Anyone dealt with this phenom? I had never heard of it until it happened to me hauling my horse last weekend, luckily I didn’t end up in the ditch at 65mph.
My 2018 F-250SD goes in the dealership for a work up this week. I’ve read mixed results online so looking for real world experiences with anyone who did a repair.
Hmm, I’ve only heard about the death wobble when you are NOT towing a trailer. So that’s quite concerning that it was doing it to you with a horse trailer in tow.
3/4 and 1 ton pickups are NOT intended to be drove at speed without towing anything. They truly aren’t. Of course, people do it all the time. But that’s where they get the death wobble and as far as I know, there isn’t anything to do about it.
Knock on wood, we had a used F350 this summer until our new F350 arrived, and neither had the death wobble (and hope the new one doesn’t develop it!).
So I can’t speak from experience but I hope they can figure something out for your!
I have waaaay more experience with this than I care to. Two separate F350s. Unfortunately you cannot simply replace worn parts when you find them and not do the entire steering system. I tried that. Chased the death wobble in both trucks for upwards of a year each. I would inspect along with the help of very knowledgeable coworkers, find the parts that are visibly worn, and replace them. Well at that point, other parts designed to wear and fail are on their way out. Not sure if you have experience working on your own vehicles or have any knowledgable help, but here’s what I would do and what finally fixed it:
Replace the following with parts that you get directly from Ford (NOT “OEM” parts from an auto parts store): Track bar, tie rod ends, and drag link. These all have bearings that I would bet you can see movement in. Upgrade the steering stabilizer. I would place big money on this thing being shot. DO NOT put an OEM stabilizer back on. I have had them come off the shelf bad or only last one decent sized pot hole before giving it up. Rancho is not an upgrade; I tried a Rancho stabilizer and it did not help. I put a Bilstein stabilizer on mine, along with the other replaced parts, solved my problem.
Other possibilities to look at are hub bearings and ball joints. These are less likely to wear as rapidly, but the first death wobble truck I dealt with, they were worn and needed replacing. The second truck, they do not have play so I have not done them.
Here’s an easy way to check for worn parts (aside from the obvious like shreds of elastomeric bearing hanging from the component ends): have someone turn the truck on, leave in park (with break set if it makes you feel better), crawl underneath and look at all the steering components as your helper turns the steering wheel back and forth. As the wheels turn, you will be able to see play in the bad joints. All the ends should be very tight and you should not see movement in the various bearings.
Here is the reasoning behind only Ford parts (aside from the stabilizer; I cannot stress this enough). Two years ago my truck left me stranded in Tulsa after a horse show, with a horse and great need to get home and back to work. I took the truck to a shop and explained what all I had replaced and desperately questioned why I keep having death wobble despite all the parts I had thrown at it. The manager explained to me that the specs on various manufactured parts are copyrighted. While other manufacturers advertise their parts as OEM, and the specs are super close, the measurements are off by just a smidge. I wasn’t so sure I believed him but was going to explore this on my own.
Fast forward a week or so, I limped that thing home about 700 miles with the wobble still there, because they had replaced what they “found” to be bad; as I said up thread, other parts have endured the wobble and are degrading by this point, even if you cannot see the wear. I bought a Moog track bar from the local auto parts store, and a Ford track bar from the dealership. Both brand new, out of the box, I took measurements of the inside diameter of the attachment bolt hole. I don’t remember the difference, it was a very small number, but it was enough to make a difference. In the scheme of what steering components do, any little bit of slop in the attachment fittings will cause death wobble.
That is when I threw all the parts at it that I bought at the Ford dealership, and a new off the shelf stabilizer because it was going to be a week or so for my upgraded stabilizer to come in. The steering felt tighter and otherwise great… until I hit a certain bridge joint in town that is particularly bad. Death wobbled twice on that bridge. I put the Bilstein stabilizer on and haven’t had an issue since.
So, long story long. Use only Ford parts, replace ALL of the steering components at once, and upgrade to a better aftermarket stabilizer (highly suggest Bilstein). I don’t know what this all would cost to have the dealership do, I also don’t remember how much it cost last time I did so. But it was under $1000 to do myself. The job is not for the faint of heart. The track bar bolts have a tendency to seize in and often have to be torched/cut off. When doing reinstall, do not skimp on the anti-seize. It seems like a massive undertaking the first time you do it, but with the right tools, this all can be done in an afternoon.
