NHTSA Complaint #11440120 — 2013 FORD FUSION

On 10/31/21 at approximately 7:30 pm my dashboard alerted me with a steering assist fault after making a turn on a rotary on Mystic valley Pkwy Somerville Ma 02144. After entering the rotary my vehicles steering wheel become stiff and hard to move and staring moving towards the left side close to the curbs. I was traveling at around 20mph. I was able to move the vehicle to a near by park that was located on the same street as the rotary (Dilboy stadium). After parking the vehicle, I shut it off and restarted it. After doing so, the alert disappeared and I was able to drive the vehicle normally. After leaving the park 5 minutes later the alert popped back again. I was driving in a straight line so the steering assist did not cause much of a problem, however I could feel the stiffness of the steering wheel. When I arrived to my destination, after performing a left turn my vehicle once again starting leaning towards the left side almost causing me to hit the curb. At around 9:00pm I had towed the vehicle to a Fords dealership. On Monday the 1st I was able to drive the vehicle with same steering wheel conditions to an independent dealership who performed a check and received a fault code of C200D:49 with the solution of replacing power steering rack with module which could only fixed at a Ford dealership due to the module. In the situation described above I was very fortunate that I was not driving at high speed in an area with high traffic, as an accident would’ve most likely occurred. I know that there is no recall on my specific vin however I am aware that other vins with the same year and model have recalls on them. I do not have any other alerts on the car. The fault I came across is a safety hazard not only to myself but other cars on the road. After digging around on the web the steering wheel fault is a common error that a lot of Ford owners come across and I believe that an investigation needs to be launched to protect the safety of drivers and pedestrians.