kobayashi maru

Update: I'm an idiot. Scroll to bottom of post to see why.

An odd thing happened today as I was trying to leave a parking spot. I turned the truck on, shifted into Reverse and then noticed that both my brakes and steering were rock hard. The MIL also came on. So I put it back in Park, turned off the engine and re-started. Everything was fine and no MIL. I hooked up the scanner and it found no codes.

Coincidentally, I was parked at a Canadian Tire auto shop. They had just taken off my front-left wheel and replaced it with the spare--they damaged the OEM rim so they have to send it in for powder coating but that's another story. However, bad service experience fresh in my mind, I started to suspect that they damaged it somehow. But then I figured how would a wheel change cause loss of steering or braking?

So... at first I thought maybe there was a vacuum leak. But then I remembered that these things have electric power steering so surely that wouldn't have caused an issue with both steering and brakes. Then I remembered there's an electric vacuum pump in the Eco as well. Could it be an electrical issue?

I've checked for TSBs and recalls and there aren't any for 2013. I did find a power steering recall for the 2014 though.

Anyone experience this with the EcoBoost especially 2013?

Update Cont'd: This is truly a face-palm moment. In the week that I've owned this truck I've gotten into the habit of remote starting it... except this time I remember I didn't. So I must have got into it, turned the key to on but didn't actually crank the engine lol. Thus, no steering, no brakes and MIL light on test! I think the reason I didn't clue into it earlier is because the rear-camera still came on which made me think all-systems-go. Embarrassing but mystery solved. Laugh away XD

Since I wasted your time here's a mildly amusing story about why I was there. As I mentioned, they needed to remove one wheel and replace it with the spare. I've never done this yet as I'm a new owner but I told them the tools were under the rear seat. The service manager called me into the shop and said they couldn't find it (there were 3 or 4 of them looking around the vehicle). He said he even looked under the cubby but it wasn't there. Then one guy comes over and said he looked it up and that it was indeed there. Sure enough it was but well hidden. So I let them be and got a hot dog. After eating I see three of them crouching by the spare tire looking perplexed so I walked over. They had gotten the spare down but now were trying to figure out how to get the tools back into the plastic case lol. At least my truck is finally getting some attention.