On August 23rd, 2019, I was driving back from a 240 mile round trip and was caught in a severe thunderstorm. As I was pulling inot a parking lot to wait out the storm, my power steering failed. After 10 minutes it came back and I was able to make it home. I took it to a service station the next morning and no error codes showed up. On August 30th after making the same round trip, I again lost my power steering near my home. It failed to come back. I had the car towed to a local shop. They determined it was a failure identical to the active recall in the model year prior to mine and it needed to be towed to the dealership. The dealership confirmed an internal fault in the power steering rack which will need to be replaced. Thankfully the steering failures happened when I was either in the process of parking or already parked.

- Oak Island, NC, USA

Left driveway and a minute down the road (on a city street) as the vehicle began to accelerate the gears jolted and steering seized up making me unable to avoid a car parked around a bend that was a foot in the road. No lights came on and no warning appeared. I had an appointment to take it to the shop in a few days because when switching gears or accelerating after vehicle is stopped it jolts/feels like it's trying harder than it should have to for being such a new vehicle, and haven't even owned the vehicle for a month. It's very upsetting to just get a new to me car and have an unavoidable accident. It's currently at the service shop. Luckily no one was injured but both vehicles are badly damaged. This isn't the first complaint about this issue with this vehicle and there's multiple complaints just this year. I have a feeling as time goes on and vehicles hit between 50-80 thousand miles the issue will become more apparent. Ford should definitely have a recall and fix this problem so no one becomes seriously injured.

- Meadville, PA, USA

Three times so far this has happened while driving the steering assist fault service required". I could still drive the car but it took a lot of effort to turn the steering wheel. I pulled over and turned the car off and restarted it and the light went out and I was able to drive again. Ford is not taking responsibility for this on the vehicle. The car was always in motion when this happened. It just locks up. Very scary situation- there really should be a recall on this.

- Elizabeth, PA, USA

I got in my car to go to work after it had been parked all night. I turned it on and I instantly got the message "steering assist fault service required" I couldn't turn the wheel. I shut it off and turned it back on and the message was gone. I was able to drive to work however I am scared something is going to go out while im driving!

- Las Vegas, NV, USA

This has been happening for a few years now-normally I can turn vehicle off and then on again and the electric power steering assist fault error will go away. Now this error doesn't go away and there is no power steering. When this first started to happen it was taken to the Ford dealer and they said it was not an issue, if I go online I see numerous people with this same issue with little results from Ford. I am so disappointed in Ford for not taking responsibility. Not sure what I will do the garage is going to try to reset the electrical system, they said 50/50 chance it will work.

- Long Prairie, MN, USA

My 2014 Ford Escape is only 4 years old and the power steering locked up while it was parked in a parking structure. I could barely turn it to get it out of the structure then I had to have it towed to the dealership who said it would cost $2000 to repair. There are recalls for older models but not 2014. Luckily this happened while parked and not while I was driving on a busy road. Very unsafe. I don't expect such expensive repairs from a car this age.

- Ann Arbor, MI, USA

I was running errands, when I started my car I got a message "steering assist fault service required". I could still drive the car but it took a lot of effort to turn the steering wheel. The message appears when the key is turned on before starting the car, I did drive it home, my wife wouldn't have the strength to drive it. I haven't tried to get it repaired yet, that will have to wait until I get back from a trip.

- Escondido, CA, USA

Driver fault assist error. The power steering stopped working and vehicle had to be towed. Had to have the entire power steering column replaced. This happened when the car was parked after driving on the highway for 3 hours. We stopped for a break at a rest stop and when the car was started to continue the trip it gave the error and the power steering didn't work.

- Broadway, VA, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact stated that the steering wheel was extremely difficult to turn in either direction and required excessive force. B & B Ford (10476 dunbarton blvd, barnwell, SC 29812, (803) 259-5524) was notified of the failure and diagnosed that the rack and pinion needed to be replaced. The dealer had not received authorization to repair the vehicle because there was no electric power steering recall. In addition, the five year warranty statute expired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and provided a case number. The approximate failure mileage was 60,200.

- Barnwell, SC, USA

While driving the Escape through city streets, an error showed up on the dash and said 'steering assist failure. Needs service.' At that point, the powering steering stopped and it became extremely difficult to turn the steering wheel. This has happened twice to the car in the past 24 hours. I have restarted the car with each incident but after already driving, the error came back up. I believe that this can be due to an electrical issue or power steering component failure.

