The first sign of a problem appeared when I started feeling a pop or catch when turning the steering wheel to the left. The popping persisted for about 10 days, and then the power steering suddenly failed when pulling into a parking space. Instantly, it took much more force to turn the wheel. During the next few days, while I waited for an appointment to have the problem diagnosed, I found that there was usually partial power assistance when turning right, but no power at all when turning left.

The local Ford dealer initially believed the power steering pump had failed. They replaced the pump twice with no improvement. Then, they replaced an electronic control module for the pump. That also made no difference. Finally, they replaced the power steering rack (Ford calls it a "steering gear"), and the steering was back to normal. The Ford technician's final diagnosis was that an inner seal was blown in the steering rack, which caused a fluid blockage and forced the pump to work against itself. This in turn burned out a solenoid in the pump, and the electronic control module was burned out in an attempt to supply more voltage to the solenoid.

I had no further problems with steering until a year later, when similar symptoms appeared again. This time, I felt a pop when turning the wheel to the right, and about two weeks later the power steering suddenly died when I was trying to parallel park. Afterward, the power assistance became erratic. In some cases, it seemed to drop to almost nothing, and in other cases, it seemed to be only partially impaired.

We have a 2008 Mercury Sable that just hit the 60,000 mile mark. The vehicle has been meticulously maintained and serviced at our local Ford Dealership. Our Sable has been a dependable vehicle up until now. The drivers side heated seat is no longer operational and the dealership wants too much money for us to consider fixing. We just replaced the steering rack for $1,000. The Sable is now in the garage because, while driving a few miles from our home, it began to shake violently. It was determined that ignition coils #1 and #2 need to be replaced. They are also recommending for us to replace coil #3 and a full tune up for $1,000+ in hopes of preventing additional costs in the future.

We just traded in a 2006 Ford Expedition King Ranch because of the coil and unreliability issues. We thought by trading in the Expedition that we would rid ourselves of the annoying, unsafe and expensive coil issues but here we go again. Ford should acknowledge and assist their customers with these reoccurring and well documented issues (ie; ignition coils, steering rack, drivers side heated seat and transmission). Ford doesn't owe anyone a trouble free vehicle but they do need to take responsibility for these design flaws. They should assist with the costly repairs that they knowingly and willingly pass on to their customers.

We did notify Ford of the issues we had with the Expedition (in approx 2012). The representative we talked to told us that they were not aware of any issues with the coils. All anyone would have to do is Google the subject or query the dealerships. She told us that they couldn't help us with the repairs but they would help us with a deal on a new Ford. Our thought was; if you're not going to stand by a 6 year old, $50,000+ vehicle, why would you think we would be interested in purchasing another Ford product!?! With that said, the vehicle we traded the Expedition in for was a...........2013 Lincoln MKT. I know, another Ford product, we are a glutton for punishment. We hope our experiences provide some benefit to anyone researching these vehicles.