Hello folks,
I find myself in a unique situation with this request. I volunteer with a small town agency which has a 2013 Ford Taurus Police Interceptor in it's fleet. I'm trying to do some pro bono work to correct the mistakes of a mechanic who burned us recently and I'm looking for some input. Story goes like this...
The car started making a grinding sound when turning the steer wheel. My initial assumption was that it was a bad strut mount bearing. Car goes into mechanic and he determines the issue to be the electric steering rack. He replaces the entire rack and returns the car to us. Upon return, the car was showing two new dashboard messages which were NOT present prior to being touched by the mechanic (who is now being difficult and claiming nothing he did is the cause of these issues.... sure!)
One message indicates "Service AdvanceTrac" and the second indicates "Low battery features temporarily turned off". Additionally, the turn signal no longer works 100%. You can use the feature that flashes the signal three times for lane changes, but when you press the stalk down fully, the turn signal no longer activates. That is to say, if you are at say a four-way stop sign, you need to continuously hold the turn signal stalk to keep the signal running. One more issue we discovered is that the rear defroster no longer activates when the button is pressed.
Thus far, another gearhead and I completed a visual and OBD inspection on the car. The brief visual didn't turn up anything particularly out of place - but it was very brief without the car fully raised, so we plan on doing another more in-depth inspection soon. Connecting the car to an OBD scanner revealed the following:
DTC C1B00:2F (Steering Angle Sensor: Signal Erratic)
DTC U0121:00-28 Lost communication with ABS control module
DTC U0131:00-28 Lost communication with Power Steering Control Module (PSCM)
When I use Forscan to check some PIDs live, certain readings like for the ABS steering angle seem way out of whack, but granted I don't know what the proper values should be. So my question is this - can someone point me in the direction of what they think is most likely to have gone wrong with this mechanic's repair? I know for a fact he doesn't have or use any software like Forscan, so I want to know if it could be simply be a matter of reprogramming or re-calibrating something. Any advice is MUCH appreciated.
Cheers!
Cody
Worth checking if your vehicle qualifies for the steering motor/bolt corrosion recall. Most times it shows up as a loss of assist, but this could still be applicable in your scenario.
https://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/topic,3836.msg84212/topicseen.html#msg84212 (https://www.ecoboostperformanceforum.com/index.php/topic,3836.msg84212/topicseen.html#msg84212)
SERVICE PROCEDURE
NOTE: Reprogram appropriate vehicle modules before performing diagnostics and clear all Diagnostic
Trouble Codes (DTCs) after programming. For DTCs generated after reprogramming, follow
normal diagnostic service procedures.
2. Reprogram the PSCM using IDS version 97.03 or higher.
NOTE: Calibration files may be obtained at www.motorcraft.com (http://www.motorcraft.com).
NOTE: Follow the IDS on-screen instructions to complete the reprogramming procedure.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rj3CSaxrTofT0eQ3tcnJ1owadBzRaTx_/view?usp=drivesdk (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rj3CSaxrTofT0eQ3tcnJ1owadBzRaTx_/view?usp=drivesdk)