Hi, as the title suggests I'm looking for some advice/feedback on a steering swap on my 2011 GT.

I recently installed new front LCA (along with lowering springs/shocks, and bigger brakes), and even though they were advertised as having OEM specs bushings, they must bit just different enough to trigger the dreaded EPAS shudder.

It doesn't happen every time I drive the car, but hard driving will eventually trigger it and it can be really sketchy when it happens, so while I'm not exactly looking forward to dropping a grand to fix this stupid issue, it seems like that's pretty much the only option I have to solve this.

I looked online but couldn't find much info on how to do the swap, and the limited amount I found was pretty conflicting.

From what I've seen, it seems like the unbolting/removal is fairly straightforward, with the most painful part being the removal of 2 bolts that have pretty limited access and are covered in (way too much) thread locked from factory.
The one thing that worries me is that the only video I found showing the removal/install skips over the final removal of these bolts, and I saw somewhere else that you need to lift the engine to remove these. I'm usually fine doing most upgrades myself, but since I don't have a lift and would be working on ramps/jackstands in my driveway, lifting the whole engine is a bit out of my confort zone.

So basically what I'm wondering is :
- do you actually need to lift the whole engine to swap the steering rack ?
- if so, how long should it normally take/how many hours of labor can I expect to get charged for this ?
- if not, is there anything else I'm missing, or some extra step that makes it harder to do than it looks ?

Also, it seems like the general advice for people experiencing this issue is to get the boss 302 rack (m3200r if I remember correctly) that disables all the added electronic BS that causes these issues.

Couple of questions about this as well :

- it seems like cars after 2012 are not affected by this. Is it possible to buy a new 2013-2014 steering rack somewhere, and if so is there a significant price difference with the boss 302 rack ?
- I believe the 2011 are missing some additional steering settings that the later years (and boss 302 if I'm not mistaken) have available. If I install one of these, would that ''unlock'' these settings for me, or would the car computer not be aware/able to switch between these modes/settings ?

Thanks in advance for any help you can get me, much, much appreciated !

 

I went through this a few months ago. The steering shudder issue affects all 2011 and some 2012 model year cars once you cross a certain line on suspension/brake/wheel/tire mods. There is some pretty good information on a couple of the more track focused forums. Ford made a mid production change to the programming during 2012, but I was not able to get an exact date on which racks were affected. The part numbers for the steering racks are dependent on which size wheels your car came with. They shortened the amount of movement on cars with bigger wheels to prevent rubbing at full lock and the calibration is supposed to be different. There are a few options: 1) A used rack from a 2013 or 2014 2) a remanufactured rack 3) the Ford Racing rack that was oem on the Boss 202 r/s race cars.

Option 1) was not viable for me. I could not find a used rack from a later car that was set up for 19" wheels. I did not want to mess with changing the inner tie rods.
Option 2) was considered, but the companies selling remanufactured units could not tell me if they would have the later calibration or not. I did not to change it and still have a shudder.
Option 3) is the way I went. The price was not significantly more than a stock oem replacement for a later car. I bought the rack from Watson Racing for a little less than $1,100. They built the Boss race cars for Ford and could get it to me the quickest at a fair price. The Ford Racing rack is sold for off road use only probably for liability reasons, but I have had mine for several months without an issue on the road or the track. The problem is solved and the car steering has a more linear feel on the track. The rack was plug and play on my 2011. It did not need any calibration and does not unlock any features from the later cars.

I swapped my rack on my driveway with jack stands in about 4 hours. Everything I read said you needed to lift the engine, but with a little patience you can do it without removing the motor mount bolts or dropping the K-member. You do need to remove the front plastic splash panel and the front brace from the K-member. You will need a decent flex head ratchet and some ratcheting box end wrenches to get at the bolts. You can get an air ratchet on some of them, but mine was not strong enough to overcome the lock tight. It also helps to heat the rack mounting bolts from underneath with a propane torch to loosen up the lock tight. I didn't heat mine enough and fought the bolts out less than 1/4 turn at a time. I ran a tap/die over everything before reinstall and it went really quick. I was able to use my air ratchet to run the bolts in snug and then only needed to torque them.

 

First of all thanks a ton for the reply, still sucks but sounds like better news than I thought for the wrenching part.

Regarding sourcing the rack, that seems to confirm what I had found so far : remanufactured part may or may not have the right EPAS calibration (and I'm not taking a chance of installing it all to find out it's the same issue), new will be very close on price to the 302 version, and used part can be tricky to get to match, and eventually limit you in wheel size choices.

The closest thing to a tutorial I found so far is this video, which skips over the full bolt removal (they show the loctite covered bolts around 5:20 (which I assume are the ones people talk about when they mention having to lift the engine).

I've been wanting to get some ratchet flex head wrenches for a while now, might as well have a good excuse to pull the trigger.

I have a few other questions if you don't mind :

- Yours is a 2011 as well right ?

- Was there any calibration/update required after the install (besides front wheel alignment)

- Do you remember what tap size you used ? I'd rather make sure I have the right one before getting started.

- Was there any change to your "driving modes" following the install (I know on my 2011 I can put it in "sport mode" by double tapping the Trac control while holding the brake, supposedly disable most of advancetrack and firms up the steering a bit, but haven't found the steering change very noticeable)

- Anything else you found out along the way or something that might be easy to miss or overlook ?

Again thanks a lot for all your help, it's such a pain to deal with this issue, and it's definitely reassuring to know someone already went down this road and can point in the right direction !

 

I have been told by a couple of reputable sources that the difference between the different oem racks is in the stops and the length of the inner tie rods. This is to limit range of travel to avoid rubbing with certain size wheels. The stops and tie rods are serviceable. There is the possibility of buying a rack and swapping your tie rods/stops convert it to your wheel size. I did not explore this option.

I watched a couple of different videos, but do not remember which ones at this point. The Ford service manual helped as much as anything. You can find it here:'

http://iihs.net/fsm/?d=797&f=Steering%20Gear.pdf

I should have put a little more heat to the bolts to burn the loc tite. I used a propane torch, but was afraid to put too much heat under there. There are only 3 bolts holding the rack in, but they are hard to get at. I used a 1/2" drive breaker bar to get them moving and either ratcheting box end wrench or a fine tooth ratchet to get them out. A decent cordless or air ratchet would be a big help. My cheap air ratchet didn't have enough power to overcome the loc tite. The exhaust is in the way on the passenger side rear most bolt. You really can't get any swing on a tool. You will need a fine tooth flex head ratchet to get this one out. It is a little tedious, but I did it without touching a motor mount bolt.

The boss 302r rack was plug and play on my 2011. No calibration needed. Someone on another thread is telling people that changing a rack requires dealer calibration. This is the only source I have found claiming recalibration is necessary. I find it unusual since the Ford dealers claim that they cannot recalibrate and existing rack and the racks ship with the calibration on them. Also, I have read about everything I can find on the issue and most says the rack is a plug and play swap. Finally, the Ford service manual does not mention anything about calibration.