Vibration from 55-60 MPH

jmess

New Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2019
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16
Location
Boston, MA
My friend is telling me to post this(he doesn't have good access to the internet) so response time might be a little slow.

He has an 05 Jeep TJ X with 4spd It's not really modded, but it has is a 1" body mount lift. He was experiencing steering wheel wobble from 40+ for a little over a month so he recently charged out nearly everything he could. Here's the list of what he did.
-Rotate, Balance, align tires.
-Steering Stabilizer
-Replace tie rod end links
-SwayBar Link
-Steering Link
-Track Bar
-Replaced All U-Joints
After all that was done his Steering wheel has stopped wobbling from 40+ but between 55-65 everything vibrates and the steering wheel wobble.
Troubleshooting steps include:
-Try different tires/wheels
-Remove his MML
-torque all nuts n' bolts to spec
-Taken to transmission shop(said nothing was wrong)((I'm not experienced enough to do that :))

We are now out of ideas. If anybody has any suggestions at all they would be much appreciated.

Thanks for your help!
 
Has he checked his upper + lower control arm bushings? Had a serious steering shimmy that turned into death wobble at highway speeds when mine went. Check for cracks/dry rot in the rubber.
 
Regardless of the recent claim by a tire shop that they balanced your tires, that still sounds like a bad tire balance.

It took Discount Tires three tries in one day before they finally got my 35's balanced well enough to get rid of a speed sensitive shimmy.
 
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Regardless of the recent claim by a tire shop that they balanced your tires, that still sounds like a bad tire balance.

It took Discount Tires three tries in one day before they finally got my 35's balanced well enough to get rid of a speed sensitive shimmy.
Now you have me worried about getting my wheels/tires from discount tire... would this be less likely to happen with 33's? I am having my wheels/tires shipped and there is not a discount tire anywhere near me so I would have to pay somewhere else to re-balance them if they were not done right
 
I sell tires...the mother load to be quite honest.
Mild to wild and everything in between.

Your issue screams tire related.
Just because someone said they're balanced doesn't automatically make it so.
These Jeeps are light and hollow. It doesn't take much to radiate NVH in the Jeep and tires give back a tremendous amount of feedback.

If these tires have worn wrong... even in the slightest bit...you'll chase your tail on this thing thinking "it can't be the tire/wheel" combo.
Trust me...don't sell yourself on what it can't be.
The bigger the tire the worse the feedback too. Once they're wearing wrong it's all over.
High spots on the tread slapping pavement...could be out of round to some degree too. All sorts of things on this ordeal.

Do you have another set of wheels/tires?
 
Try a different tire pressure. What are you running now? A different psi can change how the tire interacts with the road. If you can get the vibe under control with a few psi then you know for sure the tires are the problem.
 
Now you have me worried about getting my wheels/tires from discount tire... would this be less likely to happen with 33's? I am having my wheels/tires shipped and there is not a discount tire anywhere near me so I would have to pay somewhere else to re-balance them if they were not done right
A lot of shops just aren’t used to balancing larger tires. Your 33s May end up being fine. If you do need to end up getting them rebalanced, it would be worth your time to take them to a reputable 4x4 shop.
 
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Been there done that. If you have uneven tire wear and bad balance it can feel like the wrangler is about to rip appart. New tires and balance with frequent rotation and balance and no issues since.
 
Now you have me worried about getting my wheels/tires from discount tire... would this be less likely to happen with 33's? I am having my wheels/tires shipped and there is not a discount tire anywhere near me so I would have to pay somewhere else to re-balance them if they were not done right

Don't worry. I've purchased tires locally at a family owned tire store for my cars and pick up. I've had them rebalance a few tires over they years and they didn't object. They took my concerns seriously, and the rebalance solved my problem.
 
Sorry for the really late reply, my buddy had some family stuff to deal with and we are now just starting to work on it again. Here are some updates. He had some vibration at idle,(in a drive gear but not in the park) which he got once he put in his body lift and MML that vibration is still there even after we took both of those out. Any idea what that could be? The wobble is still there.

Has he checked his upper + lower control arm bushings? Had a serious steering shimmy that turned into death wobble at highway speeds when mine went. Check for cracks/dry rot in the rubber.
We have replaced those bushings.
Sounds like a possible tire balance issue. Does he have steel rims?
Regardless of the recent claim by a tire shop that they balanced your tires, that still sounds like a bad tire balance.

It took Discount Tires three tries in one day before they finally got my 35's balanced well enough to get rid of a speed sensitive shimmy.
We have Balanced his tires, then tried tires from a different jeep and it still wobbled at those speeds. I don't think that that is the issue. The jeep even has the shimmy when it was on the lift and we sped up to 55mph.

If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.