Useless truck dealer...

I had death wobble on my SW Bell work van (before I went from hourly to salaried, then I couldn't pick up a tool) - scared the crap out of me. DW is well known in the off-road lifted big tire Jeep community. The usual culprits are the front track bar, maybe control arms and once in a while the ball joints or tie/drag link rod ends (or all of the above.)

My 2000 F-250 Powerstroke (2WD) has never had any shimmy or front end shake but I only have about 80K miles on it.

I bought a used '92 F-Super Duty, (solid axle, 2wd, 16000 gvwr) after a month or two, it suddenly had a violent shaking of the steering wheel. I pulled over thinking something bad had happened, but saw nothing. I crept the mile or 2 back to the shop, jacked it up, found nothing.

Turns out, it will do this every few years, new steering stabilizer (factory fitted) AND new front shocks cures it. One or the other does nothing.

I have owned at least 25 solid axle trucks over the years, from 25-80,000 gvwr. This is the only one with the springs on backwards, a diagonal bar from frame to axle, a steering stabilizer, and a sway bar.

My question is, why did Ford think they had a better idea, and, when it didn't work, add more crap; instead of just going back to what has worked for over 100 yrs?

Truck Shop said:

This issue goes back into the late 80's with the super duty including the 2WD's. As far as I know Dodge has not had that issue with solid steer axles. The death wobble as it's called is violent
as hell in some cases.

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Death wobble haunted my 2006 with 15000 miles...completely stock. Went to the dealer and knew within the first 10 minutes that they didn't know what the hell they were doing. Leaving it for 1 day just for them to look at it didn't work for me. Them saying that I had too much air in my fronts (80psi) proved it to me. I got my truck and got the hell out of there. At 12000 lbs, my truck is always loaded. Lettering air out fixes what? I ended up making a custom panhard bar, using different hardware and adding a steering box brace has made a 99% improvement over what i had. It seems like at times I can almost feel DW coming on if I hit a bump in the road just right with my front left but so far, so good. I still white knuckle it and probably always will. Its a serious design flaw and the way DC just starts exchanging parts and adjusting tire psi makes it obvious that....there really isn't a fix.

Because I worked f dealer years ago I would see the issues first hand and the first place I would look was to
see if there was a corrective service bulletin. The amount of bulletins was ridiculous. But I think one of the
phoniest was the corrective for low oil pressure on 6.9-7.3 engines. The gauge would read on the low side
when new but checking with a manual gauge it was still acceptable range at the very minimum psi. The
fix was install a 12" long resistance wire between sending unit and the original sending wire to make the
gauge read higher-hoping it would make til the warranty expired. Some engines just had loose tolerance
on crank or cam bearings.

Just to update I called the other dealer to see if they might be able to contact a regional manager but he pretty much said because I didn't buy the vehicle from them, he wouldn't be able to offer assistance. He did say he's never heard of the ridiculous formula for figuring the mileage that Ford told me. He was also shocked when I told him the other dealer said they weren't allocated for AWA's. He said it's available to all dealers.

A little later my friend who's a mechanic at the dealer I bought the truck from called and said the managers and a lot of the staff are terrible. He said there's more managers than there is techs. If you want to have a manager title you just have to ask. The owner seems OK but he's never there. The service writer who called me is totally useless and the assistant service manager I was dealing with not much better. He told me he gave the service writer I dealt with an estimate for transmission repairs at 9:45 in the morning and didn't bother looking at it to call the customer for 4-1/2 hours. When he phoned the customer, the customer asked why he called... The customer knew one of the other mechanics and called him to ask about it 3 hours earlier and gave the OK for repairs. Apparently the fixed operations manager thinks the service writer is great. My friend also said they do AWA's fairly often. Interesting is that the assistant service manager is the daughter of another mechanic who my friend doesn't think much of. When ever warranty is denied they suspect he's the one making the call. My friend and the shop manager, who he likes, have been there since the beginning when a new owner took over the dealership. Most of the rest of the staff is like a revolving door.

I'm going to wait a week or so to see if the manager that is away calls me regarding an AWA. If I get nowhere, I will seriously consider contacting the local media. I don't think it looks good for Ford or the dealer that they denied warranty because it expired (the mileage aspect only) during stay at home recommendations. I think most people would find that appalling. It may be mostly Ford but seeing the dealers name certainly won't entice people to buy from them. I may talk to a lawyer as well to get some advice on how to proceed if nothing is offered to help with the repairs. It's pretty bad when the original tires hold air better than the engine holds oil.

