Hi, I'm new to the forum, not to F250's. My last ones were a lot older though. I have a 2010XLT. I'm having an intermittent steering problem. When cold, the wheels won't return to straight after a turn. If I manually correct, it skips to the other side. I can't even hold it straight. It's either right or left. Only fix is to pull over and turn the wheel from right stop to left stop 4-5 times. Had it looked at twice. Of course didn't happen to on test drives. Any help appreciated.

 

Who looked at it? Did they have any suggestions when you described the behavior?

I honestly have no idea myself. It sounds like something is getting stuck in the steering box. I'm sure you've already checked all the mechanical steering components, right, like the drag link and so on? Assuming the power steering fluid is clean and clear and at the proper level, assuming there's nothing in the lower steering components or knuckles that are getting stuck, I'd say maybe replace or rebuild the box.

 

How many miles on it? Inspect the tie-rods, BJs and the front outer ujoints. The ujoints can cause all sorts of steering problems if they are seized or rusted up tight. Will the ujoints accept grease? When greased do you see it coming out of all 4 caps per side?
4WD should be activated at least once a month. The front drive shaft and outer front ujoints will wick in moisture(car wash, rain, snow) from being static and fail prematurely due to non use.

 

I had something like that happen after I had the tie rods replaced. It was so alarming that I had it towed back to the shop because I didn't know what was going on. So.....check the tie rods.

 

Yah something in the front end will be to tight. Whoever inspected it missed something. Any front end work recently done?

 

The answers to my my thread gave me some new thing to check out. My F250 has 97k on it. 4wd and hub work great. Had right tie rod end done at dealer under warranty in Nov. They checked out rest of from end and said it was good. I'm going to re-lube what I can. Another thread mentioned the steering stabilizer issues. I'll check these thing out and post my findings. I appreciate the help. Thanks