Poll of the Day > The steering on my car stopped working...

(+) Yeah! (+)

Thankfully it only really happened when I shut off then turned the car back on (so I wasn't moving) but it's been demonstrating a weird issue since the weekend (whenever I'd turn the wheel and as it was turning back to neutral it would hit these "stops" along the way that made it feel like there was a small amount of resistance that was building up near the center point -- it was just starting to get worse and more noticeable last night when I got the warning there was a steering issue then it going out entirely after I parked the car). Last week the steering also seized up briefly when I started my car but I just wrote it off as a glitch (since the car seems so heavily software-controlled).

But when I went out to get food last night it just stopped turning entirely and I had to be towed out of there. Now I need to be towed to the mechanic.

At least I bought that warranty when I got this car. Such a pity it's had all these small-ish problems, it's far and away the best car I've ever had (and I don't just mean mechanically).

Yeah; same issue happened to my Taurus last year. Steering assist unit had gone out. Replacement costed $750 and took them 3 weeks to find.

Mine's a hybrid Fusion. In addition to saying the steering is shot the car said lane assist was busted and "AdvanceTrac" needs servicing but I assume these are all tied into the same supersystem that manages the steering.

I was told the power steering is a sealed system in such a car, which means it's not directly user-serviceable. All feels like just making it so only Ford can maintain your vehicle at unreasonable markup...

Solid_Sonic posted...

Mine's a hybrid Fusion. In addition to saying the steering is shot the car said lane assist was busted and "AdvanceTrac" needs servicing but I assume these are all tied into the same supersystem that manages the steering.

I was told the power steering is a sealed system in such a car, which means it's not directly user-serviceable. All feels like just making it so only Ford can maintain your vehicle at unreasonable markup...

I wonder why we didn't transition to electric steering?

But your right, right to repair isn't fully a thing yet so yes the manufacturers are purposely making it harder to maintain. Just imagine what you do when this is off warranty. Or maybe you move away from a Ford dealership and need someone else to work on it.

I'm already down $190 just for them to tell me what's wrong (even though I can convey this very easily) and that isn't even under my used warranty (I didn't buy the car from them).

But knowing what dealerships charge I wouldn't be surprised if this repair hit the mid-$1000s so at least having that covered will be a relief.

Solid_Sonic posted...

I'm already down $190 just for them to tell me what's wrong (even though I can convey this very easily) and that isn't even under my used warranty (I didn't buy the car from them).

But knowing what dealerships charge I wouldn't be surprised if this repair hit the mid-$1000s so at least having that covered will be a relief.

Let us know if they try to weasel out of the warranty, historically buying the warranty was a bad idea because the cars were reasonably reliable and when something went wrong the dealership would find some excuse to not do the warranty anyways. But with today's cars maybe that has changed.

I got very leery of that the first time I tried to use it (like I deliberately had the dealership do something I might have been able to address in another way simply to see if my warranty was worth a damn) but lo and behold they did actually have my back.

Maybe that isn't indicative of EVERY repair I try to make but at least in this instance it's hard to say this shouldn't be covered so hopefully if they're as much on my side as it seems I should be able to do so without any waffle.

I work in a garage with mechanics that know how to work on everything from trucks, tractors, mowers, loaders, to backhoes and some places will still try to weasel out of the warranty repairs when we send it their way having fully diagnosed the issue before shipping it to them.

So it seems the rack and pinion on my car is shot in some way (they didn't go into detail). Serious repair.

They said I have to pay around $1000 OOP to get it fixed, which is definitely a sting. But thank fuck for that warranty because THEY'RE on the hook for about $3000.

So, yeah, the warranty works... :\

Considering the car is a '19 that is a pretty craptastic build quality for five-ish years in (can't believe you'd be throwing down that much cash to fix a problem on something that most people would have JUST gotten finished paying off in most situations). The state of things, I suppose (which, again, makes me sad since I DO like the car a lot, I just can't deny that corners definitely seem to be cut on newer vehicles).

Solid_Sonic posted...

So it seems the rack and pinion on my car is shot in some way (they didn't go into detail). Serious repair.

They said I have to pay around $1000 OOP to get it fixed, which is definitely a sting. But thank fuck for that warranty because THEY'RE on the hook for about $3000.

So, yeah, the warranty works... :\

I'm surprised they haven't claimed you hit a pot hole or something and it's your fault.

The exact numbers quoted by the shop were $899.79 + taxes and "disp" (dispensation?) on my end and $2962.09 being paid by the warranty. You factor it all up and it must be $4000 or very very close.