Thread: Death Wobble
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Old 11-02-2021, 07:04 AM   #3
Daryles
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Join Date: May 2019
Location: Alton
Posts: 2,710
M.O.C. #24086
2016 F350 crew cab 8' bed dually 36750 miles. Out of warranty.
From what I have researched, all big 4wd trucks can experience this under the right conditions.
We experienced this for the first time Nov 2019 on the horrible roads of Philly in rush hour traffic. Death wobble underneath (not us BTW)
https://youtu.be/07yvJuhnUYM
DW was driving. Very scary. Slowed down and brought it under control.
Never happened with RV hitched.
Took it to a repair shop in Va Beach. Used to live there. These guys work on monster trucks. They said there is a TSB out on this. They changed both front tires and balanced them. Changed all 4 shocks to heavy duty. Upgraded the steering dampener to a heavy duty one. Did a full alignment. Drove home to Mo. No problems. $1200!!!
2 years later again on the terrible roads of Philadelphia, at 70mph in rush hour we hit a bridge seam and "DEATH WOBBLE" worse than I've never had. Researched problem again. Again they say Steering dampener, track bar/bal joint, outer tie rods.
I looked and saw The shocks and steering dampener that they installed was some no name brand. I ordered a Bilstien steering dampener for 2016 F350.
Bilstein 24-196284 B8 5100 Steering Damper Front B8 5100 Steering Damper https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009FU6WTO...ing=UTF8&psc=1
It's not hard to change, just make sure you have a good torque wrench. Also you will need to take the tapered mounting bar from the old one and put it on the new one.
You do not have to jack up the truck. You can do it laying on the ground.
After I changed it I test drove it and it was good. BTW, the one I took out had absolutely NO resistance whatsoever. It was totally worn out after only 2 years (30,000 miles).
The truck drove fine after that.
After we got home, I took it to my local Ford dealership and gave them the history. They changed the outer tie rods, track bar/ball joint and did an alignment.
I'm still going to change all the shocks to Bilstien shocks.
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Daryl and Marianne,
2019 3130re 20th Anniversary Edition
2016 F350 Lariat
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