Yet another death wobble thread.

[dmen]

Sorry in advance. I know I can search as this topic has come many times. I did search but I'm still posting. So, never had an issue with DW until last night. 21JL with 57K miles on it. Going ~80 mph and hit a bump on the freeway and it started wobbling like mad. I had traffic on both sides of me, and three kids in the back. I managed to pull off and sit for a second and then get off the freeway at the next exit. It was scary AF actually and my wife is now afraid to drive it fast. It drove home with no issues, but we didn't go over 60.
So, I see I got the classic case of how you get it - freeway bump at high speed. And some folks say that it could never happen again. But what could wear just 'normally' that would cause that? I mean something has to be wrong, correct? We've been to an off road park twice but it's been a couple years - basically it's just my wife's daily driver.
Can I check the tie rod ends and ball joints myself? Other things I should look for? I'm a poor mofo right now so it's not a great time to have to take this to the dealer. The tires are pretty worn also, they are the original Firestone Destination MT's. They def need replacing and I am meaning to do it before winter...
Anyway, thanks for any advice.

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[YBABRAT]

If you haven't replaced the ball joints since ownership, it's a good chance they are in need for replacement. One way to check is to jack on front tire and secure with jack stand. You really need to, or else. Grab lower part of wheel at tire then lift and pull a few times taking note of any looseness. The wheel should be very secure when checking. Tie rod ends would be checked by trying to turn the wheel in and out abruptly while grabbing at tire. There should not be any play. If all three show looseness it can be wheel bearings. At the milage and never have had serviced front end before, you're on borrowed time. You may fix one thing and end up fixing another within 10k. Get an extended warrenty if you don't have one. It will save you.

 

[DanFelix]

All my DW experiences were solved by new tires. Tires age-out, particularly in heat and sun. All other parts of my OEM suspension have always checked ok. The event is unsettling, but not life threatening. IMHO

 

[4xFUN]

Your tires are surely suspect; out of round, out of balance, worn, belt slipped...Alignment out of spec? Are you lifted or stock? After tires (likely in your situation) track bars are suspect as well as other worn OR loose suspension components...If there is a good Jeep club in your area you will likely find someone qualified to help you diagnose your issue for very little money. Good luck!

 

[Nokones]

When I put the Mopar 2 1/2" Lift on my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2Dr. at about 2900 miles along with the 35 Mickey Bajas on Method 106 Beadlocks I would get a brief wobble when I hit a bump in the road even with my Fox ATS Stabilizer. It was just for a brief second and it corrected itself.

Currently, I am about to hit 7,000 miles. About a 1,000 miles ago, I took off the Mopar Lift stuff and replaced it with the Dual rate Clayton Springs and the Fox Elite Series 2.5 double adjustables with remote reservoirs that were custom valved by Accutune for my trail weight and spring package. Also, I replaced all the Mopar suspension with the Metalcloak adjustable control arms, adjustable track bars, upper and lower ball joints, drag bar and tie rod, front and rear adjustable swaybar downlinks, and the Fox 2.0 bump stops and my caster is at 6.7.

I no longer get any wobble affect in my steering. I believe the right spring and shock package will also help minimize any wobble effect if your steering and suspension components are in tight and good working order. The shocks and springs will help minimize wheel articulation when you hit a bump that may induce poor steering geometry thus leading to the wobble.

 

[The Acme Company]

When I put the Mopar 2 1/2" Lift on my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2Dr. at about 2900 miles along with the 35 Mickey Bajas on Method 106 Beadlocks I would get a brief wobble when I hit a bump in the road even with my Fox ATS Stabilizer. It was just for a brief second and it corrected itself.

Currently, I am about to hit 7,000 miles. About a 1,000 miles ago, I took off the Mopar Lift stuff and replaced it with the Dual rate Clayton Springs and the Fox Elite Series 2.5 double adjustables with remote reservoirs that were custom valved by Accutune for my trail weight and spring package. Also, I replaced all the Mopar suspension with the Metalcloak adjustable control arms, adjustable track bars, upper and lower ball joints, drag bar and tie rod, front and rear adjustable swaybar downlinks, and the Fox 2.0 bump stops and my caster is at 6.7.

