So our 2006 f150 fx4 has been having an issue with stiff steering... at times like it doesn't have power steering at all.
We recently had the lower ball joints on both sides replaced. Before that the upper control arm on the drivers side was also replaced.
There are days that it is better... other times not so much.
I've got an 08 F150 and the steering has gotten tight when at low rpms or when not moving. The pump's whining and laboring. Fluid is clean and full.
View 3 RepliesMy 2014 Accord i4 CVT has 7000miles and it has acted a little strange ever since I pushed it to 3500rpm at Sport mode and then I maybe abruptly shifted it to Drive mode, at which point it made some whining noise shortly. But don’t get me wrong, acceleration was gentle and I don’t ever beat a car.
Since that incidence, it idles at 1500rpm upon cold start at P and fluctuates between 1000rpm and 1100rpm after it warms up a little bit (still in Park). When on stop (brake) on D, it has slight rough idle that periodically comes and goes, which gets better when the A/C is off but not completely resolves. Acceleration is sluggish and lagging, and it has some “dragging/sluggish” feel on coasting as well. When braking, it takes more effort and brake feels stiffer as if it lacks some break boost. Also, the electric power steering gets heavy/tight (I think this could be more of a sensor/input problem rather than the motor).
All these symptoms come and go together except for the fluctuating idle upon cold start, which is persistent. Gently pushing gas at 1200 rpm for, say 10 seconds, tend to “free” the tight steering wheel, and car starts to act more normally with better coasting and acceleration, and more responsive brake for a while. And problem comes back. Also, turning off the A/C seems to make the car act behave notably better but I am cautious of this point since it is known that Honda’s A/C system really takes away the engine power.
I had the dealer shop check for vacuum leak. The report says “check idle, check idle control, check for vacuum leaks ok, check or any codes, checks ok”, basically saying there is no vacuum leak. But I think it is still possible that they missed something. Dealer shops and some independent shops I visited aren’t so willing to figure out what is going on, and I basically need to ask them “check this and check that”.
So I have a 2006 f150 a wile back the steering started going stiff when I would come off the highway. so after some forum searching, I decided to buy a new steering shaft to repace the universals that see up. then the pump started squealing when we turned befor I could install the new shaft. so I replaced the pump and didn't put the new steering shaft in yet. now when I rev the motor past 2000 RPM the pump wines like when you turn the weeks to far to one side on an old truck and it is still stiff when I come off the highway. Could this be the rack
View 14 RepliesOn my 2004 s-cab the steering is starting go 'notchy'?
I have considered, tight upper or lower ball joints, pump, rack or even a sticking rear diff, but not carried out any checks yet except oil level
When I turn the steering wheel all the way one way the truck dies and I was on the highway and getting off the highway and I was doing about 60 and put it in neutral and I was coasting and it died... when I put it in neutral the tach went down to idle then the needle went up to about 1500 and dropped back down to idle then the truck died.
View 5 RepliesI have a 2008 f350, crew cab,6.4L. with 27,173 miles. may have a problem with the steering, seems to be tight when turning from left to right or right to left, doesn't seem to center, if I turn a little to left or right it stays there. I can go in complete a circle. Raised front off ground turns ok no binding, nothing loose on the front end.
View 1 RepliesI've got an 04 f250 4x4 crew cab. I just replaced the upper and lower ball joints on both sides and also the drag link. My alignment was off from the bad ball joints so I had it aligned after I did all of this. Now the steering is really weird. Its like something is to tight. I can barely keep the truck straight because every time I barely move the wheel I seem to be going one way or another and getting it straight is nearly impossible to the point I look like a drunk driver. I can turn the wheel to go around a curve and let go of it and it will stay that way until I turn it back. It won't return itself. I'm kind of lost.
View 3 RepliesWhat would cause the brakes on my wife's truck to be stiff and not hold?
View 14 RepliesI have a 2004 GMC Sierra and I have noticed throughout the winter when I ran it in 4WD the steering would get very stiff when trying to turn. Sometimes I could not turn very sharp at all. What the problem could be that is causing this?
View 1 RepliesOur 2004 Prius (71,275 miles) has not been driven much for the last 2 years. It is only used when we need to drive further than we can comfortably in our 2012 Leaf. Most of our trips are short.
Today the power steering feels stiff. I'm relying on my memory of what it felt like when it was new. Perhaps I am comparing it to the Leaf.
I started to check the power steering fluid reservoir and discovered that the power steering is not hydraulic but electrical and electronic.
It it a sign of a failing system? Should I expect increased trouble?
