment and noise in the rack. I think it's either the rack itself or the Power assist drive band.

As for the codes I found: DTC U2013:63 (Switch Pack: Circuit / Component Protection Time-Out) - set by the FCIM (Front Controls Interface Module) if a switch is detected as active for more than 3 seconds during the self-test, or for more than 2 minutes during normal operation. When this occurs, the FCIM (Front Controls Interface Module) disables the switch until it detects it as no longer active.

And it coincides with my blender door actuator going bad and the rain that got on my interface module and ruined my skip song button. (Code B1082)

All other codes have gone away except my p0016, which I have already replaced both my camshaft position sensors for bank 1 (1,2). My next attempt will be to replace the HVAC part causing the issues, replace the VVT solenoid for bank 1 and hope it fixes the issue. If not, I think I have a stretched timing chain