I have a 2017 F250 Platinum with 59k miles. Last year the heated steering wheel started acting weird then finally failed. It would get so hot, it was almost impossible to touch. Im guessing the heating element overheated and broke. October 2023 i took it in to be repaired since my extended warranty ends June 2024. They said it needed a new steering wheel but it was back ordered. Checked the status on parts a few months later and was told the same b/o story. I called into Ford customer care and got them involved. A nee steering wheel became available a few weeks later. Took it in for repairs and, thats where the nightmare began...... they couldnt get the new part to sync up/program to vehicle. After having for 2 weeks, they deemed it a bad new part. A week or so later they acquire another new steering wheel. I drop the truck off, they have it for another 2 weeks. Same issue. Part wont sync/program to truck. Supposedly they reached out to Ford engineers and had a plan. Took it back again. 10 days later they called me to come and pick it up, still not fixed. They initially said the gateway module was bad after the 2nd new part wouldnt work and swapped the module. That of course, didnt fix it. So theyre saying adaptive cruise and lane control are the only two things they cant get working. After starting truck i get a warning that says "Lane keep system malfunction". Aside from that ive noticed the steering wheel is turned to the right (clockwise) to roughly the 1 o'clock position and the front end feels a little 'loose'. I feel i need to do a lot steering, even on straight roads. Towing my camper 2 weeks ago was a little scary. Theres obviously some other issues somewhere with this. One thing ive noticed, which has been happening since buying the truck 6 yrs ago is this odd sound i hear when turning the wheel. Read through some threads last night i noticed someone refered to it as the hum or buzz of an AM radio. And when i get to a full turn in either direction, there a sound that make me thing of fluid pumping through hoses. I will try to make a recording of the sound and share it. They scheduled me to drop it off again on wednesday so their tech can devote his entire day to fixing it. Makes me wonder what the hell the they were doing for the other combined 5+ weeks they had the truck. I was told the had the engineers involved. What are they doing? Ive been in the hvac field for 30+ years. If i call into tech support with a problem, the keep me on the phone until we figure things out. Im so confused and have no idea what to do next. I sent a message to my Ford customer care rep on thursday and have not heard back. Im beyond frustrated at this point.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on what to do next. I do NOT feel safe towimg my camper or even drivng the truck itself more than a few miles at a time.

Just a couple details in case it matters.... im the 2nd owner. Bought the vehicle when it was 6 months old with 6k miles on it. I have since lifted front end 2 inches and the rear 1.5 inches and riding on 35s. Otherwise, no other mods, tunes, deletes. All that was done back in 2019 and 2020.

Again, thanks in advance for any help!!

 

I don't have much to offer since you are at the mercy of the dealership and Ford. The only option I can think of would be to try another dealership if you suspect incompetence on the part of the dealer, but that might not change anything. Unfortunately I don't think the slow pace of progress is unusual for auto manufacturer/dealership service. That is one reason why the concept of "that's what warranty is for" doesn't sit well with me.

Hopefully this gets resolved for you soon and if it doe, please post what the issue was. Hard to imagine it's back to back bad steering wheels.

The steering being off center and loose could be an alignment issue.

 

I'd find another dealer if possible, if not I'd get with Ford customer service and get them involved again.

 

Thanks for the replies. Hopefully i get a call from Ford tomorrow and can get things moving.

On another note, i made a 40 minute ride to a friends house yestrrday. Majority of the ride was on an interstate. Decided to try the adaptive cruise control and it worked. That was the first time i actually tried using adaptive cruise control since they said it wasnt working. Now im stsrting to wonder about the quality of work.....

 

I called into Ford today. Not much help. They said the current dealership will need to keep working on it. Also verified that they have a ticket open with Ford "Hotline". I assume thats their tech/engineer dept.

The customer service rep mentioned something to the effect that this will be a 3rd attempt to repair and made a reference to lemon laws. Not exactly sure what that means. I have 2 payments left on the truck. I do not want to start all over with payments.

 

I highly doubt lemon law in any state would apply to a 7 year old truck.

 

they mentioned it, not me. Its the last thing i want to deal with.

 

The titled wheel is an easy fix so I wonder why replacing steering anything would cuase the wheel to change centering


me thinks they used the wrong part and it sounds like they replaced the steering shaft

keep on them and start collecting detailed repair reports.

 

Problem sort of solved..... supposedly Ford sent a file thst forces a reprogram of the entire truck. Errors are gone and adaptive lane assist works. Still making that weird noise. Supposed to have a follow up call from customer rep on Monday and will address the noise issue. Beyond frustrated.....