Power steering loss power and transmission failed

- Apple Valley, CA, USA

power steering suddenly stopped working while driving, I was barely able to get the vehicle to the side of the road. I am disabled and had to have my husband meet me and fight the car to get it home.

- Mesa, AZ, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced a loss of power steering assist after the ABS warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle with ABS failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised the contact to file a complaint with the NHTSA. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.

- Nottingham, MD, USA

Date of incident, May 19th 2022. While driving home from work on highway 270, as it was raining, my power steering suddenly and without any warning stopped working & has not worked since. I called the Ford manufacturer directly and I have a case number from them on the issue. Ford is well aware of the manufacturer defect in their ford escape steering computer chips and they do not want to address the issue because it would be bad for them financially as well as hurt their publicity. The repair would cost as quoted by the dealership $2400. This is a huge safety issues for the public on any roadways. If this situation happened to a young inexperienced driver or an elderly driver there would be a high potential for a crash on highways and other roadways. Luckily I was able to control the situation and was able to avoid a terrible outcome. Furthermore, it takes physical strength to operate the car which again young and elderly drivers would not be able to drive or have extreme difficulty driving. This is a potentially deadly issue and Ford does not want the general public to know. I hope for the safety of the public Ford is made to recall the vehicle for this specific issue that they are blatantly aware of and want to ignore. Ford has forever lost my family along with myself as a longtime customer.

- Affton, MO, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced a loss of power steering assist. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 131,000.

- Canton, GA, USA

The contact owned a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 MPH, she was switching lanes from the right lane to the left lane, and she heard a loud pop from the front end of the vehicle. The contact lost control of the vehicle and drove across the lanes and crashed into the highway dividing wall. The contact had no memory of any warning lights being illuminated or hitting the wall. The contact said that a witness reported that the driver's side front tire came off of the vehicle. Additionally, the contact stated that she was told that the air bags had not been deployed. The contact stated that she was unconscious and transported to a hospital. She stated she had no cuts, bruises, or other injuries. The vehicle was towed to an impound lot. The police were on the scene and the contact was not aware of an incident report was written. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was approximately 151,000.

- Greenfield, IN, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving approximately 10 MPH, the steering functionality became difficult. The steering warning light illuminated. The vehicle was diagnosed with a steering functionality fault. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 83,000

- Mapleton, IL, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the power steering assist fault warning message appeared on the instrument panel. The steering wheel locked up and require excessive force to steer the vehicle off the roadway. Upon restart of the vehicle, the failure remained. Due to the failure, the contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed however, the mechanic was unable to retrieve a fault code. The contact then called the dealer and was informed that the next available appointment would be in a month. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 120,000.

- Bronx, NY, USA

My family and I of 4 was traveling on a family get away trip and on the highway after about 23 miles, The power steering sign comes up and the steering wheel gets stiff on the middle of the highway. Almost causing my family and I a head on collision with on coming vehicles. My vehicle has been checked about 4 months before by ford and also I have checked the ecu and there are no trouble codes. My family and I have almost ended up in the hospital or near death because this issue that just suddenly happens. This is not a safe situation to be in.

- Bronx, NY, USA

Sudden loss of power steering with an associated warning message on the dash for a steering assist fault.

- Steuben, ME, USA

Started car while in our garage and a message came on the dash 'Steering Assist Fault'. Wife could not move steering wheel. We turned car off and restarted. Steering was back to normal. No message was displayed. This was scary because what if it happened while driving?

- Florence, KY, USA

In my driveway two times so far my power assist failed giving me an error on my drivers screes automatic power assist failure. The steering became almost impossible to move and I had to shut off the car then restart it to clear the error. On the Ford Forums apparently there are lots of other people who are experiencing this same failure and it is showing up on new and older vehicles as well. Also this is a cross model problem and is a defective design from The Ford motor company and should be delt with. Thank you.

- Largo, FL, USA

There-??s record of this model and several ford models experiencing steering rack issues, getting damage to a point in witch stops the operation and locks the steering wheel.

