NHTSA Complaint #11427113 — 2016 FORD EXPLORER

On approximately July 5th, I was driving on freeway at approximately 70mph. I approached a work zone and had to move to shoulder when I lost power steering. It continued to give me issues at higher speeds for the next 40 miles and it seemed to disappear for the next two weeks of city driving. I thought it was an isolated incident and on July 16th we took the vehicle on a family vacation and when traveling on the freeway it again lost ( and never regained) power steering but we were more than 200 miles from home and the closest Ford dealer couldn't see us until early August. At lower speeds the steering was sticking but it seemed to free up some the more cornering or movement you made with the steering wheel. We were able to carefully drive the vehicle home and took it to Taylor Ford on Monday July 26th. On Tuesday July 27th I received a call from our service rep telling me nothing was wrong with the power steering but that the steering column failed and it would need to be replaced. I said that I had never heard of such a thing and he said he hadn't either. I searched on line and discovered hundreds of complaints referencing similar issues. There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms prior to the problem and they never appeared during problems.