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Early 2012 V6 Steering Rack Software

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Norm Peterson

Corner Barstool Sitter
939
712
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
a few miles east of Philly
Ford's EPAS at least for production Mustangs has included software routines for dealing with pull-drift and active nibble compensation, neither of which is needed for basic steering accuracy or precision. IIRC those add-ons are there to help the lowest-common-denominator kind of driver keep the car from drifting sidehill-wise along heavily crowned roads, and (I think) compensate for minor tire & wheel imbalances. It's probably the ANC's early-year calibration where most of the blame for the shudder belongs.

Add-on steering features like those really aren't what you want for a track car, IMHO.


Norm
 
Did the OP ever resolve the feedback issue??

I have a 2012 Boss and I'm thinking of doing a control arm upgrade.

I have to be honest, I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around this. According to Tasca Ford, a DR3Z-3404-CE is for MY 2011-2014 with 19" wheels. Unless there is a hardware difference, a rack is a rack, it doesn't know what year car it's in. Same goes for software, the computer doesn't care.

Watson Racing description of M-3200-EPAS = Electric assist steering rack with performance calibration.
So, I never actually had the issue, I was just almost guaranteed to have the issue based on my year car, and it being a base model v6. The logistics of me attempting the arms, me possibly getting shudder, and having to swap rack just wasn’t worth it to me. I can do most work in my garage, but all of this would have been near impossible so I had a buddy help me. It was worth a grand to simplify the process and eliminate the possibility.

The issue as we all understand it is the programming in the rack itself. The car doesn’t care as you said. I also believe it’s possible to get the rack flashed with newer software. I have heard success and failure with this. Potentially a dealer can do it, or you can do it with forscan. But I don’t know, I didn’t even try. Probably should have…. But either way a new rack felt very nice. My car has 70k miles and I could tell it is tighter and not worn out at all. Worth a grand to not feel worn, probably not. But the arms do feel much, much better on track.
 
1,119
1,110
Exp. Type
HPDE
Exp. Level
5-10 Years
Lenoir City TN
This is a well documented problem with the 2011 early 2012 EPAS, although no-one to my knowledge has been able to pinpoint the exact change over date during 2012. Vorshlag documented the issue very well on one of their build threads on their 2011. The only physical differences between the various EPAS part numbers are the steering stops and length of the tie rods. Each part number is calibrated for a specific set up. The calibration resides in the rack not the cars cpu.

Bigger/heavier wheels or brakes as well as stiffer bushings trigger the issue. I was fine on my 2011 until I changed bushings. My car had the brembo pack with 19" wheels. I did go to bigger tires, but not a brake change without issue. The problem surfaced on my car when I changed bushings. If you get the shudder you have to replace the EPAS. You can choose the Ford Racing rack or one from a newer model car with the revised calibration.
 

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