- Bronx, NY, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact-??s husband stated while driving approximately 25 MPH, the steering wheel became difficult to turn. The contact-??s husband was able to pull over and restart the vehicle and functionality was returned. The contact stated that there was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where it was diagnosed with needing the steering unit replaced; however, the vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.

- Shickshinny, PA, USA

Steering Assist Failure

- Lexington, NC, USA

Was driving my car and got a message about steering assist came on. Shut the car off because I could not steer it, turned car back on and message went away and it was ok. Had an appointment 12/14 to have my car inspected and an oil change at Carnegie Motors so I told them what happened. I had to get a new tire to pass inspection so had to wait for tht to come in 12/20/21They did their part but called and said it would have to go to the dealership for the steering problem they had removed the battery thinking it would reset itself. Jeff then took it up to Woltz Wind Ford which was about 1 mile up the road - had trouble steering. Because of the holiday and days off they did not get to my car till 12/27 they told me that the Steering Gear box had to be replaced. In researching online I saw that Ford had recalls on 20008 and 2011 for the same problem. My vehicle has41,958 miles on it. Apparently Ford still has the same problem with steering issues The representative just said that parts wear out that I did nothing to cause this problem. I have to get this car repaired to the tune of $2200 plus it is still there will send invoice when I get it. Just glad I was not on the highway when this happened. Definitely a safety issue Obviously the 2013 needed to be recalled as well.

- Carnegie, PA, USA

Power steering became noisy on start and turning right took vehicle to Firestone was told to take to dealer as "dealer needs to reprogram car after repairing" brought to dealer and told this may be a 2000-3000$ job along with a 3-4 day wait to even be looked

- Springfield, MA, USA

I was attempting to move the vehicle which had been parked on the street in front of my residence into the driveway so it would be out of the way of the scheduled street sweeping. I could typically just reverse right angle the vehicle into the driveway. However, upon reversing the vehicle moved but not according to the way I was steering it. After a few failed attempts, I stopped to assess why this was happening. I know the emergency brake had been released, there were no alerts visible on the dashboard. I got out of the vehicle, no flat tire, nothing appeared different from when I parked the vehicle 36 hours prior. No signs that it had been struck since then. No obstructions behind or under the vehicle. I got back in and tried again. I was able to get it up onto the sidewalk but in a very unintended position. Further attempts did get it partially into the driveway but I nearly hit the picket fence in the front yard in doing so. With it now half on the sidewalk and half in the driveway, I put the brake on satisfied it was now off the street and no longer subject to city parking violation penalty. I had to cancel my work meeting and called the auto club for a tow. During the tow service pick-up, it appeared that the front driver side wheel was not aligning with the steering mechanism but we could manually position the wheel so we could get enough movement and position the vehicle and move it by chain onto the tow truck platform. Prior to parking the vehicle in front of the house, I had driven it without any problems. There was no evidence that it had been damaged or impacted by another vehicle or vandal.

- Oakland, CA, USA

This just so the information is sent in to someone I bought this car used from.day one had problems warranty did not cover anything. First when you would start it it would flash power steering assist fault on the dash you shut car off and restart it goes away. Then the turbo boost sensors keep going I have replaces these three different times find out there is a service bulletin out for it but ford won't fix it for free there is a short in the wire you have to pay out of pocket for. Next was driving down the road and lost all power it went into limp mode while we were driving. The transmission is all messed up in this vehicle it was leaking fluid and took it to a shop to see where and can't find it. There are other electrical issues with the car I have 157k on

- Derry, PA, USA

The contact owns a 2013 Ford Escape. The contact stated while reversing out of the driveway and attempting to turn out of the driveway, the steering wheel locked up preventing the vehicle from turning. The contact shifted the vehicle into PARK and restarted the vehicle and the steering wheel unlocked. The contact was able to drive the vehicle however, several days later while driving at an undisclosed speed, the failure recurred, and the steering wheel locked. The contact was able to manually pull the vehicle over to the side of the road and restart the vehicle to unlock the steering wheel. The power steering assists warning light was illuminated during the failure. The local dealer went to the residence and picked up the vehicle to perform a diagnostic test. The mechanic was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 85,000.

- Brentwood, MO, USA