NHTSA Complaint #11574825 — 2013 FORD EXPLORER

The Electronic Power Steering Assit (EPAS) has had a failiure. When the failiure happens it completely locks up the steering without prior warning.When that happens the cars steering cannot be controlled as norrmal, and the driver cannot easily steer the vehicle. The first time this happened I was pulling into a gas station, the EPAS went out and I almost hit pedestrians, a fuel pump and other vehicles. Had it not been for my years of driving experience this could have inured or even killed several people. The issue has been confirmed by my local Ford dealerships service department. The service manager told me that this car has had recalls on it, but upon checking my VIN found that Ford Motor Company did not include my vehicles vin under the recall. Even though this issue is known with my make and model. This issue has also been reported on many Ford Explorer group pages for others who have had the issue but were missed under the recall umbrella. The failiure message only appears after the acutal failure, meaning the steering is already gone by the time the warning is shown