Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum, so hello!

I'm having issues with my new truck. I have a 2006 F-350 4-door 4x4 FX4. I took it in at 6K miles because it needed an alignment and the steering wheel wasn't straight for some reason. Anyway, after the alignment, there were 2 issues that came up. One is that the power steering feels "smoother" and doesn't require as much effort to steer the truck. That doesn't bother me. What DOES bother me is the other issue. I now have a LOT more slop in the front end that I did before the alignment. It takes constant adjustment as you're driving to keep the truck going in a straight line, regardless of road condition. The truck know has about 8300 miles on it. To me, there shouldn't be ANY slop in the front end of this truck, it's still brand new.

I did take it back to the dealer, and drove it with the service manager. He said he didn't feel a problem and his tech said everything was within spec. So I said "OK, fine. Let's take a new truck off the sales lot and drive that one". The steering on the new truck was (of course) a LOT tighter. The service manager did say that he felt a difference, but that it was "miniscule". So, basically what they told me was to "live with it". So now my plan of action is to take it to another dealer and explain the situation and hope they're more copetent than the first one. If that doesn't work, I'll call the local Ford rep. If that doesn't get the issue resolved, I guess I'll have to call a lawyer. I guess I have 3 questions:
1) Does my plan of action sound reasonable, or do any of you know of a better path to take?
2) Does anyone else have this problem and is it common?
3) What could cause this?

Thanks for the help.

 

It might have something to do with the FX4 package, or the tires. I had a similar feel as you described, but it is pretty much gone now that I have different tires. It would wander a bit more and I would constantly have to correct with a slight turn of the wheel, but now it seems not to be an issue...

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

Thanks for the reply.

The problem is that I didn't get that feel until AFTER they did the alignment. It was really tight up until that point. Now I can't get them to acknowledge there's a problem.

However, I AM due for a service and to have the tires rotated. Hopefully that'll help.

 

I first would go to an indepentant tire place to check the alignment. If the caster numbers are low I would have them in the higher range in spec. Then I know that the dealers and tire places air up the tires to max tire pressure. I took mine done a bit. That may help. Also people have complained about the steering being too touchy or the feel too much road in the steering wheel and the dealer has loosened the steering box up some to take that out. I even think there was a TSB for this and the dealer might have done this without you knowing and made the feel too sloppy. OR take it to a different dealer and get another opionion.

Just my two cents.

Oh, my steering feels a little heavy for me.

 

You are scaring me, my F-350 King Ranch Fx4 only has 3500 miles. It does have a different feel (more wobbly on rough roads) than my 2000 F-350 4x4, but the 2000 had leaf springs and a stearing dampner (shock) and the new truck has neither. I like mine so far, let us know what you find out.