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Ford Death Wobble in F-250’s

That’s it!

Did you brake, coast out of it?? I braked and I swear I slowed down but maybe I’m imagining it, wishful thinking to avoid the ditch. :grimacing:

OH MY WORD!!! That would scare me to absolute death! I had a 2001 that had a shimmy in it that I couldn’t get sorted out which frightened me, so I traded it in 2015. It pales in comparison to this. The 2015 truck handles like a sports car. I hope everyone w this problem can get it sorted out. Thank you for the video. Be safe!

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It honestly seems like it varies. I can’t tell you how many death wobbles I’ve been through but I do know I’ve had them around turns and have been able to make it. I’ve had them at 75 mph, and 35 mph. Bridge joints, pot holes, simple waves in the pavement, you name it. It seems more often than not, breaking doesn’t actually slow it. It seems I had to just let it coast down. I’ve toyed around with slamming on the breaks, or even using the trailer breaks to no avail. A coworker had a half baked theory that accelerating would pull it out of the wobble. It does not. Didn’t make it worse, but it didn’t help. I did find that breaking makes it worse if it enters a “mini wobble” as in you can feel the shudder, you know it’s coming, but it’s not full blown death wobble yet. Now that I type all this out, I’m realizing why I am prematurely graying…

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Oh hell no to accelerating during a wobble. :flushed: It’s all about keeping your wits and hoping people give you space until it sorts out.

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I could feel the “shudder” coming on, but never had anything like your video demonstrates.

Do whatever it takes to keep your 2015 running! We traded in our ‘99 F250 for this 2018 F250 diesel. I love everything about the comfort and hauling capabilities with the new truck except for this one thing.

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Like I said, it was a half baked theory :rofl: I had enough experience with it that I was like eh, screw it, I’ll give it a try. Didn’t make it worse, but certainly didn’t make it better. I find the best way is to let it coast down if you can manage it. If it was a complete come apart and I’m headed for the ditch, yeah I’ll stand on the breaks in attempt to save it.

It must look terrible from the outside. People usually give me a wide berth as it’s going on.

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Aside from the front end fiasco, my 2015 is an absolute dream. Pulls like a beast, even more comfortable with a load, I absolutely love it.

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Believe me, I will. I just honestly can’t imagine what that would be like. I’ve always had Ford trucks and like them very much. I loved my 2001 but couldn’t get past the shimmy thing…it really didn’t do it hauling, but I also drive slower when I haul. If I hit a bump, it would feel like it came down someplace else on the road. I’m a coward and it scared me one time too many.

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Years ago I was on I-35 south hauling a horse. The northbound lanes were closed for miles to be resurfaced so north and south bound traffic was using the “southbound” lanes. We were cruising at 55mph and traffic was steady since it was mid day on a Friday.

Cab of my then Chevy truck filled with smoke coming up from the gear shift. Whelp, my transmission was blown. :grimacing: Turned on the emergency blinkers and cruised over to the shoulder of the road. Whew.

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Posts like this are why I love COTH. I wish I could like your post twice. I’m sorry you had to experience finding out the hard way about OEM parts, but grateful you share it with us.

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I’ve posted my experiences on various Super Duty pages and forums, and it gets glossed over by the occasional meat head that claims it’s ALWAYS tires or brakes or fill-in-the-blank other component that they swear up and down will do it. I’m like well I’ve replaced enough track bars in random truck stop parking lots in the middle of the night to know what a bad bearing looks like, and it’s almost always going to be a bearing on one or more of those steering parts. So the welcoming response here is delightful :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Hopefully it’s helpful to others.

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I am on another forum for Subarus. I totally get what you mean by being glossed over by meatheads - and it’s worse if they know you’re a woman. It’s like if you took the worst of FB and the worst of COTH and smushed them together – add in that those forums tend to not be able to have civil discourse when disagreements arise… :laughing:

(Just in my experience it tends to be bearing related too, FWIW. Not my favorite job to replace.)

But I can say they are instrumental to looking up a random issue you haven’t encountered before. This summer I ran into a problem with my Jeep Grand Cherokee, the sunroof was leaking but all the components seemed fine. I found a post from 2007 from someone who had figured out that the track becomes ‘uncalibrated’, and then figured out a way to factory reset it - this was NOT in my Jeep instruction manual. I wanted to send that man a gift basket or something because it was driving me nuts and I was sick of tossing a rainsheet over my car when it rained!! #horsegirlproblems

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Those forums are incredibly helpful. I did have a pleasant conversation with a few guys on a forum a few days ago about a thermostat situation and they were so helpful. Youtube is also the bomb. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the middle of a project and I’m like f***, I don’t know what I’m doing. Open up the youtube and do some searching. The internet is a lifesaver for the DIYer like me.

You’re not kidding. I will never forget standing in line at the auto parts store with all the things to change my oil, filters, etc. This gruff older guy walks by and says “boy, someone sent you with a list”. I slowly pivoted around, glared at him, and said “yeah, I did”. Just because I have long hair and indoor plumbing does not mean I instantly don’t know how to turn a wrench :roll_eyes:

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It’s really helpful!!! My farrier bought my 2001 from me. He knew it had the shimmy but wasn’t too concerned about it w his heavy box on it. I started searching for information on the class action lawsuit…it looks like it only goes back to 2005. If I were he, I’d still file a complaint. Do you have any info as to how to do that? Thank you for all of your help and research on this. Mine had the 7.3 engine and was certainly coveted. The shimmy is nothing like everyone here is experiencing. I wonder if it will get worse.

I don’t know anything about filing a claim. I do know, as you found, the recall only goes back so far. I honestly thought it was 2011 and up. But I guess it covered my 2008 as well and I didn’t know it.

I have just skimmed past the recall and such because no way am I letting them just replace my broken OEM stabilizer with a newer broken OEM stabilizer. There may be more to the claim than I know, but I’m perfectly happy with my upgrade. So that’s where my research stopped.

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I had a 2002 F30 with the 7.3 and know the slight shimmy of which you speak. If I recall correctly it is somewhat related to the same parts that BroncoMo is describing. Replacing tie rod ends and a few other things fixed it on mine. Essentially it’s a result of the steering system being “loose” due to worn parts.

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Thank you!

Thank you! I’ll pass the information along. The dealer where I bought the 2001 could never fix it. I did not buy my 2015 from them…

You’re welcome. My ex husband was a diesel mechanic and he eventually fixed it in the driveway. I just can’t recall all of the details.

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