Hello folks and Happy Thanksgiving. Recently my 2013 Explorer had a check battery charge appear on my dash. Upon driving it to my local Good Year, the steering wheel started to become extremely stiff when turning. Almost like it locks and can only turn a little when giving speed.
Apparently there are lot of issues with 2013-2018 explorers and their water pumps. Especially with how it’s placed in the engine. It’s costed a lot of people money and I mostly paid for labor. I scrapped up some money from my savings, ran my credit card for the remainder of the amount, and drove back home.
2 days later, behold, the light comes back on and the steering wheel is locking up. 2k+ in the hole and now I can’t drive to my mechanic.
Has this ever happend to anyone and if so, what should I do. I’d my mechanic 100% responsible for this diagnosis and fix? I never knew that a car I spent 30k and it only HAS 78,000 miles would cause me this issue today. Please help with any advice. Thanks!
Don’t ever go to a chain store like good year. Find a local family owned shop and look at the reviews.
Get your battery and alternator tested for free at a place like autozone. It’s probably completely unrelated to the steering issue.
Your mechanic probably knows nothing about cars. The water pump wouldn’t affect the steering…unless they are on the same serpentine belt - and if the belt were the actual issue, you’d likely be hearing it squeal. According to google, you don’t have hydraulic power steering. The coolant shouldn’t have been an issue unless there was a leak, the vehicle is overheating, or it was time to change it (maintenance).
Lastly, the guy should have looked at TSBs and recall information. Call the ford dealership. You might get it fixed for free since there’s a recall regarding this. They check it if you provide them the VIN number of the vehicle.
I would ask for your money back.
Is your loss of power steering while driving related to this?
According to Ford, a potential intermittent electrical connection in the steering gear of some Ford Explorers may result in the loss of Electric Power Steering Assist (EPAS) while driving. This could cause the steering system to default to manual mode, making the vehicle more difficult to steer, especially at lower speeds.Check with Ford technical support. Do you have an itemized account of both labor and parts on what work the repairer actually performed on your car. You need to do some research on this to see if you can present a case of misdiagnosis to the repairer.
After looking into more the WP, it definitely needed to be fixed. I’m lost at the reason why thr charge light wasn’t addressed as that is the reason why I brought it in the first place.
The WP is not what you brought it in for. It’s internal, and not driven by the accessory drive belt like the alternator. That’s electric power steering.
So what was the diagnosis/reason they gave for doing the WP, and not addressing the charge light?
After reading into the WP issue, it 100% needed to be fixed. My mechanic mentioned that both sealants on the WP were done for. It could of been an engine ending scenario as it would overheat. I wasn’t aware of this and originally brought it in because of the check charge light and tight steering. Could it be possible they completely overlooked the charge light? I’m genuinely confused as it why it wasn’t fixed and im having the same issue as before. Its a frustrating situation.
Check charging system / light on is right there on the work order. So you need to answer that question for the customer. Since there wasn’t a charge for that, and the PS issue was not initially addressed, if there’s no charge to get it back in and take another look at it - Maybe it’s just a communication issue.
You don’t have to authorize any additional work. Plus, now that you have this WO, you could use that to get some comparison estimates from other shops. Send an email with the cropped image for just the services, and see if they can/will offer a labor hours / labor rate, if not parts price comparison for X job. Where does 11 hours of labor at that rate fall in the price quote for a “water pump”?
Do you have an electrical specialist shop in your area?
Sounds like a charging system issue which wouldn’t be related in any way to your timing chain driven water pump. Post up your work order so we can all see what was actually done to the vehicle. If it’s a warranty issue tow it in and it should be covered
Sure thing! Here it is. Thanks for the help.
Under customer complaints, steering issues is not listed. So either you didn’t tell them or they didn’t hear / check that.
Did they ever say why they wanted to replace the water pump? Was your vehicle leaking coolant? Just odd they did the water pump when the complaints were charging system and tire leak
The water pump and alternator were replaced adding up to $2895.
Quick update for everyone to contributed to this post. Everyone has been helpful and I appreciate taking the time to reply to my post. I took the advice of two redditors and attempted to drive to the mechanic. All went well and right when I got to my parents house to drop off my dog, the battery was completely juiced out. Luckily the mechanic is about a while away. I phoned them, explained my situation in distate, and one of their mechanics can by my car with a booster to to keep on the battery nodes and I drove it there. From there, I questioned what happend. The mechanic who was out of the shop that day had the answers so I was forced to leave my car their overnight. At this point whether the pump needed to be serviced or not, im pretty pissed the original issue wasn’t addressed. I’m afraid my brand new battery is fried too. I won’t be coming back to this mechanic ever again. As far the water pump, im almost positive it needed to be serviced, but it makes me question how they can so a massive water pump job but can’t fix the simple charge system issue that was indicated on the work order.
