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Just thought I would throw this out there in case anyone can benefit from the information. Nothing ground breaking here, but, It does reinforce most of what has been covered on death wobble and that it can occur even in an almost new vehicle.
Background:
2012 JKUR
23K Miles
2.5 TF coil lift
315/70/17 tires
Stock Steering Stabilizer
Stock Trackbar
What happened:
I had been hunting all week, some good offroad trails in snow, mud, dry dirt and some just ordinary gravel roads. I had gotten within a quarter mile of the house when I went over a drop in the pavement between some old pavement had stopped and newer pavement began. This sent my Jeep into a severe wobble, causing the front end to harmonically vibrate wildly. Brought the Jeep down to about 10 MPH and all was good.
GREAT... I've got Death Wobble.
Drove the truck into the garage and started checking the front end. I didn't find anything loose. I checked The trackbar, tie rods, ball joints, steering stabilizer. etc... Since the Jeep was still under warranty I made an appt. with the dealer to get the front end checked out and a few other issues I've noticed. The appt. wasn't for a week, so I had time to do some further looking around under the Jeep. Using Planman's guide and a few other ideas. I checked it all out.
I identified two culprits that I believed were creating the problem. When disconnecting the steering stabilizer I found there to be a slight loose feelling for about a 1/4 inch before the shock would then grab and provide resistence. I also found there to be what looked like flex in the stock track bar. All bushings were tight, but I did see where if the steering wheel was cycled between 10 and 2 you could see the track bar flex.
Based on this I ordered a Rock Krawler track bar and sent the Jeep into the dealer just to make sure and see if there was anything I hadn't caught or if the steering stabilizer was indeed defective.
The dealer replaced the Steering stabilizer, which did help in the wobble, however, the front end still felt a bit looser that it previously had been. Having the new rock krawler track bar in the garage. I installed it yesterday.
WOW, what a difference. The new track bar tightened up the front end better than new.
So here are my Thoughts and suggestions.
You can get Dealth wobble even in a basically new Jeep
The steering stabilizer could be bad, but a new one probably won't really fix the problem.
Always look closely at the track bar, it can be the offending culprit, even when the bushings are still good. I believe the larger tires/lift accentuated my problem, thus the need for a heavier trackbar and the resulting improvement.
Hopefully this will help someone else, with a similar problem.
Background:
2012 JKUR
23K Miles
2.5 TF coil lift
315/70/17 tires
Stock Steering Stabilizer
Stock Trackbar
What happened:
I had been hunting all week, some good offroad trails in snow, mud, dry dirt and some just ordinary gravel roads. I had gotten within a quarter mile of the house when I went over a drop in the pavement between some old pavement had stopped and newer pavement began. This sent my Jeep into a severe wobble, causing the front end to harmonically vibrate wildly. Brought the Jeep down to about 10 MPH and all was good.
GREAT... I've got Death Wobble.
Drove the truck into the garage and started checking the front end. I didn't find anything loose. I checked The trackbar, tie rods, ball joints, steering stabilizer. etc... Since the Jeep was still under warranty I made an appt. with the dealer to get the front end checked out and a few other issues I've noticed. The appt. wasn't for a week, so I had time to do some further looking around under the Jeep. Using Planman's guide and a few other ideas. I checked it all out.
I identified two culprits that I believed were creating the problem. When disconnecting the steering stabilizer I found there to be a slight loose feelling for about a 1/4 inch before the shock would then grab and provide resistence. I also found there to be what looked like flex in the stock track bar. All bushings were tight, but I did see where if the steering wheel was cycled between 10 and 2 you could see the track bar flex.
Based on this I ordered a Rock Krawler track bar and sent the Jeep into the dealer just to make sure and see if there was anything I hadn't caught or if the steering stabilizer was indeed defective.
The dealer replaced the Steering stabilizer, which did help in the wobble, however, the front end still felt a bit looser that it previously had been. Having the new rock krawler track bar in the garage. I installed it yesterday.
WOW, what a difference. The new track bar tightened up the front end better than new.
So here are my Thoughts and suggestions.
You can get Dealth wobble even in a basically new Jeep
The steering stabilizer could be bad, but a new one probably won't really fix the problem.
Always look closely at the track bar, it can be the offending culprit, even when the bushings are still good. I believe the larger tires/lift accentuated my problem, thus the need for a heavier trackbar and the resulting improvement.
Hopefully this will help someone else, with a similar problem.
