Power steering assist fault - 2010 Fusion SE 2.5L V4

[lyons]

210,000 miles on my 2010 Ford Fusion SE 2.5L V4.  Out of nowhere I got a “Power Steering Assist Fault” on the dash.  No check engine light.  Car is not driveable since steering wheel is so hard to turn.  It turns slowly with a lot of muscle. I jacked the car up off both front tires, cranked the car and then steering wheel turned freely and very easy. 

Through research I have discovered this car has no power steering fluid or hydraulic pump and instead has an electric power steering system ("EPS" or "EPAS").

 

Does this require for the entire rack and pinion to be replaced or should I check some other things to hopefully find a simpler fix?  Either way I will be doing the work myself. 

 

[gillessv]

When I saw this topic pop up on my search results I was hopeful for an answer, but I see there's nothing there yet. I have a 2010 Fusion Hybrid which gives this error code intermittently and rarely. After shutting off and restarting the car, it goes away and the steering works normally. Sure would like to understand what's going on.

 

Will be watching this thread.

[Timkgrass]

Exact same with me. Hopefully there is a simple fix. Mine has started coming on more and more often though and it’s getting super annoying!

[gillessv]

My power steering assist fault seems to be fixed. Our 2010 Fusion Hybrid had a squeak coming from the front passenger side. I thought it must be the strut. The car also had started having some vibration when taking off .  Turns out it was the strut plus one of the engine mounts was bad. Once I got those replaced the power steering fault disappeared. It's been a couple of months with no problem and the squeak and vibration are gone as well.  Evidently the vibration can cause the steering fault.

[Shawnm65]

This problem for me ended up being the EPS, the entire steering assembly required replacement.  I looked around and priced it with other independent shops, and the cost was about the same as if I had the Ford dealer do the work.  I had my 2010 Mercury Milan towed in, 3 days later new steering assembly, alignment, oil change, and tire rotation and the car is back on the road.  I watched youtube videos on changing this out yourself in the driveway, it is a big job, not something I was willing to tackle.  Total cost of repair:  2017.00.  Better than a car payment and I've owned the car since 2012.  This is the first major repair I've had since then.  Hope this helps! 

[Johnmcelroy]

I have a 2011 Fusion SE. Today it displayed a “power steering fault” and all steering assist was gone. After turning the car off and back on the fault went away and the power steering returned to normal. I see that several people here have had this issue but don’t see the fixes. Anybody have recommendations?  Thanks in advance!

[gillessv]

My fix turned out to be having the steering gear assembly replaced like Shawnm65 above. It cost me $2300.00 at the Ford dealer. Pep Boys wouldn't touch it.  ?

[mozz]

When i see answers like, turn the vehicle off then restart, and it seems to fix it, it tells me you have a elec glitch somewhere. Try cleaning the battery terminals, new battery, add extra grounds (which i do to all my ford vehicles). I also thought there was some sensor in the column  that got intermittent but to replace it you had to have a software flash to calibrate it?

[Shawnm65]

You can do that, but it won't fix it.  I tried everything you're thinking about.  I would check to see, you may be covered under the recall.  It may be too late but this is a terribly dangerous situation.  My wife had hers go out on the road one day.  Could have been real bad.  Our 2010 was not in the date range, so I had to pay for it, but your car may be.

[robinsone]

So I had these warnings and solved them without the rack replacement. I figured it might be ground or an electrical issue. I ground down the neg points to bare metal to assure they had better contact. I did this on the driver-side strut mount as well as the passenger. There are two additional ground points one on the frame rail by the belts as well as under the airbox. I also performed the same treatment on them. Sanded or Dremel-ed them down to bare metal reattached and then covered with dielectric grease. The intermittent power steering fault notifications have stopped. Bear in mind I only had these notifications on start-up but they would usually disappear quickly after the engine got going. It might be worth a try to see if this might solve it. 

[gigabyte323]

On 2/28/2022 at 6:56 PM, robinsone said:

So I had these warnings and solved them without the rack replacement. I figured it might be ground or an electrical issue. I ground down the neg points to bare metal to assure they had better contact. I did this on the driver-side strut mount as well as the passenger. There are two additional ground points one on the frame rail by the belts as well as under the airbox. I also performed the same treatment on them. Sanded or Dremel-ed them down to bare metal reattached and then covered with dielectric grease. The intermittent power steering fault notifications have stopped. Bear in mind I only had these notifications on start-up but they would usually disappear quickly after the engine got going. It might be worth a try to see if this might solve it. 

I may have missed a ground when re-asembling my vehicle. I will keep this in mind.