How common is the Death Wobble?

[GreySportySpice]

@Mccorm67 not to doubt your colleague here but are sure it is death wobble? There have been a few stories of people unfamiliar with SFA and thinking the worst when it is actually bumpsteer.

I had bump steer and shimmy strangness and THEN had DW. There is no comparison.

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[Jeepney Johnny]

I replaced the tires on my Sahara with 33" tires and smaller 17" wheels, no lift, so it's basically stock. I've got about 26,000 miles on it so far, and have experienced death wobble twice. The first time was under somewhat heavy braking on a steep hill (paved road) and I hit a pot-hole. The second time I was taking a turn with enthusiasm and hit a pot-hole. In both cases, it didn't cease until I slowed down. Now that I know what it feels like and what to do when it happens, it's not a big deal to me.

Pretty much any vehicle with a solid-front axle is susceptible, I think. At least that's what the Internet told me.

 

[falcon241073]

I suspected that, I think the Jeep in question was just a stock Sahara. But sad to lose a Jeeper because of it.

Jeep made a few changes and updates for these issues over the last couple of years. Changed from aluminum to steel power steering box, changed the stabilizer, and a few here reported the lower ball joints were only torqued to around 35ft pounds and that tightening it to the mid 50s fixed the issues. I believe there were some other minor steering fixes Jeep has tsb or recalls on besides these. A trip to the dealer getting a couple tsb and recalls done will more than likely fix his issue. Unfortunately the 2019 is a second year model and most of these issues hadn’t been discovered and fixed on the 2018 model so they carried over to the 2019 production.

Hell they had trackbar brackets breaking off the frames on the 2018 models. They fixed that.

 

[John VonJeep]

I had bump steer and shimmy strangness and THEN had DW. There is no comparison.

Absolutely right. DW doesn’t stop until you slow way down. You know it when it has happened to you. Bump steer is kinda weird feeling, but pales in comparison to DW.

This is what it looks like from the outside. It’s not normal and should be diagnosed and corrected.

 

[sourdough]

My early '19 JLR has never had DW. When I picked up my ordered JLR from the dealer. I did a full inspection of the front suspension bracket welds and road tested it before accepting it. During mods. for heavy 37" tires, I replaced the steering linkage with HD units and put a re-enforcement bracket on the front T.B./ steering box. Wranglers are known to have a 10 Ga. frame that flexes more than older models. I still run the aluminum steering box and it has approx. 40K turning 37" tires and very slight play, typical of the drag link to knuckle design. I did just replace the factory ball joints and found them to be as "loose as a goose", "weak as a kitten" from wear. The aluminum knuckles themselves where fine.
I do sympathize those with DW but I'm more pro-active than just selling it. But then again I'm more of an enthusiast and have a Jeep for it's off-road capabilities rather than looks/style. Over the years, Jeeps have always had issues, some from manufacture and others from after market parts added.
It's all part of the "JEEP THING" and some folks just aren't JEEPERS. JEEPERS have always been "hands on guys".

 

[Mccorm67]

@Mccorm67 not to doubt your colleague here but are sure it is death wobble? There have been a few stories of people unfamiliar with SFA and thinking the worst when it is actually bumpsteer.

I had bump steer and shimmy strangness and THEN had DW. There is no comparison.

Really don't know for sure, but good info to have in case I ever experience either! I imagine not everyone is a roll the sleeves up and open the wallet type of owner, and just get scared when this happens. Others can say whether that defines them as a real Jeeper, or not. lol.

 

[sourdough]

This other says, Not ! haha, Never will be if they sell.

 

[JeepVT]

In my opinion, death wobble is very rare on the JL platform. That is unless the owner has done some very stupid “upgrades” to the suspension and messed up the entire geometry. In stock form it is extremely rare.

Stupid upgrades? What are those?

 

[Wooster]

My death wobble wasn’t cured until I replaced the cheaply made factory upper control arms with heavy duty arms. Cured it completely. Of course, before that I’d already replaced the track bar, lower control arms, and added the sector shaft brace. Lol.

 

[JP29]

I had never had it before I got hit in a low speed collision on my front driver's side tire. Needed an allignment, among other things - dealer mech said they basically tore out most of the front end suspension components. Since then, I've experienced it repeatably on a certain section of road - on ramp to highway, and on said highway going around a slight left curve. It's disconcerting and annoying, but that section of road is torn to hell and back with potholes, so I try to keep the tires out of them and keep my speed under control. Going sixty or so until I'm through it beats going seventy and having to drop to forty just to get it to stop.

 

[Wooster]

I’ve replaced a few front end parts, but IMHO I feel the ”steering gear box TSB” along with replacement HD Upper Control Arms was the answer. So, The replacement cast-iron steering box eliminated maybe 30% of the wobble then the upper control arms took care of the rest. No Dearh Wobble at all now, no matter what I hit on the road..

 

[jeepdabest]

Stock Sahara. No wobble. Got the stabilizer upgrade. Year later I get death wobble. Purchased and installed a Fox 2.0 stabilizer and wobble is gone and things feel much tighter.

 

[At Risk Ute]

Absolutely right. DW doesn’t stop until you slow way down. You know it when it has happened to you. Bump steer is kinda weird feeling, but pales in comparison to DW.

This is what it looks like from the outside. It’s not normal and should be diagnosed and corrected.

Experienced DW yesterday on the interstate taking my newly lifted JLR back to the shop for driveshafts, alignment, and tires.

Long story, but made the run without a steering stabilizer. I’m a dumb ass, but…

 

[gato]

In my opinion, death wobble is very rare on the JL platform.

I'm sorry, but if it were that rare, Jeep wouldn't have redesigned the steering stabilizer 5 times, and had the countless TSBs, STAR cases, etc dealing with death wobble.

I think it is *more* prevalent on the JL than the JK (again measured by how much Jeep has had to change the steering set up to address it). Contributing factors are aluminum knuckles that tend to cause ball joints, and steering linkages to go out of torque specs, crimped metal steering linkage, undertorqued from factory ball joints, generally lower caster on rubicons to provide light enough steering with the larger tires for the average consumer.

I have had a JKUR set up nearly identically to my JLUR - never had a death wobble or shimmy on my JK in 57K miles, even when I drove back from wheeling with busted stabilizers, bent tierods and a loosed front LCA.

On the JL started getting shimmy and death wobble at the 3,500 mile mark, which had to be fixed by a comination of pressurized stabilizer (biggest factor), retorqued balljoints and linkages to 10% higher than spec. Upgraded tierod (minor contribution).

 

[Deleted member 59498]

CJ TJ JK JL and JL never experienced it. All stock.

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