And here's my issue... Mostly it happens when i'm on the freeway. If I have my wheel turned (either direction) and i'm going over a hump in the road or a few humps that cause my jeep to bounce a little bit my steering all of a sudden goes really wonky and the brakes start applying significant pressure by themselves instantly slowing me down 5-10 mph and the traction control / stability control light will flash. Now this also happens when I'm getting on the freeway on a curved on-ramp and attempt to give it a bit of gas but this issue pops up again preventing me really speeding up until i'm going straight. This ALSO happen if i'm hitting the brakes while making a right into a driveway, the light will start flashing and i can feel the brake pumping by itself.
I've talked to people at 4 wheel parts, fellow jeep owner, and 2 separate dealer and no one could give me any help on this. The dealers also dont want to help me because I have a modified suspension. I don't remember my Jeep doing this before I installed the mods.... Anybody have any idea what might be wrong/ what I should change? This has almost caused me to lose control of my Jeep multiple times. please help
Also, it still does it when i turn traction control off. I've tried aligning the steering wheel multiple time, had multiple alignments done and this still happens.
It is the stability assistance applying brakes because it thinks you are going sideways. The stability assistance is not disabled by pressing the traction control button (as far as I know 4L is the only way to disable it).
The usual cause is that the steering is not perfectly centered, or it could be from suspension / steering play giving more steering angle than normal. I also have seen it with a really strong cross wind on the freeway.
Re-center the steering, then treat as death wobble and start checking the suspension for any play. Play in front or rear track bar axle and body mounts is a good bet in that case, but also drag link, ball joints, tie rod need checking.
If you really want to kill the ESP, look into a disconnect / kill switch mod. It involves inserting a switch that disconnects the accelerometer near the hand brake.
When you disconnect it, the ESP shuts off entirely until you restart the Jeep.
Your steering wheel has a sensor that lets the computer know when the steering wheel is dead ahead.
Your axles have sensors that tell the computer when the vehicle is turning, going straight, etc.
One of these is just on the edge of being wrong, and the computer thinks you are sliding and attempts to correct for a slide that is not there.
There are lots of things that can cause this. Suspension geometry for one, as your axle moves up and down, it is moving to the side just slightly. Your draglink (from your steering box to your right wheel) follows the same slight arc unless the geometry is too different. You will then have a steering wheel that is just barely turned to one side even though the vehicle is going straight.
Now before you let that scare you, if you have no ABS codes it is likely that your steering wheel is just not perfectly aligned.
Hopefully I can explain this... When I go straight over a hump like this
"/" <-- Slightly angled, it's almost always guaranteed to trigger it. If I go straight over a hump like this "|" it feels as if my suspensions dips to the left before the right causing a slight wobble in the cabin even though the hump isnt angled in any way.
I have a 2012 JK Sahara. I have the same issue when I brake and then turn into a driveway. I get a scraping sound on my brakes. I'm not sure what it is or whatever causes it. I have 4" lift. But it was doing it before the lift. Please advise. Thnx
Also, it still does it when i turn traction control off. I've tried aligning the steering wheel multiple time, had multiple alignments done and this still happens.
My guess is that one of the wheel speed sensors is starting to get wonky, which could cause this problem. But, since you said it happens all the time turning right, it may also be a problem with the steering wheel sensor being out of whack as well.
It's always happened at a bend to the right in the road with a hump or turning right into a driveway. I've driven over a few dips in the road making a left and it never seems to cause any issues. I read about a few other people having issues with their wheel speed sensors. Is that a common issue in the JKs? Is there a way to find out if that is the issue? Do you think it would show up as a fault code if I scanned my vehicle?
Have you upgraded the steering stabilizer shocks? it will help big time. When you upgrade wheels and tires the load on the pinion changes making the steering wheel feel more sensitive to bumps.
Thanks for all the responses guys! Definitely getting more info than I could find by searching. I do believe my steering is centered. At least it seems so , but it could be off maybe 1/8 of an inch to a 1/4 of an inch. Even if its off that slight amount could it cause an issue? 1 problem with that though is when I center it in my driveway and I start driving it's ALWAYS off.
Here's a little more info to help as well... I have stock suspension (15 willys wheeler), currently have 26k miles on stock 32inch BFG M/Ts. After about 5k miles, my front tires start cupping and that's when I do my rotation but from what I read that's normal with those tires.
I do have an aftermarket steering stabilizer as wheel. I forgot to mention that.
Now, I don't drive crazy when this happens. I go through the same spot every day on my commute to work that causes this problem but i always slow to about 65-70 instead of doing 80. For some reason if i'm going 75-80 this almost always happens.
I want to add that my bone stock 2016 Willys does this. It seems like a case of an overly-aggressive traction/stability control program. I've had the traction control kick in going over potholes or broken pavement at as low as 35mph. The program doesn't seem to account for the fact that Jeeps have 2 solid axles, thus do tend to lose traction at one wheel a little more frequently than a vehicle with independent suspension.
This reminds me of when I had to get an emissions test for a JK I used to have. It had 35's which were too big for the dyno thing, so they told me to come back with smaller tires. So I temporarily swapped the rear wheels out with a buddy's Grand Cherokee wheels & tires. It looked goofy with 35's in the front and probably 30's in the rear. As soon as I got out of my buddy's driveway to go back to the emissions test, the Jeep freaked out, traction light started blinking, and it refused to go anywhere, even with the gas pedal to the floor. Had to completely turn off the traction system to get it to move.
