XR with a little steering wobble

[Jackubau2]

Hi everyone,

Have a 2022 Rubicon with the XR package, 4 door, hard top, steel bumper group with 5,000 miles. Oh, and everything is factory. No modifications from me besides putting the tire pressure at 32 all around.

Now this is not the death wobble, but when I hit a big highway expansion joint going around 65 or down in town a bunch of decent bumps in a row. The steering wheel gets a little wobble.

Nothing serious, jeep still stays in control. I could live with it, but it is more on the annoyance side.

Anyone else have this? Anyone able to fix it? Suggestions to fix?

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[Stormin’ Moorman]

Sounds like the start of death wobble. Something is loose on the steering and/or suspension. It will most likely get worse as time goes by. Check the torque on all the bolts on your suspension, particularly the track bar. That's a good first step.

 

[Dailydrivenwrangler]

Obviously without driving the vehicle I can’t say for sure but what you describe sounds like normal solid front axle driving characteristics. If that’s the case then the only thing that could possibly help is to lower your tire pressures a bit. Having 35” tires you would likely be a decent starting point running around 30-32psi.

 

[Jtclayton612]

Definitely not normal like the other commentator thinks. Sounds like a good check of all torque specs would be a good idea.

I had something similar happen with a very slightly out of balance tire if I hit a bump at just the right speed it would also wobble until I slowed down a few mph

 

[aldo98229]

Does it happen every time?

The reason I ask is this:

I own a Sahara with a Mopar lift, 35-inch tires and a Fox 2.0 stabilizer. In the two years I've had the lift and the bigger tires, I encountered a situation, only ONCE, when I was crossing a set of diagonal train tracks.

Picture it: it is about 65 degrees outside; it is clear weather. I am doing 35 MPH, hit the tracks and the steering wheel starts pulling violently side to side, to the point that I need to slam on the brakes to avoid going into oncoming traffic.

The weird thing is it happened only that once and hasn't happened again. Recently I completed two road trips recently, each 300 miles: hasn't happened at all.

Weird huh.

 

[Old Jeeper]

Hi everyone,

Have a 2022 Rubicon with the XR package, 4 door, hard top, steel bumper group with 5,000 miles. Oh, and everything is factory. No modifications from me.

Now this is not the death wobble, but when I hit a big highway expansion joint going around 65 or down in town a bunch of decent bumps in a row. The steering wheel gets a little wobble.

Nothing serious, jeep still stays in control. I could live with it, but it is more on the annoyance side.

Anyone else have this? Anyone able to fix it? Suggestions to fix?

Do this IMMEDIATELY if not sooner. REPLACE your steering stabilizer. YES even if it only has 5000 miles on it. They can fail at any point. Every once in a great while I would get a bad SS out of the box and need to ship it back, rare but can happen.

TIP: Make sure you tire pressure is correct on the front and inspect your front shocks for leaks., if you see any oil around them, REPLACE NOW!

TIP: Use flats of hands and weight of the body to push down hard on each front corner (femder_ of your jeep. The Jeep should not bounce up and down more than about 1 cycle, more than that you have failing front shocks.

 

[LuvHydro]

Same thing here. Expansion joints set it off, but only when it's below freezing.

Did that 25 turn thing and it may have helped. It's hard to say since this time of year our temps here look like 50, 32, 65, 28, 9, 0, -8, 68, 45......

 

[Stormin’ Moorman]

What the OP is describing is definitely not bump steer, it's death wobble. Pony Tail has a pretty good video on YouTube on how he fixed his on a 2021 JL. His is pretty mild and sounds like what the OP is experiencing. Obviously, I can't leave a link or even mention his name. Search for
"Jeep JL Wrangler Steering Wobble Fix with Rancho Front Track Bar" on YouTube.

This will at least let you know what to look for and help diagnose your issue.

 

[jaymz]

What the OP is describing is definitely not bump steer, it's death wobble. Pony Tail has a pretty good video on YouTube on how he fixed his on a 2021 JL. His is pretty mild and sounds like what the OP is experiencing. Obviously, I can't leave a link or even mention his name. Search for
"Jeep JL Wrangler Steering Wobble Fix with Rancho Front Track Bar" on YouTube.

This will at least let you know what to look for and help diagnose your issue.

Definitely not “Death Wobble” if the steering wheel is not violently oscillating along with the front wheels.

 

[Stormin’ Moorman]

Definitely not “Death Wobble” if the steering wheel is not violently oscillating along with the front wheels.

You should watch the video, you could learn something

 

[Terpsmandan]

There is a "Not" a TSB on the steering stabilizer. My shop is getting me one. I had DW starting when it got very cold here (single digits) around Christmas. One thing that I did do is raise the tire pressures up to 30 cold and finally loosened the lug nuts (put on with air impact without torque sticks) and properly torqued them and that seems to help. Probably going to replace the ball joints with TeraFlex sometime this spring.

 

[jaymz]

You should watch the video, you could learn something

The op didn't post a video.

You should make sure you're posting in the correct thread.

 

[Stormin’ Moorman]

The op didn't post a video.

You should make sure you're posting in the correct thread.

I talked about a video in MY reply post....the one YOU commented on.

 

[jaymz]

I talked about a video in MY reply post....the one YOU commented on.

Still not Death Wobble.

 

[slowpoke387]

Our '23 does the same as OP's. He is not describing a death wobble but more of a slight reverb oscillation on jarring road imperfections. Death wobble is not the same. Going to try the longer LCA's in the spring, maybe gain a little stability. The oscillation was there from day one and hasnt gotten worse. Feels more like a little instability due to such a short wheelbase with this type of suspension/solid axle setup to me.

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