I have a 2004 Venture where the power steering feels tight. Fluid level is good. No leaks (had it repaired a year ago where line was leaking, and now repaired).
Turning the wheel under most circumstances feels pretty normal. However, say, doing parking maneuvers SOMETIMES feels like I have non-power steering for maybe a quarter turn, and then it picks up again.
I have an 06 F-250 5.4 gas w/138k. It had recently had a lot of play on the wheel (15 degrees maybe) and last week I made the move to replace the gearbox with a redhead box. All seemed to go ok, but now the steering is stiff and it won't come all the way back to center after a turn. It turns smoothly and completely with no binding, but it has to be moved the last 1/3 turn back to center.
I flushed the fluid initially with Valvoline max life fully syn. Then second guessed myself after the problem started happening so I switched it back to regular Mercon. No improvement.
I had it on stands today and it was extremely difficult for me to turn my tires left to right manually (at the wheel). The only other thing I did was adjust the sleeve on the drag link to straighten out the steering wheel.
Should I be able to turn the tires left and right from the wheel easily? Every now and then I hear a whine from the pump which I never had before, but 99% of the time it seems fine and is quiet. it just feels like something is over tight but everything should be to spec.
Last week I took my 2004 Honda Odyssey in to Firestone for a rear brake job and they ended up selling me an oil change, two new tires, alignment, an alternator drive belt, and two front engine mounts as well. When I picked up the vehicle late Friday afternoon, I noticed the power steering was making a whining noise and the steering seemed a little stiff. I took it back to Firestone Saturday morning, and they looked under the hood and said my power steering fluid was low, so they topped it off. That fixed the whining, but the steering still had a bit of a kink in it. They said it might be an air bubble in the line that would work itself out. Monday morning on my way to work, the whining was back and the steering very stiff and getting noticibly worse by the minute, so I took it directly back to Firestone.
It turns out the rack and pinion is leaking, and Firestone denies that it could have happened while they had the vehicle. The manager I spoke to said "all we did was replace a couple of belts -- didn't even get near the rack and pinion." Well, that's not all they did, but if anything they did could have caused the current issue. I know there were no suspension or power steering issues before I took it in, and after I picked it up suddenly it's leaking fluid like crazy. What can I do or say to press my case?
2010 camry LE
A family member did a tune up on the car and did not realize that the power steering reservoir had a HOT and COLD min/max lines. He filled up to the max line for HOT while the car was completely cold. He also filled up with Prestone Power Steering fluid with Stop Leak instead of ATF/DEXIII.
The car was driven a few times for maybe 50 miles in total before I found out about all this and I drained the fluid out to the appropriate levels. However the steering at low/parking speeds is still very tight (tighter than what I used to remember, at least).
Did he royally screw up the power steering system here? What can I do?
I have a 2008 Ford Lariat F150 with 53k miles. The transmission seems like it slips at times. Here's the scenario. When I take off from a standstill and going through the gears at a normal acceleration pace, say I momentarily lighten the acceleration pace then try to resume. At that point, the transmission seems to slip momentarily, then bumps back into the pull mode. It feels like there is slack in the drivetrain until it re-engages, or like the lockup torque converter momentarily releases until the computer has time to react to the accelerator positioner calling for more. One guy said the transmission is, at that point, between two gears... either trying to decide to downshift or to upshift, but you can feel the surge in rpm momentarily until it decides ... then bump and your off and running again. If I push the O/D button, it stops doing it. What I can do? Because the dealer can't seem to get it to act up when they test drive it. It does it fairly regularly on me though.
View 4 RepliesFor the last little while I have been having an issue with the 4wd in my 2006 F-150 with about 93k on the clock. Sometimes it would engage when I switched to 4H/4L and other times it wouldn't. A friend of mine works at a Ford dealership and said it could be the vacuum solenoid on the firewall going bad. So I bought a new one and as I removed the old one, noticed debris in one of the inlets. So I cleaned that out and neither old or new solved the problem. Then I went through ALL of the vacuum lines and found some debris in parts of them....
Cleaned them all out and still nothing. Then I got to thinking it may be the ESOF motor on the transfer case. Checked to make sure there was power to the plug, which there was. Removed the motor and turned switch, and the motor seemed to be working. Reattached the motor and the 4wd would engage/disengage without problem. Pretty much everywhere I went I would check it and it worked fine . Then all of a sudden it didn't . So I took the motor off, turned selector and it worked fine. No issues yesterday at all.
So, I am not sure if it is the motor going bad or not. Could there be a contact problem? I talked to a mechanic this morning and he told me to drive around with it in 4H for a while because more times than not it doesn't get used enough. I'm just not sure what could be going on...am I missing something?
