2004 FX4 slight wobble with speeds 65+

[mdiiorio]

Hello everyone,

I have a highway wobble on my 2004 FX4 I’ve been chasing for a while. It’s been going on for years honestly and gradually getting more noticeable. It’s at speeds of 65+, and gets noticeably worse faster than this. It’s a wobble in the steering wheel, seats, and pedal. It’s actually similar to death wobble, just much more mild.

I’ve ruled out tires, as it did it with my previous tires and they’ve been balanced and rotated a few times since putting on new tires and the problem has remained the same.

Inner and outer tie rod ends, and sway bar links were verifiably bad and were replaced as needed. I was almost certain this was the issue, but it still persists.

After replacing the above components there is no play when rocking the tires while in the air, all my bushings seem tight as well as ball joints. My hunch right now is lower ball joints, and I know they could still be going bad and just not be showing any play yet unloaded, but I don’t like to blindly replace parts unless I’m sure they are bad.

Anyone have any tips or things I might be missing here?

Thanks in advance

 

[franklin2]

I tried to look, I think your truck has a steering rack and pinion? I have had this problem before on a conventional steering, and the idler arm had up and down play, everything else was good and replaced.

You most likely do not have a idler arm since you have a rack, but could the rack have play, letting the end link and tie rod move slightly? I would grab the tie rod and shaft coming out of the rack and see if it moves up and down. Not necessarily back and forth, but up and down play, which would let the tire move back and forth ever so slightly.

Since you have been driving it and it's getting worse, it might be easier to find this time. I am not sure if you could detect it by jacking each front tire off the ground a little bit under the lower arm, and then grabbing the tire at 3 o clock and 9 o clock and try wiggling it.

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

You might check the shocks as well.

 

[pjtoledo]

ball joints don't cause wobbles that get worse with speed. but a worn ball joint may allow something that is wobbling get worse, same with shocks.
one wheel at a time, raise it up and spin the wheel slowly looking and feeling it for things out of round.
hold something near the wheel lips and check for running true.

do a slow cruise at 35-45 mph on something smooth and see if there is slight wobbling. that will be bent stuff not out of balance .

what kind and size of tires?

 

[mdiiorio]

ball joints don't cause wobbles that get worse with speed. but a worn ball joint may allow something that is wobbling get worse, same with shocks.
one wheel at a time, raise it up and spin the wheel slowly looking and feeling it for things out of round.
hold something near the wheel lips and check for running true.

do a slow cruise at 35-45 mph on something smooth and see if there is slight wobbling. that will be bent stuff not out of balance .

what kind and size of tires?

Just stock. 245 75 16.

 

[SenorNoob]

Check out the back too. I had a very bad vibration. Felt like driving down the side of the highway. Could've sworn it was in the front.

Ended up being the bolts on the front flange of the rear driveshaft loose.

If you can't find anything maybe a shop with an on vehicle balancer? No idea what that costs, just seen a couple videos of it.

 

[ekrampitzjr]

Check the front wheel bearings and make sure they're properly tightened. My experience with my 2WD Ranger is that I need to tweak the spindle nut a tiny bit about every 10,000–15,000 miles to eliminate the small amount of play that bearing wear causes.

If you jack up each wheel (don't remove the wheel) and check for play, bearing wear will show up as up-and-down end play much like a bad ball joint. As the bearings wear, you will have a smaller amount of side-to-side play much like a bad tie rod end.

The amount you need to tighten the spindle nut to eliminate the play is small. It shouldn't be even 1/4 turn if the bearings had been installed properly originally. But that small amount is critical.

You can do this with the wheel on the truck, which is better for checking play. Just remove the center cap of the wheel and then the grease cap.