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High-Speed Steering Shimmy in Ford F-250, F-350 Probed

Some big haulers “out of control”

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 18, 2008

One Ford truck owner told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that the shimmy forced him off the road and his truck crashed into some trees. Other truck owners have complained that the wheel vibration caused them to swerve from one lane to another without warning while driving on the highway.

NHTSA has not reported how many Ford trucks are the subject of the probe or estimated how many big Ford trucks may suffer from the dangerous steering and suspension flaw.

The investigation covers Ford F-250, Ford F-250 SD and Super Duty trucks from the 2005 to 2007 model years. The Ford F-350 and F-350 SD from the 2005 to 2007 model years are part of the investigation as well as the 2005 F-350 Super Duty.

Federal safety regulators at NHTSA have received 78 consumer reports of “severe suspension and steering wheel shimmy and oscillations commencing after the subject vehicles traveled over an uneven road surface.”

NHTSA reports that most of the complaints are the result of driving the heavy duty Ford truck at highway speeds. “The majority of these incidents occurred at speeds of 50 mph or greater,’ NHTSA said on its Web site.

The agency received 13 consumer complaints reporting "loss of steering control" causing the truck to change lanes while virtually out of control.

“In one case, the consumer alleges that after the vehicle left the road surface, it crashed into a wooded area,” NHTSA reported.

The Office of Defect Investigation at NHTSA said field reports from Ford describing the shimmy as “self-excited oscillation of the steering wheels with accompanying wheel tramp” contributed to the decision to open an engineering analysis of the truck steering and suspension problem.

Engineers at NHTSA now plan to determine if the “wheel shimmy creates a condition where the vehicle becomes difficult to control or startles the driver, thus presenting a safety risk.”

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