Should Ford contribute to the replacement of my S-Max's steering rack?
The steering rack on my Ford S-Max recently failed and cost me £1300 to replace. The car was just out of warranty by six months and only has 26,500 miles on the clock. I bought the car when it was a year old and had 14,000 miles on the clock, so the rack failing in the 12,500 miles I've owned it is very disappointing. Having spoken with Ford Customer Services, they don't want anything to do with the case and believe the car is too old to warrant any financial contribution from Ford, whereas I believe this component was faulty and should not be failing inside 27,000 miles. Before this incident I'd been pleased with the car but I've a feeling this car is now going to start costing me a lot of money. Do you think I was just unlucky or that Ford should have helped out in this situation?
Asked on 5 August 2010 by pickers
Answered by
Honest John
It really depends on how you treated the steering rack. Mileage has nothing to do with it. The amount of lock to lock turns and the number of times the steering has been forced against the stops are what determines the life of a PAS rack.
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