shelby5041

hi

i have a stock 1997 jeep cherokee that has death wobble

never had an issue before but last 2 years have noticed ...one time i hit a bump on expressway and car went out of control for some reason..it was scary

now recenlty at about 52-55mph on a pretty flat road i will get the death wobble...doesnt take a large hole or bump anymore...alsmot flat causes it at that speed...

note: about 2 yrs ago or so i had new tires put on..bf goodrich all terrain t/a ..i used the have highway type tires before with no issues at all with death wobble that i can remember.....the bf goodrich tires. may or may not have been blanced i bought tires and had them installed....so not sure they balanced them or if i paid to have balanced....they may have just mounted them ...and not balanced them...cant remember

i have done some minimal research and track bar is also a potential cuase of this

can anyone help me....with experience with this issue and how to fix it

today it happened and was real real bad.....worse yet...had to pull over on expressway and wobble didnt stop until about 25mph speed

thank you

shelby5041

one thing to note:

seems the death wobble in on right front tire area

thats where i can really feel the vibration and wobble

pTacRP

Balance check should be done. I recently got new-to-me tires and had the same issue at the same speed range. Got them balanced properly and no more wobble.

BlueRidgeMark

Nope. Balance and alignment can kick the thing off, but it takes some worn suspension parts for it to get to the Death Wobble stage.

I'm fighting it on my '97 right now. Can't find the worn component, but then, the forces involved are almost certainly greater than what I can apply by hand, so the worn part is there, but it's not letting me find it.

shelby5041

thanks....i thing when i got the new tires a couple years ago i may have opted to not have them balanced....i may have said just mount them.......it was cheaper.....but not 100% i did that but its possible

so ill try to get them balanced and see how jeep reacts....i never had this problem at all when i had the other tires but this all could just be coincidence and not tire related...the vehicle only has 139,000 original miles on it

i have gone through about 5-7 deth wobbles with this car so should i get a front end alignment also?...or should i take it in and have a professional look at it ...midas or someone and give me his opinion?


when i get time i will look under and see if i can tightened what bolts i can get to....saw some good photos of what to look for ....

any ideas what i should be looking for?....

ubipa

Agree... Check all the ball joints (movement, greased out, ripped boots, clicking when tapped w a hammer), check the track bar joints, and the steering stabilizer. How are the rear leaf springs, are you sagging in the back?

BlueRidgeMark

Thanks, I didn't know about the hammer trick.

I have one new one - needed it to pass inspection so I had the shop do it while my wife had it there for the inspection. Dunno what brand they used. I think my other one is due, but don't see anything obvious. I'll try whacking it.

Might just replace both with good quality new, so they are matched. I don't really like not knowing what's in the one that was replaced. I'll have to have an alignment afterwards anyway, so might as well do both.


Done. Didn't see anything obvious.


Yeah, pretty badly. I put some helper springs on a few months ago to get me by until I had time to tackle the springs. They have done their job - it rides level now, but I don't consider that a long-term solution. It sure was a quick and easy fix, though. I'm surprised how well it worked.


In the morning before I head for work I'm going to rotate the tires front to back. The fronts, especially the right front, are pretty badly cupped due to the worn ball joint and poor alignment.


I'll see what that does. Still need to find the worn parts, though.

shelby5041

ok took cherokee in to have someone look at it...here is some new information

..and here is what they said....they are trying to sell me everything but i dont care...all i want to do is fix the death wobble issue.........the right front ujoint is real bad..lots of play.....left side ujoint not nearly as bad.......and also right side caliper bolts both bushed holes are blown out real bad...you can move the caliper about 3/8 inch up and down...its bad....the caliper is only 3 yrs old and its the 2nd time i had to replace them in 3 yrs...also front tires are bad...wavy....only have 10k miles on them....i beleive they were not balanced when installed new 2 yrs ago....

rear springs seems to be shot....and rear shocks shot......

he said rest of front end seems ok.....track bar...tie rods etc

so with this new info i would appreciate what i should do....

thank you

shelby5041

yes sagging in back real bad.....been like that for years...rear shocks have been bad for years.........even when car was running fine with no death wobble these two issues were present

ubipa

Not sure how how bad the brakes are by the description, but in regards to the death wobble, I'd fix that bad ujoint and the bad rear shocks. If it's sitting level, grab some new tires and get an alignment.

shelby5041

thanks not concerned about brakes.........just death wobble

as far as tires...tires only have 10k miles on them paid over 400.00 for them for 4....will not buy new tires

will take rear tires and move to front since rear dont have any wear issues

do u think the bad u joint can cause death wobble?

NM-XJ

No, a bad U Joint shouldn't necessarily cause death wobble. It will cause clicking and clunking from the front end, especially when turning.

I spent the summer trying to solve what I thought was "death wiggle" - the onset of death wobble - but turns out it wasn't DW at all. I'm no expert by any means. However, what I learned from that, plus experience as a chassis design engineer focusing on drive train vibrations, leads me to this:

Get rid of your wavy and cupped tires. Don't put them on the back. They will be a constant "forcing function" for vibrations, which through the wonders of solid axles and leaf springs, can "telegraph" to the front. Get a pair of good, round tires. Then start working on your DW problem. Based on your posts, here is how I would proceed:

1) Get round tires.
2) Balance and alignment.
3) ALL FOUR shocks. If the rear are bad, the fronts are probably on their way out, too.
4) Track bar and tie rod ends. These are major DW culprits.
5) Control Arms.

The thing about DW is it is different on each vehicle. It could be one bad component, or the summation of a bunch of parts just slightly out of spec.

Edit: Also, my culprit was wheels out of balance/round.

shelby5041

i appreciate your input..thank you but i will not replace the tires as they are like new...i will put front to back....and balance....the front tires do not look that bad but so have some slight waviness to them if u look hard

its a 1997 old car and will not spend a lot of money on it..if i cant fix the death wobble within reason it will be trashed......or just drive it under 50mph all the time

if you think the bad ujoint has nothing to do with death wobble then i will not replace it...any other feedback on this would be appreciated...and yes when i turn it does sound like some noises coming from right tire...which is prob the sloppy ujoint

like i said im just trying to fix the death wobble i dont care about all the other issues its a 1997 car its old........old cars are not suppose to be like new lol

shelby5041

and according to the suspension place i took it to...the tie rods and track bar are ok

shelby5041

according to my online research an unbalanced tired is the not the reason for death wobble....it helps initiate death wobble but is not the actual reason for death wobble

is this correct?