09 stx 2wd 4.6L- I have a 2.5'' leveling kit and 33'' bfg a/t tires. The problem is when I make sharp turns, or turn and go over small bumps. Whats happening is something seems to catching or rubbing it kind of jurks towards the opposite of where im turning and causes the traction controll to slow my truck (sucks on tight off-ramps/ u-turns). this happens at pretty much any speed although it gets worse as speed increases. At first I thought it was the steering stoppers but dont have any wear on them, tires do not rub anywhere. My dealer and a local off road shop cant figure it out. Please help leaving for bootcamp in a few weeks and I need to fix (or at least find out whats going on) before I go. Any ideas?

 

On level ground crank your tires then lift 1 corner with a floor jack. At this time I would block up the lifted corner for safety sake. inspect the the suspension and steering setup. Repeat this on the other side. If at this point you do not find anything. lift the whole front end up,securing it for safety again. Have someone spinning the steering wheel slowly and WATCH! the steering setup very closely. It sounds as if your steering is binding to me. By the way enjoy boot, don't take anything too personnel and learn all you can! Good luck on both!

 

how would i tell if the steering is binding and what would i do to fix it? Still new to all this

 

You will need some help on this one. basically you need watch the movements of the suspension and steering pieces. Now if when something is moving and it appears to be "forced to move" then this is bad. Another thing when the tire is in the air. check to see if the tire has play in it. try rocking the tire side-to-side and up-and-down motions to see if the bearings are out of whack. I am not doing very good at explaining this but if it feels wrong (the movements) then it could be your issue.

 

I didn't see anything wrong accept that the power steering mechanism seems to max out farther than it should. maybe i could adjust the tie rod, but then wont that throw off my alignment? Sorry about all the questions just frustrated

 

Sounds like your traction control is engaging. Very common in leveled trucks with bigger tires. Try depressing the button on the dash above the radio for 4-5 seconds and disable the TC. It will appear to the right on your display next to the mileage when its disengaged and see if it still does it. I have the same issue, AFAIK there hasn't been a permanent solution to this so you will just have to turn it off every time you start the truck or just live with it. Welcome to FTE and thank you for your service! HTH- Tim
P.S. come back and let us know if that was in fact the problem

 

Are you sure it is coming from the front? Sounds like maybe the Limited slip kicking in or may be low on friction modifier.

 

having the steering wheel in the top position helps, it still happens but not as bad or as often. the traction control button didnt seem to do anything

 

Take it to the dealer and have them look at it. Please post the solution when it gets fixed as I'm curious, and thats how we help each other around here. Someone in the future might have the same problem that we can help them with

 

Ok finally had a day off yesterday and went to my local dealer. At first they said nothing was wrong, then they asked me to take them for a drive to show them. They called me today and told me that they were going to replace the front hub assembly, haven't been told why yet but Ill keep you posted.

2/10/11- did not fix the problem, took it back to my dealer who told me "we have a call into ford to check a theory, and possibly to get more replacement parts... we dont know which yet". now they are going to call when they hear back from ford. Should know more when ford calls back.

2/22/11- they finally called me about my truck dropped it off yesterday for a new ABS unit. service manager told me that this would most likely do nothing to fix the problem however its what the ford hotline told them to replace. I called them later in the day to see what was going on with my truck, they had replaced the part but it didn't work. they still do not know what the problem is. they are going to call me when they talk to the hotline again.

Ford sent an engineer out to look at my truck. He said that the larger tires were causes the sensitive abs unit to engage when I was turning. Sure enough put stock tires on and problems gone. One issue with this though, I love my rims and tires. Anyone know if an abs unit can be reprogramed to be less sensitive?