I see this topic come up almost on a daily basis, someone is experiencing vibrations from their TJ. It's not an uncommon issue by any means, and when you're doing the things that we do to our vehicles such as lifting them, adding large tires, adjusting driveline angles, etc., you're pretty much setting yourself up to run into vibrations at some point.
I'm going to try and consolidate all the information I can from myself and other members of this forum into one thread. My goal here is to give Jeep Wrangler TJ owners a general overview of what to look for when trying to diagnose vibrations.
Death Wobble vs. Vibrations
True death wobble is completely different than a simple vibration. I promise you that if you've never experienced death wobble before, the first time you do experience it, you will probably piss yourself. At highway speeds, it is both extremely violent, and extremely scary.
Death wobble is not a simple vibration by any means. The entire vehicle will shake around to the point where it feels uncontrollable, and in many cases is. If you are experiencing death wobble, you should not be driving around at all, as you are endangering yourself and others.
A vibration is just that, a vibration. When your tire is improperly balanced or you have a u-joint that is going bad, you'll typically feel vibrations in the vehicle, but they won't feel violent or uncontrollable, just annoying and sometimes loud.
It's hard to put into words, but I promise you that death wobble is entirely different than a vibration, and if you truly have experienced it, you'll know, because it will scare the crap out of you.
Please take note that with true death wobble, once it starts you can't power through it by speeding up (that will only make it more violent). The only way it will go away is by coming to a complete stop.
If you are experiencing something that only comes on at a certain speed, and then goes away at another speed,
that is not true death wobble, it is a vibration!
Do Steering Stabilizers Fix Death Wobble or Vibrations?
NO, NO, and NO again! Anyone who tells you this should not be listened to, period. A steering stabilizer has no more to do with fixing death wobble or vibrations than a band-aid does for curing cancer. The only thing a steering stabilizer might do is potentially mask some of the death wobble or vibrations, but it will not fix either, period.
If you don't believe this, remove your steering stabilizer completely and drive without it for a few days. You will notice ZERO effect whatsoever in regards to vibration or death wobble. The only thing a steering stabilizer does is dampen the steering, that's it.
Having said that,
a new steering stabilizer (or any sort of double steering stabilizer) will NOT fix your death wobble or vibrations, they are 100% unrelated.
Isolating the Vibration
First and foremost you need to diagnose you vibrations and figure out when they are happening, and under what circumstance.
For instance, do you vibrations happen only on acceleration, but when you let off the gas they go away? Or maybe your vibrations only happen when you apply the brakes, but once you take your foot off the brakes, they go away.
Do your vibrations happen at high speed, low speed, or within a certain speed range? Are your vibrations extremely violent (almost to the point of where it feels you're going to lose control of the vehicle), or are they much more subtle?
When trying to get to the bottom of your vibration, every little detail is important. For instance, if your vibration only happened when you applied the brakes, but went away when you let off the brakes, then your issue would more than likely be warped brake rotors.
Wheel / Tire Balancing & Vibrations (the most common cause of vibrations)
I feel comfortable saying that 9 out of 10 times someone is experiencing a vibration issue, it's almost always due to improper wheel / tire balancing. The reason behind this is simple: Most wheel and tire shops don't have as much experience balancing the huge tires that we run on out vehicles. They're used to balancing the tires that are on the majority of passenger vehicles on the road. Balancing a big tire takes a lot more skill, and therefore a lot of shops will get it wrong (makes sense too, because often times the people working at these places are kids just out of high school, not veterans).
I've seen it more times than I can count. Someone goes and gets new tire installed and assumes that just because they got new tires, the shop must have balanced them correctly. That's not true at all. Sure, if you went to a good shop that has experience balancing larger 4x4 tires (or just got lucky and found a guy who knows what he's doing), then you should have nothing to worry about. But more often than not, this isn't the case.
So, if you're experiencing vibrations (especially after installing new tires), the very first thing I recommend is taking your TJ to a tire shop that specializes in tires for big trucks or 4x4s. Have them check it out and balance the wheels / tires. Like I said, 9 out of 10 times that will resolve the issue.
How to tell the difference between death wobble vs. improperly balanced tires
If you were having true death wobble, you would not be able to accelerate faster through it. What I mean by that is that if you're driving down the highway and you start to experience what you believe is death wobble, then you give it more gas to try and get it to go away, it will not go away if it is real dearth wobble. In fact, if you give it more acceleration and it is indeed real death wobble, it will only make it more violent.
On the other hand, if you give it more acceleration and it goes away (or eases), then you know that what you have is not death wobble at all, it's most likely due to improperly balanced tires, and therefore it's just a vibration.
True death wobble is extremely violent and the last thing you can do is accelerate. The only way to stop death wobble is to come to a near stop.
Vibrations After Lift Install
If your vibrations didn't show up until after you installed a lift, they are most certainly related to the new (and more extreme driveline angles) that come as a result of lifting your TJ. For instance, if you put on a 4" suspension lift and do so without installing a
SYE (Slip Yoke Eliminator) or adjusting your pinion angles, then that right there is why you're experiencing vibrations.
Other Vibrations & Things to Check
Here's a good idea of different things to check if you're experiencing vibrations:
- Track bar mount holes (at both the axle side and the frame side): Check to make sure the bolt holes are not worn so much that the bolt has a lot of lateral play when it's put through the hole.
- Track bar bolt torque: This is more likely to cause death wobble, but could be mistake for vibrations. Make sure your track bar bolts are torqued down properly. So many people forget to do this!
- Ball joints: When is the last time you replaced your ball joints? If you've got over 100k on the stock ones, it's time to replace them. See this thread for more info: Which ball joints are the best for my Jeep Wrangler TJ
- U-joints: Bad u-joints can cause all sorts of noises and even vibrations. It's a good idea to grease your u-joints every so often, and replace them as needed as well. An even better idea is to upgrade to sealed u-joints that don't require greasing, you can read more about that here: What u-joints come on the TJ?
- Tire balancing: This is the number one cause for vibrations. Take your TJ to a place that specializes in tires for trucks and 4x4s and have them balance the wheels / tires. 9 out of 10 times, this fixes it.
- Brake rotors: Warped brake rotors can cause mild to severe vibrations in the steering wheel when applying the brake. If the vibration only occurs when you hit the brake, this is most likely your issue.
- Control arm bushings: Worn control arm bushings have been known to cause vibrations and other issue on our TJs. Visually inspect your bushings. If they look worn, weathered, and cracked, it's time to replace them.
That covers most of what to look for. If I think of something I left out, I'll be sure to add it. If anyone else sees something I missed, please respond to this thread and let me know so that I can update the original post.
Still no luck?
If you're still not having any luck diagnosing your issue, feel free to post a help thread in the
TJ General Discussion sub-forum. When you do this, please try to include the following:
- Was the vibration always present since you bought the vehicle, or did it just recently occur?
- If the vibration recently occurred, is there something you did to possible cause it? Examples of this would be installing a lift, putting in a new driveshaft, etc.
- Under what circumstances does the vibration occur? For instance, does it happen between certain speeds? Does it happen only when accelerating or when decelerating as well? The more you can tell us, the better we can help you.
! How did I miss this!?
