Mondeo 07/08 Steering Rack faults - Watchdog??

spratley

Recently bought a 2008 Mondeo (privately) - had a good test drive and could not find fault with it - I am fairly competent with car mechanics etc. The one thing I didn't do (which I usually always check) was the car reviews on Honest John. Well, after about a month, I noticed an odd whining noise when the steering was at full lock. So, I checked at HJ, and found worrying reports of premature failure of steering racks on 2007/08 Mondeos. There is a lot more info on this at Talkford.com in the Mondeo forum. They are trying to get enough people together to report this to Watchdog, as most cars are just outside the 3yr warranty and Ford are charging around £1k to fix the fault. My car has only (a genuine) 32k on the clock - and there are many other cars with similar mileages showing this fault. Surely a steering rack should last the life of a car - it is not a regularly replaced "wear & tear" part! It is also, of course, not just annoying, but a safety issue!
So - if you, or any friends have come across this problem, don't just shell out the cash - check out the forums at Talkford.com and follow up with a complaint to Watchdog! Hopefully we can get a Safety Recall done, and not let Ford get away with fitting shoddy parts... Thanks!

atrixblue.-MFR-.

unfortunatly yes the steering rack is a wear and tear part that doesnt last as long as a car does.

this is similar to the KA fiesta mk4-5-6 steering racks where they tend to leak.

the rack itself is available from a motor factors and is a PITA to change over unless you know exactly what your doing or have had experience in the past of doing it, IIRC you have to drop the subframe down wich means taking appart most of the steering and suspension componants. its NOT a massively big job to do just time consuming.

colino

Don't know if its one of the "similar" parts with Jags, but they have a bulletin that recommends adding a bit of their special fluid and re-bleeding the power steering. (It does it itself, just put it lock to lock a couple of times). You could of course just add the PS additives on the shelf of your local factor.
Also bear in mind a lot of power steering systems just shouldn't be held on full lock for any length of time.

spratley

Well, it depends what you take to be the lifetime of a car, but steering racks should not be failing at 30k miles. I know that X-type Jags do share a lot of parts with the Mondeo, so will look into that - thanks.
Just to give a bit more detail - what seems to be happening is that the seals in the rack are breaking down, and the debris gets into the system. The filter in the fluid reservoir then gets blocked up, restricting the flow of power steering fluid, leading to whining noises as the pump is put under load. The steering can also feel heavy or notchy. If you look in the fluid reservoir, you may see sand-like debris, or some foaming (after a journey). Unfortunately, the filter in the reservoir can't be cleaned out, so the fix is a new rack, reservoir (also sometimes pump as well) & flush out/replace ps fluid.

Notmyrealname

spratley wrote: »

Well, after about a month, I noticed an odd whining noise when the steering was at full lock.

Every car I've ever driven with power steering has done this if you try to hold it in full lock for any period of time.