Death Wobble Thread

[JIMBOJAMES]

I had horrible death wobble due to worn out ball joints.

 

[XJHummerRescue]

A combination of out of round tires and bad control arm bushings. New tires and control arms fixed the problem.

 

[Menzenski]

Mine was a bad front hub. My front end was more than a little messed up, but the hub going bad pushed it over the edge into death-wobble territory. Fixing that made the Jeep driveable again.

 

[JJacobs]

"steering stabilizer is a bandaid"-- Internet myth/ urban legend. BS.

I've personally had it caused by tires, LCA bushings, too much caster, too little caster, and wheel offset.

 

[Menzenski]

"steering stabilizer is a bandaid"-- Internet myth/ urban legend. BS.

Do you have anything to back that statement up? A properly set-up steering system doesn't even need a stabilizer, so I fail to see how a stabilizer could actually 'cure' death wobble.

 

[JJacobs]

Some factory systems need 'em and some don't, some lifted rigs go nuts without one and others are fine. It's one more element in a system- if the factory saw fit to install a stabilizer it was for a good reason.

An XJ unibody short arm suspension isn't really a tight system, it's more like a bunch of parts headed the same general direction at the same time. Why limit yourself by leaving a stabilizer off and calling it a bandaid? Put the damn thing on, odds are you'll need it.. but not everybody does.

Here's some (paraphrased) interesting reading.

PROBLEM:
Some 2005-2006 F-Super Duty vehicles may exhibit steering wheel oscillation (back and forth motion), immediately following front or rear wheel impacts (pavement joints, frost heaves, rough roads, etc.). Steering wheel motion is usually in the range of ± 5 degrees, and typically dampens out in fewer than five oscillations. (Although some will go into full blown wobble, which this TSB fixes) This condition occurs mostly on 4x4 vehicles, and is more evident on trucks equipped with a gas engine.

ACTION:
Refer to the following Service Procedure to minimize the steering wheel oscillations on impacts, however, there may be some remaining minor oscillation which would be considered normal. (!!)

SERVICE PROCEDURE

Perform the following:

Vehicle Inspection (first mentioned is condition of steering damper/ stabilizer)
Evaluation Of Vehicle Prior To Repair
Steering Gear Mesh Load Adjustment
Front Alignment and Reduce Front Caster
Replacement Of Redundant Control Steering Wheel (if equipped and vehicle built prior to 10/8/2004) (the 'system' thing again, an incorrectly weighted steering wheel can cause the problem)

So as you can see, a major manufacturer is still chasing wobble problems and a damper failure will cause DW *on that vehicle*, I'm not saying it's a direct cause on an XJ but something that can't be simply dismissed as a bandaid.

 

[JKTXJ]

I hate death wobble and my last bout lasted forever. I tried everything too (including golf balls ) and ultimately the only thing that worked was going from rubber LCA bushings to RE's new three piece poly unit.

 

[Brad M.]

:bs:

Probably your bushings were worn OR you had some bunk angles. Short arms or long arms are not the causes of death wobble. I have had short, long, and now on mid. Actually the WORST issue was because of the long arms and the leverage they had on the bushings.

But what do I know? I don't wheel

Guess I should have explained better, was just trying to give a short, quick answer. Since the jeep was only 5 mo's old (bought new) when I put the first kit on there it's not likely that it was bushings. It was an RE kit with fixed arms. The alignment shop had a real hard time for some reason getting it dialed in but after some time on the phone with RE and a new set of adjustable LCA's they got it all straightened out. Once the alignment was where it needed to be the wobble was gone. Couple years later I upgraded to the Pricejacker 6" (and I stand corrected as that is considered more of a mid-arm kit than long arm) and have not had any issues with it either. So as I said in the original post it was alignment...

 

[JEEPTUBE]

I had violent evil demon wobbles. felt like it was going to rip itself apart.
Put new bushings on the control arms.
And it was 90 percent better.
Wheel bearings are good and i replaced all the TRE's and trackbar. Got an allighnment.
balanced tires. new shocks and stablizer.
But something is still there, just a hint of the evil.

 

[JEEPTUBE]

If it happenes again, ill just replace the heap!

