Another power steering assist fault question

[Walter Chow]

Hi everyone, my wife drives a 2010 sho with 90000km or 54000 miles. The car is stock and has been a great car. Once in a while she would get the power assist steering fault and she would shut the car off, wait 10 seconds and then restart and be on her merry way.
Last week the fault would not come off when leaving work. The car is parked in the underground garage in tight quarters where it will be hard to drive out with the strong arm assist.
I am useless mechanically but went down to take a look. I disconnected the negative terminal for 15 minutes and reconnected with no luck. I know there is a pretty heavy battery draw while the car sits so I took the battery out and had it checked. The battery is 2 years old and still had high cranking amps and registered 99%. I reinstalled the battery and the fault still presents itself.
My wife babies the car. She just drives it back and forth to work. I see others with the same faults having to change the entire steering rack but they have double or triple her mileage.
I am hoping to have a mechanic friend come over this weekend to try to hook up his OBD scanner to it and hopefully reset or diagnose a failing part? Is there such a part? Can my friend reset with his scanner or am I going to be at the mercy of Ford and need to buy a new steering rack and have that reprogrammed?
Regular hydraulic power steering would have been great to have, I don't know why GM and Ford have moved to this electronic power steering. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Joshw0000]

Mine didn't have much more miles when it went out. Most likely you need a new one. Please don't go to the stealership. Find a local shop that has some knowledge of Ford's and they can repair it with a OEM and program it for half the price, or an aftermarket for even less.

From what I was told, over the years water somehow gets into it and shorts it out which is why it'll work intermittently for some time before it finally dies.

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[yaycandy]

Mine did it once, then i restarted the car and it went away. A few months later it came on while driving and lost power steering. And power steering didnt work again until i had the unit replaced by ford for nearly 2k$ out of warranty of course

 

[Joshw0000]

Mine did it once, then i restarted the car and it went away. A few months later it came on while driving and lost power steering. And power steering didnt work again until i had the unit replaced by ford for nearly 2k$ out of warranty of course

Maybe I should have gone to Ford. I paid $2,500. At least I had the peace of mind knowing that they won't break anything else while they're in there, which they've done with every car I've ever let them work on.

My first occurrence was over a year before it eventually died. Just before it died, it did it every couple weeks, then every couple days, to 3 times a day, to not working at all.

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[Walter Chow]

Thanks for the info. It doesn't look good. I phoned ford parts and there isn't much else available in regards to what else could have gone wrong. The parts guy said one sealed unit....so I guess it must be the rack. From Ford Canada, it will take 2 weeks to get out of USA and cost for the rack alone $3159.86 plus tax. I still have to have it diagnosed and programmed....OUCH!!
From a private reputable shop, for a remanufactured unit it will be about $2000 for the rack, $200 to reprogram, $540 to install, $150 to diagnose so $3128.82 after taxes.
I hope Ford's reprogramming is not proprietary and only Ford can reprogram? The total from the reputable shop all done is less than just the rack from Ford.

 

[yaycandy]

Thanks for the info. It doesn't look good. I phoned ford parts and there isn't much else available in regards to what else could have gone wrong. The parts guy said one sealed unit....so I guess it must be the rack. From Ford Canada, it will take 2 weeks to get out of USA and cost for the rack alone $3159.86 plus tax. I still have to have it diagnosed and programmed....OUCH!!
From a private reputable shop, for a remanufactured unit it will be about $2000 for the rack, $200 to reprogram, $540 to install, $150 to diagnose so $3128.82 after taxes.
I hope Ford's reprogramming is not proprietary and only Ford can reprogram? The total from the reputable shop all done is less than just the rack from Ford.

You can try to order one on tasca and install yourself. Im sure there is a writeup somewhere. Its not bad i hear

 

[Joshw0000]

You can try to order one on tasca and install yourself. Im sure there is a writeup somewhere. Its not bad i hear

I watched a few videos where it didn't seem that hard. Unless you have the tool, someone will have to reprogram it. It's not something a normal DIY'er can do.

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[yaycandy]

I watched a few videos where it didn't seem that hard. Unless you have the tool, someone will have to reprogram it. It's not something a normal DIY'er can do.

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You can install it and drive it fine but would have to get ford to do the programming for the lights to go out for features to work but the rack will work. Ive seen it in the past done with Forscan but im not sure how that would work

 

[Joshw0000]

You can install it and drive it fine but would have to get ford to do the programming for the lights to go out for features to work but the rack will work. Ive seen it in the past done with Forscan but im not sure how that would work

You're probably right but I'd be afraid to drive it without it being programmed after spending that much on a new unit.

