My 2017 ford f350 has now experienced three events referred to as "death wobble" or shimmy which causes severe shaking of the entire truck and especially the steering wheel. First event in bakersfield calif where I hit consecutive bumps in the freeway while traveling 65 MPH. Had to slow to less than 40 MPH to get it to stop. Second event was towing my 5th wheel down a 6% grade into verde valley arizona. Heavy braking caused the same death wobble in addition to the truck pulling to the right. Speed was 65 MPH. Third event was leaving mccarren airport in las vegas nevada where hitting a freeway bridge transition caused the death wobble again. Truck has been to local ford dealership. Alignment checked ok, tracking bar torque ok, wheels ok, ball joints ok. Brake hose did not pass pressure test and was replaced under warranty. Dealership cannot find cause. I sincerely believe this is a design issue or oem parts installed at factory were defective at time of installation. This is my fourth superduty 4x4 supercrew. My other three never had this issue. In investigating this issue I found two automotive related websites where 35 plus late model superduty owners complained about this same problem.
2017 Ford F-350 SD steering complaints
Page 11 of 11: complaints 281 to 292 of 292, newest first, as owners wrote them.
I own a 2017 ford f-350. This truck is fully stock, no mods of any kind. No abuse. Maintenance is always on time and tires are always rotated and balanced every 5000 miles. In may 2018, I was driving along a straight moderately bumpy road at about 40 miles per hour and my truck went into the death rattle. The front end shook so hard I almost lost control. I had to come to a complete stop to get the shaking to stop. The mileage was approximately 24,000 miles. It hasn't happened again until yesterday, 10/10/18. I was traveling on a newly paved road at 30 MPH. I hit a slight bump and the truck went into the death rattle again. I had to slow down to about 5 MPH to regain control of the vehicle. I had about 3 miles til I got home. I crawled at about 15 MPH with no problems. I stopped at the stop sign about 60 feet from my home, started to take off at an extreme crawl and it started shaking again. The mileage was approximately 36,036. I have children and this is dangerous! My kids are always with me and I can't risk their lives because ford hasn't come up with a solution to this problem. Someone needs to make ford fix this. It is a design flaw, as I have come to find out. This is going to kill someone.
While driving down the highway I hit a dip in the road and the steering wheel started shaking violently. I let off the gas and slowed down and the shaking stopped. I had approximately 10,000 miles on the truck. I avoid all bumps and dips now. It has happened 8 or 9 times. I have never had the truck looked at for the problem, now that I have read about all the other people with the same issue I will take it to the dealer ship. I just thought it had something to do with the fact that its a heavy duty suspension.
On 3 different occasions while driving approx 60mph, I drove over a bump and the steering wheel/front end experienced uncontrollable shaking, commonly called a 'death wobble.' problem continued until I slowed the truck to 10 MPH. First time it happened the truck only had 17,000 miles. After the 3rd time the dealer replaced steering components. After the repair the truck continued to have minor problems (quick short wobble) but the dealer said that was part of the repair. On memorial day weekend the full wobble returned. I dropped the truck off at dealer because it was too unsafe to drive ( I have teenagers and refuse to risk their lives). I attempted to return the truck to ford under the state lemon law. Ford refuses to take back the truck but cannot guarantee it is fixed or safe.
The truck shuts off at while running. This happens at both highway speeds and while stopped. I have taken it to the dealer but they cannot find out what has happened. When the truck shuts of the steering and brakes are not working to the level that is needed to stop the vehicle or control the vehicle, and it appear they are power assisted from the motor, so when the motor stalls they are lost. *tr *dt updated 10/19/18
Started vehicle, placed in reverse to back out of driveway, at end of driveway stepped on break and did not stop, pressed hard and stopped. Put truck in drive to get back on driveway and almost hit garage door as breaks did not work normally so I pressed emergency break. Shut off truck, restarted and breaks worked fine. Thought it was a computer glitch and restart corrected. Drove next several days with no problem, then on way home from store I again lost normal breaking and had no power steering . I was doing approximately 30 miles per hour on a city street. Pulled over, shut off truck and restarted but this time that did not correct problem. Drove about 1 mile to ford dealer and turned over for repair. The vehicle only has 17k miles on it. They diagnosed the power steering pump to be bad and replaced. I have not had problem since the repair. I have about 30 miles since repair. The problem is that I received no failure or warning lights, started intermittent and if I would of been driving other different conditions I would likely of been in a serious accident. If my wife was driving she would of not been able to stop or steer the truck. I have normal strength for a 60 year old man and I could barely stop and steer the truck. If I was pull an rv I would of been in a very bad situation. I am concerned that there was no warning and concerned that after first failure it seemed to reset thus assuming a computer issue. Seems strange that a mechanical pump failed and then started working for several days before failing again. After the first failure that corrected itself, I did go to ford dealer where I bought the car and they said they were not aware of any issues but if it happens again bring the truck in to be checked. Unfortunately, I was 60miles from my purchasing dealer so went to closest ford dealer for the repair.
