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F250 - Steering problems

Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 15:54

Gurns

We are having problems with the steering & front end on our 2004 F250 & are trying to find out as much about it as possible. Is anyone else having steering related problems with their F250?? Have you found the cause??
ThreadID: 25288 Replies: 8
Views: 2048 FollowUps: 11
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AnswerID: 123370   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 16:36

Member - Geoff M (Newcastle) replied:

Front end still setup to compensate for the Left Hand Drive road camber???

Geoff.

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Geoff,
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Grey hair is hereditary, you get it from children. Baldness is caused by watching the Wallabies.
Reply 1 of 8
AnswerID: 123408   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 18:52

Exploder replied:

What do you mean steering problems, What is it doing?
Reply 2 of 8
AnswerID: 123463   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 22:03

Gurns replied:

Steering problems are vague wandering over the road. Have had tie rod ends replaced at 9000kms. Have been advised that ball joints will require replacing before we get to 50 000kms. Have also had steering box adjusted 3.5 turns on one occasion, without obvious reason as to cause of need for adjustment. Car now has 26 000kms and is wandering all over the road, sometimes needing in excess of 2 inches of steering wheel movement to get a response from the vehicle.
Reply 3 of 8
AnswerID: 123475   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 22:42

snowman replied:

"http://domain.com/path">forums.thedieselstop.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=99upgen1
use the search function, heaps of info
Cheers Dave
Reply 4 of 8
FollowupID: 378494   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 22:45

Gurns posted:

Search function where?? on the whole web or just on this site?? What are you typing in?? What I type doesn't give me much...

Cheers
FollowUp 1 of 7
FollowupID: 378495   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 22:48

snowman posted:

That didn't work the way i wanted.
Go to www.thedieselstop.com
click on forum then under 1999-and up superduties click on general questions, then do a search "wandering steering"
cheers Dave
FollowUp 2 of 7
FollowupID: 378497   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 23:00

Gurns posted:

this is good info - thanks. However these all seem to be American trucks. Ours is a factory converted/imported Australian vehicle - You know - Made in Brazil. Don't know of any Aussie sites???
FollowUp 3 of 7
FollowupID: 378499   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 23:17

snowman posted:

I dont know of any Australian sites. I have a 2005 model F250. As far as i can work it out our f250's are the same as the 2003 US models. My steering is fine so far(9500km). I can buy filters from sponsors of the site and have them here cheaper than i can get them here in Australia.
Its a great site with heaps of info that relates to our F250's.
cheers Dave
FollowUp 4 of 7
FollowupID: 378500   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 23:23

Gurns posted:

The US trucks only have the one steering box - I am lead to believe we have 2. They left the original box in place and connected it with an extra arm to the second box, then up to the cab, but otherwise, yes, I believe they are mostly the same truck. Will definately look at the filters etc.
Is yours the 7.3 or the 4.2??? I have heard that the 4.2's don't have any problems. Have a mate who's just had both ball joints etc replaced in his @ 45 000kms.
Cheers
FollowUp 5 of 7
FollowupID: 378502   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 23:44

snowman posted:

I have 7.3 crew cab auto. From what i have seen on this site most problems with the f250 seem to be with work one's which are given a flogging. The powerstrokeshop site is where i have ordered my filters from. The postage for sending them here is about $6 per item(3 x fuel, 3 x oil & 3 x air filters). Fleetguard fuel filter here is $70 + dollars, i can get the same filter in the US for $29 Australian plus the $6 postage. Great savings when you order a few filters at a time.
cheers Dave
FollowUp 6 of 7
FollowupID: 378504   Submitted: Tuesday, Aug 02, 2005 at 23:58

Gurns posted:

We have same. Unfortunately ours is personal use and only seen the dirt for less than 2000kms. Is pretty frustrating - dealerships are refusing to look at the vehicle. Have heard that a lot of tourists coming through (towing vans etc) are having similar problems...

Sad thing is you buy a truck and expect it to last for at least 300 000kms beforehaving to look at this sort of stuff!!

Have just replaced the fuel filter when we put in the bigger tank. Can't remember what we paid?..!!

A good Aussie website is ftrucks.com.au (F Trucks WA)
If you are after mags, go to Ron's Rims in America (email ronsrims@aol.com) We saved nearly $600 on our purchase of five rims after paying freight/customs!!

