Death Wobble

[DQDick]

Worked for Fish and Wildlife for a number of years and experienced it with trucks from Yuma to Georgia. Kept me from ever considering a Ford.

[spyle791]

I’ve had that a few times in my 2019 F-350, always after a big bump in road, never towing 5-th. I talked to dealer and they replaced the steering damper under warranty.

[TomCat]

I have a 2019 F-350. Definitely had the “death wobble”. There was a recall specifically for that. Steering dampener replacement.

[faugustin]

I have a 2009 F350 and have been trying to get the steering oscillation, aka death wobble, corrected. It started about 3 years ago and has gotten worse since then. I have 165,000 on the truck and it has done it without my 5'er and with it. The optimum speed for it to happen is 55-65 and it won't stop until I get below 45.
So far I have have done this trying to correct the oscillation; replaced all shocks with heavier duty shocks (advice from first mechanic), replaced steering damper (advice from 2nd mechanic), replaced tie rod bushings and steering bar bushings (advice from 2nd mechanic after the first fix did not work), toed in the camber on the alignment (advice from 2nd mechanic), replaced steering damper again with a heavy duty off-road damper (advice from 2nd mechanic), replaced drag links (advice from 3rd mechanic), replaced tie rod bushing and steering bar bushings again with MOOG (advice from 3rd mechanic).... STILL HAVE THE DEATH WOBBLE! I am taking it back to mechanic #3 Monday because he stated that the ball joints show no wear when pulling on top and bottom while they are straight but I have a lot of play in them when it has a slight turn on the wheels.
I hope this works... There is nothing more scary than driving through DT Houston and you are in the middle lane and going down an incline from an overpass, towing our 3791RD and the wobble hits.

[mechanic]

See your Ford dealer, there is a recall on a steering rod had my 2019 done

[Moondragon]

My 2014 RAM 2500 6.4L CC LB SRW 4x4 was doing this wobble bit as well, right at about 65 mph every time. Turned out the front U-joints were both bad. Guess I shouldn't have been driving around with it in 4-Low in the snow on highways, lol.

[Mover480]

2011 F250. Happened twice a couple of years ago. Replaced stearing dampener. No more problems.

[bcrvman]

Originally Posted by Gubs

Anyone out there with F-350 that has experienced the Death Wabble yet? We just returned from a 3,700 mile trip and experienced this three times, scared the holy Sh t out of me. I thought I had blown a tire, but checked the monitor and all tires had the right amount of air. I guess, from what I've read, 2005 thur 2020 Ford 250 and 350's have had this problem and ford does NOTHING about it. HELP.

Check this out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHuiNjPi7-0

[gordo]

Originally Posted by Gubs

Anyone out there with F-350 that has experienced the Death Wabble yet? We just returned from a 3,700 mile trip and experienced this three times, scared the holy Sh t out of me. I thought I had blown a tire, but checked the monitor and all tires had the right amount of air. I guess, from what I've read, 2005 thur 2020 Ford 250 and 350's have had this problem and ford does NOTHING about it. HELP.

Just had my 2018 f350 repaired this week. Ford extended the warranty on this item, based on your VIN number.
Have your dealer check your VIN to see if it is among the zillions that have this issue. If it is, Ford will repair it

[Bad Moon]

Kind of reminds me of all the problems with the 6.0 and 6.4 Powerstrokes: Just spend $10k to make it “bullet proof”.

[dmodlin]

I have a 2019 Ford F-250. And yes this seems to be a common problem for Ford randomly under the right driving conditions. Some never have an issue but like me others have this dangerous problem. I was still under warranty when my problems started and I made a huge fuss with my dealership. These can be life or death circumstances, especially towing! Ford did make a change to parts in the steering mechanism that did seem to help. But I wasn’t going to take another chance with my families lives. I thought of trading but didn’t want to unload a problem truck on someone else. My conscience couldn’t handle that. I started researching fixes. The best I found is a dual stabilizing system with Fox shocks. For a relatively fair cost this will fix the problem. These systems are primarily used on off-road vehicles that need to absorb heavy impact. Please research this…it will work. No issues for me since this was installed. Best of luck. But it will happen again. Don’t chance it! Without a fix it will continue and always at the worst time.

[djrich]

Your stirring dampener needs replaced. Easy and quickly done at your Ford dealer.

[djrich]

Your steering dampener needs replaced. Your Ford dealer will do this quickly and easily and Ford picks up the cost.

[Dave W]

Corrected on the past '06 F350 and current E250 with Bilsteins on the )6 and as Bilsteins were out of stock or the seller thought they were made out of gold at the time nationwide, KYBs on the 'current. Also replaced the damper. Found the stock damper was better then the more expensive Rancho

[goodellj]

I experienced the death wobble once on the Houston Freeway at about 65 mph and it was terrifying. I didn't know what happened and the local Ford dealer said he never heard of anything like it. Then I did some internet research and found lots of citations and suggestions. My Ford dealer in Connecticut checked it over and found the front end was slightly loose and replaced some parts to the tune of about $2,500. The parts names above sound familiar. It has not reoccurred.

[MandK]

This thread has made me curious as to whether the weight of the diesel option may aggravate this problem. I have purchased new Ford F-250 or F-350 pickups every 4-6 years from 1979 to 2012 as my personal truck for work and never an issue. All were high mile and all were gas. I often carried heavy loads but rarely pulled. I retired in 2015 so the ‘12 only had 150k on it at that point so I kept it until I bought the 2021 diesel earlier this year to pull the trailer. Hopefully they got that figured out now. Sounds scary.

[Dave W]

[QUOTE=MandK;1237879]This thread has made me curious as to whether the weight of the diesel option may aggravate this problem. /QUOTE]


The diesel weight makes no difference as my last truck was a gasser and was many times worse. Additionally, many on the Ford Enthusiasts web site have also reported the problem. It's just the way the front solid axles suspension is built tho it dies seem that long bed vs short bed trucks may make some difference but hard to tell with way more SBs now.

[Camp CA]

2016 Ford F350 DRW with 21,000 miles and never experienced the wobble, albeit at 20,000 miles front end was re-aligned and front tires replaced due to excesive tire wear on the outside edge.

[MandK]

[QUOTE=Dave W;1237883]

Originally Posted by MandK

This thread has made me curious as to whether the weight of the diesel option may aggravate this problem. /QUOTE]


The diesel weight makes no difference as my last truck was a gasser and was many times worse. Additionally, many on the Ford Enthusiasts web site have also reported the problem. It's just the way the front solid axles suspension is built tho it dies seem that long bed vs short bed trucks may make some difference but hard to tell with way more SBs now.

All of my trucks have been 8’ beds. Well, one more thing to have in the back of my mind when we head south next month 😖 hopefully I’ll continue to be lucky.

[LGTX]

These parts from PMF resolved the problem on our 2017 and 2019 F350 long bed SRW 4 wheel drives

PMF- FRD-6005 alignment cams qty 2
PMF-FRD-5094 adjustable trackbar
PMF-FRD-3010B bilstein stabilizer shock ( choose brand you want)

520-465-7971 is their number.

30,000 miles on both with no wobble pulling 3121RL units. Scary as heck when it happens while towing.