2011 Mercury Milan Steering Problems

On XXX My 2011 Milan, experienced a total loss of steering assist. Am original owner & have original invoice from former dealer (Vista Ford )dated XXX, Invoice #XXX shows the dealer only did a software patch under 15N01 because there were no error codes at the time. My physical defective steering gear was never replaced, and now suffers a total mechanical electrical failure. The manufacturers software recall patch failed to prevent the component from failing. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11750411

Incident

Apr 22, 2026

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the electronic power steering failure warning light illuminated. Additionally, the steering wheel failed to turn in the intended direction. The contact's family member attached the ODS monitor to the vehicle, and fault codes: C1277 (Steering Wheel Angle Sensor), UL3000 (Power Steering Control Modular) and several other failure codes associated with the electronic power steering were retrieved. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The contact referenced an unknown recall; however, the VIN was not associated with a recall related to the failure. The dealer was not made aware of the failure. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 91,430.

NHTSA ID

11743808

Incident

Jun 12, 2026

Mileage

91,430 mi

1) The electric power steering system failed. The dashboard displayed the message “Service Power Steering Now,” and the steering assist stopped working, making the steering extremely stiff. The vehicle also lost reverse gear, where the engine revs but the vehicle does not move when shifted into reverse. The vehicle is still in my possession and available for inspection upon request. 2) When the power steering assist failed, the steering wheel became extremely difficult to turn, which made the vehicle harder to control. This created a safety risk when attempting to turn or maneuver the vehicle in traffic or parking areas. Additionally, the inability to use reverse gear could create a hazardous situation if the driver cannot back out of traffic, parking spaces, or other areas. 3) The problem has not yet been inspected or confirmed by a dealership or independent service center. 4) No, the vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives, or other parties. 5) The dashboard displayed the message “Service Power Steering Now,” and the steering assist stopped working. The problem appeared suddenly when the vehicle was started. The steering immediately became extremely stiff, and the warning message appeared at that time. This failure created a serious safety hazard because the steering assist stopped working without warning, making the vehicle extremely difficult to control. A sudden loss of steering assist can increase the risk of a crash, especially when turning, parking, or driving in traffic. I am concerned that other drivers could experience the same sudden steering failure. The vehicle displayed the message “Service Power Steering Now,” and the steering immediately became extremely stiff. The vehicle is currently undriveable in reverse and difficult to steer safely.

NHTSA ID

11722674

Incident

Jan 12, 2026

on 10/27/25 my son was driving car (2011 Mercury Milan) and light came on dash and car suddenly lost all power steering. Luckily car was able to be driven to side of the road when steering went out. I went to the Ford recalls website and it indicated "Epas steering efforts" was on the website as requiring free service. This recall is specifically for loss of power steering in car. Electronic Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) systems provide variable steering assistance but can experience issues leading to increased steering effort and loss of control. Upon checking with dealer, this was to be fixed under safety recall bulletin 15S18. This was initially repaired in 2015 under that recall bulletin. This did not fix the issue as the car requires a power steering gear replacement for same issue. Warranties on this recall are not being honored and this is deceptive as the final repair did not correct the problem. Federal law dicates warrenties do not expire on safety recalls. Upon checking the ford recall website, Ford is now indicating it can be fixed under a "Customer Satisfaction Program" to cover the original safety recall which has already expired. Now I am faced with almost a $3k repair on a safety recall which was never fixed and not being honored by Ford.

NHTSA ID

11696096

Incident

Oct 27, 2025

My car was recalled for the steering control module issue in 2016, Recall 15S18 and 15N01. Brought it into my Ford dealer in 2016 and Ford declined to fix the steering control module repair. In 2016, car was well within the 10 year window and mileage restriction. Now, my car still is under 150K miles, is at 124,000. The power steering stopped working last week. The error message on dashboard states, power steering control error. Brought it into shop and mechanic diagnosed it as error with power steering control module and loss of power steering assist. Mechanic advised me to return to Ford as this problem was under recall 15V34. Ford refuses to repair my car as it is past the 10 year warranty window. If Ford would not have denied this repair in 2016, my car power steering control module would not have failed last week. Now my car is unsafe to drive. Ford should have fixed my car and now it is undrivable. They know that 2011 Mercury Milans have this issue and have abdicated responsibility for the safety of my car.

NHTSA ID

11646548

Incident

Feb 24, 2025

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the power steering assist intermittently failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that the "Service Power Steering Now" message was displayed. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic and the contact was informed that the vehicle was included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering). The vehicle was then taken to the dealer and the contact was informed that the vehicle was not under recall or warranty. The contact was provided an estimate for the repair. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 124,000.

NHTSA ID

11645325

Incident

Feb 20, 2025

Mileage

124,000 mi

Steering went out on vehicle, very difficult to steer. Got it to the dealership, they say it is not in the recall. The power steering assist fault light came on and service advance trac. Is costing almost $1500 to fix.

NHTSA ID

11637194

Incident

Jan 17, 2025

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle experienced a loss of power steering functionality. A message indicating power steering failure was displayed. The vehicle was taken to several independent mechanics, where it was determined that the failure was related to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering). The vehicle was then taken to the dealer, where the contact was informed that the repair of Ford Campaign Number: 15N01 could not be completed due to the vehicle's mileage. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was unknown.

NHTSA ID

11612496

Incident

Jan 1, 2024

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while driving 70 MPH, the steering wheel locked. The power steering assist warning light was illuminated, and the message "Service Advance Track" was displayed. The vehicle was driven to the contact's residence. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. No further information was provided. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 147,000.

NHTSA ID

11578411

Incident

Mar 20, 2024

Mileage

147,000 mi

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while starting the vehicle, the steering wheel was difficult to turn. The failure was more evident during the cold weather. The Service Power Steering warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 260,000.