 

[PW1XJ99]

My Jeep is getting a bad wobble now. It only does it when I'm slowing down between 60-40 MPH. Anything higher or lower and it doesn't wobble. It's not the rotors, they are new. Plus it wobbles like a mofo, not like warrped rotors.

It started doing it after I went wheelin' hard one day. I'm probably going to start with bushings.. Every bolt up front is tight and torqued. I do have a trac-bar off a TJ, (with less than 3,000 miles) I wonder if that will bolt up.. hehe, If not maybe I can press the bushing out and put it in mine.

(I won't vote til I figure it out)

 

[PW1XJ99]

Score I also have new LCA's from the same TJ with less then 3,000 miles in them! I'll start with the tracbar, and see if it still does it. I don't want to replace everyting at once, because I want to know the cause!!!!!! :gonnablow

 

[Nickster]

I had a severe case of dw with 8'' lift , d44/9'', and crossover steering. I bought dedenbear ford flat tops, parts mike high steer arms, and fabbed a high steer setup. New bfg mt's, alignment, everything i can think of is tight, every bushing/bearing/bolt/joint/and screw is stout... and with a total of 2500$ my dw is STILL there, the LCA bushing on the diff. side is warped though, so im going with a poly piece... that could be the key to success.:dunno:

 

[XJSpencer]

I had a severe case of dw with 8'' lift , d44/9'', and crossover steering. I bought dedenbear ford flat tops, parts mike high steer arms, and fabbed a high steer setup. New bfg mt's, alignment, everything i can think of is tight, every bushing/bearing/bolt/joint/and screw is stout... and with a total of 2500$ my dw is STILL there, the LCA bushing on the diff. side is warped though, so im going with a poly piece... that could be the key to success.:dunno:

steering gear?

I think mine is still lingering because of steering gear has a lot of play. I'm going to adjust it this weekend....or..replace it.

 

[Nickster]

The steering box/gear is a viable option, and i 2nd the alignment/tire balance issue. I have a lot of play up front but no DW b/c of the alignment and tire balance i just got done. Any one use or familiar with the dyna beads for tire balancing and how worthy they are for tire balancing?

 

[P1atinum]

Not really death wobble but had some shaking due to Alignment caused by a bad ball joint, which in turn chopped the tires and made it worse.

 

[MATTVW65]

Heres the deal, I had Big O tires do some adusting on my front end and who knows why, but they took my track bar off. Well they put everything back togetther and about 2 weeks latter major death wobble occured. Come to find out after closer inspection when they replaced the track bar they installed it on the outside of the bracket so it had worked its way loose. Needless to say, I recieved a big apology, a free alighnment and a refund on the work that was previously done. I guess I looked mad.

 

[raypla]

Not to highjack or nothing, but I felt it was better than starting a new thread, first off 99 XJ AW4 2 " OME lift.

I never had DW before the lift and I already had an alignment after, then I lifted my XJ and I was going down the highway at about 70-75mph, and bam DW. But thats not my only problem, and I searched like a Son of A beotch, when ever I hit a pot hole, frost heave, or something else in the road, there is this rattling noise (sounds like a baby rattle) coming from the front end. I'm pretty sure this is the cause of the DW.

I got down on my hands and knees looked all over, grabbed everything and shook it up and down all over. I couldn't find jack took the wheel off and shook everything, nothing. My swaybar bushings are worn pretty good, disconnected my swaybar ends and took a ride around the block, still there.

Its getting worse and the rattle was there even before my lift. I checked my trackbar, nice and tight. Everything under ther "seems" to be tight, being summer and all riding around w/the windows down its starting to get extremely annoying. Its so bad it makes me want touke:

PLEASE HELP :dunno:

 

[PW1XJ99]

I put a another track bar on today from a TJ that had 3,000 miles on it.

Still got it. Oh, and now I need an alignment but I'm going to wait til I put the new (to me) LCA's on. I hope after I get the alignment it might go away. :explosion

 

[fireLt.]

Crappy track bar and steering linkage geometry issues. Relocated a replacement custom track bar to the top of the axle and went to a custom steering set up.