This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Driving at approx. 65 mph my F-350 4X4's steering wheel began to shake very hard, enough to have a dps state trooper heading in the opposite direction notice. He made a U-turn, caught up to me, put on his lights and stopped me. What I thought was a traffic stop turned out to be a safety check. He told me that he stopped me because he had noticed my wheels wobbling and thought that I was in danger of crashing. I had told the officer that the wobbling stopped once I reduced my speed to about 40 or so. Tires were close to needing changing, I replaced my tires and the problem stopped until recently. It is starting to wobble now and then only after an additional 15,000 miles. This is clearly not a once in a million event, this is something that I have heard many times among other Ford owners to show them we need to be taken care of. My life is worth more than a bad engineering design. Did I buy a $ $73,000 coffin?
Massive steering wobble and shaking at highway speeds 60 to 70 mph. Usually on a rougher highway or a bump for joint expansion. Rattle continues till speed reduction to approximately 40 miles per hour.
Two issues. First issue, cracked rim. Started losing tire pressure, leak between rim and stainless steel valve stem, had valve stem replaced with rubber valve. Lasted about a week and started losing air pressure again. Used green slime and solved the problem for about two weeks. Pressure loss was minimal, 70 psi down to 60 psi over a couple of days, would reinflate to 70 psi and would hold for a couple of days and I would just inflate back to 70 psi. Driving back from fl to nc on the 30th of Dec 2020, I experienced a loss of 20 psi in about an hours time. Pulled into rest area, reinflated tire and sprayed with windex and saw bubbles coming from a crack around the tire valve and going about 2 inches toward the inner edge of rim. Changed to spare, and made it home with no other issues. Rim is original factory aluminum rim. Dealership said truck is out of warranty. Purchased aftermarket wheels this week, did not want to replace with same model of rim. Second issue. Truck has approximately 62,000 miles. Noticed death wobble while I was having issues with above mentioned tire/rim issue and figured it was due to the imbalance of front tire that had green slime in it. Wobble happened again today after hitting pothole, was going about 50-55 mph, hit pot hole, truck started shaking, slowed down to about 30 and shaking stopped. Has happened 2 other times but those times I had the old tire/wheel set up. This latest occurrence happened with different tire/wheel setup. Have not taken to dealership because it is out of warranty and figured they would not do anything about it.
While driving at approximately 55 mph on the highway the front end and steering wheel started wobbling strongly, it did not subside until I slowed down to about 30 mph. This is not the first time this has happened, but frequency is increasing. I have oem suspension, wheels, tires, no modifications to the vehicle.
- Truckee, CA, USA
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I experienced the Ford 'death wobble' on a highway at approx. 65mph December 23rd 2020. I took the truck my local Ford dealership. My steering dampener had already been replaced, due to the recall, on June of 2020. The local dealership stated the dampener was in good condition but the track arm needed to be replaced at a cost to me of approx. $400. The dealership also stated the the track arm is not covered under the extended warranty recall. This leaves me driving a vehicle that will experience the 'death wobble' again and put me and my family in grave danger. The Ford dealership refused to cover this known problem under warranty. Ford needs to be held responsible for this design flaw and should replace all parts that are affected in this case to reduce the risk of harm or death to the vehicles occupants. A description of what the Ford dealership did, or didn't do, can be found on the Ford oasis report with the VIN number provided.
While travelling on the highway at highway speeds (55+ mph), the truck experiences the "death wobble". the steering wheel will begin to shake violently, compromising steering control. The shaking will typically only subside by reducing speed, of the vehicle.
On December 24,2020 after entering interstate I25, and reaching about 50 to 65 miles per hour the truck when into a violent shack and was hard to control.
While driving approximately 70 mph on I-40 eastbound in East Tennessee I went through some rough patches and potholes in the roadway. This resulted in my steering wheel begin to shake violently back and forth, making it almost impossible to hold on to and control. Because of the lack of traffic I was able to quickly apply the brakes and once it reduced speed to about 30 to 40, it stopped. During the next 200 miles it occurred 3 more times. Once while driving at 60 mph and going over a rough patch where a bridge and road meet, and two other times due to potholes that I was able to prevent/stop a full blown violent shaking episode by driving slower and being aware of what might happen. Had I been in traffic or anywhere else it might have resulted in an accident.
On three separate occasions I have experienced a violent shaking in the steering wheel. Each event happened when traveling the highway at approximately 65 mph. The shaking is so severe its causes a loss of control and almost results in an auto accident. The shaking continues until the vehicle speed is reduced below 10 mph.