Not sure if any of this is in your wheelhouse, but perhaps it can help someone down the road (pun intended). I’ve had this happen both loaded and unloaded. It is a problem, certainly a weak area in Fords (thought can happen in any vehicle). Lots of people have issues with it and never solve it. But perhaps they never get to the bottom of it because they only replace a component or two at a time. Holler if you have more questions. I have lots of premature grey hairs from this…
See my novel of a response above. But also if the truck is at the dealership, ask about the recall on steering stabilizers. I still wouldn’t trust an OEM stabilizer to save my life, but there is a recall (I believe it includes your year of truck) and a class action lawsuit regarding the stabilizers.
never had any issues, loaded, unload, towing or not
My 2002 F350’s steering wheel had a very violent wobble when I braked going downhill towing my 2 horse gooseneck trailer. I had the brake pads and front rotors replaced and it hasn’t wobbled since then. I hope that fixed it!
Thank you!
This was very informative, thank you so much!! I’m going to use your info to guide me through this repair after the dealership makes its diagnosis. FTR, the dealership has an outstanding reputation of honesty and we’ve used them exclusively for 20 years for our trucks and passenger vehicle’s maintenance and repairs.
No way diagnosing or doing this repair in our wheelhouse but reading your post helps me feel more knowledgeable about what is involved.
Interesting, thank you. When the truck goes in for the diagnosis it is also getting an oil change and the brake system is checked in that process.
When this happened last Sunday I wasn’t going down a hill but rather coming off a small bridge over a large ravine. Was going 60, maybe 65 mph, then boom, the front end froze up. I carefully braked so as to not start fishtailing and kept my rig as straight as I could with the control I had.
Ford says there are 1,465 reported incidences of this in the affected model years. So it is not at all unusual that your haven’t personally experienced the problem with your own Ford trucks. The incidence is tiny given the huge number of Ford F250 and F350 trucks sold during these years.
That’s good to know! I wonder how many have been reported to NTSB? I want to trust Ford 100%, I really do and it may be that what happened is normal west and tear at 66,000 miles. To be continued and hopefully by weeks end I will have an explanation.
Their report in 2022 says “over 1,200,” so both Ford and the feds have about the same number in their databases.
What is the “death wobble” and what years are involved? Thank you very much.
Violent shuddering or shaking at highway speeds, usually after encountering rough pavement. it can result in loss of control of steering. Reported in Super Duty Ford pickups (F250 and F350) from 2005-2019.
2017-2019 F-250’s and F-350’s are the most involved. In total layman’s terms: you are at highway speed and go over a rough/uneven patch of road and the front end freezes, vibrates to the extreme and your steering is locked up. Slowing down will reset the truck.
In hindsight this happened to me back in November on the beltway around the city. Since it was a very pitted part of the interstate I thought “better check the alignment when it goes in for an oil change”. Last Sunday what set it off was the space between the bridge and pavement, the seam, best I can figure.
If you look up Ford Death Wobble you will find other peoples examples. I will say thing, last Sunday had I been on a curve and not a straight stretch of highway, my outcome probably would have been not good.
I haven’t either, but I am just saying, if you ask any truck company, that is what they will tell you. The big trucks are not engineered or designed to be driven at speed without towing something behind it. That’s my only point.
That’s great to hear. I’ve not been so lucky with various dealerships. If the aftermarket stabilizer is of any interest, I’m sure you could take it to any independent shop and have them put one on. I truly think that was the last missing piece after replacing all the broken stuff.
Report back and let us know what they find. There’s forums and threads all over the place where people ask about death wobble. You’ll hear off the wall stuff that people think will fix it. But the parts I listed out are the most common (in my experience).
I’ll see if I can upload a video. It’s terribly violent. My video doesn’t even totally capture how horrible it is. It can take a while to get slowed down enough to get it to stop as breaking won’t slow it down and even exacerbates the wobble. Usually after an event the skin on my arms would be burning and itching from the extreme vibration resonating through the steering wheel.
Thanks again. I read enough to familiarize myself with the issue and with the parts that might need to be replaced.
Will update once a diagnosis is given.
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Hopefully this comes through. Culprit was a track bar.
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