We all know what the dreaded Jeep Death Wobble is but.....I'm wondering why I only get it at exactly 50 mph both accelerating and decelerating. And.....why is it worse at sometimes and not others? I've heard of many solutions but what is the consensus here???
Death Wobble
- Thread starter Red Rover 7
- Start date
I've only had wobbles at specific speeds from tire/wheel balance related issues. The couple of times I had actual DW, it hit at various speeds and situations. My track bar was the issue both times.
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X2 on the tire balance and tracbar bolts for tightness.
Also check the condition of the steering tire rods and control arm bushings
Also check the condition of the steering tire rods and control arm bushings
Are you sure you actually know what the dreaded Jeep death wobble is? Your description makes it seem like it is only happening at 50. Does it stop when you decelerate below 50? Death wobble - once it starts - does not usually stop until you bring the jeep to a near stop.
X2 to above, Death Wobble is legit, and when you say only happens at 50 when accelerating and decelerating. Sounds like you get wobble, accelerate through, and it returns on the way down. When it hit my Tj, there was no continued accelerating. It was flashers, pull over on highway, and literally flashers to the shop, driving slow.
Replacing with an adjustable track bar fixed it.
I would think if it does it exact speed that’s a tire balance issue
Replacing with an adjustable track bar fixed it.
I would think if it does it exact speed that’s a tire balance issue
A speed sensitive wobble/vibration is a tire balance issue. Even if the tires were recently balanced. Few tire shops are willing to spend the time to get tires perfectly balanced, they usually only spend the time to get them to what they consider "good enough" which is never good enough for the larger size tires we run on our TJs. I have had to have my tires balanced three times in the same day before my local Discount Tire Store finally spent the time to get them properly/perfectly balanced.
And don't confuse a simple speed sensitive vibration or shimmy with death wobble. Death wobble is an apt name for the far more VIOLENT HOLY SHIT symptom it produces. So violent it can blur your vision and cause other drivers to move out of your way since they can see your Jeep shaking violently too. True DW doesn't stop by just speeding up or slowing down a little, the only way to stop true DW is by slowing down to almost a complete stop.
And don't confuse a simple speed sensitive vibration or shimmy with death wobble. Death wobble is an apt name for the far more VIOLENT HOLY SHIT symptom it produces. So violent it can blur your vision and cause other drivers to move out of your way since they can see your Jeep shaking violently too. True DW doesn't stop by just speeding up or slowing down a little, the only way to stop true DW is by slowing down to almost a complete stop.
Centrifugal force is not great enough to induce DW till around 40mph. The most common speed zone for DW is 40-50mph. Tire imbalance or cupping is the main culprit. Steering components can contribute to the problem.
These are all fantastic posts- very good.
I can’t tell how many times we have seen death wobble occur somewhere around 47 mph.
The first two things you need to do are rotate the tires and dry test the steering for loose components.
Rotating the tires maybe the ticket to taking the tires out of the equation- But even if that stops the problem I would still really look over the front end carefully and if I didn’t see anything loose I would be looking really hard at the upper front right control or mount and bushing-
Someone told me that the Johnny joint conversion that I am quick to do is a little bit overkill but what I find happens is the bushing becomes a loose in the mount- That seems more common than the bushing failing.
I’m going to say that 50 miles an hour gives you enough action or gets the harmonics right to cause the problem but you’ve got something else allowing it too likely.
I have had death wobble in some form or the other on just about every TJ I’ve had and I’ve been able to solve it- You have to be persistent.
There are occasional really freaky circumstances but most of the time it is something you can identify and correct.
I had an F250 which is the same type front end that had death wobble at about 80 miles an hour and it turned out it was the track bar but it took that much speed to set it off- What that leads me to think is your tires are at their worst at 50.
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my front end started shaking after having my lift installed and after checking that everything was tight and in good shape i was a bit stumped. finally checked my alignment and discovered it had to much toe in. i set toe in to 1/8” and no more shakes. my shakes seemed to be set off by road irregularities. jeep wanted to wander all over the road also before alignment was corrected.
