Death wobble- fixed!!

[dusty6850]

So I was unaware of the death wobble phenomena when I purchased my JL couple months ago. When I test drove it- it was only around town, not at interstate speed. A couple weeks after the purchase I got on the highway and whoa...... crazy front end movement whin hitting even a small bump at speed.

I had a my lift kit and all that goes with it in the garage. Installed it by the book, bolted on the new 35's, had it aligned.

Voila!!!!! Wobble is gone!!!!

Not sure if it was the alignment or suspension- or both. Just happy its gone and wanted to share

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[Ratbert]

Does this sum it up?

Something was loose, resulting in death wobble. You replaced indeterminate lift kit stuff. Problem solved!​

 

[Jeep Wick]

So I was unaware of the death wobble phenomena when I purchased my JL couple months ago. When I test drove it- it was only around town, not at interstate speed. A couple weeks after the purchase I got on the highway and whoa...... crazy front end movement whin hitting even a small bump at speed.

I had a my lift kit and all that goes with it in the garage. Installed it by the book, bolted on the new 35's, had it aligned.

Voila!!!!! Wobble is gone!!!!

Not sure if it was the alignment or suspension- or both. Just happy its gone and wanted to share

Did your kit include a track bar? I replaced mine and the steering stabilizer, that worked great for me. Longer control arms fixed wandering steering.

 

[dusty6850]

thats the short and sweet version

 

[dusty6850]

Did your kit include a track bar? I replaced mine and the steering stabilizer, that worked great for me. Longer control arms fixed wandering steering.

I did replace all of those parts as well. Same with the wander- it has gone away.

Really pleased with how it rides now

 

[jeepingib]

I did replace all of those parts as well. Same with the wander- it has gone away.

Really pleased with how it rides now

Track bar looseness is a leading cause. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[R3TRO]

So looks like you bought it used. Did it already have a lift on it from previous owner or was it stock?

 

[73TAWM]

So I was unaware of the death wobble phenomena when I purchased my JL couple months ago. When I test drove it- it was only around town, not at interstate speed. A couple weeks after the purchase I got on the highway and whoa...... crazy front end movement whin hitting even a small bump at speed.

I had a my lift kit and all that goes with it in the garage. Installed it by the book, bolted on the new 35's, had it aligned.

Voila!!!!! Wobble is gone!!!!

Not sure if it was the alignment or suspension- or both. Just happy its gone and wanted to share

They rebalanced your tires when you switched to 35s. I'm sure you were going to get the lift anyway but I'd bet a thousand US dollars that's all it was. When you say "after bump in road" that's the dead give away to unbalanced tires. But a lot of cats on this forum would have you spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to change things not needing changed. That goes for all those silly Facebook Jeep groups as well.

 

[_olllllllo_]

Worn out OEM ball joints are another common cause. I replaced mine at 85,000 miles after 29,000 miles on 35s. Bigger tires and a lift add extra strain to the ball joints. I went with Synergy HD and am switching to Dynatrac rebuildable ones next.

 

[Ratbert]

They rebalanced your tires when you switched to 35s. I'm sure you were going to get the lift anyway but I'd bet a thousand US dollars that's all it was. When you say "after bump in road" that's the dead give away to unbalanced tires. But a lot of cats on this forum would have you spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to change things not needing changed. That goes for all those silly Facebook Jeep groups as well.

I've never heard of an out of balance tire being the primary cause of death wobble. I can imagine those vibrations getting in sync with the resonate frequency of whatever's screwed up, but it's hard to fathom an out of balance tire, by itself, resulting in death wobble.

 

[danidragonfly]

They rebalanced your tires when you switched to 35s. I'm sure you were going to get the lift anyway but I'd bet a thousand US dollars that's all it was. When you say "after bump in road" that's the dead give away to unbalanced tires. But a lot of cats on this forum would have you spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars to change things not needing changed. That goes for all those silly Facebook Jeep groups as well.

Yep! This is exactly all I needed to do to fix my dw a couple of months ago. Worked like a charm.

 

[73TAWM]

I've never heard of an out of balance tire being the primary cause of death wobble. I can imagine those vibrations getting in sync with the resonate frequency of whatever's screwed up, but it's hard to fathom an out of balance tire, by itself, resulting in death wobble.

That's because it's not actual DW. But because it wobbles so much, people automatically assume it's the dreaded DW and once they mention DW, everyone else assumes it's DW so they start diagnosing it as such. Causing the owner to spend a bunch of money before checking the most common cause and cheapest fix of balancing the tires. This will not fix real DW, but everyone always assumes they have DW.

 

[dusty6850]

So looks like you bought it used. Did it already have a lift on it from previous owner or was it stock?

It was bone stock. I did all the work myself. It actually rides better all around now..

I've never heard of an out of balance tire being the primary cause of death wobble. I can imagine those vibrations getting in sync with the resonate frequency of whatever's screwed up, but it's hard to fathom an out of balance tire, by itself, resulting in death wobble.

I’m with Ratbert on this one. I work for a tire manufacture- tires don’t cause what this rig did

 

[Ratbert]

That's because it's not actual DW. But because it wobbles so much, people automatically assume it's the dreaded DW and once they mention DW, everyone else assumes it's DW so they start diagnosing it as such. Causing the owner to spend a bunch of money before checking the most common cause and cheapest fix of balancing the tires. This will not fix real DW, but everyone always assumes they have DW.

You're thinking this:

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A couple weeks after the purchase I got on the highway and whoa...... crazy front end movement whin hitting even a small bump at speed.​

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describes an out of balance wheel?

Maybe you have different experiences with an out of balance wheel, but whenever I've had really shitty balancing the steering wheel would shake like hell. Yes, there's going to be a tiny bit of front end movement associated with that steering wheel shake, but not "crazy front end movement."

 

[dusty6850]

Yep! This is exactly all I needed to do to fix my dw a couple of months ago. Worked like a charm.

Happy yours is gone to- it was the worst..

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