Well cheers for the info and hope you enjoy your truck!!
FollowUp 7 of 7
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AnswerID: 123499   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 03, 2005 at 08:24

Utemad replied:

We have two in our family business. A 2004 and a 2003. Both 7.3L dual cab 4x4s XLT. Combined we have clocked up 150k. From our experience they have both wandered all over the road since new. So much so that you get tired from constantly correcting your course. I have better steering in my Rodeo with 170km on it! They do mainly easy highway kms. They are always serviced at Ford who of course deny any knowledge of a problem when it arises. However we have had some steering work done in Brisbane by a non-dealer steering specialist who told us that these utes are prone to doing this. He also said that some parts (????) constantly needed replacing as they wore out really quickly. Apparently if you pushed Ford they would just keep replacing the parts under warranty but that part wasn't an improved one just the same as the original so of course it just wears out quickly too. He reckons that he sees heaps of F250s coming into his shop and all with the same steering problem. Keep a close eye on your front tyres as they wear on the inside prematurely because of it.

I can see this being one of those vehicles people look back in a few years and laugh at i.e. Ford Exploder.
Reply 5 of 8
FollowupID: 378538   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 03, 2005 at 10:01

Gurns posted:

We have had some parts replaced - they put in genuine FORD parts that were made in Korea!!
Our steering specialist (non dealer) says he sees plenty. Even the ambulances are having serious problems. Would like to find bullet proof components from the states in the hope that this would fix the problem. Got some beautiful mags sitting here that we won't put on the vehice because Ford have said they will affect the warranty.

What the heck are we all meant to do once the warranty runs out on these cars?? Our steering guy has said that it will be in excess of $4k to relace all tie rod ends and ball joints. Dunno about you, but we can't afford to do that every 40 000kms.
FollowUp 1 of 3
FollowupID: 378565   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 03, 2005 at 13:18

Utemad posted:

My advice is to either sell it or buy the extended warranty :-(

Have you had your rear shackles replaced? Ours were done not so long ago. I found an official notice about the rubbers destroying themselves and the pins and side plates getting steel on steel. However even with that Ford denied the problem existed. Even when I met another owner in the service lounge who was having his replaced at that very moment at that very dealership!!!
After a bit of arguing the guy admitted that they had replaced a heap on ambulances before!!!
Even then he wanted me to take him out to the vehicle to show him the problem. This is after we had complained of a clicking in the rear suspension when dropping off driveway/gutters every service.

Do dealers really believe their customers are brain dead?
FollowUp 2 of 3
FollowupID: 378662   Submitted: Wednesday, Aug 03, 2005 at 19:26

Gurns posted:

They must do! It's ridiculous really. Gone are the days when the customer is always right.
You should try being a sheila and getting them to listen to you!! Damn near impossible I'm telling ya!!! Am getting our steering checked tomorrow with Ford, pity it costs us a 500km round trip just to get it looked at! Will let you know how it turns out!
FollowUp 3 of 3
AnswerID: 123732   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 04, 2005 at 01:17

Member - Blue (VIC) replied:

Gurns try a href="http://www.truckwhisperer.com/">The Truck Whisperer

These guy's are legends, met a bloke at Avoca who had an F250(not sure of the model though) got talking about how well the truck performed, he reckoned the thing steered like a pig until these guy's fixed it... Also plenty of testimonials out there from guy's with prime movers that these guy's have worked miracles on.

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Reply 6 of 8
FollowupID: 378711   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 04, 2005 at 01:19

Member - Blue (VIC) posted:

Lets see what I did wrong there... I hope this one works...

The Truck Whisperer

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FollowUp 1 of 1
AnswerID: 123829   Submitted: Thursday, Aug 04, 2005 at 18:01

PhilRob replied:

I had an F series years ago and it was a steering disaster, you will waste all your
time and money trying to sort these things out and you probably still won't win, I
had countless heart pulpitations on the road when I turned the wheel expecting it
to do what I wanted and it didn't.
Reply 7 of 8
AnswerID: 124126   Submitted: Saturday, Aug 06, 2005 at 21:41

peteC replied:

Strange, I can remember my father telling my brother when he bought an F100 more than 30 years ago to be carful of the steering. He was in the mining/construction industry and they had a lot of them. He said the F100s were deadly because of some strange steering habits.
30 years on looks like not much has changed. From some of the replies above could have something to do with the left hand drive conversion.
Reply 8 of 8

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