21 JL Death wabble

[Steveb05]

I have a 2021 JL 2 door with 35,000 miles and I experienced death wobble today while driving on the interstate after i hit a bump. Is this an indication that its time for some front end work. If so where do I start

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[andy29847]

I have a 2121 JL 2 door with 35,000 miles and I experienced death wobble today while driving on the interstate after i hit a bump. Is this an indication that its time for some front end work. If so where do I start

Death Wobble is when it shakes so bad that it is tearing up parts and the shake will NOT stop unless you completely stop the Jeep.

How bad is you shake/wobble?

What speed does the wobble start?

Are your tires and wheels stock? What kind of tires and how old? Is the wear pattern on the tires similar and even?

Is your Jeep lifted? if so, what lift and how high?

Do you off-road your Jeep? have you been in any mud lately?

The first thing I would do is take a good look at my front tires and wheels. Is there any mud build up on the inside of the rims? Do you still see the weights that were used to balance the tires? Are the lug nuts tight? Have you had any of the wheels off lately?

Normally, 35,000 miles is too soon to have front end trouble. As you can read in my note, focus on the wheels and tires first.

 

[TheBirdie72]

I have a 2121 JL 2 door with 35,000 miles….

I think the problem is with the space-time continuum.

 

[onepoundjeepjl]

my wifes jlu got a minor vibration/wobble if you hit a bump going like 70+. had to slow down below 60 to get it to stop. her jeep only had 20k miles on it. stock everything sport s.

I dont think we really solved it but had all 4 shocks and steering stabilizer replaced under warranty. I say didnt really solve it cuz no one believes what we had done was the correct fix, but I couldnt see anything else wrong, and well there is no more wobble for now.

I think there is a lot of different crap that can cause it tho and no one has the perfect answer cuz theres so many possibilities. just gotta start looking for things wrong.

 

[Opus]

I have a 2121 JL 2 door...

I would have bet Jeeps wouldn't still be around then... or humanity, frankly, the way we're going...

 

[Megawatt]

Get someone behind the wheel in the driveway or parking lot. Have them turn steering wheel back and forth (slowly) while you look at connections on tie rod and the drag link. If you notice slack or slop in the connections before the wheels start to move then it’s time for new bars.

It can also be as simple as needing to retorque the nuts on these bar ends. I have aftermarket so my torque values are different than you stock ones so I can’t tell you the value to check for.

Search torque values on this forum, there is an excellent thread/list of stock torque values.

I just changed all this on my 2022 with 40k miles last month.

Check YouTube for easy ball joint check video.

 

[Steveb05]

Death Wobble is when it shakes so bad that it is tearing up parts and the shake will NOT stop unless you completely stop the Jeep.

How bad is you shake/wobble?

What speed does the wobble start?

Are your tires and wheels stock? What kind of tires and how old? Is the wear pattern on the tires similar and even?

Is your Jeep lifted? if so, what lift and how high?

Do you off-road your Jeep? have you been in any mud lately?

The first thing I would do is take a good look at my front tires and wheels. Is there any mud build up on the inside of the rims? Do you still see the weights that were used to balance the tires? Are the lug nuts tight? Have you had any of the wheels off lately?

Normally, 35,000 miles is too soon to have front end trouble. As you can read in my note, focus on the wheels and tires first.

I was running around 70 when it started, Was able to slow down to around 60 to get it to stop. The jeep is bone stock with no mods. I Did have a flat tire on the Left front 2 weeks ago so i decided to leave the spare on the left front and delegate the Left front to the spare Tire carrier.

 

[Steveb05]

I would have bet Jeeps wouldn't still be around then... or humanity, frankly, the way we're going...

Thanks for the heads up I fixed the year on my original post

 

[tk1700]

I was running around 70 when it started, Was able to slow down to around 60 to get it to stop. The jeep is bone stock with no mods. I Did have a flat tire on the Left front 2 weeks ago so i decided to leave the spare on the left front and delegate the Left front to the spare Tire carrier.

If it didn't happen before changing the LF tire, I would switch the tires back to how it was and see if it goes away.

 

[andy29847]

I was running around 70 when it started, Was able to slow down to around 60 to get it to stop. The jeep is bone stock with no mods. I Did have a flat tire on the Left front 2 weeks ago so i decided to leave the spare on the left front and delegate the Left front to the spare Tire carrier.

The spare is probably not balanced.

 

[Ralphee]

I have a 2021 JL 2 door with 35,000 miles and I experienced death wobble today while driving on the interstate after i hit a bump. Is this an indication that its time for some front end work. If so where do I start

I have a similar thing; a 2021 JL 2DR with 34,000 had the steering wobble violently as I was getting on an expressway and hit a bump. Slowing down to about 25 briefly got it under control. I checked tire pressure and noticed dealer had filled them to 36 pounds (recommended). I reduced the pressure to 32 pounds (which I prefer for more natural steering anyway) and haven’t had a problem in the last 1500 miles.

 

[yokramer]

Its going to be ball joints or steering joints wearing out causing this. It isnt going to be tires, steering stabilizer, wheel balance or anything like that.

 

[AskBin]

my wifes jlu got a minor vibration/wobble if you hit a bump going like 70+. had to slow down below 60 to get it to stop. her jeep only had 20k miles on it. stock everything sport s.

I dont think we really solved it but had all 4 shocks and steering stabilizer replaced under warranty. I say didnt really solve it cuz no one believes what we had done was the correct fix, but I couldnt see anything else wrong, and well there is no more wobble for now.

I think there is a lot of different crap that can cause it tho and no one has the perfect answer cuz theres so many possibilities. just gotta start looking for things wrong.

all things being stock, death wobble comes from worn out/loose steering components, an underdampened steering stabalizer, or an overall garbage design in the front end. i dont see how all 4 shocks would have solved it but glad you managed to get new ones under warrenty.

Ford had to redesign the stabalizer on their 250/350s to get them to stop wobbling.

every vehicle that i came across with deathwobble, you diagnose if theres slop in the box, tie rod, balljoints whatever can have slop in the steering system. then check to see if the dampener is blown out. if none of the above you need a larger steering dampener.

its a steering geomerty issue and dodge isnt perticularly known for their engineering prowess, but its also not some mystery issue that cant really be solved...

 

[Nardulli]

My 2021 JLUR would start to wobble at speeds over 30 MPH if I hit a bump or pothole. It only has 15,000 miles on it. 2" MOPAR lift, 35's x 11.5 x 17. New steelies properly balanced. I put on a Fox through shaft type steering damper and the problem has not recurred. There's no slop anywhere in the front end.

 

[onepoundjeepjl]

all things being stock, death wobble comes from worn out/loose steering components, an underdampened steering stabalizer, or an overall garbage design in the front end. i dont see how all 4 shocks would have solved it but glad you managed to get new ones under warrenty.

Ford had to redesign the stabalizer on their 250/350s to get them to stop wobbling.

every vehicle that i came across with deathwobble, you diagnose if theres slop in the box, tie rod, balljoints whatever can have slop in the steering system. then check to see if the dampener is blown out. if none of the above you need a larger steering dampener.

its a steering geomerty issue and dodge isnt perticularly known for their engineering prowess, but its also not some mystery issue that cant really be solved...

steering stabilizer was changed too, that was dealers fix.

I looked for anything else i could but couldnt see anything. I just know people say that replacing the steering stablizer is jeeps baindaid fix. I just couldnt see anything else wrong. it could be like you said thst the dampener was blown out (i didnt look at it before dealer replaced it), and so maybe for me that was the real fix.

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