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Zymic, have you had the noise resolved? I’ve been to the dealer a few times with no correction. Lower shaft & firewall bushing have been replaced.
It was definitely the firewall bushing/sleeve ring on mine. Changing that part resolved it. It seemed like a flimsy part, and prone to breakage even when reinstalling the new one. The tech was unimpressed with Ford’s design for this generation. Mine was initially broken when installing a new steering column for an unrelated issue. That truck has since been traded on a 2018, but the issue was still fixed at trade-in (3 years after the problem appeared).
Hope you get it resolved. It’s definitely frustrating.
I was going to say there were a number of explorers that had an issue with a steering shaft replacement due to a squeaking/grinding noise - it wasn't the clockspring but this internal bit that is actually easier to replace.