jooman07

What causes this to happen? Just out of nowhere I get the message after I changed my brakes. Had new tires and wheels installed the same day as well (305/55/20's) but drove well over 50 miles after they were installed before I changed my brakes. Took it for a test drive and there was no power steering at all. Everything was fine up until then. I checked the 5 amp fuse for the EPAS and it's still good. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, no weird noises, no funny feeling in the steering, nothing. I read about how hammering and banging on the steering components can cause damage to the EPAS but I never did any of that when I was changing the pads. Disconnected the battery and restarted it and that doesn't work. Hooked my SCT programmer up to see if there were any codes..nothing either. Even though I don't think that it would see any codes like the Ford Tech scanners can. No clue as to what to do at this point. Does it sound like I'm up poop creek? Truck has 83k on it and the extended service warranty expired like 2 months ago. This is the only message that is displayed. I read through numerous threads already saying that they got the service advancetrac message others along with it. But mine is only the one message, not sure if that means anything or not. All the service depts around me are closed until Monday so that leaves another day to pull my hair out trying to figure out what to do. I'm just glad this didn't happen while driving with my 2 kids in the truck. This is especially irritating since the truck was JUST paid off and the extended warranty expired 2 months ago...

----Side note, it DOES have a leveling kit installed but it was installed like 5 years ago when I got the truck, so I would think it that was the cause of any issues I would have seen it long before now.

RLXXI

https://www.f150forum.com/f38/forsca...ations-349018/ will allow you to read all system codes.
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bubbabud

You might try unplugging the electric connector at the steering rack check for corrosion and fit, clean and reinstall with some dielectric grease. If that dont work grab your wallet and had to dealer. suggest you research for TSB"s related to the EPAS system.

jooman07

Just got done doing that actually. Didn't use dielectric grease but I unplugged the connector and checked for pushed pins and corrosion. (Common practice in aircraft avionics, reseat connector and it usually works again). But nothing different. There are 2 connectors, however, I reseated the smaller one. The larger one seemed hard to get off and i didn't want to break the connector plug end if I plan on taking it to the dealer.

jooman07

I'm looking at doing this now.

RLXXI

Did you happen to check the mega fuse at the battery? It's 125A right on top of positive battery cable.
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jooman07

Yes I looked at that this morning too. Didn't check with a multimeter yet but a visual inspection I took the cover off and it didn't look blown. A fuse of that size you SHOULD be able to see it if it is blown.

RLXXI

You would think so but I've had fuses of all different flavors bite me on the **** by just looking at them. Best way to tell for sure is a continuity test with a meter.
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jooman07

True. I plan on checking it later after I get some stuff done around the house. But from my experience it looks like it's gonna be a hardware issue instead of something simple causing it to fail.

Reseating the connector, disconnecting the battery, etc. didn't work. I read in another thread on this topic where someone suggested disconnecting the battery and pumping the brakes a few times then reconnecting after about 10 minutes. Tried that too, even though it didn't make much sense.

I wonder if changing the brakes is what started this...I've changed them before already and nothing like this ever happened.

RLXXI

The early models of EPAS had issues with the sensor inside the rack going bad, it's non serviceable. Rack replacement is the only way if that's what's wrong with it.
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