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.
This vehicle on normal roads, interstate or backroads, will go into what I would call a death wobble. This "wobble" is very violent, and it usually occurs at 50mph or greater. At this speed the vehicle becomes barely guideable to the point that it is very dangerous. The only way to make the vehicle stop the event is to slow down. My experience has been that it will continue down to speeds of 35-40 before it goes away. I strongly feel as though this event, if it were to happen at the wrong time will cost a life. It does not take a huge pot hole to set it off, it is typically a smaller irregular bump that will get it going. Under warranty I have had the steering damper replaced as well as both front shocks and nothing so far has touched the issue.
While driving the freeway at 70 mph hit a bridge expansion joint in the road and the truck began shaking violently. It was difficult to maintain control as I slowed to about 20mph before it would stop. Then again when I hit a section of ground pavement same thing happened. Dealer says it's tire only have 20K on factory installed tires. They then replaced steering dampener, did not correct still at dealership. 2017 F350 crew cab completely stock. 27K miles
Steering or suspension goes into a violent shacking often referred to as death wobble after hitting certain bumps on a roadway. Bumps appear to involve both front tires possibly when one tire hits first similar to bridge joints or pavement breaks. At highway speeds about 55 or greater, only had happen when driving straight. The steering while shakes back and forth about 1-inch each way with truck body shaking. It appears to worsen if breaking hard so slow deceleration has been my practice. When towing trailer have used manual application of trailer brakes to drag truck slower which seems better. Experienced when driving truck only and also when towing a fifth wheel 12K pound trailer or a 7K pound hitch pull box trailer. Truck weighs about 9K pounds. Ford dealer has serviced unit according to service bulletin #18-2268. Four visited for repairs and a few additional visits for inspection before ordering parts. Ford company issued a case number cas-17515150-L3W8H1. This case case closed by Ford following the last repair with out confirming with be it had been fixed. I presently had Ford dealer order new tires for install on 10/28/2019 then hope to have alignment checked again as well look for any new signs of wear on components. Last trip from eminence, mo to dixon il experienced this death wobble 7 times. Combined vehicle weight about 22K pounds.
The contact owns a 2017 Ford F-350. While driving various speeds, the vehicle experienced the "death wobble" and the tires wobbled without warning. The failure occurred while traveling over bumps in the road. The contact took the vehicle to fallon Ford-Toyota (1351 w williams ave, fallon, nv 89406, (775) 423-2171) on three separate occasions where they initially performed an alignment during the first repair. On the second occasion, the dealer replaced the steering linkage damper per technical service bulletin number: 18-2268. On the third occasion, another alignment was performed and the caster was reduced as low as possible. The dealer also informed the contact that the tires would need to be replaced. The tires were replaced by an independent mechanic. The same dealer called the contact's son after the third repair to see if they could find a remedy for the vehicle. The vehicle was not taken back to the dealer a fourth time. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and stated that there was no recall or remedy for the "death wobble". the contact was informed that a supervisor would call her for more information. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure mileage was 17,835.
When traveling at highway speeds the truck violently shakes and is uncontrollable after hitting bumps or potholes. In order to regain control of the vehicle, hard braking must be applied to reduce speed rapidly. This has happened several times while driving at highway speeds. The vehicle has been to three different Ford dealerships and had three different supposed service bulletin fix repairs performed. Yet here we are still with the death wobble.
- Washington Ch, OH, USA
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Another victim of death wobble. It's happened twice, once with truck alone (January 2019) and another time pulling a 5th wheel trailer (9/22/2019)...both downhill in the mountains. The truck just started shaking violently until I was able to slow down enough to make it stop. The first time the dealer installed some caster shims, the 2nd time they said everything looked fine and no issues with the suspension.
While driving on the freeway I crossed an expansion joint where there is a bridge, the vehicle because to shake and bounce all over the lane, it is scary and dangerous. I had to slow down to ~30 mph in the middle of traffic on the freeway to bring the vehicle back under control. The vehicle only has 26,000 miles on it and has already been to the dealer for service for this issue in the past.
This incident happened in May 2019. When we're on a highway next to a river traveling about 60 miles an hour and all of the sudden the truck start to vibrating violently (also known as death wobble).there was nothing I could do to control it. Mean while my 4 year old son was so terrified he could stop asking my wife if we were going to die. We were so helpless and we all feared for our life lives. That's truly the worst moment of my life. We had the vehicle tow to the dealership where we purchased the vehicle little over a year ago and explained to them what happen and told them no is no way we were getting back in that truck and asked them to buy back. Ford denied our request and assure the problem was fixed after waiting about half month for them to fix it and after multiple attempts. And in order for them to consider it, we most experiences the tragedy repeatedly. Without any other option, I drove the vehicle for over a month on my own to make sure it was safe before I allow my family back in the truck and for about 3 months everything seem fine. Until yesterday when we were on our way to the airport and the death wobble came back. Again, we took the vehicle to the dealer and have them service. After what happened, I can see where the death wobble term came from. It was truly a life and death situation and Ford doesn't seem to care about that. I think we've giving them plenty of attempts to address the issue and I feel it time to reach out for further assistance.we currently live in Alaska. However we have just sold everything and ready to move out of state in about four days. But at this point we do not have a vehicle and our house will be sold soon. I don't understand why Ford is not alert with this deadly situation. We are very desperate and any help will be much apprecaited.
At highway speed (55 to 65mph) three times now (9-13-19 was first), after crossing a rough bridge expansion joint, the front of the truck began shaking violently in a self sustaining very rapid harmonic vibration that made steering extremely difficult. The longest lasted approx. 0.75 of a mile as the truck was in left lane and needed to cross 5 lanes of urban traffic to get to right side break down lane. Each time the violent shaking ended when braking to 37 to 35 mph. Seems to occur if the driver side wheel hits the bump first. The second and third events were similar to the first. Truck now has 10,800 miles and is 27 months old.
