First noticed problem 3/01/02- all of a sudden car was hard to turn and making noise. When I got home, my husband filled power steering fluid- it was low but not empty. Seemed to do ok for a couple days- no noises or major difficulty turning. Problems started again only worse, noticed when we turned the car off fluid leaking from somewhere. We took the car to a Firestone dealer, who called us back, and advised us to take the car to our dealership. They were not sure of the problem and thought best to take it to the dealership. Also advised us to check into this problem further since the car was low in mileage. A friend suggested we look at your website to see if any other cars had this problem. We did and found 16 other 1999 Taurus reporting problem with power steering. The next day car was taken to alderman Ford, we explained the problem- told them about our findings on your website and the problem with the other cars. They said they would check into if the same problem found maybe could help us out with cost. Three days later received a call saying it was the power steering rack- the same problem reported by others to your Agency. They told us the best they could do would be do reduce the price by approx. $200. Our final cost was still $820!!! we expressed our displeasure with this, spoke with service manager and general mangager. They said if such a known problem Ford would probably have done something, and that they had not seen this problem before. We do not have maintenance records for the car, my husband does the maintenance himself and we have not documented it. We realize our mistake in this practice. However, I still cannot believe this problem is happening to multiple people and Ford is doing nothing about it! I've had many Ford, this is my second Taurus...and after this episode will probably be my last. I realize the car is out of warranty, but this is a huge expense for a car only a few years old. I hope Ford decides to take proper action on this probl

- Indianapolis, IN, USA