I have a 2018 f250 with bad death wobble with currently around 30k miles. I’ve scheduled dealer service but as this is a big problem I’m wondering if anyone knows the fix or even knows what to look out for when dealing with pesky dealerships on an issue like this one . Anything helps thanks
Well, here's the deal on the death wobble.
You see, Ford made the F-150 front suspension with shock absorbers mounted for each wheel horizontally. This means that if one wheel should start to wobble, go off balance, resonate, etc. the shock absorber would eat that vibration and keep it from affecting the other wheel. This prevents the wobble.
Of course, Ford being the absolute crap company they are, they decided for F-250 and up not to do that. So if you look at your front end, there are NO absorbers....just a straight shaft. There is a monkeyed-in absorber mounted above the shaft that is connected by another metal piece. Some D grade engineer thought this setup would work. It does not. When one wheel gets a vibration, the straight metal shaft essentially works as a conductor which causes both wheels to wobble. There is no Ford fix for this, and they will tell you it is "operating as designed". That's BS.
If you want to truly fix it, and I am sure you do, the aftermarket offers stabilizer kits for the F-250. They cost about $200-$300 and consist of two shock absorbers....sound familiar?....that mount horizontally.....yep....and absorb the vibrations as intended. I've installed thousands on those trucks and it fixes the problem Ford wants to push under the rug. Essentially, you need to retrofit your truck to the OLD design that actually worked.
I won't push any brands here as I know Scotty doesn't do that either, nor will I recommend a shop. But a good front end guy can knock the job out for you.
Here is a good example of one of the kits out there:
https://www.pmfsuspension.com/2005-20-Ford-F-250350-HD-Dual-Stabilizer-Kit_p_65.html
*Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with PMF and my shop does not purchase their parts. For example only.
Here is a Youtube video for an even better explanation with visuals to help. I apologize if my description was confusing but it is hard to explain. You can definitely fix the issue. Just don't expect Ford to do it.
In the above vid, they use a single stabilizer and leave the rest in place. Not sure how that would work long term, but they had good results apparently.
@mod_man
If you used the ones from the website you sent (not saying you did) but which one would be the one I should get that I know will keep it fixed for the length of me owning the truck and I’d be able to do it myself I just don’t know which one to get
Fox makes a great stabilizer kit for your truck. If you Google it with your truck model and year, you'll find them lots of places.
@mod_man
Alright thank you for your help greatly appreciate it 👍
You're welcome. Hope you get it sorted.
Typical death wobble on a F250 and F350 is the "track bar" (also called a panhard bar) that runs at an angle from the passenger frame rail toward the driver side. It can be as simple to fix as inspecting the mounting bolt for wear and tightening the nut on the left end of it. Sometimes the bushing is ruined.
Dealer will usually just replace the entire bar...stiffens the frame rail from flexing and causing the wobble.
@heyinway
It will work itself loose again. A band aid but not a long term fix unfortunately.
If the nut is loose...of course it needs to tighten...after applying blue Loctite to the bolt...works every time and won't come loose until the bushing wears out after 100,000 or more miles.