ODI has 508 Ford Motor complaints alleging loss of power steering assist and increased effort thus far.
The Office of Defects Investigations – ODI – at NHTSA has opened an investigation into 2010 to 2012 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan and Lincoln MKZ vehicles equipped with rack mounted Electric Power Assisted Steering. This so-called EPAS system used to save fuel since around a 4% improvement can be saved by not running a hydraulic pump all the time.
However, automotive electronics and specifically the software needed to run them are giving “the old drill a hole in cast iron” automakers fits. The customer is now often performing troubleshooting and the final stages of product development after purchasing the vehicle, in effect becoming a release engineer.
ODI said it has 508 Ford Motor complaints alleging loss of power steering assist and increased steering effort thus far. Four of these complaints allege that the steering assist failure resulted in increased steering efforts that contributed to a loss of control and a crash.
ODI says there is also related information in Early Warning Reporting field report data submitted by Ford. Many of the complaints say there was a power steering warning message as the failure occurred. In some cases, the defect was corrected by turning the vehicle off and restarting.
A Preliminary Evaluation has been opened to assess the scope, frequency and safety consequences of the alleged defect. These often result in a recall down the road.