2017 Ford F-350 superduty truck experienced severe steering/suspension wobble when encountering bumps in roadway. Four incidents occurred, with three occurring in the Sept. 18-26, timeframe in 2019.while traveling at 65 to 70 mph. Vehicle was hard to control during the wobble, and required slowing to 20-25mph to stop the shaking. Other vehicles following me at the listed speeds were required to brake quickly to avoid collision with my vehicle. All incidents occurred on interstate highways. Vehicle mileage was approx. 17000 miles at the time.
I was driving approximately 70 mph when I crossed a set of rail road tracks and the vehicle shook violently enough to cause me to enter left ditch. After applying the breaks and slowing to 15 mph I regained control. I got out and check the tires and all seemed fine. Started to slowly drive and it was fine. A few miles later I began to smell diesel fuel. When I reached my destination the smell was very strong. Opened the hood and there was fuel leaking from the top of the engine and steaming from the inter cooler. Drive it to a Ford dealer and they replaced the fuel filter as the shaking had caused it to crack.
I own a 2017 F-350 Super Duty with 28,000 miles. Experiencing "death wobble" multiple times per week, typically at speeds between 50-70 mph and hitting even the slightest bump or uneven-ness in the road. The shaking in the front end is so violent that the vehicle is not controllable and is extremely dangerous to the point that my wife refuses to drive it. The only way to regain control is by slowing down to approx 30-40 mph until the shaking subsides. Yesterday, while driving on the highway, the wobble started and pulled me into the next lane, nearly causing an accident. Slowing down in order to regain control caused another near miss as cars were having to swerve to avoid me as I tried to regain control from the wobble. This was an expensive vehicle and it is practically new with very low miles - this should not be happening and in doing research its appears this is a very prevalent issue with these trucks and Ford is aware of the defect and is not doing much to address it. I need to be able to drive this vehicle and I need it to be safe and this defect does not allow that. There have been no modifications to this vehicle - it is 100% factory stock.
When hitting a bump between 50 to 60mph, the truck front end started bouncing wildly and became difficult to control on any type of road. This happened several times miles on the vehicle was between 27,000 and 30,000. Ford dealer described this as the "death wobble", literally. Was fixed by replacing steering damper. This event almost caused me to lose control of the vehicle at highway speeds. Very dangerous.
Vehicle developed knocking in front end at 5,000 miles. At around 10,000 miles began uncontrollable shaking in the steering when hitting a bump at 75 mph on highway. This would stop by slowing down to 40 mph. This continued until the front stabilizer was replaced by Ford at around 15,000. Vehicle now has 20,000 miles on it and has again started shaking uncontrollably as stated before. Fords fix is to replace it again with the same part that has already failed twice. I have heard of the same issues from other people is similar makes and models.
Death wobble symptoms at highway speeds, violent shaking in steering and suspension. Had to replace track bar, steering stabilizer, align front end to reduce/eliminate potential danger. Poor response by Ford on this one. Happened numerous times, difficult to duplicate, possible serious injury if an I experienced driver of this vehicle is behind the wheel.
At 1700 miles developed fairly violent death shake. Dealer told me tires only after much demanding replaceed steering damper. Developed a violent wobble on interstate at 20000 miles with trailer at 70 mph that could have caused a crash. They then changed caster which helped but it is still there fairly bad. Not sure what to do next as they are not offering any fix, truck has 30000 miles currently.
Truck goes into death wobble. Was returned for repair under warranty at 35,091. The wobble came back and is a danger. We have 3 F350, 17 and 18 models and they are all having death wobble problems. These problems pose a danger and should be recalled, it is a design flaw. We have contacted Ford (ref# cas24123991) to make the aware of the issues and to get them to repair.
When you drive the truck over 60 miles an hour and hit a pothole or expansion joint in a bridge the truck violently shakes you cannot even hold onto the steering wheel or control it at all. It seems like the front end of the truck is actually hopping off of the ground. The only way to get it to stop is you have to slow the vehicle down to under 40 miles an hour, this is also very dangerous because everyone else on the highway is going 70. This is obviously an engineering defect because I see online thousands of other people with the same problem. This is very dangerous because it catches you off guard and you're going 70 miles an hour on the highway with other vehicles and you cannot control yours. People are going to get killed
At 45-65 mph if the truck hits the slightest bump in the road the tires and steering wheel start shaking uncontrollably. You lose all control of the vehicle unless you can stop the vehicle before causing a crash. The first time this happened the truck drifted through 4 lanes before coming to a stop.
Continue to experience the "Ford death wobble" steering oscillation. I have been to the dealership 4 times and the problem continues. The incident usually occurs while traveling highway speeds and started at approximately 15,000 miles. Whin this occurs, it is usually when crossing a seam on the road from a bridge or hitting a rough patch in the highway. The steering wheel begins shaking violently causing you to fight keeping the vehicle under control. I have to slow down to about 30 mph in order to get it to stop, which is quite dangerous while on the interstate. My current mileage is 20,400. I have been told by the dthat they have been working closely with engineers at Ford hq in an attempt to resolve the problem and have made the following modifications to my vehicle without any success in correcting the issue: Adjusting the camber on every visit, added 2 different size of shims, replaced both steering dampers, and most recently add a 1 1/2" leveling kit. Unfortunately the issue still is not resolved, the vehicle is unsafe to drive and impacting my ability to use the vehicle for the purpose it was purchased for.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Brookville, OH, USA