Good afternoon all,

I was hoping to seek some advice from you all about a possible power steering problem.

I have a MK3 Focus Titanium 2011 2.0 diesel which I purchase 2nd hand through a non-ford dealer only a couple of months ago. I is still under 6 month warranty, hence I'm keen to find out if it's faulty or not. It has FSH (by Ford) and recently serviced.

However, I have found that occasionally (once a week) that the power steering takes a while for it to 'kick in'. This is only ever when the car is cold. This only last for a maximum 2-3 seconds, then fully functions. It's short enough to live with, but does mean you can't just drive off - so it's a little frustrating. There are no warning lights on instrument cluster, no unusual noises coming from the engine.

I haven't ever experienced this with other cars with power steering before. Is this just one of those features of Ford power steering or is this faulty?

Not sure if it's hydraulic or electric in these cars - but almost seems like it's taking a while to 'pressurize', however I have read on other (non-ford) forums that the electric systems sometimes have a delay in them as not to draw too much power on startup.

Any ideas would be appreciated (even if it's comments like 'I have this' or 'that's not normal'). Just want to know if I should take it back to the garage under warranty or if it's a normal variant and shouldn't bother them.

Cheers

This is definetely not normal. Except from the Duratec 1.6 TI-VCT (105 and 125 HP) all other engine types of the Focus MK3 have Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS). The EPAS system should be functioning at any time. The EPAS system is speed dependant. At low speed the system assists a lot more than at higher speeds.

Doesn't sound right to me.

My 2.0 mk3 never did that.

Not normal the assistance should be instant from start up you may find it will get worse definitely take it back and have it fixed

Thanks everybody. I'll take it back and see what they say.

9 minutes ago, powersteeringpro said:

The Ford focus Mk3 from 2011 onwards uses a new electric power steering rack on most models, a few variants still retain the older hydraulic rack.

The electric rack used on the Mk3 focus appears from experience to suffer from a very high failure rate.

The symptoms are usually either a complete and sudden loss of power steering and a power steering assist failure message on the vehicles info screen, sometimes this loss of assistance is intermittent whereby the steering will fail to initialise when the car is first started and then come back within a few seconds.

If the fault codes are then read on a scanner , the usual fault code is a generic U3000 followed by a specific 2 digit code of usually 49 or 50. the U3000 code is a failure of the steering rack control unit to communicate with the vehicle , the 49 or 53 relate to either an internal electronic component fault or a failure to initialise with the vehicles body control computer.

The only long term solution to this fault is to replace the steering rack, we can supply a remanufactured rack that we have rebuilt with new components and then programmed with the latest software to prevent a repeat failure.

The racks we supply will self code to the car and do not need any coding/programming to work correctly.

Take a look at our racks here https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-148/FORFER.html

 

4 years too late...   

On 4/5/2015 at 12:12 PM, mbglos01 said:

Thanks everybody. I'll take it back and see what they say.

Hi what happened when you took it back was it ever repaired? 

On 4/4/2015 at 4:19 PM, mbglos01 said:

Good afternoon all,

I was hoping to seek some advice from you all about a possible power steering problem.

I have a MK3 Focus Titanium 2011 2.0 diesel which I purchase 2nd hand through a non-ford dealer only a couple of months ago. I is still under 6 month warranty, hence I'm keen to find out if it's faulty or not. It has FSH (by Ford) and recently serviced.

However, I have found that occasionally (once a week) that the power steering takes a while for it to 'kick in'. This is only ever when the car is cold. This only last for a maximum 2-3 seconds, then fully functions. It's short enough to live with, but does mean you can't just drive off - so it's a little frustrating. There are no warning lights on instrument cluster, no unusual noises coming from the engine.

I haven't ever experienced this with other cars with power steering before. Is this just one of those features of Ford power steering or is this faulty?

Not sure if it's hydraulic or electric in these cars - but almost seems like it's taking a while to 'pressurize', however I have read on other (non-ford) forums that the electric systems sometimes have a delay in them as not to draw too much power on startup.

Any ideas would be appreciated (even if it's comments like 'I have this' or 'that's not normal'). Just want to know if I should take it back to the garage under warranty or if it's a normal variant and shouldn't bother them.

Cheers

I've recently bought a 2011 focus titanium 1.6 petrol and today this has happened twice did you get it sorted? 

If you only purchased it recently it should still be under some sort of warranty. The only fix for this is a replacement steering rack whether refurbished or new.

The intermittent start up usually happens when the battery is a bit low and It may be fine for a good while but when it does eventually die you lose all power steering and have to get the rack replaced. Mine lasted close to a year when it started playing up on start up but it eventually died completely.

Hi,

 I had this problem with my 2011 Ford Focus 1.6 Titanium Estate. This model has an electrically powered power steering unit attached to the steering column.

I resolved the issue by fully charging the battery using an external battery charger and have had no recurrence of the problem since.

HTH,

Wylie

I'm sure the OP will be along soon to thank you for the answer. He's been waiting since April 2015 for a solution to the problem. 😉