Front end wandering on 08 F350 - Diesel Forum

honda_guy4 · 12-21-2008, 05:10 PM

I have an 08 F350 w/20k on it and the steering seems to wander going down the road. It acts like my 03 did w/100k on it. I have taken it into dealership once, and they swear their is nothing wrong with it? It has done this since day one.

I just recently put a leveling kit/tires on it and it seems to have gotten slightly worse. Now that the roads are slick around here, and i am pulling a light enclosed trailer (which gets whipped around by the wind) the steering is really starting to concern me. One minute i will have it slighlty ****ed to the left, and then all the sudden it starts heading in the opposite direction, so i have to correct the steering wheel? Also i have had to dynamite the brakes a couple of times, and it pulls slightly to the right. Then when i get back on the throttle, it pulls the opposite direction?

I know i have heard complaints about the 450 doing this, but what about the 250/350's?? What can be done to fix it? Anybody w/some help/reccomendations on what to do would be greatly appreciated!

honda_guy4 · 12-24-2008, 01:05 PM

No one else??? Apparantely i am the only one? Truck goes in next week for the new reflash, i guess i will have them look at it again. I can already tell you what they are going to say though!

inverted99 · 01-01-2009, 07:46 PM

My truck has about 1-2" of play in the steering wheel, not sure if this is what yours is doing. I bought mine used with ~32k on it and it has a lift on it. I know on the previous generation Super Duty's the steering box had an adjustment on it where you could take out the free play. Not sure if this generation has the same adjustment, I have not had time to look. Good luck...Jeff

**caryt** · 01-02-2009, 11:52 AM

The stock 08's don't have enough castor stock IMO and when you lifted it it just made it worse. Get a set of castor plugs and add a dual steering stablizer it will help.

Cary

honda_guy4 · 01-04-2009, 05:22 PM

caryt, thanks for the help. I will check into that!

Yes my steering does hove some play in it, i can't imagine that my steering box would need to be adjusted w/only 20k (easy miles)??

F350CGY · 01-06-2009, 10:58 AM

I took mine into the dealer with the same problem, it was making for some very interesting trailer towing. Another issue I had was that the wheel was stiff and when making a turn, it required just as much force to come out of a turn as it did entering the turn and the wheel wasn't returning to center on it's own.
The dealer diagnosed it as needing a new steering box, just waiting for the part to arrive and bring the truck back in for the part replacement.

skinz · 01-26-2012, 08:30 PM

Track arm/bar. My wondered really bad and we found the joint on the end arm was wiped out. Now it drives great, I have a 6 inch lift and 37's on mine, and that wears the joint on the end of the track arm faster because of the added angle on the arm.