NHTSA Complaint #11269340 — 2013 FORD EXPLORER

UPON STARTING THE VEHICLE THE WARNING INDICATOR "POWER STEERING ASSIST FAILURE" MESSAGE APPEARS AND THERE IS NO POWER STEERING. TURNING OFF AND RESTARTING SOMETIMES RESETS THE WARNING AND POWER STEERING WILL RETURN BUT NOT ALWAYS. THERE IS A CURRENT RECALL WITH THE SAME PROBLEMS (14S06) BUT MY VIN FALLS OUTSIDE THE MANUFACTURE DATE. REACHED OUT TO FOMOCO AND THEY VERIFIED THERE ARE NO RECALLS AND THERE HAVE NEVER BEEN ANY RECALLS FOR MY VIN. ONE MONTH AGO I RECEIVED A RECALL LETTER FROM FORD FOR A DIFFERENT ISSUE THAT I HAD FIXED UNDER THE RECALL BY FORD. THAT RECALL DIDN'T SHOW UP IN FORDS DATABASE EITHER FOR MY VIN WHEN I CALLED TODAY BUT YET IT EXISTED AND WAS FIXED. ODD THAT THE SAME POWER STEERING PROBLEM KEEPS OCCURRING ON VEHICLES BUT FORD WONT RECOGNIZE THE PROBLEM BECAUSE OF A BUILD LOCATION AND DATE. FORD DOESN'T ENGINEER US SPEC VEHICLES BASED ON THEIR MANUFACTURING PLANT, THEY SEEM TO BE SAYING THAT THE SAME ENGINEERS THAT DESIGNED A FAULTY ELECTRIC POWER STEERING MOTOR FOR CHICAGO DIDN'T DESIGN A FAULTY MOTOR FOR ANOTHER PLANT. OR THE ORIGINAL "FIX" DIDN'T REAL "FIX" THE PROBLEM.