I no longer get any wobble affect in my steering. I believe the right spring and shock package will also help minimize any wobble effect if your steering and suspension components are in tight and good working order. The shocks and springs will help minimize wheel articulation when you hit a bump that may induce poor steering geometry thus leading to the wobble.

You don’t need ball joints at 57K miles. Worn tires will give you DW just as will a worn out steering stabilizer. In your case I’d start with the tires!

 

[AVGeek99]

When I put the Mopar 2 1/2" Lift on my 23 Wrangler Rubi 2Dr. at about 2900 miles along with the 35 Mickey Bajas on Method 106 Beadlocks I would get a brief wobble when I hit a bump in the road even with my Fox ATS Stabilizer. It was just for a brief second and it corrected itself.

Currently, I am about to hit 7,000 miles. About a 1,000 miles ago, I took off the Mopar Lift stuff and replaced it with the Dual rate Clayton Springs and the Fox Elite Series 2.5 double adjustables with remote reservoirs that were custom valved by Accutune for my trail weight and spring package. Also, I replaced all the Mopar suspension with the Metalcloak adjustable control arms, adjustable track bars, upper and lower ball joints, drag bar and tie rod, front and rear adjustable swaybar downlinks, and the Fox 2.0 bump stops and my caster is at 6.7.

I no longer get any wobble affect in my steering. I believe the right spring and shock package will also help minimize any wobble effect if your steering and suspension components are in tight and good working order. The shocks and springs will help minimize wheel articulation when you hit a bump that may induce poor steering geometry thus leading to the wobble.

You're going to scare the OP. Your situation and issue is completely different that the OPs. Since he's still running the original stock Willys tires I'm guessing he's running full stock. He says he's never had any other issues and the tires are shot. No brainer is to get new tires and see if the issue recurrs. Heavily worn tires can cause DW, especailly if they aren't balanced well, and he needs new tires anyway. There very likely could be more work needed, but new tires are the first sensible step in his situation.

Your brief wobble when you hit a bump when you had teh Mopar lift was not DW, it was a shimmy. DW does not correct itself after a brief second. To get DW to stop you need to slow significantly, sometimes to a full stop. I assume all your upgrades 1,000 miles ago was to increase the capabilities of your Jeep and not to just fix your shimmy. $10k+ in new suspension hardware is serious overkill if you're just trying to fix a shimmy.

 

[Nokones]

Shimmy wobble are both an unstable movement side to side. A wobble motion starts from the shimmy motion and if it continues than yes, it is a wobble. At least my shimmy did not lead into a wobble and more than likely the reason why was because all the components were still new and somewhat within a tight tolerance but the shimmy/brief wobble did start after the vehicle was raised. Why, because the front geometry was changed from the lifting of the vehicle.

The shimmy and death wobble is a result of the steering geometry changing rapidly with loose steering components in play.

If the tires are causing the wobble than more than likely the wobble would be constant to some degree meaning there would be some constant feel of a side-to-side movement all the time. If the OPs wobble is starts with a bump in the road there's more to it than just the tires.

 

[DavidArmen]

My (not too severe) death wobble on my 21 JLUR with 2” lift and 35 KO2s, was due to a worn out bushing in the front track bar, causing much more lateral movement of the axle than is within spec. Interestingly (and fortunately) it would happen from bumps on the streets but it never happened on the freeway. I replaced the front track bar with the Yeti a few months ago and my issue has since resolved. I have not gotten another death wobble event, or anything resembling DW.

Having said that, I am in agreement with most others here in saying that the number one culprit in your case is probably due to your worn out tires. Before throwing money into any suspension work, I strongly advise you start by replacing the tires and having them properly and dynamically balanced with your wheels.