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[Walter Chow]

Need your recommendations for those of you who have had to replace your power steering rack.....to go Ford genuine or aftermarket? $2000 dollar difference. Of course I wanted to go aftermarket but my wife worries that this part won't last and we will be doing this repair again shortly. Can these aftermarket racks be programmed at a good certified mechanic's shop or do I have to take it to Ford to be programmed? Will Ford program an part that is not bought from them?
Thanks,
Walter

 

[yaycandy]

Need your recommendations for those of you who have had to replace your power steering rack.....to go Ford genuine or aftermarket? $2000 dollar difference. Of course I wanted to go aftermarket but my wife worries that this part won't last and we will be doing this repair again shortly. Can these aftermarket racks be programmed at a good certified mechanic's shop or do I have to take it to Ford to be programmed? Will Ford program an part that is not bought from them?
Thanks,
Walter

Better off having the Ford dealer do it. They usually offer a 2 year warranty also. Mine was around 2k$ iirc and it was in 2021 maybe. So far it’s been fine. They just fail while driving and lets say good thing i was going straight.

 

[BlindAssassin111]

Need your recommendations for those of you who have had to replace your power steering rack.....to go Ford genuine or aftermarket? $2000 dollar difference. Of course I wanted to go aftermarket but my wife worries that this part won't last and we will be doing this repair again shortly. Can these aftermarket racks be programmed at a good certified mechanic's shop or do I have to take it to Ford to be programmed? Will Ford program an part that is not bought from them?
Thanks,
Walter

Having done it myself to save the extra $1k+, the part I got from rockauto is the identical part from ford but cheaper. And I mean literally the exact same, warranty and all. Just more of a pain in the ass to actually get it warrantied most likely (hopefully I never have to do it).

And you can easily program the rack using forscan, just have to remember to save the data from the original rack before removing and then reload it after.

When I got quotes to do it Q4 2024 it was $3700 at a dealer, and I did it myself for around $2k. I bought new replacements for every single bolt/nut I touched just to be safe and it paid off because the studs on part of the exhaust stripped and had to be drilled out. Took roughly 6 hours of work because of that.

 

[Walter Chow]

Having done it myself to save the extra $1k+, the part I got from rockauto is the identical part from ford but cheaper. And I mean literally the exact same, warranty and all. Just more of a pain in the ass to actually get it warrantied most likely (hopefully I never have to do it).

And you can easily program the rack using forscan, just have to remember to save the data from the original rack before removing and then reload it after.

When I got quotes to do it Q4 2024 it was $3700 at a dealer, and I did it myself for around $2k. I bought new replacements for every single bolt/nut I touched just to be safe and it paid off because the studs on part of the exhaust stripped and had to be drilled out. Took roughly 6 hours of work because of that.

Thanks for the info. I too will go to Rock Auto as they do have the best price. According to an engineer who did this repair on his Flex I can see that this will happen again at some time as the electronic brain for the rack is very close to the turbo and exhaust catalytic converter. The engine is already packed in and tight to move around in. No amount of heat resistant electrical grease will save the electronics of this unit.
Speaking of bad design and no recall, I remember calling Ford to schedule a PTU oil change but was flatly refused as they said it is a non serviceable part. I wonder how many PTU's failed and Ford just keep quiet.

 

[kryptto]

Walter - make sure if you need to go to Ford have them do any recall work at that time if NOT performed by you/original owner.

They are legally responsible for repairing units based on VIN in the US.

https://www.ford.com/support/recalls/

The 10-12 had issues with the exhaust manifolds shedding metals. If I am wrong so be it - just make sure all items are performed by Ford and if the shop says no, contact Ford direct.

https://www.kbb.com/ford/taurus/2010/recall/

 

[Walter Chow]

Thanks for the advice. We are the original owners of the car and she only has 90000kms or 54000 miles.
I just checked the recall list and nothing shows up for the car. I am upset that all sorts of models after mine has the electric power steering rack recall though.
I even phoned Ford customer service and pleaded but they were no help at all.

 

[kryptto]

Thanks for the advice. We are the original owners of the car and she only has 90000kms or 54000 miles.
I just checked the recall list and nothing shows up for the car. I am upset that all sorts of models after mine has the electric power steering rack recall though.
I even phoned Ford customer service and pleaded but they were no help at all.

Sounds like a reality nowadays