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Vibration at 51 mph

Peter D

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Marietta, GA
Hey fellas. Glad I found this website. I have a question.

I have a '00 XJ 4wd that has a light shimmy/makes-the-steering-wheel-vibrate right at 51/52 mph. It started early last year. It doesn't do it at speeds under 51/52 or over. It's not real bad by any means but was wondering what a possible diagnosis might be. Shocks are all perfect. Just turned 95,000 mi. Thanks in advance.
 
mine does too at just a touch higher, say 53-55. I wonder if that's just where wheel vibrations match the natural frequency of the unibody.
 
Check your tire balance, also check for an out of round tire. My '98 did the same thing. Took it back to NTB for the free balance, found that two of the tires were somewhat out of round, even though there was still fairly good tread left. The balance helped, but new tires made it go away.
 
I don't think it's the tires. I just had new tires put on it 3 weeks ago. Balanced and everything. Goodyear Wrangler radials. Before that I had Michelins. I was thinking more along the lines of something in the steering linkage. Like I said it's not that bad but if it's something that can be fixed for cheap or done myself I'd like to fix it.

Cheers
 
I have a very similar problem with my 99 with 125k. My vibration is between 55-60 ONLY and it's a light vibration, nothing serious or overly concerning and it really hasn't gotten any worse in the last 20k since I first noticed it. I can feel it a bit in the wheel at 55-60 and I can look over and see the empty passenger seat shake a bit when it happens. It isn't a huge deal but these types of things kind of bug me and challenge me to find out why it's happening.

I have eliminated wheels and tires as a root cause. Shocks are pretty new. New tires made no difference (it needed new tires anyways) and I also spun up each wheel by itself and they're perfectly in balance. Wheel/tire location (rotation) makes no difference on my vibration.

I had it up on a hoist in a shop and three of us couldn't find any slop on any steering or front end hardware but as the vibration is pretty light and subtle, we could have easily missed it.

WHILE I UNDERSTAND that the steering damper doesn't actually create vibrations nor fix them, my understanding is that it can help in tempering them, and as the damper tube it is covered with an oil film and is the original with 125k on it, I'm going to replace it (they're cheap and easy to replace) and see if that makes any difference while I continue to search for the root cause.

Anybody else have any ideas for us guys??
 
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I have the exact same problem between the 51-52 range. 2000 XJ Sport. Just enough shake to make it annoying, but needs to be dealt with ASAP. I have had a 1 3/4 inch BB on it for 3 years with no problems until now. I recently had all 4 wheels/tires balanced with no improvement. On an unrelated note I changed the axleshaft u-joint on the passanger side because it started to clicketty click- still no improvement. Hub assembly? Lower CA's? :wow: Somebody HELP a Jeeper out!!!
 
I have the exact same problem between the 51-52 range. 2000 XJ Sport. Just enough shake to make it annoying, but needs to be dealt with ASAP. I have had a 1 3/4 inch BB on it for 3 years with no problems until now. I recently had all 4 wheels/tires balanced with no improvement. On an unrelated note I changed the axleshaft u-joint on the passanger side because it started to clicketty click- still no improvement. Hub assembly? Lower CA's? :wow: Somebody HELP a Jeeper out!!!
 
I have the same thing going on with my 99 check my post called Weird Vibration in this forum.
 
Not a Cherokee thing b/c mine does fine at all speeds under 85mph. I have BFG 31s too. Like I would go that fast with gas at the current prices.
 
I had a vibration issue, steering wheel back and forth, at certain speeds. Front tire balancing always fixed it, mostly. After a few months it would come back. Back in October I lifted and put on 32x11.5 BFG's. Rock solid now. Truly a joy to drive. Reminds me of how it was when I first got it back in 98.
Now I did have a NTB front end alignment after the lift/tire/wheel install. ;)
 
I chased this for months, literally months.
I got new tires - same same.
I replaced all TRE's (incl. draglink) - Nope
Checked the bearings and ball joint play - All good
Had the tires re-balanced - Nope
Replaced the stabilizer - Nope
Had the tires re-balanced and rotated - Nothin
Replaced the brake rotors (they needed replacing anyway) No change.
Had the tires re-balanced- Nope
Had it aligned- Not that either.

