Can death wobble be a fluke?

[aro]

Today I had DW for the first time at around 55 mph and it went away around 35 mph.

I drove it for another hour after that and it never happened again. I happened to drive twice over the exact same place where it happened and nothing.

Can death wobble be a fluke, or once you have it, it never goes away and it only gets worse?

Steering is otherwise perfectly fine. I checked the various components and there is nothing obvious. The Jeep has around 10k miles, 3.5" Teraflex lift with Steer Smarts drag link and tie rod and Core 4x4 trackbar. Teraflex front LCA's and rear UCA's. Everthing is between 8 and 3 months with no hardcore wheeling. The work was done by Rebel Off Road, a shop that knows Jeeps real well.

Right now, with nothing obvious noticeable and not being able to replicate... I don't know if I should go to Rebel to have it checked out, or if I should wait.

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[Roky]

Today I had DW for the first time at around 55 mph and it went away around 35 mph.

I drove it for another hour after that and it never happened again. I happened to drive twice over the exact same place where it happened and nothing.

Can death wobble be a fluke, or once you have it, it never goes away and it only gets worse?

Steering is otherwise perfectly fine. I checked the various components and there is nothing obvious. The Jeep has around 10k miles, 3.5" Teraflex lift with Steer Smarts drag link and tie rod and Core 4x4 trackbar. Teraflex front LCA's and rear UCA's. Everthing is between 8 and 3 months with no hardcore wheeling. The work was done by Rebel Off Road, a shop that knows Jeeps real well.

Right now, with nothing obvious noticeable and not being able to replicate... I don't know if I should go to Rebel to have it checked out, or if I should wait.

If rebel did the work, I’d check torque spec on everything. You should ask @Moto_21 about them.

 

[XJfanatic]

Having had some pretty bad death wobble in other vehicles I would say not normally a fluke. It will keep progressing until it happens if you see a crack in the road.

 

[Moto_21]

Today I had DW for the first time at around 55 mph and it went away around 35 mph.

I drove it for another hour after that and it never happened again. I happened to drive twice over the exact same place where it happened and nothing.

Can death wobble be a fluke, or once you have it, it never goes away and it only gets worse?

Steering is otherwise perfectly fine. I checked the various components and there is nothing obvious. The Jeep has around 10k miles, 3.5" Teraflex lift with Steer Smarts drag link and tie rod and Core 4x4 trackbar. Teraflex front LCA's and rear UCA's. Everthing is between 8 and 3 months with no hardcore wheeling. The work was done by Rebel Off Road, a shop that knows Jeeps real well.

Right now, with nothing obvious noticeable and not being able to replicate... I don't know if I should go to Rebel to have it checked out, or if I should wait.

They may claim to know jeeps real well, but in fact they are nothing more than a bunch of oil change techs that can barely follow directions or tighten anything

 

[gato]

I'm far from an expert, but death wobble seems to require two things: a) an underlying condition, b) a trigger event.

If the underlying condition is not bad/off enough it is harder to trigger/reproduce. So, I don't think it is unusual that it happened to you and you couldn't immediately reproduce it.

 

[aro]

They may claim to know jeeps real well, but in fact they are nothing more than a bunch of oil change techs that can barely follow directions or tighten anything

Yeah, I had that happen on my old JK... I went offroad the day after they installed the lift and I had to tighten something they did, can't remember what.

 

[aro]

They may claim to know jeeps real well, but in fact they are nothing more than a bunch of oil change techs that can barely follow directions or tighten anything

Did you find any other good shop in the area?

 

[Wbino]

I'm no expert but once you change anything on any device your susceptible to all kinds custom weirdness.
And a Doctor friend once told me that surgeons like to perform surgery, that doesn't mean they know what they are doing. ?

 

[plex]

What you experienced is called "bump steer", very normal in front solid axle vehicles, hell even motorcycles.

 

[aro]

What you experienced is called "bump steer", very normal in front solid axle vehicles, hell even motorcycles.

Bump steer is when the Jeep changes lanes. That's not what happened to me.

 

[oceanblue2019]

They may claim to know jeeps real well, but in fact they are nothing more than a bunch of oil change techs that can barely follow directions or tighten anything

You are being far too kind - your parents taught you well

 

[aro]

I went again under the Jeep with a powerful flashlight and it helped me see something I hadn't seen with the naked eye.

As my wife was turning the wheel, the trackbar bolt+nut on the passenger side had a one or two millimeter movement inside the bracket. I could also see with the light the markings that Rebel made and they were off.

I can't blame them for this, as this is the last thing they installed a few months ago and I never retorqued it. I tightened that bolt hard and the movement went away. The trackbar bushing on that side moves a millimeter or two, but I think that looks normal...

Anyway, I'll see what happens next... Since I couldn't replicate the issue, I assume it's either gonna do it again when I least expect it, or maybe I fixed the problem.

Finally, the answer to my original question, "can DW be a fluke?" is "Most likely not a fluke". Usually the DW exposes a problem.

 

[King Nothing]

What you experienced is called "bump steer", very normal in front solid axle vehicles, hell even motorcycles.

No.... Bump steer and death wobble are 2 very different things. What OP describes is definitely death wobble

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