2006 front end death wobble
 

Hey all, I have replaced an 89 F250 with a new crew cab 4x4 250. Love everything about it except this horrific shimmy in the front end when I run over ANY kind of bump or crack. Since it has only been driven around town where our roads are pretty bad, I thought nothing of it but going to and returning from a turkey day trip of 500 miles I was scared ****less twice. Going over the expansion cracks on every overpass, the wheel would get violently shaken out of my hands, leaving the truck to drift wherever it wanted. The second time it happened the worst, the truck bounced from lane to lane at 65 mph and when I was finally able to get the wheel under control the truck swerved hard right. Now first off, there is no tire shimmy, vibration or anything indicating out of balance or bad rotors etc. Truck tracks perfectly straight. At 30 mph around town, Ifigure I was able to control the wheel which is why it was no problem. The highway experience though left me travelling at 50 mph for fear of loosing control again. Returning to town driving, nearing home, any series of road patches would get the shaking going again, boucing me right into the opposite lane or onto the shoulder. Basically, it feels like driving a big-tire Jeep with no steering dampers. ANY help or similar experiences would help as I am off to the dealer on Monday. If this is Ford's new level of quality, I will leave the truck at the dealership and let an attorney handle getting Ford to buy it back as I am coming to the conclusion this truck is going to be a POS!

Number one, If all you are going to do is "Lawyer Up", no one is going to help you with anything. Number two, all you have to do is ask. Go to your dealer and ask them about the tsb dealing with "the death wobble"

Be careful about talking about legal action as FTE has pretty stringent guidelines against that just an FYI.

Hope it gets fixed for you...

Vloney,

On a side note can you explain to me a little bit about this death wobble. I have an 06 F350 CC Shortbed PSD and am not really sure what everyone is talking about. It seems to be pretty common as I hear a lot of people talking about it but I am not exactly sure what causes it. I don't have it, at least I do not think I do. When I go over a bump the steering seems to jerk a little bit but nothing more then I would expect with the stiff suspension of a 1 ton truck. It clearly does not ride as smooth as my suburban but again I would expect my burb to have a softer suspension thus soaking up the bumps a bit better? Thanks in advance for the info.

The wobble/rattle is at all speeds on pretty much any road impact. Instead of the feel of a bump in the steering wheel as you would feel on most vehicles, the wheel jerks in the direction of impact and attempts to right itself, resulting in the wheel snapping back and forth. In explaining the speed difference, I meant that at 30 mph, having the wheel snatched out of your hand is generally controllable, but at highway speeds it resulted in a 2-ton missle with no guidance system. For anyone feeling this is being blown out of proportion, I have driven Humvees through the desert at night in lights-out conditions and not been nervous at all so this isn't the rambling of some sissy who's big boy truck is scaring him. My wife won't ride in it for worry it will bounce itself of the road let alone drive it. My 91 F350, and 96 F250 which is a worn out work truck ride as solid as you would expect from a heavy duty vehicle but this new one is seeming to fall far short. It is also the only super duty I have ever seen coming off the lot with Pirelli Scorpion tires, which will be replaced if the dealer is able to find the problem. the use of legal means which seems to have gotten everyone riled up follows a problem I had a few years ago when a new Pontiac was into and out of the shop for its first three months of life with an engine vibration, left for almost a month with dealer only to find there was an engine mount missing from the factory but GM claimed they wold only fix it not replace it. A year later, the stress from 500 miles of the missing mount caused other driveline issues but by that time it was too late. So it was sold for scrap. My point was, I won't let the clock slide by on a resolution when dealing with a $36K truck.

Thanks for expanding your explanation a bit. I have seen the TSB's on it, just never experienced it myself. I only asked Vloney because I know he is a dealer mechanic on our big trucks.

Either way like I said. I hope it gets fixed for you.

I had they same problem with my 06 250 ext. cab. They changed the camber by 5 deg. and it did help alot. I still think that it doesnt feel like a 36k truck but it is much better. I to am disappointed in fords quality. I think it all relates to the coil springs instead of leafs. It just doesnt control the flex of the axle correctly. After the holidays i will be putting on a better stabilizer to aid in the little bit of shimmy thats left.
Good luck with yours..

I dont know if you guys ever had an old 4x4 f150 or f100, they too had coil springs. The "panhard bar" bushings would wear out, then when you hit a bump, the steering wheel would rapidly oscillate back and forth. The fix was repairing the bushings. Whenever you have coils, there will be some variation of this bar. It goes from the frame across to the suspension on the other side of the vehicle. Jeep was another one that would do this. The tsb has us to change the alignment specs (jonsk). Installing a steering stabilizer will also help. All of this is brought on because people want their 1 ton trucks to ride like a town car. This is at the expense of strength and toughness. Any time you make one more "driver friendly" you sacrifice in other areas.

jonsk - I think you meant 5 deg. castor not camber

vloney
man are you correct about the old f150's, i'm backing you up 100%.on mine i've got 25k and not one problem with the steering.

Thanks to all the last posters, those are the ideas i was looking for. I wasn't excited about adding a stabilizer but may have too. I was wondering if the change to coils may have introduced bugs which are to be worked out but I sincerely appreciate the mention of an alignment change. I will suggest it Monday at the dealer and may then go to the stabilizer. The Pirelli tires were going to be a last change though they were going to go away eventually anyhow. Thanks again for the constructive ideas. Off to search TSBs.

wparente your right it was the castor, i pulled the file and checked. And vloney i am not looking for my truck to drive like a car i am looking for my truck to be safe to drive and be worth the $36,000.00 that i paid for it. Nothing more, nothing less. I have been driving a truck since i bought my first F250 in 1985, i know HOW they should handle. You know there is a rare occasion that i drink to much and i have to actually let my wife drive my truck, bad enough that she is driving nevermind being afraid the the truck will walk off the road by itself.

[QUOTE=jonsk And vloney i am not looking for my truck to drive like a car i am looking for my truck to be safe to drive and be worth the $36,000.00 that i paid for it. Nothing more, nothing less. I have been driving a truck since i bought my first F250 in 1985, i know HOW they should handle. [/QUOTE]I agree entirely. I'm just saying all of this started because of the desire to have a better riding vehicle. Theres a big difference in the suspension under an 85 model, and a new one today. We actually have customers come in complaining that their 1 ton rides rough when hitting bumps.

Ihad death wobble on my EB and this is what it looks like
http://www.emotoman.com/videos/dw.mpg
not my bronco in video.

Pro Comp makes a dual stabilizer kit for the 05,06 SD Part no.219567. It mounts to the axel the way it should instead of the frame, shocks fit neatly behind drag link. I have been told by two different owners that fixed the problem. The TSB is 5 22-01

If there is death wobble then there is something wrong in the front end. Especially on a coil sprung front end, I admit I have not looked closely at the 05 font ends, but with the problems that I had with my Dodge and its front end and my Bronco I automatically would look at the culprit being something with a poorly engineered ball joint connected to it. As is Draglink, trackbar, tie rods, or maybe just bad tires. So to make a long story short you can stack on as many stabilizers as you want and it will make it feel better for a while but eventuall the problem is going to over power the stabilizers and the death wobble will come back. So I would nip it in the bud and look for someone in the after market that had come up with a fix for the problem as they did for Dodge.