I find it very hard to believe that the steering wheel nibble is a tire-wheel only problem. After reading countless statements from other Ford customers that have this problem I find that they were using different brand tires on different size rims on different models of F150's. 4x2, 4x4, long bed, short bed, on and on. It seems to me that you’re only temporarily hiding the symptom with a forced balance or just the right combo of rims and tires. The real problem must lie somewhere else like the steering rack or something that is more consistent with all Ford trucks. I would bet that as soon as you rotate the tires on your "fixed" F150 the problem will return.

 

My nibble was a hanging break caliper and I think the same for duke

 

Interesting, what did they do to diagnose and fix that? I have read about a guy that didn't have the problem until he started towing. People "solve" the problem with a balance and then on the next tire change or rotation it's back. Do Dodge and Chevy's shake the steering wheel at 60+ MPH when they have a hanging break caliper?

 

That's easy enough to determine. After driving a while, feel of your hubs. If you have one that's much hotter than the other 3, you've probably got a caliper that's sticking.

 

I got a road force balance (which I almost had to choke the service manager to get) and after he swore to me, on the life of his firstborn, that it would fix the problem, I still have the nibble. I have Goodyear tires on stock rims, and Goodyear and the stealership have said the tires are ok. I'm taking the truck back this week, anyone know what to check next?

 

My nibble disappeared when I switched from the 17" chrome wheels and Hankook's to the 18" FX4 wheels and Michelin's.

 

One thing I noticed is that if you jack up one side of the front end and leave the other on the ground you get a good amount of back and forth movement from wiggling the wheel. I know that this is usual for any vehicle as it is wiggling the other side at the same time, but it feels like there is more movement than I have ever felt before on other vehicles. I think the problem lie's in the steering rack. Here are the reasons:

It's a new design

It's related to all the "nibble" problems

It's something that Ford does not want to fix (cost)

It's something that can easily be blamed on something else (less expensive)

If it's the weakest link in the steering chain than anything that is out of wack in the slightest amount will cause the steering nibble.

When you start to analyze the "problems" that cause the nibble you realize that taken all together none of them are the cause, but only a contributor that is just enough to cause the steering nibble problem to become noticeable.

A list of the problems that cause the nibble:

Bad tires/rims

Unbalanced tires/rims

Lug nuts to loose or to tight

Hanging disk brake calipers

Improper fitment of wheel

Uneven tire wear

 

Just got back from having the wheels "Road Force Balanced" it didn't help. Then I stopped by the Ford dealer and talked with them for a while. I told them everything that I had done and they had one of the mechanics look at it. He crawled under the front of the truck and then told the service writer that I needed a new rack and pinion. He said that if it didn't have a "Green Dot" on the rack somewhere that the rack needed to be replaced. The rack is on order now and will be in next week. I am not sure if the green dot applies to other years. I'll let you know if that fixes it.

PS. My wife wants to know if Ford makes shopping carts too, she has the same problem on occasion.

 

Well, when the dealer looked at my steering rack they said it was already updated and didn't need to be replaced. They basicly gave up. Today I had 4 brand new tires installed and balanced. The problem is still there. Anyone?

 

i have a vibration around 50-60mph, sometimes its worse than others and sometimes its fine. i have MM 951's with 4.5 BS and 325/60/18 MT ATZ's. is this the vibration you are talkling about?

 

Guess I'm going to have to do out driving and get a video of my shake to see if all our shakes are the same.

 

Ok i got the video uploaded to my website. See if this is what you're talking about. Road is pretty smooth and level crusing @ 65ish and I didn't touch the wheel during the clip. Some roads are worse than others.

http://impact9.com/downloads/shimmy.wmv

 

That is mild compared to mine, but yes that's about it. Ford can't fix it and the dealer can't as well, were on are own here.

 

Lucky me.................I do not have the problem.

 

This worked out well for me
https://www.f150online.com/forums/sh...ight=Screw2004