I drive a 2007 F350 powerstroked superduty 4X4. When I hit a small bump like a bridge expansion joint the truck's front end will sometimes start shimmying. The shimmy get extreme very quickly and makes the steering wheel almost impossible to hold on to. The whole truck starts a violent shake and does not stop until you pull off the road and stop. I've had this happen to me twice now. The dealership tells me there is nothing wrong with the truck. Has anyone else had this happen to them? Is there a fix for this problem?

 

WELCOME to FTE!

There a few HUGE threads on this subject here in the SD forum. First, is the truck under warranty? If so, there is a TSB for the issue. Which, if the dealer hasn't gone through, they are just brushing you off.

If you want to try something relatively inexpensive, there was a member here who posted that a steering stabilizer installed on the passenger-side of the front axle will help a lot with this issue. According to him, the stock stabilizer is very close to the steering box which is a bad place (I wouldn't know, I don't have a 2005-2007 SD).

 

First, never let your dealer's service department tell you what is normal with your truck. Take it back and tell them to fix it under the TSB.

Check your tire pressure. I can induce the wobble by lowering my pressure 10 PSI from the door sticker recommendation. 20 PSI makes it almost as bad as you are experiencing.

The TSB will direct the technician to check the tire pressure before doing anything else. The TSB is TSB 06-22-14 . Full text is here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/tsb/full...p?tsb=06-22-14

Thread showing my tire pressure results here:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/6...pressure.html?

 

Just a couple questions: Is your truck a dually? How many miles? 6 1/2 bed or 8' bed? This will help. Answers will be just as short, and GOD bless that TSB above, but you will capably spend a week in the dealership, in and out.

 

Non dually, 11K miles with an 8ft utility bed. The truck weighs in at 9,700lbs. 4,700 on the front axle. I checked the tire pressure when I got back and it was 65psi instead of the 80psi on the door sticker. I increased the tire pressure to 80psi.

 

What coil springs are on the truck? I ordered my truck with the Heavy Service suspension, came with +1 coils, one step down from snow plow coils. It would almost skitter out of control once the death wobble began! I changed out the Rancho badged FX-4 shocks to Rancho 9000x adjustables and it made absolutely no difference, no matter the setting. Installed a Rancho steering stabilizer (still on the truck) and it made no difference.


In July I installed a Bilstein 2.25" leveling kit with Bilstein 5100 shocks all around, had the front end aligned and..... no more death wobble!

A tech named Bowtiehtr gave me the specs for the alignment caster and if I can find that I'll post that figure as well.

 

Many participants here have heard me before. Most agree. Bite lip. Buy four (4) Billsteins. Replace front stabilizer with real mccoy MONROE and the problem will be solved. Redford above is correct with reference to TSB but I did not have time to follow the procedure. If you read slowly, the first part of the TSB tells the repair dealership to add air to the front tires, pat owner on back, and tell them it is fixed. BLAH! My own personal, non engineer comment is that the problem is in the 172" wheel base on the F - 350 chassis. Think of a whip. That is the death wobble. Now get an engineer and we can say it in 10 pages! Also, no one yet has refuted my allegation that Rancho shocks are just knock off Monroe's.

 

Had the same issue but I skidded right off the highway at 65 mph anyhow the dealer had it for ten days it is an 06 250 4x4. They said they changed the stabilizer and a fiew other small parts but would not elaborate on what, I got the truck back and has performed excellent for the last 15k miles no more wobble at all.It is very important to keep the air pressure at rated pressure, softer=more wobble.Take it back to the dealer, mine happened this June and the truck is night and day from before they fixed it.

 

Let us know if that helps, but like everyone else I suggest you get a new damper and new shocks. The OEM parts are not up to the task of taming the suspension on these rigs.

 

My 06 F-250 started wobbling @ 8k miles, it went to 2 different dealers 6 times,they tried the tsb,tire pressure and new tires.Ford bought the truck back @ 50k miles,I have video with the ford tech in the truck with it wobbling on the test drive after the last fix.I also have 1 other 2006 F-250 and an 2006 F-350 that have had no problems.

 

my brother had a mid 80 7-3 crew cab that wobbled.i told him 100 times to put a stbilizer on it.he finally did and it never wobbled again and he had it for over 200,000 miles.

 

I realize this is an an old thread resurrected, but I still contend the stabilizer that was placed on Super Duty trucks after the switch to front coil springs fails prematurely. In retrospect, I would first change the stabilizer shock and then the front shocks, which most readers of this forum know solves the death wobble, well plus correct air pressure in front tires.

 

The stabilizer on my '01 was dead in 6 months

 

Was it replaced under warranty? Did the second one go out in six more months? It just seems like this problem is not addressed.

 

I put a Rancho in it and never looked back.