I've heard about it but never experienced it until recently.We have a 2017 F250 4wd at work with around 26,000 miles on it, gas engine. At any speed above about 45MPH the steering wheel will start to shake, some times pretty bad. It takes a bump, like an expansion joint on a bridge, to get it started, sometimes it will be a little wobble in the steering wheel that goes away, other times it gets bad enough that it is hard to control the truck until you get it slowed down to under 35MPH. We had it into the dealer who told us that a fix had just been figured out and that we were waiting on parts and sent us on our way. The service adviser said that he hoped a recall would be coming but he wasn't holding his breath. I was just wondering if any of you had experienced this and what you did to fix it? Right now the truck is stuck to city streets with no highway driving which really adds to the drive time when you have to go across town.We have four F250s in our fleet ranging from a 2005 with the 6.0l Powerstroke, an 08 with the Triton 5.4l, and two 2017s with the 6.2l gas, this one truck is the only one with this problem. Funny the other three are used as plow trucks in the winter, this one just sits.

Steering stabilizers are pretty much a sure fix for any vehicle that starts doing that from Jeep size to Class A. They are not that difficult to DIY and just work every time, even if the front end is totally worn out.https://www.amazon.com/Rough-Country-8749130-Steering-Stabilizer/dp/B07CTVKY1V/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=steering+stabilizer&qid=1578492551&sr=8-7

According to the answered questions this only works on lifted trucks, minimum 2 inch lift.

Steering stabilizers are just a band aide to any death wobble issue. The cause is always worn drag link, track bar ends, ball joints, or the caster being off. The super duty pages on Facebook are blaming it all on the degree of the caster shim and changing that out to the correct one is supposedly fixing this issue. You many want to look at the FB super duty pages and search for more info on this.

I had the same thing happen with my 2001 Dodge truck, different brand I know,but it relates. Running 70 mph crossed a bridge and thought the fenders were going to fly off, stuff in the cab flew all over.Pulled over checked what I could found nothing missing. Decided to go to the next exit, much slower of course. Next bridge, same thing.Anyway, made it to the next exit, looked truck over, checked tire pressure, all tires 15 pounds low. Aired tires up to proper pressure and have not had anymore problems,that was a couple years ago.turned out my pressure gauge was bad, that's why all tires were low.

The Rams were famous for this issue. We have 140 K miles on our Ram, and it showed “zero” evidence of front end issues......never even have done a front end alignment! Then, 2 1/2 weeks ago .....we experienced a tie-rod separation! Thankfully, we were going very slowly on a snow covered dirt road, and we weren’t towing our 20K pound 5th wheel.....only a utility trailer with our Polaris Ranger onboard! It’s a bit unnerving when you have absolutely “zero” control of your rig! I said all of that, to say all of this..... “get a good mechanic to do an inspection of your truck! memtb

"Death Wobble" updated, fixed | Good Sam Community

45 Replies

philh
Explorer II
Feb 10, 2020
GWolfe wrote:
OP here, well it's fixed, so far so good. Looks like all they did was put a steering stabilizer on it, I'll get a pic today. I wasn't the one who picked it up and no paper work came with it which I thought was a little weird maybe Ford does things different when it's under warranty.

No, you should have gotten paperwork with it
Grit_dog
Navigator
Feb 10, 2020
Me Again wrote:
Shortly after buying our new 2001.5 RAM in June of 2001, I cracked in more caster myself. Sold it 14 years later and 100K+ miles. I installed a 3rd gen track bar early on, and put on a steering box brace. Everything else was original and I never had a DW event. The drivers side OEM track bar end was an issue on 2nd gen RAMs. Chris

Knocking on wood, I'm at 175k on our 3rd Gen, on all original steering components, even the purportedly maligned "Y steering" linkage. I have replaced shocks and steering stabilizer (about 140k miles ago) and added a steering box brace (100k miles ago) and she drives straight as an arrow, doesn't eat up tires at all, doesn't wander and not a hint of the dw. I keep thinking it might be time to rebuild the front end and then realize it's not and I'm lucky! lol

I do have toe set a about dead 0 and caster in the high 4s.

There are 3 different root causes of dw that I see. 1 is worn/broken components/tires. 2 is bad steering geometry, either through mis adjustment or lift kits etc. 3 is very few alignment "techs" actually understand steering geometry and know how to adjust anything other than what the machine tells them to.
Grit_dog
Navigator
Feb 10, 2020
GWolfe wrote:
OP here, well it's fixed, so far so good. Looks like all they did was put a steering stabilizer on it, I'll get a pic today. I wasn't the one who picked it up and no paper work came with it which I thought was a little weird maybe Ford does things different when it's under warranty.

Thanks for circling back and closing the loop on your thread.

However, it is extremely unlikely that the original steering stabilizer (going bad, was it leaking?) is the cause, so beware and realize that there is a greater than average chance that something else is amiss. A steering stabilizer's function isn't to mask or prevent another issue. It is primarily to dampen/control bump steer.
Hope it fixes the issue though.
Me_Again
Explorer III
Feb 10, 2020
Shortly after buying our new 2001.5 RAM in June of 2001, I cracked in more caster myself. Sold it 14 years later and 100K+ miles. I installed a 3rd gen track bar early on, and put on a steering box brace. Everything else was original and I never had a DW event. The drivers side OEM track bar end was an issue on 2nd gen RAMs. Chris
GWolfe
Explorer
Feb 10, 2020
OP here, well it's fixed, so far so good. Looks like all they did was put a steering stabilizer on it, I'll get a pic today. I wasn't the one who picked it up and no paper work came with it which I thought was a little weird maybe Ford does things different when it's under warranty.
ksss
Explorer
Jan 13, 2020
I had DW on my Chevy 84 K-30 SRW 4X4. Hit a bump at 45 mph and it would shake violently. Cant remember either what I did to fix it, dual front stablizers was a part of it I remember that, but it was brutal.
larry_barnhart
Explorer
Jan 13, 2020
My 1949 ford pickup had a DW but I fixed it. Can't remember what I did. that was 60 years ago.

chevman
blofgren
Explorer
Jan 13, 2020
larry barnhart wrote:
So what brand has the most Death Wobble?

chevman

You're safe, Chevman; it's definitely not GM! ;)
blofgren
Explorer
Jan 13, 2020
Grit dog wrote:
Hate getting the dw on a grocery cart! I tried explaining to the head cart guy (you know, the one pushing the stack of carts back into the store) that he really needs to look at the caster and the ball joints and what kinda rubber is on those front wheels, because death wobble is a serious thing.
Stopped me dead in my tracks once in the store in a very awkward spot, right by the feminine products......coulda been bad if I didn't get that cart back under control!

:B
GWolfe
Explorer
Jan 12, 2020
Grit dog wrote:
topped me dead in my tracks once in the store in a very awkward spot, right by the feminine products......coulda been bad if I didn't get that cart back under control!

Uh huh ;)