2000 Ford Taurus Steering Noise

Hello All,

I have a 2000 Ford Taurus with 112,000 miles which I have owned since mile 02 in 2000. Wonderful car no real problems. I noticed for the last 6 months the Steering seemed stiff when turning the Steering wheel to left and there was a noise with it.

I could sit in the driveway and turn the Steering wheel to the right with no noise or stiffness, however when turning the steering wheel to the left there was some stiffness and a high pitch loud noise.

I thought it was my struts since my Taurus has 112,000 miles, so I replaced them. The ride is very nice with the new struts in (I replaced the entire strut assembly including a new mounting kit with the strut bearing ).

About 5 days later my steering noise came back, the stiffness not really, but the loud high pitch noise as I turn the steering wheel to the left has returned to taunt me. I jacked the whole front end off the ground, both front tires up in the air and turned the steering wheel right and left with no noise at all. After jacking the front end off the ground the noise went away for 3 days and has returned again to taunt me.

Some of my Co-workers have told me the problem is my ball joints. The ball joints on my Taurus are sealed. Before I spend the time and money to replace them I read about these Grease Injector Needles which state on the package for injecting grease into sealed bearings and other hard to reach areas. So I am going to try and lube these sealed bearings and see how that works out.

I wanted to find out if any else has heard of this type of front end steering/suspension problem before and what their fix was. I'll post back with results most likely 2 weeks because I plan on jacking the car up, pulling the wheels off so that I can get a good angle at greasing those small ball joints, anytime I raise the front end the noise goes away for 2 to 3 days now, so thats why results won't be definite early.

 

Sounds like your rack and pinion is going out. That or your power steering pump. Bad ball joints will not make your steering stiff.

 

I think the problem could be with the serpentine belt. It's either old and glazed, or the belt has stretched beyond tensioner limits, or the tensioner has rusted in place. Is the belt original?

I'd leave the ball joints alone.

 

2 things to look at #1 the ball joints........Not servicable/no grease fitting.....If the boots are torn and the grease is gone you've got noise #1.......#2 the stabilizer links..........Same dealio as the ball joints....If the boots are torn open, they're toast...........

 

Well I jacked the front end up and pulled the tires off. I lubed the ball joints with the injection needle and it worked great. I started the car still on the jacks and turned the steering wheel right and left. I noticed a small noise just towards the left turning limit. I wondered for awhile then it dawned on me that the tie-rods are sealed bearing too. So I needle injected them and no more noise.WOWWWWW!!!!

I have already replaced the serpentine belt twice. Once at 45,000 miles and at 110,000.

I believe the noise was from the tie-rod sealed bearing. I think the needle gease injection will at least let me get by for awhile tell I buy new ones, they look easier to replace then ball joints.

The stiff steering went away the frist time I left the car just before putting the new struts on. It feels like power rack and pinion steering should now.
I'll really know more in about a weeks time.

Oh yeah, at 110,000 I took the Plastic dogbones (stabilizer links) off and put on real metal dogbones with grease fittings.