Please do not take dealers word for stating that your extended warranty is no good any where else! Take the time to read it youself! Mine is good at ANY ASE certified mechanic/shop!

 

I called Ford about it last time. They told me it's only good at a Ford dealer. Bummer! Which honestly is ok, I'll fork out a grand to fix it permanently but if that bill grows to the 3 or 4 grand level then i may start reassessing.

 

First off, there is no additional damage being done other than the death wobble occurring. Next, it is critical that *all* of the bushings are replaced - the two in the panhard rod, and all of the bushings on both ends of the radius arms. I have no idea how many miles are on your truck or how you use it, but I think bushing failure on a 2012 is premature and I would be unhappy. If you drive your truck a lot off-road, where the suspension moves a lot; or you plow with your truck, or you drive on really bumpy pavement all the time...these factors would help to accelerate wear.

Can you describe what the "death wobble" you are experiencing feels like? When does it happen?

As for the warranty, I'd have another shop replace all the bushings. If they replace them with Ford bushings and do it properly, Ford is never going to know the parts were ever even replaced by someone else and your warranty remains perfectly valid. If they replace them with aftermarket, chances are Ford would never know that either...but the only loss of warranty would be on the bushings themselves. I understand Ford can't warranty aftermarket parts. I used "poly" bushings in my old Rover. They last longer and are a little stronger. Some are designed to be stiffer and some softer. They are a bit more expensive, but held up better for the non-stop off-road use I was doing much better than the standard rubber.

I understand your frustration and thoughts about a GM truck. The GM trucks will not have this problem due to the inherent design difference of a solid front axle vs. their independent front suspension. The early GM HD trucks through 2011, I think, had a very weak front end. The tie rods were quite literally half the size of the ones on the Super Duty. They frequently bent under plowing usage or off-road usage. The control arm ball joints and bushings wore out quickly even under normal use, resulting in badly wearing front tires, and inspection failures. Nowadays they are much stronger, but still not as durable and simple and low maintenance as the solid front axle. Instead of a 35-spline axle and massive, grease-able axle u-joints...you have exposed axle shafts with CV-joints on both ends. CV joints are very smooth, but simply not as strong...and if the rubber boot rips, the whole thing needs to be replaced.

 

Wow Troverman, thank you!!! That is great insight. The truck has 38,000 miles on it. The first issue started at 24,000 and they replaced my tires. Then it came back last May around 35,000 and it's been a battle ever since. To your point, when Ford has replaced things, they'll replace one bushing but not both or one tie rod but not both. I don't off road with the truck at all in fact it's really not worked super hard. I use it to commute to work on paved roads and then I use it to pull my horse trailer. It happens in one place and one place only, over a set of railroad tracks built into the road on my way to work. Aside from a bump in the road during construction, the tracks are the only place that has ever set it off. The reactions are varied. Sometimes, the entire truck shakes side to side violently with the steering wheel rattling in my hands. The only way I can stop it in those instances is to slowly pull off the road. Othertimes, it's a pretty strong shimmy but a couple taps of the brakes and I get it back under control. It's also not every day which makes me think there has to be a precise point when I drive over those tracks that makes it do the shimmy. My speed it typically between 45 and 50 mph when I cross the tracks. It makes me feel so much better to hear that I probably don't have damage under the hood. This was supposed to be my forever truck. It's black with the gold trim and even at almost 4 years old, I never stop getting compliments on it. That's the other problem with GMCs, Tundras, etc -- they are all so boring to look at.

 

I used to be able to trigger the Death Wobble in my 2011 every time by hitting a bridge expansion joint in the freeway on a left hand radius turn at 50-55 mph. It would serious shake until I slowed down.

I had the dealer swap out the front steering stabilizer, I swapped tires and shocks, I had it in to aftermarket shops for alignments and inspections. Nobody found anything out of spec. Each of the above reduced my wobble, but nothing totally fixed the problem.

I finally noticed a little grinding sound and checked the front hubs and found they were going bad. I replaced the front Hubs/Bearings ( they are a sealed unit) and my death wobble was gone. This was around 100,000 miles. I drove the truck another 45,000 miles without it returning. I'd definitely have yours checked. But they should not normally go bad in the 42,000 miles you have on your truck.

About 50% of my driving is towing something. I often drag my 4H GN down Forest Service or BLM roads that are severely washboard.. So maybe my wear is attributed to that type of hard work.

 

Yeah, you're definitely describing the death wobble. When I go over a set of tracks like that right now, in my '16, it shakes slightly and then returns to normal control. The front axle assembly on the modern Super Duty is extremely heavy - 700+lbs, plus the weight of the wheels, tires, brakes, etc. This is considered "unsprung weight," meaning when you hit a bump, that probably 900-lb front end launches itself against everything that is connected to it (radius arms, panhard rod, steering gear, etc) before being finally absorbed by the coil springs. Any defect or play in those bushings will allow the axle to shuck forward or backward, or side to side. A steering damper will help to dampen a force being transmitted to the steering wheel, but does nothing to slow that big front end down. If there is a little movement, the whole thing can keep shucking around until finally you slow down or it loses kinetic energy and stops. What I would do is simply ask the Ford dealer to replace all of those bushings together, or have a quality repair shop do the job. In my mind, under the normal driving conditions you state, these bushings should last at least 100k miles, so I'm not sure why you are experiencing this so early.

 

Painted Horse, good point. I thought about wheel bearings and hubs, but again, the miles seem way too low for that. Worth checking, I suppose.

 

Thanks! It may just be bad luck. I work in a manufacturing environment and I know when you have spec ranges that sometimes you get the item that was on the max end of the spec and can cause issues. The unfortunate thing is the huge safety risk this death wobble can be. I think I'll take it to an aftermarket shop and I've heard to install a dual stabilizer shock too. Thanks for all of your help

 

The one thing that has 'cured' that front end shake/shimmy on my current as well as the last truck were a set of quality shocks. Bilsteins on the '06 and KYB on the current '11. Of course, bushings, steering dampeners and bearings can cause problems and contribute to the woes. On the '06, it had the Ford shocks with the Rancho stickers - I pulled those, stood them in a corner extended waiting to take them to the dump. Three totally collapsed of their own top half weight. There was absolutely no damping ability after 35,000 miles. I could push and pull them open and closed with little effort.

 

The Chrysler designed 68 transmission won't hold the stock power. Hence the reason for the severe torque management tuning. Even with the band aid these transmission don't last.

 

....and why the 'smart' (possible sarcasm?) Ram buyer opts for the $2700 Aisin transmission

 

The only problem with that is they're only available in a 3500 and good luck finding a truck on the lot equipped with the aisin.


The good thing about Ford and GM they both put their best transmissions in all diesel trucks and non of this various HP ratings to match the transmissions capability non sense.


But hey I hear the Ram interior is first class.... That is if it doesn't leak water into the cab like many do or your worried about the front suspension welds that were performed by Pedro and now part of a massive recall.

 

My son had a 2011 DuraMax and he twisted the crank shaft in two. Trick is to make black marks with drive tires is to get going in reverse and then slam it in Dr and watch the tires smoke and make 'J' hook like black marks. Twisted cranks don't make any external marks. Pedal to the metal does wake it up.
BC

 

Really need to stay with the Dodge name. Nothing has changed. Dodge just carries that POS
mental preface.

 

I think that maybe you need to find a diff. dealer.