NHTSA Complaint #11574994 — 2016 RAM 1500

Starting in late winter of 2021, I began to experience several momentary instances of loss of power steering and steering fault messages in the cluster, the steering wheel was nearly impossible to move. In January of 2022, I brought the vehicle to Chrysler/Ram dealership for service of the intermittent power steering. At that time my 2016 Ram 1500 Crew Cab 4x2 had 17,000 miles of use. Dealership stated the fault was a dirty EPS connection. After service, the vehicle operated normally until nearly one year later(January 2023) when the power steering completely failed(steering fault warning on cluster) while on the interstate sixty miles from home. It was dark and raining that evening and I was forced to wrestle the vehicle home as I had no means of calling for help. It was stressful and incredibly unsafe. The first appointment available on January of 2023, I returned my truck to a Chrysler/Ram dealership for service. The dealership service department indicated that only a complete replacement of the EPS module/rack and pinion steering assembly would correct the issue. I addressed the 2016 steering recall for Ram 1500s several times with the service department , but was told that the recall did not affect my truck nor was it related to my current problem with the truck. At this time my 2016 Ram 1500 had only 20820 miles.