I have experienced the same thing with my 04 4x4. Took in in December with 10k on it and they balanced three tires and didn't really fix the problem. Ran it for a while and didn't have the time to bring it in. I finally got it back in and they said they could replace the tires, but I voided the warranty by not rotating the tires every 5k as the manual states! I almost came out of my skin and killed the pompus service manager. I am going to bring it to another dealer and see if I can get the tires replaced. As was posted before, for this money I should not have any issues getting things replace. This is my first Ford and I don't think I am going to buy another if this doesn't get fixed. If anyone has anything new, please let me know.

 

I switched out my BFGoodrich Rugged Trail tires for Michelins.
Now my vibration is actually worse.

 

Yes the rack did help but I also took the wheels off when I got home and cleaned all contact surfaces (wheel to roter), cleaned any surface rust and torqued the wheels to 150 ft/pnds. My nibble is 99% gone, still does it every once in a while but I blame that on the roads.

 

I know this is an older thread, but have any of you guys had any luck getting the vibration fixed? Do you still have the truck? Did you trade it or do the Lemon law or BBB route?


BREW

 

My truck is an 04 FX4 with a build date of 10/03. I went round and round with my selling dealer on this steering wheel nibble. Even though my build date is after the 8/03 cutoff I insisted that they install a new rack last summer which they did. Quintin recommended the rack replacement and I have to say after several months living with the new rack that it does make a difference.

I have 3 complete sets of tires for this truck - the original crap 17 inch Generals, 20 inch Nittos on MB Motoring rims, and most recently I purchased a set of take FX4 18s with Goodyear Wrangler AT/S tires on Ebay.

With 17s on - absolutely no nibble with the best two on the front. If I rotate them I'll probably have a slight nibble. The original Generals were all replaced by the dealer and road forced.

With 20s on - With the best two on the front I have a slight nibble. Much worse if rotated. This set has been road force balanced by an independent tire dealer and more recently by Ford dealer but still produce a slight nibble at 72 or so.

With new 18s - Absolutely no nibble! The truck drives like its on glass. These tires/rims have the factory balance job. Never road forced.

Bottom line for me - the new rack made a difference but the key is having a near perfect set of tires and rims. The truck won't tolerate anything less.

 

I had the same shake for two years. I had BFG rugged trails on the truck. Went through two sets of them and still shook. I put on some nittos and the shake is gone

 

My dealership said they could not get my chrome XLT steel wheels to balance correctly. Their solution was to give me a set of new FX4 17" aluminum wheels. Those wheels plus my Michelin's fixed the nibble. The dealership said that because the XLT wheels are not one piece and they are steal they are difficult to road force balance and this was after ordering a whole new set to pick out the best four.

 

I had the same problem and fixed it. The dealership tried five times to fix vibration/steering wheel nibble/seat of the pants vibration/etc. I took the truck to discount tire and paid for a road force balance. Three tires took over 37 pounds of force to balance out. This is out of OEM specification for the tires which basically means that no amount of balancing will do a thing for your vibrations. Dealership then replaced 3 tires which resulted in less vibration. They said they road forced them and no problems... Took it back to discount and paid again! Two new tires from BFG were bad, one took 23 pounds to balance. Replaced 2 more = 0 vibration. That time I just called BFG and spoke to the rep by phone. Had discount do the work. They all balanced out to less than 10 pounds of force. Also check for tread movement and stand your ground if it is excessive and get the tire replaced. Our trucks must have very well made tires not to feel vibration. One side note - in columbus ohio on local highway, work route, I can feel slight vibration from rear end. It is not the tires.... it's the shocks lack of ability to soak up some of the road variations. When traveling abroad I found 90% of the roads I drive don't give me a problem. Some people have changed rear shocks for Bilstien's and solved that issue as well. Hope this helps at least one person on the forum.

 

Not just 04's I have an 05 with it. And they try to convince people Those who have done susp work and tires that they did it . I put mine back to stock with a set of 6 ply tires to prove that it was the truck . With factory 3 ply's you can barley fill it .Make them ride with you its still There!

 

I had an 05 also with that problem and the dealer could never tell me what was wrong with it, got the tires balanced an infinity amount of times, they gave me the line that the set of tires i got was a bad set, i believed it the first time, but they then gave me the same line again on the second set, and the vibration was still there. I tried to lemon law it, and got a bull S*** response from the "non-partial" third party person who said that "she felt there had not been an efficient amount of repair attempts made to fix the problem" i just got tired of fighting it and traded it in for an 06 lariat. The problem has never came up in this new truck, Ford really Pissed me off with the deal that happened with my 05

 

my update.

I have an 04 150 SC...it has had issues with the steering wheel shake since day 1. They have tried 15 tires, new drive shaft, new rack etc. Truck still doing it at 27K miles, took back in today and now we are talking about a buy back. I hope to avoid this route as I have so much invested in this truck, wheels, stereo, but I wanted to let you know what the local ford rep told me today. She said that ford has fixes that are not listed by TSB. So they are trying those at this time. If not, then we go down the path of the buy back.

Cheers and good luck