I have 2006 single cab stx and the little orange airbag guy below the speedometer has been on over a year and a half and he always flashes a code 51, but I've never worried about it.
About a month ago I started occasionally getting the 5 beeps 5 times, and now it does it more frequently but not every time. The Passenger Airbag Light above the radio works properly. It comes on when I start the truck and then goes off. When I put weight on the seat (usually my Jack Russell who only weighs 14lbs) it turns on and stays, and if the seat belt is buckled with no weight it also stays on. This is proper function correct ?
I've tried things I've read from replacing or cleaning up the crash sensor in front of the radiator, even cleaned the connections under the seats with contact cleaner, pulled fuses and none of them are blown. Are the code 51 and the beeping alarm somehow connected ?
3 months ago.. I had my fan clutch replaced, along with alternator.. a few coils.. a belt and an oil change. While installing fan clutch the shop accidentally poked a hole in radiator so they got a new one ( After Market) and replaced it. After leaving the shop, I noticed the fan clutch was not rotating smoothly, it had a considerable wobble to it, so took it back and it was replaced..new one did same things.. so it was replaced again. Truck seemed fine after the 3rd one was installed, and then after a a 3 hour drive.. i pulled over to gas station, and while truck was at idle in park.. it started to run hot. Raised hood, there was no visible coolant in holding tank on side, so after a while.. i took cap off and as I released it... coolant started to bubble back into holding tank. I then started truck up.. it was fine rest of way home.
Over next few weeks, this happened 4 times.. ac will be on, truck sitting still at red light etc.. and truck will start to run hot. So i had a new thermostat installed, and also a new water pump. Took it to a guy who runs a shop i know and also had system vacuumed. ( it was burped prior). Thought we had it fixed.. NOPE.. did it again yesterday. So truck has had new fan clutch, new thermostat, new water pump, new coolant, new radiator.. and it still only runs hot if at idle.. and it wont do it all the time.. but about once a week.. it will... and it will go over to red.. and ill shut it off and after about 10 min.. turn back on and continue on my way.. What I noticed..and this may be a key piece of info to someone who may know what is going on... it seems that the times it has ran hot.. while at idle the fan clutch was off.. and once i reved engine up to 2500-3000 rpms.. I got clutch to engage and bam !!.. truck comes back down to normal temp.. midway on gauge .. AS long as I am driving down road.. no problems.
** Also as a sidenote.. my engine does have a engine coolant temp sensor on it. Part # DY 1025 motorcraft. On some vehicles.. this part tells the fan when to turn on.. not sure if it does on mine. Originally , I took truck in bc fan clutch was staying engaged to much..meaning fan was on all the time. So.. maybe it could be the sensor ?... now all the new fan clutchs that have been put on do not come on like they are suppose to.. work right sometimes.. other times.. truck has to be at high rpms to get it to engage.. not working right all the time at low rpms.
Are their fan clutch relays ?.. I have an electric fan clutch.. This seems to me that this is a fan clutch issue.. and this is the 3rd one on the truck.. came from autozone.. it is the correct one for truck and has a warranty. Mechanic now wants to try going with a ford fan clutch by motorcraft.. 2007 F150 5.4 V8 ...
I've been having this occasional starting issue with my truck. I turn the key and the engine acts like it's going to fire up, so I let go of the key and it doesn't start. Then I try to restart it and either it cranks and fires a few times before it starts, or it fires right up and the starter grinds because I couldn't let go of the key fast enough.
I've had this problem a few times before, but lately it seems to be happening more often. It works normally 98% of the time. Maybe I'm just not letting the engine crank long enough to get it to run before letting go of the key.
Also, the spark plugs were just changed 10k miles ago and when the truck is running it runs great.
I have a 2007 F150 with a 5.4. I am having an issue with my A/C and more.
Here are the symptoms:
1) A/C doesn't blow cold, at times.
2) Compressor not coming on, according to mechanic.
3) Engine sounds like a freight train, at times. Like on a super cold day and it has to work hard.
4) Very poor fuel mileage since this started.
I took it to a shop, and they said it was the engine cooling fan that would not come on. So I replaced it. Same issue. I then took it back and was told there is a wiring problem. After 3 days they couldn't find it. I needed my truck back and dropped it off again. Then they said it was the A/C compressor, maybe. They wanted to try it and then see what happened. I told them no way.
Temperature, according to the gauge is good. Noise comes and goes. Not dependent on anything. Weather, temperature, car heated up or dead cold. Just comes and goes.