2004 rack and pinion failure

I am curious...my son owns a 2004 Explorer, 4.0 4x4, with 68,000 miles on it. The rack and pinion is leaking pretty badly. Seems like a bit early for this sort of thing to me, is this a common problem with these trucks????

Are you positive it's the rack that's leaking? I would agree that this is early, and uncommon, for the rack to leak this soon.

-Rod

Fluid is coming from the rack for sure...no doubt. I spoke with a local shop that services county sheriff cars and trucks and he told me that newer model Explorers were a constant headache for the cops...he has replaced many in the last year. So many he advised me to check on recalls which I did. Ford has nothing though that I could find. I do know this vehicle was used in some rough conditions though, which might not have helped. I had my son take it to a shop in town we deal with for not only this but some weird noises coming from the brakes. It had some sludge that appears to be coal sludge...hard as a ROCK under it and was stuck to calipers etc. also. Not tons of it but enough. I had a hard time breaking off some of it I found when looking at the rack, not normal mud for sure. I would guess it was owned by a coal miner before my son bought it, so it may have seen more wear underneath than normal. But the comments of the other shop still stick in my mind...I hope this is not a recurring thing on this truck.

Interesting data point. Thanks for the info re: common rack failures.

-Rod

I spoke again this morning to the fellow who is going to do the work for my son on his truck. He told me that on one truck alone he replaced THREE units in less than a year...all ford oem factory parts. County prefers OEM parts but after the third one he used a rebuilt one from another mfr. and it has held up fine. he had one officer complain about bad shimmys in his and after several driving attempts to get it to shake he said it scared the heck out of him. My doughter in law told me it did this a while back but I had dismissed it as I thought maybe she was just exagerating a bit....guess she was accurate after all. This is another problem on them. Anyway I am going to have him put a rebuilt on in a few days. Hope nothing else like this happens.

Just a follow up, rebuilt unit installed and working fine.

The rebuilder I used for Rack and Pinions had a strainer you were supposed to install in the return line to the pump to catch trash metal particles. This is a problem area especially if a pump has failed.