I had recently noticed a shimmy at about 55 mph on my '04 super cab xlt. I took it to ford and they turned the rotors and replaced the ball joints. since then, the shimmy is still there but the truck now seems to be very shaky. There is an almost constant, subtle shake at any speed and when you hit a bump, especially with only one tire, the truck shakes like a bobble head doll for a few seconds. Everyone notices it except for, you guessed it, every ford employee i have asked to check it out. Please let me know if you have any ideas as to what may have happened.

thanks in advance for the help.

Derrell Simpson

 

have you thought about changing the shocks? what does the tire wear pattern look like?

 

brand new BF Goodrich tires. had an alignment done after the ball joints were replaced. Thought about shocks, but what would cause the problem RIGHT AFTER the ball joint replacement? I don't know.

Thank for the reply!!
DS

 

X2 on the shocks. Its at least a good place to start.

 

Shocks all around and Coils up front should be replaced. If you go over a bump, and feel like its taking longer for the tire to "plant" back on the ground, its the coils being worn out. Shocks will improve this, but if you don't do the coil as well, you'll just wear out those shocks faster than normal.

 

when you say the tire shakes the only thing that i can think of other than what others have already mentioned is a wheel bearing. Hope you can get it figured out. Jesse

 

thanks for all the responses!
DS

 

You should hear the wheel bearing going before you feel it.

 

On second thought, it could be a bad wheel bearing causing your rotors to wear poorly.

Also check that you haven't lost a balancing weight on your rims.

Could be a defective tire if the shimmy started then.

 

with respect to other's opinions................

Bad shocks will cause bad wear patterns on the front tires. If you got more than 40,000miles, I'll bet shocks. Unless you have had some very rugged off road time, it's doubtful that the front springs are worn out, if you do change the shocks, rotate the tires too.

Ball joints and alignment were prob'ly 4 times the cost of new shocks. If your repair/front end shop didn't suggest new shocks first( or in addition to the other work) I think I'd find another shop.........

Shocks are critical to front end problems/performance and usually are the first thing to need replacement...... also usually the cheapest thing to correct.