Loss of steering - scary

Hey folks,
I have a 2014 RAM 1500 with 60k-ish miles. I'm the 2nd owner and have been driving it for two years without any problems. This is a beast of a truck and I love it.
However, I lost my power steering this morning driving to work on ice and snow. I was heading into a curve on a luckily empty blacktop road and drove right off the road and into a ditch. Luckily I wasn't hurt, just jostled. I took it to a mechanic and the err codes read C2128-00 and U11E8-00 Lost Communication with EPS Steering. Of course the truck isn't under warranty but shouldn't this be a safety recall? There are complaints all over the internet so this isn't an isolated problem. And as I understand it, it's going to get worse.
I love Dodge trucks and this is my third but I'm sorely disappointed in Chrysler.
Any advice?

So there is no fallback to manual steering? If not that seems to be a huge problem....

No advice but would like to know what caused this.

Sorry, I made that a little unclear. Yes there was manual steering but very, very difficult to turn. Not like the old manual steering. And because it was completely unexpected and the bad timing when it happened right at the curve, I wasn't able to correct in time and went off the road. If this had happened in oncoming traffic, there would have been a head-on collision. I'm gong to take off work early today and call customer care but I've read online that Chrysler's policy is not to cover this, even under warranty, unless it's a permanent failure. Right now it's intermittent. But I need my truck to get to work everyday and I have to take an interstate.

huntergreen said:

No advice but would like to know what caused this.

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I would too! From my online reading it seems to happen more in cold weather. This morning in Illinois it's 7 degrees. I'll be hitching a ride to work.

Correction: tomorrow night will be 7 degrees. I'll test it, carefully, on my country road.

Just an update: the Chrysler Customer Care rep said he was 80% sure this would be covered by my power train warranty but he was incorrect. I was firm with him but not mean or angry and he has escalated it to the next level. I'm waiting for a call back on Tuesday. The dealer's advice is to keep driving it and see if it happens again. I don't know about you folks but on I55, I not only see people texting and driving but I saw a dude reading the newspaper and driving last year. Not sure how I feel about driving it until it happens again. :-/

Macadoo said:

Sorry, I made that a little unclear. Yes there was manual steering but very, very difficult to turn. Not like the old manual steering. And because it was completely unexpected and the bad timing when it happened right at the curve, I wasn't able to correct in time and went off the road. If this had happened in oncoming traffic, there would have been a head-on collision. I'm gong to take off work early today and call customer care but I've read online that Chrysler's policy is not to cover this, even under warranty, unless it's a permanent failure. Right now it's intermittent. But I need my truck to get to work everyday and I have to take an interstate.

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When my old Ford pickup power steering pump went out I heard a loud whirring noise increasing then POP! and then it was REALLY hard to steer, so I know what you mean. Luckily I was just turning out of the driveway so I wasn’t at speed. I drove about a half block, turned into a parking lot and stopped to call a tow truck. If it had happened on a curve at speed I would’ve been into a mountain or whatever was there too. In this case it was a massive failure of the pump, but I can’t imagine an intermittent problem like this happening. I don’t think I’d want to drive it until I was sure it was fixed.

By the way I still have an old 73 Celica with manual steering, this was WAY harder than that. Also cars that are designed with manual steering have larger diameter steering wheels, making it a little easier to turn.

Scary indeed and I can see this being terrifying if it happens when you least expect it. Thing is, I doubt these rack and pinion systems are harder to use in manual mode than an old circulating ball power steering system would be in older pickups. Those are really tough to turn if the PS pump goes out.

And weren't the gear ratios different in manual steering? As in, it took a couple revolutions of the steering wheel to reach lock? In any case, this didn't have anywhere near the leverage to get that wheel turned.
Yeah, I have enough stress in my life without having to drive interstate every day wondering if it's going to go out again. It's 5 degrees out there this morning. As soon as I get the drive shoveled I'll give it a test run and see if the cold does make a difference.

Macadoo said:

And weren't the gear ratios different in manual steering? As in, it took a couple revolutions of the steering wheel to reach lock? In any case, this didn't have anywhere near the leverage to get that wheel turned.
Yeah, I have enough stress in my life without having to drive interstate every day wondering if it's going to go out again. It's 5 degrees out there this morning. As soon as I get the drive shoveled I'll give it a test run and see if the cold does make a difference.