Vehicle at times has a violent shaking and loss of steering control that remains until a full stop of the vehicle is enabled, this happens at highway speeds when a uneven road surface and or bump is encountered. Ford case number assigned to my vehicle is cas-144062235 on 3/19/2018
Tl* the contact owns a 2017 ford f-350. The contact stated that the steering wheel was unstable. The failure impacted the suspension, which required the contact to exhibit force to control the steering wheel and prevent a "death wobble". The contact refrained from driving the vehicle because the failure occurred at any speed. Northside ford (12300 san pedro ave, san antonio, tx 78216, (210) 525-9800) and dave sinclair ford (7466 s lindbergh blvd, st. Louis, mo 63125, (314) 892-2600) were contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted. There was one tsb for the steering, but no tsbs for the suspension and no recalls for the steering and suspension. The contact was waiting on a response from the manufacturer. The VIN and failure mileage were not available.
In motion on a highway at 70 miles per hour.the truck hit an uneven condition on the road.the trucks steering capability was totally lost.the front wheels were violently shaking.the tires and wheels were serverly bouncing.slight braking made the uncontrollable condition worse.the vehicle slowly left the highway onto the right away.the speed was approximately 50 MPH when it left the paved highway.the front wheels were still violently shaking and bouncing.at this point still with no steering the truck began to spin out of control.it finally ended up stuck in a ditch 30 to 40 yards off the highway.the shaking and bouncing didn't stop until the vehicle came to a complete stop.after much research I leaned that this mechanical steering problem has been a reacuring malfunction.it has been named the death wobble.how can ford continue to manufacture a product with documented extreme safety issues.its obvious that ford has made this extremely dangerous condition an ongoing process.im amazazed that with all the past complaints concerning the death wobble that its become nothing more than a band-aid fix.please address and correct this ongoing negligent manufacturing process that ford continues.they knowingly continue to place innocent consumers into a life or possible death situation.
When traveling at speeds greater than 50mph, truck will randomly respond to going over a slight bump by beginning to shake. The shaking increases to a violent level. The entire truck shakes violently, especially the front end and the steering wheel. The only way to regain control of the truck is to come to a nearly complete stop. All three times this has happened the truck was on a highway. The last time it happened the truck was on a bridge crossing a river with heavy traffic all around. It is a complete miracle that the surrounding drivers were able to avoid hitting our truck since the speed limit was 65mph, and we had to slow to 22mph before the shaking stopped. This first happened in oct 2017. The dealership repaired it, but it happened two more times on feb 12, 2018. The truck has only 24700 miles on it.
While driving the 2017 ford f350 pickup truck down the highway at 60 MPH, whenever I drove across bridges or hit small bumps, the pickup truck would shake violently and I had no control over the vehicle until speed was reduced to under 50 MPH. This incident is know as the "death wobble". The truck had 14,000 miles on it the first time this occurred. Took the truck to the dealer, they replaced the track bar, sent back, and a week later the same issue of the "death wobble" happened again. Truck is at the dealership currently, and has been for a week. The same exact incident has occurred on another family member's newly purchased 2017 ford f350 also and has been taken to the same dealership.
Experienced extreme and uncontrollable vibration in the steering wheel and throughout the entire truck (death wobble). This happen twice on the same day, 14 january 2018. The first occurrence was at 70 MPH and it did not stop until the vehicle slowed to 50 MPH. The second occurrence was at 60 MPH and did not stop until the vehicle slowed to 45 MPH. Applying the brakes made it worse. The vibrations were so intense it pulled a muscle in my neck. Both occurrences were right after hitting a bump in the road.
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