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.
For years my truck starts vibrating excessively, shaking the entire vehicle when driving over certain sections of roadway or bumps. Sometimes, my steering is difficult to maintain when this happens. This occurs at speeds around 50 mph+. I always assumed it was just a bad road section and never pursued any repair as I didn't think it was a truck issue. Recently, I have come across some articles, that described my exact situation/condition when driving my truck. It makes me have to slow way down below the speed limit for the violent shaking to stop. Sometimes, I though it was just my stiff suspension on bad roads. It is being called the Ford Death Wobble and affects many Ford Super Duty Trucks. Who knows what other components of my truck have been unduly affected due to this manufacturer's safety issue with my truck and that appears to be a situation that occurs often with other Ford Super Duty trucks. I'm concerned one day it will cause me to lose control and crash or crash into another vehicle. To my knowledge Ford has not issued any recall's regarding these safety problems. My truck has been to the Ford shops many times but nothing addressed regarding this condition. It has occurred so many times, I can not even count, well over hundreds of times over 8 years. The most recent time it occurred was about two weeks ago on [XXX] in Colorado Springs. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
When driving this vehicle, it will suddenly go into a violent shake. I have to slow the truck down and pull over to a stop to make it stop shaking - it will not drive through it. It will do it 8 times out of 10 driving it. The steering becomes difficult to handle. All I can do to stop it is pull over. It has done it several times between 1 August and 19 November. I will give you the most recent date below!
The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-350. The contact stated that while her husband was driving approximately 55-60 MPH with her in the front passenger's seat, the vehicle was shuddering significantly, and the steering wheel was shuddering back and forth. The driver lost control of the vehicle and the vehicle nearly drove into a ditch. The driver was able to maintain the vehicle on the shoulder of the road and came to a complete stop. The contact stated that upon turning off and restarting the vehicle, the vehicle operated as needed. The contact stated that the failure had been recurring while driving, and the contact became aware that the failure mostly occurred while exceeding 54 MPH on a bumpy road surface. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the long and short steering drag link, the steering dampener, the track bar ball joint, and bushing needed to be replaced, and the vehicle needed to be realigned. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was approximately 87,120.
Have been experiencing what has been termed as the death wobble that is a known problem in the ford f250 and f350 from 2005 to 2019 trucks. Mine is a f350 2016. While driving on highways over 50 can experience a violent shaking in the front end after hitting a bump in road. Feels like the truck can not recover and like loosing control of vehicle. Very scary sensation that at any time could make you loose total control and put myself my passengers and all drivers near me in danger. I use this vehicle to tow things and it could be a disaster. I did some research and learned it was a thing other people were experiencing as well. I contacted dealership and explained my circumstance and it was something the absolutely knew about. I have had a repair done and hopefully it will fix the problem. I understand sometime it helps for a short time and will come back. They should be issuing a recall no doubt about it!!! I fear my truck is not safe and the value is effected. Has happened approx 4 different occasions over a 3 month period.
We have consistently had issues with severe wheel oscillation, which I-??ve seen referred to as the death wobble, that causes the entire cab of the truck to shake violently and feels like the front tires are bouncing back and forth laterally on the road, when driving over 55mph and hitting any sort of uneven road or bump, especially after bridges. We have spent thousands on replacing different parts which sometimes alleviate the issue for a short period of time, but it always comes back when you least expect it. We have come incredibly close to being rear ended on the interstate several times because the only way to stop it is to slam on the breaks to decelerate quickly and get the truck below 30 miles per hour. It is more common when not hauling anything but still occurs wether hauling a light load or very heavy one as well. We have PTSD now when driving and can-??t function in our business with out using a heavy duty truck. It is absolutely terrifying. This started approximately 6 months after purchasing the truck. We just had it into a Ford repair shop and put $2000 into repairs less than a month ago.
- Brandon, IA, USA
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This has occurred four (4) times already, when driving around 70mph, the truck starts to shake violently making it very difficult to control the steering and avoid other vehicles driving alongside the road. There are no warning lights or any other symptoms of the problem.
The vehicle experiences what is known as the "death wobble". It has happened six times, and the frequency is increasing. Each time it has occurred the truck has been towing a travel trailer on the highway/freeway at speeds of approximately 60-65 mph. It usually happens after hitting a bump or imperfection in the roadway. When the incidents occur, the front end of the vehicle shakes uncontrollably. The driver must try to slow the vehicle without touching the breaks, and bracing the steering wheel as tight as possible to keep the vehicle straight on the road. Because the driver/passengers are inside the vehicle they cannot see what is actually happening to the wheels. But individuals in another vehicle said that the front wheels were wobbling uncontrollably. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request. When the incident occurs, the truck and trailer could loose control, wreck into something, causing injuries to the passengers and damage to the vehicle and other's property. The problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer, because no one know for sure what causes it to happen. The vehicle has been inspected/assessed/test driven at by our local Ford dealer who said that all of the component specifications fall within acceptable levels. The dealer said there was no repair needed. There were no warning lights going off inside of the vehicle.
While driving on the freeway (65-70mph) headed home from work my front end began to shake so hard along with my steering wheel. I had no idea what was going on their was no warning of something wrong. It lasted a min or two but very unsettling. My mother-in-law called this a death roll, her roommate has a 2011 F-250 and just experienced this same feeling. Thank you in advance for your time, Danielle
While driving severe shaking (wobbling) of steering wheel. Had to break and pull off road. Had heard of ford death wobble before, first time for me.. Really frighting, luckily no traffic.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-350. The contact stated that while her husband was driving at approximately 70 MPH, the vehicle started to shake significantly from side to side. The contact then stated that on a separate occasion, while driving approximately 35 MPH, the front driver-??s side tire started to wobble significantly. The contact then stated that her husband was able to pull the vehicle off the road. The contact-??s husband turned off and restarted the vehicle. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The dealer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was advised to call the NHTSA Hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 65,000. The contact stated that the vehicle does not have steering stabilizing shocks attached to the steering arms to suppress the wobble.
