Driving 65 mph in the fast lane yesterday when all of sudden my steering goes out completely and without warning. The truck veered left and I hit the brakes, sliding into the gravel inches from the ditch. Called ford and of course they could care less and won't pay to have it fixed. Steering is now a "wear part" I guess. Anyone with information on this problem, please write. I'm selling the truck I thought was "the best". It's a GD death trap! On to Chevy or Dodge. Thought I'd never say that but no way will I drive that thing again. Ford said the steering box and pitman arm are both "gone". They have never seen this happen, nor I.

 

how many miles on your truck. any front end accidents? any symptoms of front end problems-- wierd noises, popping,etc. are you in an area where they heavily salt the road? did you buy the truck used and/or any possibility of abuse before you bought it. is it a 4wd? Would agree with the dealer, steering is indeed a "wear" part.

 

122000 miles, bought it with 50,000 in mint condition in 1998. I did rear-end a guy doing 20 mph 3 years ago. No noises etc. ever. No salt on roads. I baby the truck. Wear part is one thing, notice that it is wearing is another. thanks for your reply.

 

sudden failure of a front end component will scare the bezeezus out of any sane person. before selling the truck, you might want to get a quote to fix the pittman arm (not that much, say $150 or about $40 if you can do it yourself) and steering box. good luck.

 

What do you mean by "gone"? Did the pitman arm fracture?? Did the shaft fracture? If it did it is probably a result of the accident years ago. Steel parts can break due to a crack that starts at a tiny little nick. When the crack reaches a certain size it can fail suddenly.

I don't understand how you would expect Ford to fix it or care...

Steering parts dooo wear out! Just like any other parts of the car. Catastrophic failure is usually caused by something else.

If you do have broken parts examine them closely or better yet get them to the Mechanical Engineering dept of a local university. They can probably tell you what failed and why. They are always interested in parts for failure analysis classes.

Don't blame Ford or your truck, The accident probably caused the problem and the Insurance company failed to fix the truck properly. The insurance companies HATE to replace steering boxes at ~$1500 a pop. Of course if you were at fault in the accident....

 

I'm going to have to agree with Torque1st. At 122K miles you cannot expect ford to pay for it. With that many miles you can't really complain when something breaks, especially a high-use component.

My personal fear is broken tie-rod ends, so I inpect them regularly. With as many miles as you have on your truck I think I would be obsessive about it!

 

Thanks for the "info" everybody. I bought a steering box at a wrecking yard with the arm included. It goes in tomorrow. I will then find out what the hell went wrong.
Next time yer goin' down the road at 65 mph, think to yerself.... "NOW, NO STEERING"! You'll then be thinking someone ought to do something about this, even if it's a wrong thought. Hell, I knew Ford would care. They didn't give a damn when the Firestone tires blew and killed a few kids. The the lawyers called and thus the commercials on TV saying how sorry they were. My situation is different and I know that. A 10-20 mph impact should not break the steering apart but then I'm probably being unreasonable.
The Truck will be sold just the same. It's been a very reliable vehicle and I have loved owning it. I am not going to continue making payments on it however. I wonder.....is this what the Pinto owners in the early 70's wished they had done before burning to death in a rear-end collision?

 

vocalnut , little relationship between bad tires (outsourced 3rd party product) and failure of a ford front end componet with 122k miles. As with previous thread below, i would bet money your truck has been hit and it wasnt properly repaired. You may not like the "info" provided below but i wouldnt necessarily think the info is incorrect. Glad you got thru the problem without injury.

 

The amount of energy involved in a 20 mph crash can do a lot of damage. The geometry of the crash and the angle your steering was in at impact can make a big difference.

On the older 73-9 trucks an impact directed at one of the front wheels twisted the sector arm. The Insurance companies had the repair shops reposition the steering wheel instead of replacing the box. This caused all kinds of other problems.

The accident probably caused a small crack that was not noticed at the time which grew over the years. A complete inspection may not have detected the problem.

If you get another new truck, no matter what brand, they can be damaged in the same manner. Any used truck could have been damaged in the past also.

Gat any replacement front end parts magnafluxed for cracks if you want to be on the safe side. Once you get your truck back together it is a "known" entity rather than an "unknown".

The bottom line- It isn't Ford's fault.

Good luck, but you know -"stuff" happens

 

I have seen that happen once b4. I had a 79 bronco and the shaft coming out of the steering box broke right above the pitman arm. I can't complain though, I had 6 inches of lift and 36's on it. Those parts can develop stress cracks and eventually break. I always do a complete PM on my vehicles every couple months. You can never be too safe after all! Steering is very important in preventing an accident.

-edited to remove all caps and punctuation added, by moderator.-

 

OK.....Here's the real deal on the steering. I will not blame Ford anymore for the steering problem. However, the dealer I took it to lied to me about the problem. It wasn't the box and pitman it was the lower steering arm that mounts on the TOP of the steering box that came off! I called a tow truck to meet me there to have it hauled to a friends house. When I lifted the hood at the dealer I looked in and noticed the arm hanging off the box. I crawled under the truck with one wrench and fixed the damn steering in 5 minutes. They quoted me $700.00! I canceled the tow truck and drove to a mechanic friend's house. We were able to slide the arm off the steering box with minimal pressure on a pry bar. We found that the bolt clamping the arm on had a flat spot most likely due to my wreck 3 years ago. I replaced the bolt and could not pry the arm off, problem solved. I appologize that I got everyone so wound up. I was just really pissed. No one could have forseen this freak occurance. I do appreciate the kind "repremanding" from U Dudes. I can never get humbled enough, really. Thanks for everything and most of all for listening.

 

vocalnut, Big credit goes to you for posting back with explanation. lots of people couldnt or wouldnt have done it.

 

Now if only we could get everyone else to post back with results hint hint

 

are you still sellin it?

 

I am still going to sell the truck but not out of anger. I'm in debt up to my eyeballs. My wife has a chronic illness and it's put us near bankrupcy. I love the truck but I need to pay off the loan. U guys RULE!