- Deerfield Beach, FL, USA

I was leaving home, got into vehicle, started it and noticed alert that said 'steering assist fault, service required'. I had not had any issues when driving the vehicle the day before. Upon attempt to drive vehicle I realized there was no power steering. Drove vehicle to dealership for service. Was told they would have to look at. It. my extended warranty (5 years/60,000 miles) was expired because I had 64000 miles on it. Repair and rental car for three days (happened on a Saturday) were out of pocket. Ended up being the steering gear assembly. Repair was just under $2000. Three day car rental was $100. There was a recall on older vehicles for steering but not for my model year. There was no warning that there was an issue. If I had been driving in the middle of turning it could have been very bad. There are other reports of the same thing happening to others so I do not believe the issue with the steering has been fixed. Steering should not go out with so few miles on the vehicle.

- Tucson, AZ, USA

I was driving on a highway with my family and felt a tightness in the steering so pulled over for a rest stop then when I tried to leave by turning back onto the highway the steering wheel locked up and made it difficult to turn so had to leave vehicle behind dealership said it wasn't nothing wrong with vehicle and no recalls but this is a known issue with later years of Escape and other SUV

- Axton, VA, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. While driving, the steering wheel seized. An independent mechanic assisted the contact with the vehicle for it to be driven. The vehicle was taken to al packer Ford West palm beach (1530 N military trl, West palm beach, fl 33409) where it was diagnosed that an unknown part related to the steering needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000. The VIN was not provided. Consumer stated steering was totally locked and the vehicle could not steer.

- Wellington, FL, USA

The 'steering assist fault, service required' popped after turning my car off for gas and then turning it back on when I was ready to go. Without any notice or any previous issues I was unable to steer my car. This car can still be driven but with limited steering capacity, which is very unsafe.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

Without notice, it started my vehicle and received a "steering assist fault" message and lost all power steering.one mechanic said that it was a Ford software update that wasn't compatible with my electronic steering.I took it to Ford dealership and they said the rack and pinion gear was the problem. $2,000 repair.

- Mckinney, TX, USA

The contact owns a 2014 Ford Escape. The contact stated that the steering wheel seized and the electric power steering warning indicator illuminated. Randall Ford (5500 rogers ave, fort smith, ar 72903, (479) 452-1311) was notified and stated that the vehicle was not included in any steering recall campaigns. The contact felt that if the same oem part was replaced without a remedy, the failure may recur. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and provided no assistance. The VIN and failure mileage were not available.

- Muldrow, OK, USA

While driving power steering completely failed. The wheel jerked a bit but I was able to maintain control and pull over. When I attempted to turn the wheel I had no power steering at all. I took to my mechanic and was told the steering rack needed to be replaced at a cost of $2000. Car as 100K miles. My concern is there was no codes or fault displayed on instrument cluster. The next day I drove the car and the power steering was fine. The next day driving it failed again. Still no service needed light or notification on instrument cluster. Car is unsafe to drive for someone not strong enough to turn the wheel without power steering.

- Chandler, AZ, USA

2014 Ford Escape 60,000 miles replaced the battery lost control of power steering had to bring to Ford dealer they said it would need to be re-flashed they than called and said it needed new rack and pinion for the steering and new alignment for $2200 not sure if this was the problem if this is typical of the Escape but it should not of happened with a vehicle with this few of miles.

- Federal Way, WA, USA

I was driving on the highway and all of a sudden the steering wheel froze up and would not turn unless using tremendous force. I was lucky not to be in an accident. The car only has 56-58K miles and is not that old. I was now charged by Ford almost $2,000 to replace the steering system. I have read abt this from other owners on-line, but there seems not to be a recall for something that can potentially cause an deadly accident.

- Flushing, NY, USA

Power steering went out on me while driving out of nowhere. Was driving fine not even 8 hours beforehand. After turning on the car the steering was hard to keep control of. As I kept driving the power steering was locking up and sounded like it was grinding gears together. After stopping for food, turned the car back on to reverse and the steering wheel had locked and on the dash it stated 'steering loss. Park safely.' After this and everything locked I called a tow truck to tow it home in my driveway.

- Lincoln Park, MI, USA