Sounds like the dealer I worked at years ago, good luck.

Sorry to hijack for a moment dave- I've always heard of this death wobble, but only thing with bad shake I've had was a 01 dodge, and its just the steering box shot.

Until now.

2006 ford f-250 85,000 miles, 4x4 with 5.4. Rides and steers nice most of the time, but if you hit a funny spot in the pavement, the whole front end will shake/ I understand what death wobble is now. Pop the brakes and it will come out of it.

It seems the track bar/ steering stabilizer on the front of the axle is worn/ loose on pass side. Just replace? aftermarket or OEM?

It it not just Ford with the death wobble. Dodge had the same issues. Steering geometry all wrong. The did 2 recalls. First replacement had a new design, it failed also. They recalled the replacement with a statement that “parts are not available.” Apparently saying that they don’t have the parts relieves them of obligation to do anything as I never heard from them again.

I never did any recall and put on an aftermarket linkage from Synergy (greasable and rebuildable and upgraded to 19.5 tires. Also upsized the wheel studs to 5/8. Runs smooth as glass and no shake or anything. Even with 4K in the bed and pulling 16k on trailer.

And... no steering stabilizer. Just don’t need it.

I should have said my friend gets along good with the shop foreman not the shop manager. He doesn't think much of any of the managers. The owner is OK but he is the one who hired all the managers. I guess if he's not there much doesn't pay too much attention to what's going on. I guess if he's making money doesn't feel he needs to be there. Not unlike shows like Restaurant Impossible where they try to help failing restaurants. If you want to run a business you have to be there and be the captain of the ship. If not you have no idea what goes on.

crane operator said:

Sorry to hijack for a moment dave- I've always heard of this death wobble, but only thing with bad shake I've had was a 01 dodge, and its just the steering box shot.

Until now.

2006 ford f-250 85,000 miles, 4x4 with 5.4. Rides and steers nice most of the time, but if you hit a funny spot in the pavement, the whole front end will shake/ I understand what death wobble is now. Pop the brakes and it will come out of it.

It seems the track bar/ steering stabilizer on the front of the axle is worn/ loose on pass side. Just replace? aftermarket or OEM?

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Sounds like you have bump steer. Have someone rotate the steering wheel while you are looking and listening to the front suspension. Lay on the ground while you look at all of the front suspension, you might find more slop. Your track bar might or might not be rebuildable, I use an aftermarket one on my Jeep.

At a former employer they had a 2010 or so short bed F 250 4x4 that got the death wobble only at certain times. It became my job to find the problem. After some detective work, I found it happened when loaded for bear and pulling an overloaded trailer. The tail down loaded was changing the caster angle and made it into a wobblin goblin. Some 350 rear springs were the “repair”.

This guy seems to know his stuff.

I'd ditch that truck and find a new dealership. I know for 100% I wouldn't have to deal with that bull at my local dodge dealer. My salesman/half owner of the dealership is a pretty straight up dude. They really try to take care of you when you buy a Laramie 2500hd too

Not in a position to buy another truck. Going to wait till next Wed. and if I don't hear anything from the "manager" will try to set up a meeting with the owner. If they say that can't be done, then I'll get some legal advice. All the evidence shows the (mileage) warranty would have ended right in the middle of stay at home recommendations. I did find something from a dealer in another province that has a memo from Ford:
Through a case by case review, Ford of Canada and its dealers will give Customers a reasonable opportunity to receive the intended benefits of their warranties.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable, especially for a known issue.

Welder Dave said:

Not in a position to buy another truck. Going to wait till next Wed. and if I don't hear anything from the "manager" will try to set up a meeting with the owner. If they say that can't be done, then I'll get some legal advice. All the evidence shows the (mileage) warranty would have ended right in the middle of stay at home recommendations. I did find something from a dealer in another province that has a memo from Ford:
Through a case by case review, Ford of Canada and its dealers will give Customers a reasonable opportunity to receive the intended benefits of their warranties.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable, especially for a known issue.

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They need to do something for you. Than that would probably be my last Ford. Especially last one from that dealership.