Hi, completely new to owning a Jeep Wrangler so in need of some info. I replaced the dead factory shocks with Rancho Rs5500X front and rear. Had death wobble before obviously with completely dead shocks. Now I have a vibration in the steering wheel at 60-65 area thats a bit much. My question is change out steering stabalizer and check Tires next??? Thanks in advance from a newbie.
04 Wrangler X death wobble
- Thread starter Wrangler6969
- Start date
A steering stabilizer does no more for death wobble than a band-aid does for curing cancer.
Seriously, that's a fact though. Steering stabilizers have nothing to do whatsoever with death wobble, period.
More than likely what you're experiencing isn't death wobble, it's a vibration (the two are very different). More than likely it's due to improperly balanced tires. 9 out of 10 times, this is the solution, so it's what I would suggest you try first.
Seriously, that's a fact though. Steering stabilizers have nothing to do whatsoever with death wobble, period.
More than likely what you're experiencing isn't death wobble, it's a vibration (the two are very different). More than likely it's due to improperly balanced tires. 9 out of 10 times, this is the solution, so it's what I would suggest you try first.
If that doesn’t cure it you can check that your front end is torqued properly and that your zerks are greased l as some play or chatter can develop with worn steering components.
Thanks for putting my post in the proper spot. I was reading a bunch of your posts after I posted to early. Great info. Wanna get to the beach but not have my girlfriend die on the way down there with the top down. My mechanic said steering stabilizer but it was pretty brutal to the point you can make mixed drinks on the dash when it happened. I remember that feeling from my buddies Dodge Ram that did it.
Find a new mechanic, they don’t understand your Jeep at all.
A steering stabilizer is a shock attached to the linkage to minimize harsh feedback to the gearbox and wheel.
Death wobble , weeble wobble and everything in between is either a low tire , usually an imbalanced tire, sometimes a loose or worn track bar end /bushing, and often , but not always ,exacerbated by various worn components in the linkage .
A TJ is an ultralight vehicle , and it simply doesn’t take much to mess with it . Especially with big tires.
Start with checking pressure and swapping front and back wheels and a dry steering test.
Death wobble , weeble wobble and everything in between is either a low tire , usually an imbalanced tire, sometimes a loose or worn track bar end /bushing, and often , but not always ,exacerbated by various worn components in the linkage .
A TJ is an ultralight vehicle , and it simply doesn’t take much to mess with it . Especially with big tires.
Start with checking pressure and swapping front and back wheels and a dry steering test.
Tim Redman
TJ Enthusiast
I've been taught three pretty valuable piece of trivia about life and the world around us:
1) A former federal prosecutor and constitutional lawyer whose blog I enjoy taught me that almost any lawsuit that claims RICO violations is not RICO.
2) Gregory House MD taught me that it's almost never Lupus.
3) Anybody who actually knows what they're talking in regards to Jeeps about knows that a steering stabilizer doesn't cure DW.
Kind of a corollary to #3 is that if you have to ask if what you experienced was death wobble, then it wasn't death wobble. The poop in your pants will tell you if it was DW.
That being said, a serious vibration in the front end is almost universally caused by two things: loose components or unbalanced tires. Anything else is a freak statistical outlier.
So the general recommendation is to first get under your front end and make sure everything is tight. Get somebody to turn the wheel while you're under there and look for components that shift or make a noise that they're not supposed to. Look up torque settings and confirm that all of your bolts and nuts conform. This is, by far, the cheapest test, since it costs you nothing but your time.
If it's not anything loose, THEN you take it to a tire place and have the balance (and perhaps alignment) tested. If you have anything larger than a 0" lift and stock tires, do yourself a favor and do your research ahead of time, and make sure that the shop you go to makes it their business to know how to deal with larger wheels. No knock on Tires Plus or Mavis or your local tire place of choice, but a lot of them just don't deal with them as much as a 4x4 place might, and may not have the expertise or equipment to, for example, test the alignment of a large tire at speed.
1) A former federal prosecutor and constitutional lawyer whose blog I enjoy taught me that almost any lawsuit that claims RICO violations is not RICO.
2) Gregory House MD taught me that it's almost never Lupus.
3) Anybody who actually knows what they're talking in regards to Jeeps about knows that a steering stabilizer doesn't cure DW.
Kind of a corollary to #3 is that if you have to ask if what you experienced was death wobble, then it wasn't death wobble. The poop in your pants will tell you if it was DW.
That being said, a serious vibration in the front end is almost universally caused by two things: loose components or unbalanced tires. Anything else is a freak statistical outlier.
So the general recommendation is to first get under your front end and make sure everything is tight. Get somebody to turn the wheel while you're under there and look for components that shift or make a noise that they're not supposed to. Look up torque settings and confirm that all of your bolts and nuts conform. This is, by far, the cheapest test, since it costs you nothing but your time.
If it's not anything loose, THEN you take it to a tire place and have the balance (and perhaps alignment) tested. If you have anything larger than a 0" lift and stock tires, do yourself a favor and do your research ahead of time, and make sure that the shop you go to makes it their business to know how to deal with larger wheels. No knock on Tires Plus or Mavis or your local tire place of choice, but a lot of them just don't deal with them as much as a 4x4 place might, and may not have the expertise or equipment to, for example, test the alignment of a large tire at speed.
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