I was driving with my friend and parked at a parking space near restaurant. While driving home suddenly and without warning, the power steering went out. I have had no warnings leading up to this event. The wrench icon came on and an error message came on in the dash stating to have the power steering serviced.

This was extremely dangerous as it just happened without warning as I was turning off at a busy area. Everything I have read states that this is a common problem specifically in the hybrid vehicles Ford manufactures. There have been recalls for the same issue for newer model vehicles, but not this one.

It is my belief that this issue should be investigated due to the dangerous condition caused by the power steering going completely out in the car as I was turning.

My hybrid has run relatively trouble free for 122,000 miles on good roads, but about 6 months ago, the engine cut out while going over our mountain pass doing 60 mph. I coasted to a stop and switched off the engine. Inspected the engine and could see no problems. Started up again, all fine, and drove home. This happened a few days later again in nearly the same place. This spooked me, so took it into the local Ford dealer. I was told there was a factory recall on the cooling fan for the batteries, and it was cutting out due to this problem. It was replaced and all was well again until now when the power steering failed while my wife was parking. I checked the dash warning light (yellow wrench) was on and said power steering check.

I took it into the local Ford dealer again, after a $162 charge, they told me either the power steering module needs replacing (labour and parts $1100), but if that does not fix it, then I need to replace the complete rack and pinion for another $2200 !!! After reading another complaint, even that is not a guaranteed fix, making the car worthless to try go down this road of repair.

My two questions are, firstly, could this failure be linked to the factory recall fan/pump battery cooling failure?

Secondly, why does Ford charge $160 for a computer check which does not tell you the truth about the fault? Seems pointless to charge this. Just pay for the module replacement and see what happens is a lot cheaper!!

My wife was backing out of the driveway when the yellow wrench light came on and the ability to steer became very difficult. She took it in to the dealer and was told the Power Steering Module needed to be replaced. Before giving them the go ahead, I wanted to do some research. Turns out this issue seems to be a common problem with this particular year vehicle. On guy said he his power steering went out while on the freeway and caused an accident leaving him with s spine injury. Another 2006 Ford Escape Hybrid vehicle owner mentioned he received a recall notice regarding this issue. I'm waiting for him to provide a photo of the recall notice as I type. Is anyone aware of this recall??? Needless to say, I'm peeved that this is a common problem with this vehicle and that other owners might be injured or even killed due to this issue!

Started the car only to discover that the diagnostic display was reporting that the power steering had failed. Tried to drive the car but it is next to impossible to steer. Checked all fuses, especially #25, but all fuses were working. Checked the internet and found that many, many people are having the same problem. The only real solution seems to be to replace the Power Steering Control Module. This is an expensive procedure costing a minimum of $1000. The car is at the mechanic.

Update from Aug 13, 2014: The mechanic replaced the steering column. I was told that it was less involved to replace the steering column than to replace the power steering control module, and the cost would be about the same. If the steering failure had occured while driving, the result could have been catastrophic.