I was reading up on some death wobble diagnosis and thought people were crazy when they said they drove without a stabilizer fine.

I have a 2007 unlimited and had a death wobble over bumps. Checked my front end but nothing significant except a little play in my trackbar bolts. Changed those out with grade 8 9/16-18 bolts and torqued those and the rest of my suspension and it was much smoother. Bumps still bounced a little but not bad.

I was told to get a heavy duty stabilizer by a front end shop but I wasn't going to after what I read. So long story short problem fixed.

I decided to take my stabilizer off last night and check it out anyway and wow that thing was blown. Just put a new one on and was surprised at the difference. I've had this jk for a year now and by the way it feels this stabilizer has been blown since I got it. So yeah I've been driving without one for months and no issues!

 

Glad to hear you solved your issue. I'm curious if you didn't simply have bad wheel shimmy --- which could be mistaken for DW since you said it occurred over bumps. Full blown DW would violently shake the entire jeep like it was trying to tear itself apart.

 

Well it happened after little bumps going over 40 to the point where the entire vehicle shook left and right and fell like it was shaking to pieces until I managed to pull over and come to a stop.

 

Yup. That's death wobble. Scary stuff.

 

Yeah sure is. Sucks when it happens on a stock jeep. At least i got it fixed before I lift and add bigger rubbers.

 

When I had death wobble. Every shop, from alignment shops, to off road shops that recommended I replace my steering stabilizer pissed me off. The stabilizer will only mask the problem. Even if you removed the steering stabilizer you should not get death wobble. Death wobble may have blown your steering stabilizer and replacing may be just a bandaid. You did mention you replaced the bolt so that may have fixed it. I've experienced death wobble 3 times and I hope to never have to experience it again.

 

The problem with death wobble is the shaking is so violent that each time it occurs it is causing yet more damage. That's why it's so important to fix it immediately. Once more damage occurs, then you read silly stuff afterward like my SS caused my DW. No it didn't. Because if you took that SS, which was probably damaged by DW, and put it onto a Jeep that isn't having DW, it still wouldn't have DW. DW is caused by the trackbar. Once it occurs, the holes start getting enlarged. Every time it occurs, they get larger. Fix it soon enough and maybe all you need are the bolts. Get to it too late, and you'll want to weld some 1/2" (yes, 1/2", not 9/16" since washers fit so loose!) over the holes to tighten things up like they should be.

 

Yeah, I replaced the bolts and checked my torques about 2 weeks before I replaced the stabilizer. That's why I waited to replace it because I didn't want to bandaid the problem. Drove it two weeks and no issues so I figured I was in the clear