NHTSA ID

11566259

Incident

Aug 1, 2023

Mileage

260,000 mi

Power steering service light came on, and the power steering on vehicle was impaired and almost impossible to turn the wheel while operating the vehicle .,after contacting Ford dealership, a recall is listed on that year of this make and model, but the Vin number is not included in the recall for maintenance repairs

NHTSA ID

11565329

Incident

Jan 12, 2024

The first symptom was the steering wheels failure to return to center after going around a corner. That went on for about 3 weeks before the Service Advance Trac warning came on. The vehicle started to have a terrible noise when turning the wheel which can only be described as the sound of bones breaking. The sound is increasing louder at slow speeds. Then the Advance Trac System Failure message came on, and the vehicle lost all power steering assist. When turning a corner the steering wheel almost gets stuck at the 2,3,4,5 positions. There was a massive Ford recall for this make and model with the exact same failed part, but for some reason Ford decided to not include my vehicle in this recall, despite it having the failure. This is a very expensive repair, and at this point in the vehicles life basically renders it a total loss. This should be remedied by Ford for all vehicles with this part.

NHTSA ID

11562701

Incident

Oct 10, 2023

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated that the vehicle had been experiencing power steering failure. The contact stated while reversing out of the driveway and attempting to make a turn, the vehicle lost power steering functionality. The messages "Power Steering Assist Fault" and "Service Advancetrac" were displayed. The contact stated that she was unable to turn the steering wheel. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering); however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 101,000.

NHTSA ID

11560914

Incident

Jul 15, 2023

Mileage

101,000 mi

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated while driving 25 MPH, she heard an abnormal sound coming from the front-end of the vehicle, and the contact became aware that the electronic power steering was not functioning properly. The "Service Power Steering Now" and "Service Advance Track" messages were displayed. Additionally, the traction control warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V34000 (Steering) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 186,000.

NHTSA ID

11556225

Incident

Nov 20, 2023

Mileage

186,000 mi

The power steering is out and the car is very hard to turn and control. The recall has been confirmed by the dealer but it appears that they cannot fix due to my vin number not showing a recall for the power steering control module.

NHTSA ID

11530130

Incident

Jun 27, 2023

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 MPH, the power steering failed while accelerating to merge onto the highway. The vehicle veered off the roadway. The contact pulled over to avoid a crash. The contact stated that the steering angle sensor fault message was displayed on the instrument panel. The contact had the vehicle towed to the dealer who stated that the power steering failed. The failure was related to NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering) however, their VIN was not included. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 212,000.

NHTSA ID

11524433

Incident

Jan 30, 2023

Mileage

212,000 mi

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, excessive force was needed to steer the vehicle. The contact stated that the power steering fault warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the failure recurred, and the steering wheel seized. The vehicle was towed to a local dealer, where it remained awaiting the diagnostic test and repair. The VIN was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and advised to file a complaint with the NHTSA Hotline. The approximate failure mileage was 150,000.

NHTSA ID

11514790

Incident

Mar 17, 2023

Mileage

150,000 mi

Power steering locked on me while driving

NHTSA ID

11508396

Incident

Feb 1, 2023

power steering doesn't work some or all the time. Pulling over and turning the car off is no longer working to reset.

NHTSA ID

11508134

Incident

Feb 17, 2023

Loss of power steering and steering assist light comes on. The local dealership diagnosed it needing the power steering gear assembly replaced which they stated was a recall on the vehicle but then stated the codes they entered into Ford rejected the recall approval. Recall # 15N01

NHTSA ID

11507900

Incident

Dec 1, 2022

While driving normally, suddenly my power steering turned off on the highway and SERVICE Advancetrac and SERVICE Power steering came in with no warning or dashboard indicator lights. This caused serious driving issues and I was barely able to get home safely. This issue was addressed in the 2015 15S18 recall but the issue is still there.

NHTSA ID

11496916

Incident

Nov 22, 2022

The contact owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated that upon the start of the vehicle, the power steering assist failed to operate as needed as the "service power steering" warning message appeared on the instrument panel. The contact stated that her vehicle was placed under NHTSA Campaign Number:15V340000(Steering) and was previously serviced by a dealer. The contact took the vehicle back to the dealer where she was informed that the recall had expired and that they could not offer any more assistance. The manufacturer was also notified of the failure and was given the same information as the dealer. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 89,000.

NHTSA ID

11488921

Incident

Oct 5, 2022

Mileage

89,000 mi

My vehicles electric power assisted steering failed. Luckily my 8o year old wife was not at the wheel at the time! Ford is aware of the EPAS problem but earlier refused to correct the problem before it entered full failure mode! Dash Panel warning was displayed after the steering went into failure mode.

NHTSA ID

11447237

Incident

Jan 4, 2022

The contact's girlfriend owns a 2011 Mercury Milan. The contact stated that upon start-up of the vehicle, excessive effort was needed to steer the vehicle without warning; however, the power steering assist would return after a few minutes of driving. Recently, the contact stated that the power steering assist failed with the power steering assist fault warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact had called the manufacturer and was referred to the local dealer for assistance. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer where he was informed that the vehicle was not included in NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V340000 (Steering) and that the warranty on the vehicle for the power steering was expired. The vehicle was not repaired and remained in the possession of the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.

NHTSA ID

11433795

Incident

Jan 1, 2021

Mileage

80,000 mi

The electric power steering assist is failing. The car is becoming more difficult to steer and makes an intermittent grinding noise when turning the wheels. The problem is most noticeable at low speeds when making turns.

NHTSA ID

11418020

Incident

May 18, 2021