I was driving during moderate rain and wet road conditions. My truck hit a seam in road and the entire front end started to shake and bounce. I had to get on the brake fast and this was early morning lots of seattle traffic at highway speeds in excess of 60mph. The truck actually started a shimmy that put me in the other lane luckily there was no traffic on my left side. It went away when I was on the brake and had slowed way down under 35 mph. When I got back on accelerator, I again returned to highway speed only to have it return worse after hitting bumps in the road. This time there were more vehicles around and I had to hit brake extremely hard so as not to bounce everywhere. The truck got noticeably light on front end bouncing all over the place and veered off road to the right. This could have resulted in an accident twice in less than 10 minutes. Truck was parked and taking to Ford dealership after researching online and finding out this is a known issue. Truck only has 17510 miles on it has been in for all routine maintenance and tire rotation and balances. In fact tires were just rotated at 17000 miles.
While driving on interstate the said vehicle hit a bump or bad spot in the road. The steering wheel and front of vehicle began to shake and vibrate extremely erratic. I immediately held on, looked in mirrors for other vehicles around me and had to hit the brakes. The truck had to slow down and immediately get it off the road without causing an accident. We happened to be on a 65mph highway. With hazard lights flashing we did manage to get off the main road to the shoulder. I new immediately what it was. My wife was with me at the time as well. We have owned this truck since it was brand new. At 9000 miles the same thing happened. Then again at 16,500, 18,900, 24,440 and the most recent time is 27,500. This problem has been addressed 4 prior times. Each time they change the steering damper and I get my vehicle back. Now I am told I need new tires, a caster adjustment and possibly another damper. Surprise the dampers are on back order.I'm very surprised there has not been a recall. Luckily I guess people have not been seriously injured yet. Thank goodness for that. This is my third new truck from Ford. I think we have certainly spent our fair share of money with them. Fix our truck so we can feel safe when we pull our camper around the country. That's why we bought this particular truck. Thanks for reading our experience.
At highway speed, - occasionally this issue occurs at about 75 mph when going over a rough area or "concrete to asphalt" seam in the roadway, the truck will go into a very violent, almost uncontrollable wobble of the steering wheel and front end. Let off on the foot pedal to begin slowing to around 60 mph for the wobble to stop. Then highway speeds can be achieved only to expect the same thing to occur at any random time when going over a rough area in the road. Really scary situation when this occurs!!!
4 times in the last 3 weeks our truck experienced the "death wobble". in every instance we were travelling at about 65-70 mph and crossing bridges. Our truck began to shake violently and we lost control, even crossing into the oncoming lane once. After slowing down and pulling to the shoulder the violent shaking stopped. One of the times, my daughter was driving in snow and ice on the expressway and crossed lanes before she could get the truck under control. Now I'm afraid to let my wife or daughter drive the truck..
Less than 20K miles, the steering wheel violently shakes at times when hitting a bump while in a turn or one side hits the bump and not the other. The pickup becomes incontrollable. You have to aggressively brake to regain control which is likely to cause and accident. This happens at highway speeds 45 to 70 mph.
Starting almost immediately after a used purchase of the vehicle at 48,000 miles and 3 years old, a intense front axle oscillation was intermittently noticed at speeds between 45 and 75mph, often the issue would happen while driving straight directly after driving over bumps in the roadway or bridge expansion joints. After having the Ford dealership look at the vehicle 4 separate times to try and figure out the root cause of the problem, the issue still has not been solved. So far the fixes tried by the dealer have been balancing the tires, installing new steering dampener, new tie rod ends, new drag link and two separate alignments.
Vehicle had severe death wobble at highway speeds over 65mph. Dealer adjusted castor and improved the severity. Still have unacceptable level of steering wheel oscillation and vibration. Many visits to dealers in two states with no correction or improvement. Uncomfortable and unsafe to tow 5th wheel.
2017 Ford F-350, truck can hit any bump in the road and the steering wheel goes crazy shaking extremely violently. This happens at speeds from about 45mph and faster. The only way to stop the shaking is to immediately pull over on the side of the road and slow down to about 25-30mph. It's very hard to control the vehicle while it's shaking, as you do not have full control of the steering. A big problem is the fact that you can't tell which bumps will cause the violent shaking. It could be a large unavoidable pothole, or it could be a small concrete joint in an otherwise very smooth flat road. I have also experienced this when there were no bumps in the road. It is very disheartening to know that Ford Motor Company is selling vehicles for upwards of $80,000 that can't be safely driven any faster than 45-50mph, and are putting peoples lives in danger on a daily basis.
While driving at freeway speeds, we hit a small bump in the road. The steering was shaking uncontrollably and almost caused us to hit the car in the lane next to us. We had to slow down significantly to stop the shaking. This has happened twice in the last week and the second time we weren't aware we hit a bump, the vehicle just started shaking uncontrollably. Our truck only has about 20,000 miles on it. We have a service appointment to have this looked at next week.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Schertz, TX, USA