Three times since January 2023, the steering has locked down while driving. The driver has had no control over steering momentarily. The latest incident caused the vehicle to strike a concrete pillar surrounding a stop sign in a parking lot.
2018 Ram 1500 steering complaints
Page 4 of 4: complaints 71 to 90 of 90, newest first, as owners wrote them.
The power steering stops intermittently with no warning lights. It becomes very hard to steer while driving.
Truck has a loss of power steering. No whining noise associated. This problem Comes and goes, however is now present at most times.
While driving down the road and needing to turn onto side roads or just following curves in the road, power steering has been becoming increasingly difficult requiring full strength to turn the vehicle. This is happening intermittently and happens while in mid turn. Have also noticed that when I’m 4WD, steering is altogether difficult requiring full body strength.
steering is very tight and sometimes you cann't turn the vehicle..
The contact owns a 2018 Ram 1500. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH, the steering wheel inadvertently pulled to the left and then the right, causing the contact to momentarily lose control of the vehicle. Upon slowing down, the contact stated that the steering wheel was tight and maneuvering the vehicle was extremely difficult. The EPS warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who diagnosed a failure with the electric power steering however, the vehicle was not repaired. The contact related the failure to the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 19V812000 (Steering) however, the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a case was opened. The failure mileage was 115,000.
Electric Power Steering failure with no cause. Power steering failed while driving on the highway.
While driving the steering will lock up and not move at all at random times. I decided not to drive it anymore because I have a young daughter and was stuck at a left turning light for almost 20 minutes unable to move because my wheel wouldnt turn. Luckily it was at night and there was little traffic. I was told it is the rack and pinion that needs replaced. Its been a Recall for many RAM pickups from 2002-2020 but my vin # doesnt show any Recall but thats a Big coincidence to me.
Electric Power Steering (EPS) failure. If this had happened while driving there would have been no way to control truck. The dash read "Power Steering Unavailable Service Required". Dealer tested truck and said EPS unit would need replaced at a cost of $2,345 for just the part and would be at least 45 before they could get the part. This truck only has 55k miles on it.
2018 RAM 1500 eco diesel with LESS THAN 26,000 miles on it. My husband and I had a harrowing drive a couple weeks ago bc the power steering unit started to intermittingly cut out/fail (think hair pin turn on country roads at 55, you are CRANKING on the wheel bc power steering cut out, then halfway through the turn it decides to come back and now you are OVER steering). Again, we have less than 26k on this truck ((and it is BABIED)) so clearly this is a faulty part. We got it fixed (I have receipts), but per RAM the truck is "too old" thus "out of warranty" with no current recalls and thus my request I submitted to RAM to reimburse us for the faulty part was denied.
Intermittent loss of power steering. Steering fights driver input when turning in either direction, when straightening out from a turn & gradual road curves. Inspected by competent mechanic. EPS rack & pinion failing at 22,300 miles on vehicle. EPS serial # not affected by FCA recall
The contact owns a 2018 Ram 1500. The contact stated that while driving approximately 25 MPH, the power steering light suddenly illuminated and the message "Service Power Steering" was displayed. The contact was unable to turn the steering wheel in either direction. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer for service. No further information was available. The manufacturer was not yet notified. The failure mileage was 45,000.
Went to turn at a gas station and steering wouldn’t work steering faulty light came on and said to have power steering looked at
1. Electric Power Steering (EPS) failure causes sporadic or no power steering. 2. I was driving when the steering was sporadic causing oversteering and then when it totally went out the vehicle the vehicle was very hard to steer. 3. Dealer has the truck now for diagnosis. This is a known component manufactures defect. 4. About 3 weeks before steering went out there was a clicking noise when turning. I contacted the dealer and scheduled an appointment. I spoke to a technician, at that time, and was told the noise was normal and no appointment was necessary. Appointment was subsequently canceled, 3 weeks later the failure occurred. Many of the blogs online show this issue to be a safety problem. Manufactures defect. Please address this issue it is a safety issue to everyone who has EPS.
Vehicle engine shuts off while driving. Once, sitting at a stop light. Once traveling at 45mph on a country road and once accelerating up a hill at 20mph. Dash says "place vehicle in park and turn key to start" (paraphrased). The vehicle goes from running to not running with no warning, causing loss of power steering, brakes, etc. Took vehicle to certified RAM service center who said 'there are no codes and we cannot reproduce the issue, so no diagnosis possible' (paraphrased). No error codes, no warning lamps. If this happens in highway traffic with my 16 year old son driving, it could cause a fatal crash.
Started off by having a tough spot once in a while turning my steering wheel. Now its total failure on and off. Not consistent, I can be going 20 ,ph and it works good, then my steering just fails. At 60 MPH it works great then all of a sudden it fails. Extremely dangerous. I have almost lost control 3 times. Called the dealership and they have no idea where to even start to look for the problem. Made traveling over the holidays very dangerous. Ihave read where there are numerous complaints of this same issue with other 2018 ram rebel trucks as well as over 1500 2019 ram trucks as well.
Started having trouble in the steering. Tightening up and hard to steer. Some thing was wrong with the steering shaft. And with this bad it caused the rack and pinion to go bad. Couldn't get it programmed after the shaft was fixed because of the rack and pinion. So its in the shop now and will be in there for over 2 weeks waiting on the rack and pinion.I have had this truck just over a year and I'm having to put over 3000.00 in it. It was hard to steer going around a corner. The wheel would stick and I would have to turn it back. Trying to back up the wheel was hard to turn.
Diesel ecodiesel engine catastrophic failure while driving in mountainous area. Lost all power immediately and resulted in interference with steering, brakes, and need to move off of the roadway to avoid other traffic. Vehicle only has 11,300 miles, failure occurred without warning.
Power steering failure. Power steering locks up intermittently, more so when making a left turn. Service power steering message comes up in dash and then disappears after a couple seconds. This incident happened both when vehicle was in motion making a left turn in an intersection almost causing a collision and also when parked and attempting to steer left attempting to duplicate the problem.
I was driving about 35-45 MPH was attempting to move into the right lane and I felt my steering wheel lock up. It wouldn't let me turn my wheel. So then as I attempted to slam on my brakes so I did t hit a tree the brakes went to the floor and I smashed into the tree and the. I to the woods. I was taken to the hospital 911. The hole front of the truck is destroyed.
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