"DEATH WOBBLE"

[Sarge33]

I recently experinced "death wobble" in my 98 Grand Cherokee. What causes this?
I briefly looked unserneath the front end and saw no parts visibly broken or bent. All I know wa the first time it did it I about s*it my pants. It has only done it twice and that was witin the last week or so. Any info on where to begin to corret this issue would be apperciated.

[xsjado]

just at certain speeds? check the alignment, tire balance, bent rim maybe?

[Sarge33]

Tires just balanced and rotated. New rims. Vibration at around 50mph but you can drive through it. Once over 55 its fine! It started its "death wobble" around 30 and get violent until I slow down. No idea where to begin on correcting this problem. just wondering if any else experinced tis and how was it corrected.

[MF Steve!]

2x check your balancing. i know about 80% of the places in the area who mount/balance tire have retards working there. weights can fall off...and some people dont know how to count weights. that'd be my first guess, if you're lifted you could have a bad shaft angle, bad u-joint in your shaft, or a bad hub up front if you do indeed have a d-30 front axle.

[DMG]

In addition to what has already been said, alignment can cause this on a lifted truck, shocks and panhard rod bushings are suspects too.

[Bill]

Could be a bent rim, but is probably a bad balance on the tire... Hopefully you didn't get TrXuS M/Ts, they are known to be balance-proof (I KNOW, I HAVE THEM!)

Oh, and if it is just a bad balance... that is a MILD version of death wobble - it gets worse. Death wobble is only cured by slowing the vehicle down to a snail's pace. If you can drive through it then it is not death wobble.

[avenged7foldhc]

bad steering stabilizer can cause that too, my stepdads 89 chevy silverado used to do that, just driving along, maybe hit a bump and the front wheels go apeshit...

[OverkillZJ]

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...t=death+wobble

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...t=death+wobble < GOOD ONE

http://www.mallcrawlin.com/forum/sho...t=death+wobble

There's more, but that second link is full of good information, and comes down to this summary:

Death wobble is caused by and fixed by many different scenario's which aren't necessarily vehicle specific.

If it's REAL death wobble, although a wheel / tire bad or bent or out of balance can send a vehicle into death wobble, it isn't the root cause of it.

Steering stablizers sometimes, when lucky, fix peoples DW problem because they're able to keep the steering tighter to prevent the system from oscilating and going over that red line, but once again it isn't the root cause of the problem.

My bet is worn bushings.

[ArtCloud]

As probable as the other mentioned parts could be at fault, tire(s) out of balance seems most likely in your scenario. Especially if you had bigger/beefier tires than stock put on, as they typically get more difficult to balance.

Also, as others have noted, probably a good idea to check for wear and tear or looseness of anything else in the front end, stearing stable, bushings, ball joints, bearings, driveshaft ujoints, etc...a tire out of balance may just be a catalyst for the wobble, where another part may actually be at fault.

[blackjeep04]

I experienced "death wobble" this past summer. I replaced my hub, trackbar, did an aligament (twice @ 2 differnt locations) finally I replaced all tires with new ones and it went away.

[bookfiend]

Same here. Had stock aluminum wheels with radial TSL 31s on my 97 Grand Cherokee. The tires were pretty far gone but still had 1/4 tread. I paid enough for em, wanted to get my money's worth, but they were cupped as hell and tried to rattle my teeth out with the wobbling.
Switched to stock wrangler steelies and brand new desert dog recap 30s, got it aligned and absolute zero death wobble.