Well I am sure glad I read this thread. I have what sounds like the same issue as the OP except mine is at about 55. I try very hard to not maintain speed in the 50-60 range. Above or below that I'm fine. If I accelerate through 55 to 60 or so it smooths out. If I accidentally slowly get to 55 ish it starts shaking but if I just let off the accelerator and stay off the brakes it smooths out. I was thinking wobble also because although it is not as violent as others have described here its way worse than I have ever seen from a tire balance issue. Off to discount tire for balancing.
Also death wobble is now for U.S. members only. In Canada it is “the death wobble” and in the United Kingdom it is “the death wobbles.”
Please make a note in your forum handbook.
Please make a note in your forum handbook.
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Good decision, though I would counsel the Discount Tire guy doing your balancing that you'll be back if he doesn't get it perfect/good enough. I ended up going back to my local Discount Tire store twice the same day after their initial balancing job early that morning. It wasn't until the third time they figured out they needed to spend more time to get them balanced good enough to stop my near DW problem. It wasn't full OMG DW but it was close. Their third balance job did the job.
One of the things this brings to mind is trying to separate the tires and the linkage is kind of like trying to separate the mind and body. It can be all tires, all linkage or a percentage of each.
At the end of the day you need perfectly balanced tires no matter what you have going on.
At the end of the day you need perfectly balanced tires no matter what you have going on.
Vtx531
TJ Addict
This ^
And going back to get your tires balanced multiple times is like putting on a new steering stabilizer
Can be.
It is caused by anything that allows the tires to auto oscillate- from the tires to the linkage-
There is no one answer- everything that plays a role in controlling the jeep is suspect.
Not really. More times than not the shop doing the tire balance won't spend the time to get them balanced any better than what they consider "good enough" which for the type of front-end a TJ has isn't usually good enough.
As I have recanted here multiple times I once needed to get my tires balanced three times in one day before Discount Tire finally got it right the third time that took twice as long to complete. And every one of my true fully-developed Death Wobble events, the OMG the world is ending type, was ultimately triggered by a badly balanced tire... like having lost a balance weight. A couple times a loose track bar bolt helped it fully develop into DW more easily but in each case a front tire was out of balance.
Another way to look at is ask why do the wheels do that, why will they not hold “center”?
A wheel in motion tries to find center, with DW it goes to center, then beyond, then tries to center, and goes beyond- over and over- this IS death wobble- the main forces at play are the tire rotations’ gyroscopic force and tire balance-
If the imbalance is greater than the tracking force- bam, DW
If linkage or control arm (the track bar is also a control arm) play allows movement and defeats the tracking force that holds tires steady, it means less tire imbalance, or just a hard lick, can cause DW. There is some relativity going on- you have multiple components, usually of various age and condition at this stage of the game.
This describes the majority, but not all.
I know of a case where a brand new brake rotor was causing it.
It is not a vehicle design defect, it is a result of forces or wear defeating and or simply tire imbalance overpowering the design.
A wheel in motion tries to find center, with DW it goes to center, then beyond, then tries to center, and goes beyond- over and over- this IS death wobble- the main forces at play are the tire rotations’ gyroscopic force and tire balance-
If the imbalance is greater than the tracking force- bam, DW
If linkage or control arm (the track bar is also a control arm) play allows movement and defeats the tracking force that holds tires steady, it means less tire imbalance, or just a hard lick, can cause DW. There is some relativity going on- you have multiple components, usually of various age and condition at this stage of the game.
This describes the majority, but not all.
I know of a case where a brand new brake rotor was causing it.
It is not a vehicle design defect, it is a result of forces or wear defeating and or simply tire imbalance overpowering the design.
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I too thought I had death wobble as I got a pretty good shake right around 55 MPH. After reading through this thread I had Discount tire rebalance and everything is smooth again! Way easier fix than I thought it would be.
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