Brand new shocks and steering stabilizer installed. This truck since ive owned it is dangerous to drive. When you hit bumps at highway speeds the vehicles shakes and wobbles to the point it feels it looses contact with the road. You either have to dramatically lower speed or risk crashing due to loss of control. This should be recalled due to the enormous amount of complaints for this issue. I will be forced to sell the truck and lose money if something isnt done by manufacturer.
While driving at approximately 62mph, my truck hit a small bump in the road and began shaking so violently that I could barely hold onto the wheel. I immediately braked which caused the truck to shake even more until I finally slowed to about 20th and pulled off the 2 lane highway. Luckily there was very minimal traffic and I was able to keep from losing control. I have only had this truck that I bought from a Ford dealership approximately 5 weeks. This is extremely alarming that a truck like this has no safety recall for something that after some research is named the death wobble across the web. There is no warning, and I do not believe the dealership will do anything to fix this issue without compensation.
The contact owns a 2016 Ford F-350. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH, the front-end was bouncing abnormally, causing the contact to pull over and stop the vehicle. The contact then continued driving however, the failure persisted, and contact pulled over to inspect the vehicle. The vehicle was then restarted and worked as designed. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 105,000. The VIN was not available.
My vehicle started to shake uncontrollably at 50mph when driving. Research online indicated what people call a "death wobble". I contacted my local Ford dealership multiple times to see if my repair would be covered by Ford. On November 8th, 2022 I turned my truck in and on the 11th I was told what repairs needed to be done. On November 21st, I picked up my truck and parked it at my house. I drove less than 40 miles locally with speeds never exceeding 50mph. On December 6 I began a work trip to Nashville from Killeen Texas. 20 miles into my trip my truck did the "death wobble" with me going 70mph. Two hours later it happened again. I drove all the way to Nashville going 50mph and experienced the death wobble about 8-9 times. Now my engine has a ticking noise that I am certain came from the unsafe, violent, and terrifying shaking of this massive truck.
While traveling at Interstate speed (55-75 MPH), when you hit a certain bump or pothole or road irregularity, the front passenger wheel will begin vibrating which quickly grows in magnitude until the entire engine compartment and cab starts to violently shudder, to the point where all 4 tires begin losing contact with the road surface. The only way to regain control and reduce the harmonics is to apply maximum braking. However, as the truck starts to slow, the shudders will become more violent until finally dampening out appx. 100 yards later at around 40 MPH. Once damped out, the truck will drive smoothly and predictably again at speed until the next bump. As it stands now, I am afraid to drive the truck and my wife refuses to drive it. The big fear is having this happen while in a turn or in heavy traffic where the sudden maximum braking can cause an accident.
Any time I hit a bump going over 50 mph the front end of my truck starts shaking violently. So much that it feels like the front end is about to break apart. The only way to stop is to slam on the brakes and slow down as fast as possible. It-??s ways on the highway so it-??s a danger to myself and the people behind me. I have to hold the steering wheel as tight I can to keep from losing control. Dealer told me it happens but they don-??t know why. This has been happening on a daily basis since I drive on highways to get to work. And only a matter of time before I get into an accident.
I was driving down the interstate at about 65-70mph and my truck started violently shaking out of no where causing me to nearly lose control. After pulling off the road the shaking went away. I brought my truck into my mechanic to have it looked at and they told me this is a known problem with these trucks. After spending a considerable amount of money to have the steering stabilizer and drag link replaced it happened again four days later. My truck is now currently back in the shop. I maintain this truck extremely well and do not abuse it in any way, I should not be having an issue like this. I do not feel safe driving in this truck knowing I can lose control without any warning at highway speeds.
This truck has the death wobble. Started when I purchased the truck at 19000 miles. When at highway speeds, bridge joints and bumps will make the truck nearly uncontrollable. This has happened MANY times in the 80K miles that I've put on the vehicle. It has new tie rod ends, new shocks and has had several sets of tires in the 70k miles that I've owned it. Nothing that I've had mechanics do has fixed the death wobble. The most recent incident is listed below.
My 2016 F350 tried to kill me! I was driving 58 mph on local Hwy 146 (where the speed limit is 60mph) with rainy conditions and put my blinker on to switch lanes and when doing so I ran over the reflective lane divider, located all down the roads for safety purposes that are designed to be drove on, my truck's steering wheel and front suspension began to violently and dangerously shaking uncontrollably! The issue was so aggressive I felt like my vehicle was going to flip! The other vehicles around me immediately recognized there was a problem and moved from around me and allowed me to pull my vehicle off to the side of the road finally slowing down and stopping. Once I got down to around 20 mph I was able to regain control of my truck and bring it to a complete stop. I was completely traumatized and fearful of continuing to drive the vehicle. I took the truck to a respectable mechanic shop right up the road from where the incident occurred and upon reviewing my truck the mechanic said he thinks it is what is referred to as the "Death Wobble, " which I feel is appropriate because I truly thought I was going to die! The man said I should be okay to drive but to avoid going over 50 mph and to take it to a Ford dealer because they know of the issue/problem and are fixing it at no charge to customers, even though there has not been an official recall as of yet. While waiting to speak with a Ford representative I pulled videos of people experiencing the "Death Wobble" in their Ford and that was indeed what happened. I have filed a complaint with Ford and my case number is CAS-38233912-K2P7Y9, but I was also informed to notify NHTSA so they are aware of the situation as well so here I am.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Colorado Springs, CO, USA