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I don't remember much about steering ratios in my first vehicles, I do recall the steering wheels being larger. A couple of my friends cut there power steering belt off so they could have less drain on engine power and they were still drivable.

Had a tie rod come apart on my 3500. It seemed tight and in good shape a week prior when it was on a lift. That's a loss of steering.

Macadoo said:

And weren't the gear ratios different in manual steering? As in, it took a couple revolutions of the steering wheel to reach lock?

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Ratio is the same as far as I know. The electric motor is there to assist the manual rack and pinion steering our Ram 1500s have. It basically just follows the inputs the driver is giving the steering shaft.

O/P do yourself a favor and put the truck up safely on jackstands and look at where the electric power steering rack connector is. I've seen 2 situations where the rack has failed intermittently either due to lack of di-electric grease at the "weatherproof" connector due to corrosion or from an oil change where a tech did not clean off the oil mess caused by the filter being removed and oil getting all over the frame crossmember and the rack and then seeping into the connectors and what seemed to be a dead-short getting created. Both situations where resolved by cleaning the area up and properly redoing the di-electric grease and reconnecting the system.

Either way don't drive it, you don't want that mess happening again. Hope this helps, and yeah, if it's missing di-electric and corroding, or a tech left an oily mess and it caused a short, the onus is NOT on you, but you may need to pay for a repair and seek reimbursement by legal means after things are fixed.

Let us know what plays out and again, BE SAFE.

I know we all expect vehicles to be 100% all of the time, but they do have failures occasionally. Don't get me wrong, it's quite disconcerting to lose power steering while driving.
The internet has made the world a smaller place, which makes problems look far more common than they actually are.

Remember the Samsung phone exploding battery fiasco? There were a few million sold, and the total number of documented battery failures was just over 100. While that's still 100 phones too many, people were hysterical and thought that every Note7 was going to explode, when in reality it was closer to a one in a million chance.

Any updates ?

Just wanted to let everyone know about a Power Steering/Brake incident I just had. I've got a 2018 RAM 3500 Dually and last Friday I lost my power steering and brakes while driving down the I-10 going onto the 51N Overpass in Phoenix, AZ. Very scary times but got her to stop with no further incident. When the power steering failed there was a loud noise that got worse as I tried to make a banking turn and get the vehicle stopped. Steering became VERY hard and brakes almost totally USELESS. Having to muscle the steering and brakes I got stopped and shut the engine down. Thank god I wasn't towing my 42' toy-hauler 5th wheel!!! I found the power steering fluid was hot and bubbling out of the reservoir. Turns out the Power Steering Pressure Hose Inner Liner separated and jammed into the Hydrobooster. The pump was found to have a leak also. Probably caused by this incident. Just wanted to inform this community in case someone else has experienced this or has the same issue in the future. I also want to give a "Thumbs Up" to Bill Luke RAM Dealer in Phoenix AZ for the repair and friendly service. Also a "Thumbs Up" to the RAM Extended Warranty that covered my rental car.

Macadoo said:

Hey folks,
I have a 2014 RAM 1500 with 60k-ish miles. I'm the 2nd owner and have been driving it for two years without any problems. This is a beast of a truck and I love it.
However, I lost my power steering this morning driving to work on ice and snow. I was heading into a curve on a luckily empty blacktop road and drove right off the road and into a ditch. Luckily I wasn't hurt, just jostled. I took it to a mechanic and the err codes read C2128-00 and U11E8-00 Lost Communication with EPS Steering. Of course the truck isn't under warranty but shouldn't this be a safety recall? There are complaints all over the internet so this isn't an isolated problem. And as I understand it, it's going to get worse.
I love Dodge trucks and this is my third but I'm sorely disappointed in Chrysler.
Any advice?

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I had a 2013 Big Horn and owned it for 3 years before trading it in. When I owned it their was a recall for the steering system computer you can look it up ,But it might have carried over to your year truck if so its under warranty by the company I would think