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2005 dodge Dakota 4 wheel drive
Front end shimmies at time on the highway and if you apply the brakes it feels much worse.  Brought it to the dealer they said it was tie rod ends and replaced them. No help. Now they're sayinfg its the brakes. replaced them. no help. obviously the dealer doesn't know what it is.
Any ideas?  

so.. your truck is a 4x4...   independent front suspension...  rack and pinion steering...

with the wheels pointed straight ahead... somebody sitting in the drivers seat...  the parking brake on..    reach through the window and see how much turn of the steering wheel (rocking back and forth) it takes the tires to react..    if you have any play anywhere.. you have to find and replace that part...

the play could be in the steering shaft from the bottom of the column inside through the floor and down to the rack and pinion...

the play could be internally in the rack and pinion unit..

you said they replaced the Outer ?? tie rod ends..   how are the inners...

How many thousand miles does your truck have.. Over 100K miles.????

it could also be the ball joints.. upper and lower.. that are worn...  are they grease able....????    if you grease them... and the problem goes away for a short while.. they are worn..

who was the last person to balance your tires????   look at where the balance weights are placed...   once in a while.. tire balancers get out of calibration...  and the tech places weights at 3 locations to get it to balance..

how much MUD in on the inside of the wheels????   how worn are the front tires....   are they larger than what came stock???    do the rims have a different offset than factory rims????

the last thing..   got some friends with good vision.. who can drive along side..   and see if the tire is

bouncing up and down...

wobbling back and forth...



up and down points toward shocks.. and tire balance and run out..   ( run out is a tire that is not a perfect circle anymore)
it could also be a tire belt coming apart..  that will usually make  the truck do a wobble dance at low speeds also...

back and forth wobbles...     are usually in the steering linkages..
play somewhere... as described above...

post what you find...  

All 4 tires are new after the problem began.
Yes they replaced inner and outer tie rod ends
The truck has 53k miles
No mud
tires and rims are same as from the factory.
THis began only happening at high speeds and very intermittantly. It seems to be getting worse and happening at lower sppeds not 50-60. Havent had it happen at lower than that. It feels and sounds like a vibration. The whole truck seems to vibrate. If you step on the brake the steering wheel vibrates enough to almost make you want to pull over. The problem is it won't ahppen when i have the service guy in the truck.  

again... the only way is to find where any slack is in the various suspension and steering parts...  

you still need to see if it is an up and down motion.. or a back and forth motion..

i don't think there is anywhere to install a steering damper...  perhaps there is...

it might be able to be done... depending on how the outer tie rod end is locked to the inner threaded tie rod end..  

If it only shimmies at freeway speeds then i would check the tires for impropper balance, a balancing weight may have fallen off. If it shimmies at all speeds then typically it is not balance related and more then likely is steering/suspension issue ie. out of alignment, worn ball joint, worn wheel bearings. Important to note that if it is having an issue while the brakes arent applied then more then likely it is not brake related.