netminderone

dealer said the same thing to me on my 2008, the engineer who desighned it should be FIRED! Anyway, I fixed mine by spraying WD-40 on bottom u-joint to un-bind it then stuck my hand in can of grease & worked it in the u-joint. It's been 4 months & works fine!

netminderone

Easy fix. Spray WD-40 on bottom u-joint to un-bind it then stick your hand in a can of grease & work it all around the u-joint. Dealer said mine was gone too. mine has been working fine the last 4 months.

one1

WD40 works, but it is not really a long lasting penetrant like Deep Creep is which is a micro penetrant. The difference is when the WD40 fails on the drive at a few months out and the deep creep works for a year or two.

kpr121

I’ve exactly the same problems as OP, including needing an exhaust manifold that needs replacing. I have same truck (2008 4x4 5.4 Triton) but only 50K miles which I feel is way too little to have these types of problems.

Dealer said that manifold would be covered under original emissions warranty (see below for other manifold/dealer issues), but they are giving me the run around on the steering shaft. I have primarycare through easycare but apparently they said they don’t cover steering shaft. I am now trying to convince sales manager that it should have been fixed before I bought the vehicle (less the 2 months ago) and they should cover under 3 month sales warranty. I had the truck for 3 days after they first diagnosed it and the steering feels like it has gotten wayyy worse than it was when I first noticed it, which was about 3-4 weeks after purchase….Leading me to believe that someone (cough. Sales dept. cough) lubed it up prior to me purchasing.

Whatever happened to your warranty situation SCPO121?

On a side note, how long did it take to get all this work done? My dealership is really giving me the run around… took them 3 days just to diagnose the exhaust leak. They’ve had the truck in shop for nearly two weeks now and after excuses such as “mechanic is not available because he is working on a separate big job” to “waiting for tool to tear apart manifold” to ‘waiting for manifold part’ to ‘were going to take care of manifold before dealing with steering column’ they are really starting to P*iss me off.

gbh

Nice to have the opportunity to read these posts rather than being bamboozled by mechanics and dealers that do not have any answers other than selling parts and labour. My truck had hard and easy positions as the steering wheel was turned. Thanks to this forum I was able to pinpoint the problem to the steering shaft which has an agriculture type universal joint at each end joined by a telescoping shaft. My theory on this one is that the telescoping shaft was siezed. There is a considerable angle on the joints and they are not constant velocity joints. This type of joint setup requires a telescoping joint when used as a pair. I sprayed Honey Goo penetrant on the joints with no luck. I then drilled a small hole into the telecoping shaft and sprayed Honey Goo penetrating oil into the hollow shaft. Big improvement. I have now squirted oil into the shaft, closed the hole with a sheet metal screw. Steering has been normal for the last two months

netminderone

All you F-series truck owners, your screwed when it comes to the lower steering shaft. Ford calls it normal wear & tear,so they won't cover it under any warranty. But, A law suit filed by the NTSB againest Ford for a defective & improper engineered lower steering shaft that is a major safety issue was won by NTSB & a major recall was ordered by the court saying that Ford replace this part in all the vehicles it is installed in. That's great,i'll take my 2008 f-150 to the dealer to put the proper lower shaft in,Well guess what, the law suit covers all Ford,Lincoln & Mercury vehicles except Ford trucks. Imagine that!! The same defective lower steering shaft recalled by the NTSB for a major safety issue,only counts for non truck vehicles even though the same defective part is on Ford trucks. What it say's is, a car will hit a guard rail & crash because the steering bound up,so it's a safety issue but because i have an F-150 & when the steering binds up & i hit the guard rail(with the same defective steering shaft)it's not a safety issue!! Are you kidding me??? Ford truck owners got screwed!! Let's fight back,Safety recall for defective part should be for all Ford's,not just for there low selling vehicles. Please reply back & i'll get it started againest the NTSB & Ford. The more the better. If you have a Ford truck,your lower steering shaft will fail & you have to pay alot to replace a part that's defective(if you don't crash first)& Ford car owners don't have to pay for the replacement. Ford bought the NTSB & the Court to only issue replacements for cars but not F-150's. Like where safer because we own a truck!!

Triton54HD

I replaced mine earlier last year too...very easy to do. I bought mine from partsgeek for i think about a hundred or so. why would it not be a wear item? it works much like a DS, and it has ujoints. plus it sits by the driverside wheel well getting all that salt, dirt and crap all over it. it literally will take you 10 min to swap out..

netminderone

Ya it's an easy fix but, it is a poorly designed shaft. Every u-joint needs grease now & then,with this u-joint you can't grease it! Why was the recall only on Ford cars for a defective safety part but not F-150's?? Why did i buy a $40,000 truck & a yr. later i can't steer while going slow? Why do i have to pay $200 for the part & do it my self when Ford Car owners who have the same part get there's for free by the dealer because of the recall??? Is that fair?

gbh

I had the same problem with my 2007 F150. The steering acted as though one of the universal joints was seized. These situation with these u-joints is that the shaft between the two has to telescope slightly. It is the telescoping shaft that was seized, not the joints. I drilled a small hole in the shaft as close to the upper joint as possible. I then squirted Honey Goo, an penetrating oil into the hole with the help of the small tube supplied. The Steering freed up slightly right away and within a week returned to proper operation. This was three years ago and I have not had a problem since. I did this without disassembly.

primalurges

Unfortunately Ford routinely shafts its customers with design flaws and never owns up to the issue. That is just the way they operate