Squeak and slight vibration heard and felt in steering column at low speeds (Parking lots, etc)
Get a friend to turn wheel back and forth in the garage, get on the ground and use your hands to feel where the noise is coming from. Metal gives off a significant amount of vibrations with noise. Should be easy to tell where it's coming from. Could be your rack and pinion, however I would be much more willing to consider ball joints. Hard to tell without getting "down and dirty" on the floor under the vehicle feeling for the noise.
Could be your steering gearbox, tierod end, rack and pinion piston, low power steering fluid, bad serp belt, ball joints, front struts/mounting hardware.
Also test steering with the entire vehicle on the floor and with the front end off the ground lifted by a few floor jacks lifting on the frame of the vehicle.
Ball joints especially on Ford vehicles tend to squeak after a while (mostly since they are the sealed type) even if they pass a safety inspection.
I had the same problem with old tires with low tread. Replacing the tires seem to have resolved the issue
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