Basically the Jeep saw that the rear wheels were turning much faster than the front and assumed it was sliding. Have you checked your tire pressure lately?
I think this is not that uncommon, 2 doors are probably worse. Mine did this stock also. In my opinion it is all about the sensitivity of the steering. Because of our all metal connection in the steering system all feed back is felt through the wheel. While this maybe great in a race car it is not so great in street vehicle when coupled with ESP.
What happens is one wheel hits a bump at an angle, you feel this through the wheel, and react to that movement. The yaw sensor thinks you are turning one way but the feedback you put into the wheel says you want to go the other way. ESP kicks in and now you are yawing on the wheel because you are no longer going where you want. It is almost impossible to just hold the wheel steady.
Now I never thought to drop tire pressure. But that should reduce the sensitivity of the steering system and may help reduce the issue. What I did was install the Griffin Attenuator. This almost totally eliminated the issue with the added benefit that it is just easier to drive. Now remember at the time I installed this I was still stock and still running stock tires and 41psi air pressure. Now that I am lifted, running 35's at 28psi and the Griffin I have never had ESP kick in. Thats over 15K miles.
I have not digested every reply in here, but Mine does the same @ certain spots in my daily drive. the ESP has a feature called "anti roll mitigation" its flared up after my Mopar 2" lift and the dealer said learn to live with it..... his reasoning is that the jeep is lifted so the the top heavy jeep might "roll" a little more on certain bumps and dips. hence kicking in the ESP
Sometimes on the roadways here in CA, When I have hit several dips in a row or rough/uneven pavement weather going straight or switching lanes going 65 - 70 mph the ESP has kicked in. The first time it happened It felt like I was going to crash it was a hell of an experience, I could totally see someone freaking out.
I had a similar case with rapid breaking on a highway. I was going 80 and it suddenly started to break, which made the jeep swirl and i almost lost the control. That was scary. I think there was a big crosswind along with high speed that triggered this action.
This happened twice until i turned off my ESC and ABS. A friend of mine who builds jeeps previously installed a switch under the steering wheel which turns on or off the traction control. The switch was suppose to be for doing donuts in 2 wheel drive and rear locker in snow
Thanks for all the responses guys... Lowering my tire pressure a bit seems to help slightly but didn't fix it. I re-centered my steering wheel, checked alignment, checked all my suspension components and everything is ok. I guess I may have to chock this up to "its a Jeep thing". I'm really surprised so many people have this issue but i'm also glad it's not just me lol
Did your lift come with, or did you buy, front track bar correction brackets? I did that once, and it made my jeep do like you described "I can even see it, it looks like the front end does small circles rocking back and forth after going over the bump and turning." I had the same type of problem...the front end would dodge back and forth over little bumps, it would go one way while accelerating and the other way when braking. All I could figure was that my track bar was too "level", and would push sideways instead of traveling up and down. Weird, but it went away when I took them off and went back to the stock holes.
No it didn't. I did buy an a/m track bar a couple months after but after having it in for a week or so it made it drive WORSE but that was due to me not reading that the track bar was meant for 3.5 inch lift minimum. Not for a 2.5 inch lift >.>
I think I decided i'm going to just get a full Rock Krawler lift rather than just having a budget lift and maybe having a full lift kit will get rid of any issues. Or create more? Who knows?! XD
I know this is an old thread and OB seems to be MIA, but… Did anyone in this thread ever find a fix? Currently crawling the entire internet looking for a fix as this is happening to me and driving me insane.
I think people have generally been able to point at the stability control system, specifically a difference between what is being reported by the wheel speed sensors and the steering sensor as the reason the Jeep activates the stability control. It is more case-by-case as to which specific part it is that is malfunctioning.
yeah, I think that much is given at this point. I know it’s the stability/traction control, but I don’t know what is triggering it. I think your last sentence is more or less the key - I’m looking for examples of what people had done to resolve their issue, even if it doesn’t fix mine. At this point I’ve read through almost every post in this forum, and in instances where there aren’t any solid lights (traction/abs/brake) and therefore no codes, it doesn’t seem like anyone has ID’d a fix. I just want to start compiling a list of what it might be, because at this point it could be so many different things working together in a specific setting that trip the TC light to flash.
Any play in the steering will wreak havoc on the traction control.
First thing I’d do is torque the pitman arm nut. They tend to work loose. Even if you don’t feel any play where the pitman arm attaches to the sectors shaft of the steering box, torque it.
Next, check the steering knuckle ball joints for play. Then go through the rest of the steering and control arms.
The symptoms you’re describing are early signs of Death Wobbles. That’ll play hell with your traction control.
You can disable the traction control by pulling the fuse. it will also disable the cruise control and several instruments such as the speedo.
Need to check the pitman arm nut, ball joints were recently replaced with deletes (liking that setup). I don't agree with the death wobble comment, I had severe death wobble on an old XJ and I could tell that that was coming along up until the time it almost tore the jeep in half. This feels super normal driving 95% of the time, it's in slow speed 90 degree turns or turns on an angle (the / in the curb, like turning up a driveway). That is what makes me think that there is something specific causing it, because it happens in a specific environment each time.
There was enough play in my generic attenuator that it would trigger the ESP. No problems after removing it. You must have some slack somewhere. Ball joint? Would increased caster make the steering less sensitive?(esp wise)
Actually just swapped over to ball joint deletes and swapped in new mopar wheel hub assemblies. Added a JKS adjustable front trackbar as well because the bushings there were shot.
Still the same behavior.
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