11th Aug 2006, 16:24

I bought my 1999 Taurus new. At 39,000 miles the steering rack went. This car should have a recall.

25th Mar 2007, 01:08

Wow. My 1999 Ford Taurus SE has about 78,000 miles on it. I thought it would be trouble free for a few more years. Just a few days ago, I heard my power steering start making some noise. So, I added only about 4 oz of fluid to the line. Now, it is making even more noise. I just thought I would search on-line for some info on the matter, and found this website. Steering Rack!?!? $800.00!?!? GULP! Would Ford Motor Company do a recall on such an expensive part? GULP!

25th Mar 2007, 12:36

"We have two young children and we are just getting by. Power steering failed again after a few miles. I bring it to a ford dealer thinking 100.00 or so maybe a hose or something similar. Bang 800.00 for a steering rack DOA at 62000."

You were victimized. The power steering pump is nothing but a pulley driven pump that helps make steering easier. It has zero to do with the solid connection of the steering components. The pump forces pressurized fluid through hoses into a gear box on your steering column. That has ZERO to do with the tie rods, bolts, and steel Pitman arms that actually turn the wheels. If your power steering pump were dry and non-functional, you could still steer the car (with difficulty). Don't fall for this $800 "steering rack" scam because your power steering pump is making noise. One has NOTHING to do with the other. If you hit a foot-deep pothole going 70, you MIGHT need to repair the steering rack, or rack and pinion steering.

Also realize that Ford vehicles DO NOT use power steering fluid in their pumps; they use Mercon ATF. If you added anything other than Mercon ATF to your pump, you ruined the seals and created a problem where there was no problem.

I'm sympathetic, because I almost did the same thing myself until I read the owner's manual. In fact, my dad added a quart of water to the power steering pump on his '97 Mercury because he thought it was the radiator overflow neck (yeah, old people...), and we had to suck out the bad fluid with a giant syringe. We then made the mistake of adding power steering fluid, and it now makes more noise than it did before, but it works. You can try to drain out the old fluid by disconnecting the hoses, and then add the correct fluid to the correct level.

28th Mar 2007, 12:03

I have this car, and my uncle (a retired mechanic) just replaced the pump. It works; I mean I can steer easily and there seems to be no leakage. But the buzzing noise, not as loud as before, is still there after one day.

3rd Apr 2007, 12:57

Damn...that's no even funny.

I came across this website and I just dumped 850.00 for my rack at 75,000 miles and it's still messed up.

I'm actually looking for another car now...

Any time now, and my car is history...

27th Jan 2008, 09:20

I've had a 1999 Ford Taurus for four years. It's been good to me. It had 36000 miles on it, and has 78000 miles now. I say it HAS been good to me, since I just dropped $600 into it because the heat stopped working. I had the works done to it--the dealer said the heater core was fine, and they could not find a reason why the heat doesn't work. Air blows out of the vents, but it's cold. They said maybe there is air in the cooling system, so they flushed it, but I still don't have heat. A Ford is a money pit--I will never ever get a Ford again. I'm going to take it out in the field and shoot it in the block.

31st Jan 2008, 00:05

Can we all say "class action". A hundred bucks apiece and we get thousands back... Our lawyers more, but who cares...it's a frickin problem...

9th Apr 2008, 21:00

I just repaired my stepson's 1999 Taurus because of a rusty colored foam coming from his expansion tank. I first just flushed the system and put in a new therm-stat, but it still comes back. (He also had no heat). So then I removed the water pump to find that all the fins on the pump had rusted away. With new pump installed all is good again. But due to the lack of coolant and a bad water pump, his head gasket went bad (another repair job).

13th May 2008, 21:15

I have a 98 Taurus that I replaced the rack and pin - dropped $1200 over a year ago. Now I am hearing that noise again. I am glad that I read not to add power steering fluid, because that was exactly what I was going to do. Guess I will run by Auto Zone tomorrow before I have a problem on my hands.

6th Jun 2008, 15:35

I've been driving my 99 Taurus without power steering now for about a year and a half. Owned the car for 2 1/2 years, and luckily working at a junkyard for a year of ownership was able to get by with replacing it with a used one. Now for the third time, it's needed again. A local shop here says for parts and labor it'll cost me $550. Definitely not worth it if it's going to go bad again in a year.

I was leaning toward hoping it would be a clogged filter, or just the pump going bad, mainly for the reason there was no fluid leaking on the ground, but after reading these posts, it just reassures me my wife was wrong on this one. Guess she shouldn't of argued with a Chevy man.

Ford, recall your problems, instead of circling them with ovals, and make note, you still suck!

19th Jan 2009, 11:47

My husband and his friend, who used to be a mechanic spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong with my power steering pump. I searched on-line, found your info, and gave it to them. They were skeptical at first, but you were dead on correct. This fix saves both time, and lots of money. I think you may have right and left reversed in the fix, but the bolt was loose, and after being tightened, it doesn't spray/spout any more fluid. Thank you so much!!!

22nd Jan 2009, 06:47

Regarding the steering problem with the 99 Ford Taurus, I would like to thank the person who wrote about tightening the nut on the rack assembly (passenger side). The car belongs to my sister and she was given a quote of $1300 to replace the rack and power steering pump. Based on the entry from this site, I was able to remove the boot, tighten the nut (using the needle nose pliers and a great deal of patience), and then turned the wheels back and forth a couple times to expel the oil that had filled the drivers side boot (and to make sure no more oil leaked out). Note that this boot gets filled because of the equalizing vent line between boots. I put the boot back on and the steering problem is 100X better, but not 100%. I would also like to thank the operator of this site for enabling the sharing of this kind of experience.