WolfeMan

Hey everyone,

I changed the brakes and rotors on my 97 Cherokee this past weekend and my front end get's wobbly/vibrates pretty frequently when I'm going around 55-60mph. It's always had slight vibrations before but it's now worse since I did my brakes. I'm pretty confident that I did everything correctly with the brakes and braking feels smooth so I don't think the new rotors are an issue.

Where I may have messed up is when I jacked up the vehicle. I did it from a point on the uni-body until I could get a jack stand under the axle and maybe that put too much stress on the suspension when I lifted it up? It seems to me that it may have been better to lift it from the axle in hindsight. Everything looks good though as far as I can tell. Could jacking it up the way I did cause something to bend out of place? Maybe it just messed up the alignment and I need it adjusted?

I appreciate any advice you have to give. Thanks in advance!

SuperRA

Does the vibration get worse when braking? If so that could be a bad rotor. It's not unheard of to get a warped rotor new out of the box.

If it doesn't, change upon braking, one suggestion to look at are the wheels. I've had a bent wheel before. Try changing one at a time to see if you can isolate the source.

That's all i got.

WolfeMan

Doesn't get worse when braking. Feels perfectly fine/smooth.

A bent wheel? It could be I guess. Thanks for the advice!

Snotzalot

Check your lug nuts for tightness!

WolfeMan

I checked them twice now. I'm pretty certain they're tight. I'll triple-check later just to be 100% certain. Thanks!

mentalbreakdown00

Jack up front end again and shake tires side to side and look for play in joints... Then a pry bar under the tire and lift up and look at the ball joints for play...

Trickcomanche

Possably Death wobble.... Check the run out on your rotors. I have gotten bad rotors a few times. Or just have them machined anyway just to make sure. So Check rotor run out and check for loose steering components.

Stabsthedrama

^agreed, but it seems weird that it would have simply gotten worse from doing brakes.

Only thing I can think of (other than the brakes themselves) is possibly you might have "moved" the ball joints/wheel hubs/bearings (they're one unit - Timken) a bit, which made them worse than they already were.

Have someone steer the wheel back and forth when you're parked on the ground and get under there and watch the steering linkage. Track bars being shot are pretty obvious when watching them like that.

Also check for any play in the ends of your axle shafts where the u joints are, and jack up the truck (the unibody is fine to jack up by the way, this would not have caused it) but this time on the axle so the wheels are off the ground - and watch the u joints as you rotate the tires back and forth, and watch for any clunking.

The only thing that MAY have been affected by jacking up by the unibody (and by affected I mean moved a bit and possibly that triggered the wobble even worse) are lower control arms. They aren't all that easy to check I suppose, but take a look at the state of their bushings. They're also one of the last possibilities to check when getting wobble, so it's just a thought.

This could also be a tire or wheel issue which could have also been "angered" by removing them, doing the brakes. I'd say even rotate them with the back ones and see what happens after doing that. If it isn't brake related, and it isn't track bar related, my money is for sure on wheels/tires.

DFlintstone

Rotating is something to do anyway, I'd give that a shot. The balance issue you mentioned you had before, may have just been "angered" (I like that one Stabs)..The new rotors fit sweet and smooth, nothing funky or weird about the fit...the wheel spins without any unusual noise......

bsmd2005

If it's a vibration and feels like a wheel is out of balance it could be an out of balance rotor. From what I understand, although I've never experienced this, "less expensive" rotors may not have been balanced after production.

freegdr

Were your tires speed balanced or bubble balanced last time it was done ?

scottfisher

loose a tire weight when you were handling the wheels?


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WolfeMan

I will do this this weekend and see how it looks. Thanks!

I'm only mechanically inclined but not a mechanic. How do I check the run out on the rotors?

Thanks for clearing up that lifting up from the body was not a problem. I wasn't sure. I'll have to jack it up this weekend and check for play in everything.

However, the wheel option is seeming more likely. I should mention now that my car was hit about a year back and I had the axle replaced with one from a salvage yard because it was messed up from the hit. The front driver-side wheel took a good bit of force from that but it was fine for the last several months. It seemed just like it had been before and even the slight vibrations felt the same. Maybe that's why the wheel was torqued down so hard from the garage? I had to use an excessive amount of force to get the lug nuts off. It's just weird how it's suddenly just got worse. I figured I must have done something wrong.

I'll have to see what I can figure out. Thanks for the advice!


I have to double check to see how everything looks. I've only had the wheels rotated before at the tire shop when I bought new tires. I'll maybe try rotating them and see how the affects the ride. Thanks for the tip!

I kinda hope that's what it is. Not sure how to tell though.

The last time I did it with a friend like 5 years ago so no.

Not that I noticed but anything is possible.

WolfeMan

Thanks again for all the responses guys!

Rockfrog

When you changed the rotor, we're there any of the retainer washers left? The ones that help hold the rotor in place from the factory. They've caused plenty of high speed wobbles before as they don't let the rotor or wheel sit Flush depending on where they wind up. Just a thought.