...Finally I had the tires balanced by another shop (Big O).

Problem went away, like magic. The guy at Big O showed my how far out of whack the wheels had been balanced by Les Schwab. I'm not slamming Les Schwab in general, just the tech that worked on my Jeep (or his equipment).

Do you have Jeep wheels that can only hold weights on the inside??
That was part of my problem. Now I have some Soft-8's and they balance out perfectly. Smooth as silk - well, for an XJ it's smooth. No vibes or shimmies at any speed.
 
Paradise--

Been there done all that. I am down to my 105k mile LCA's being bad.
 
Just a thought. have you tried pulling the front driveshaft? How about the rear (assuming you have a SYE so your transfer case fluid doesn't go all over). My odd vibration ended up being the front driveshaft.
 
I have a '99 and I had a wobble between 51 and 58. My driver's side wheel hub assembly was cracked. Replaced it (at far too much of a cost) and there's nary a wobble now. I also had the tires balanced, but I was told the balance may have been thrown off because of the wobble.
 
So where was it cracked and how did you diagnose it? I give mine the 3 and 9 check and they are both quite tight. I ran 80 miles to work and back with no front DS and there was no difference.
 
I am in no means trying to steal Peter D's thread orHasta but wanted to make a list of potential problems/causes to troubleshoot for front-end vibration. Let me know if this is somewhat accurate. A lot of these came from various threads throughout the site. Steering dampers/stabilizers, shocks and alignments can make this worse, but is not generally the root cause.

Have a buddy move the steering wheel back and forth with the engine off and the steering column not locked to identify any excess movement from steering or suspesion components.

To also help narrow it down and/or isolate the area, you can work from the transfer out or hubs back by removing the shafts one at a time (axleshafts-front driveshaft). That being said, I will try and list them from the tranfer forward (4x4).

driveshaft bent
driveshaft u-joint(s)
pinion bearing
UCA/LCA
UCA/LCA bushings
TRE's
axleshaft
axle flange
axleshaft u-joint
hub/bearings
brakes pads
rotors
tire balance
alternate wheel weights
tire rotation

I am not trying to come off like some all knowing pompus a$$, but this site was meant to help each other out, right?! Just trying to encompass the multiple "vibration" issues. Hell, this could have already been done already, but I stopped the search around 20 threads. Yeah, Jeepers are a different breed and by proxy- hardcore, but vote NO for vibration!!! Okay, I'm off the box.:eyes:
 
I had the same problem at 55 mph. It appeared just after I did a front end rebuild. (New hubs, new u-joints, new ball joints) So I did the tire balance thing (BFG 32's). Then a front end alignment. Then driveshaft balance. I had a bent rear driveshaft. Then another wheel balance. Still had it.

I had the opportunity to follow my wife driving it on the turnpike, and saw that the left front was not running true. My wife noticed the shimmy.

So I jacked it up and turned the wheel. There was a quarter inch axial runout on the tire. So I checked the rim - 0.100 inch axial runout. Bent Rim? Not! Took the wheel off and bolted the brake rotor on. 0.050 axial runout. Ended up there was 0.040 axial runout on the hub. I verified it on the bench.

It was a new Timken hub. So I took it to Auto Zone and told them it was defective. They gave me a new one. Voila! Problem solved.

All of the suggestions so far could cause the problem. It's a matter of systematically eliminating them as the cause.
 
Hi guys

Vibrations at 50-60 mph always point to an imbalance in the "rotating mass", ie your tire because of the nature of the suspension

Natural frequencies of suspension systems are usually in the area of 10 Hz, very low because of the relatively low spring rates of your suspension (compared to your unibody). 55MPH on a jeep running a stock 225 tire, (27"ish inches) is a rotating frequency of 11.5 Hz (rotations/sec). You're hitting a resonance frequency because you're right around the natural frequecy of the suspension of the car. Balance the imbalance and your problem is solved. Bearing, out of round tires, improper balance, bent rims, etc

Greg
 
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