Firstly I’d like to say that I just put a brand new OEM power steering pump from Ford into it and it did absolutely nothing for my problem. New steering fluid with sufficient levels. This is a 2007 with almost 500k miles on the body and almost 200k on the engine and trans. I recently purchased it and was told it’s the pump which it is not.
I don’t know why, but the right side of the car is slightly lower than the left.
I don’t notice much noise while driving. No whining or anything.
When the car is in motion, it’s slightly easier to turn but you still need to put much force into the turn. The problem is consistent and it hasn’t gotten easier. I drove 90 miles straight with no change.
When the front end of the car is raised on a jack and the tires hang free, the car steers perfectly in both directions.
If you need any more info I’ll try to provide it. Mostly looking for possible causes before I go out and buy a steering rack and pinion. Thanks for reading.
It likely needs a new steering box. You should also look into that “lean” as well. Make sure all is well with the suspension and it isn’t binding up. You shouldn’t drive it like this, it needs to be fixed now.
As Mustangman said, this needs to be looked at ASAP. You may have a busted spring, or something else broken. This could be dangerous. My first thought was the spool valve in the steering rack, but the quoted comment makes clear that there’s something else wrong here.
I urge you, get this to a good chassis shop ASAP.
the rack does have an EVO or electronic variable orifice which can causes issues. perhaps the pressure switch for idle conditions is bad?
Thanks for all the responses guys. I’ll be looking into all of these things.
Does your car use air bags as part of the suspension system? If so, that’s something to look at. I’d be inclined to figure out why the car is leaning to the left before working further on diagnosing the steering problem. It may be that once you got that solved, the steering problem will have solved itself. There’s probably a spec for the amount of body to ground right/left asymmetry allowed. Few cars when measured are perfectly symmetric, but if you can visibly notice a lean, suggest to focus on that first. A dealership might have the spec for the amount of allowed body lean.
inspect both tie rods. I’ve found bend ones that cause a hard to turn in one direction.
Yosemite
I support that as being excellent advice.
My usual rule is to fix what you know is wrong first and then see if the other problem still exists. It often doesn’t.
Whoever told you the pump was causing it to turn hard in one direction, gave you bad advice. A bad rack can do that but not a bad pump. I agree with everyone else, get the suspension and front end components checked out before throwing a rack at the problem.
So guys it looks like a bad spring may be causing the slight lean on the passenger side. It’s not terrible but noticeable if you look closely. Also, the tie rods look good so those aren’t the issue either. The air bags were taken out of the suspension system so they aren’t in the car at all. A spring system is in place of it I was told. After narrowing all of this down, it leaves me questioning if it really is the rack and pinion…A local junk yard has one for my car with less than 60k on it for $125 and I can get hoses from NAPA or Autozone for less than $100 easily.
Any other input is much appreciated. I read every single comment and take everything into consideration!