 

[oldcjguy]

Sorry in advance. I know I can search as this topic has come many times. I did search but I'm still posting. So, never had an issue with DW until last night. 21JL with 57K miles on it. Going ~80 mph and hit a bump on the freeway and it started wobbling like mad. I had traffic on both sides of me, and three kids in the back. I managed to pull off and sit for a second and then get off the freeway at the next exit. It was scary AF actually and my wife is now afraid to drive it fast. It drove home with no issues, but we didn't go over 60.
So, I see I got the classic case of how you get it - freeway bump at high speed. And some folks say that it could never happen again. But what could wear just 'normally' that would cause that? I mean something has to be wrong, correct? We've been to an off road park twice but it's been a couple years - basically it's just my wife's daily driver.
Can I check the tie rod ends and ball joints myself? Other things I should look for? I'm a poor mofo right now so it's not a great time to have to take this to the dealer. The tires are pretty worn also, they are the original Firestone Destination MT's. They def need replacing and I am meaning to do it before winter...
Anyway, thanks for any advice.

Similar thing happened to me, but at earlier mileage (a bit over 20k). My wife also would not drive it after experiencing dw. I had a 100% stock jlu rubicon including tires. If it happened once it WILL happen again, address it now. Things to check alignment, steering stabilizer, tires. Alignment fixed it for me for a short while, but it came back fairly soon, just not as often. The steering stabilizer did a lot. I didn't get DW after that, but I could feel a shimmy at times. The stabilizer was just not letting it get to the point of DW. I ended up replacing all the control arms up front with adjustable Metal Cloak arms and it's 100% gone. If you're still getting dw after the basics, an inexpensive way that will probably work is getting the mopar or XR lower control arms. You can get them online pretty cheap. They are a little longer and add just a little bit more caster angle. When I put my arms in I set the length of the lowers to the length of the mopar arms. Once dw was completely gone on my jeep I put 35" tires on. I still have stock springs and shocks. It's been another 25k miles and still no sign of dw yet.

On a stock jeep with good tires, ball joints (not new, just not worn out), trackbar, rod ends and steering stabilizer, replacing the longer lower control arms with adjustable or the longer mopar ones, will almost always fix dw.

 

[tk1700]

Shimmy wobble are both an unstable movement side to side. A wobble motion starts from the shimmy motion and if it continues than yes, it is a wobble. At least my shimmy did not lead into a wobble and more than likely the reason why was because all the components were still new and somewhat within a tight tolerance but the shimmy/brief wobble did start after the vehicle was raised. Why, because the front geometry was changed from the lifting of the vehicle.

The shimmy and death wobble is a result of the steering geometry changing rapidly with loose steering components in play.

If the tires are causing the wobble than more than likely the wobble would be constant to some degree meaning there would be some constant feel of a side-to-side movement all the time. If the OPs wobble is starts with a bump in the road there's more to it than just the tires.

I disagree with your last paragraph. Several years ago I purchased a used 2007 JK with very worn tires. At purchase I knew I'd have to get new tires. Driving it home I hit a bump on the interstate at about 70 and instant DW until I got under 30 mph. I experienced DW several more times. I replaced the tires and DW was gone. I drove it about 50k more miles before selling it to get my 21 JLUR.

 

[melendez69]

80 seems a bit fast for a Wrangler... especially on worn tires.

Suspension components can be checked from the comfort of your own garage/driveway if you have the proper tools. If not, take to a qualified shop (or your dealer). In addition to replacing the tires, you can check torque settings of your tie rod, drag link, track bar, etc.

Ball joint opinions vary... I replaced mine with less than 35k miles only as a preventive measure. Others have gone many, many miles on the stock joints.

 

[shagles]

Just had this exact situation. 20 JLU Sahara, bone stock, 59k miles, never been offroaded, Bridgestone duelers with 15k miles on them. Track bar and ball joints were both toast.

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