Could bad tires cause dw??? Everything on front end checks out fine ball joints are fine.....would a bad set of tires cause dw???

 

Absolutely. My wife's Jeep had nearly bald junk on it when we bought it and it wobbled like a bastard. New set of skins and problem solved. Had it aligned a week or so later anyway but it didn't seem to affect anything.

 

cupped tires or tires that are severely out of balance can "trigger" dw but, something else has to be off in order for dw to occur. bad ball joints is just one culprit - loose or failing track bar is another.

just so that we're on the same page, dw is a sudden, violent, uncontrolable shaking of the entire vehicle and will not stop until you bring the vehicle to a stop. anything less than that is just a bad shimmy.

 

Well it happend after I hit a bump in the road, and shook like crazy I almost stopped completely,I checked out the track bar mounts and the holes are ovaled out and dealership said ball joints were ok but im hard pressed to believe them.....idk WOL have u had to deal with dw and shimmys??? What did u do to fix it??

 

i've been a jeep guy a long time and have been working on JK's since they came out. i've personally owned 4 different JK's and still own 3. yeah, i've had to deal with death wobble and probably more times than most will ever have to AND, i have been able to fix it every single time. over the last 5 years, i have found the following to be the most common things that allow DW to occur:

1. loose track bar bolts
2. failing track bar bushings
3. failing track bar mounts
4. bad ball joints
5. combination of the above

there are a lot of things that can trigger DW but, for the most part, something bigger needs to be off in order to allow it to go full force. personally, i wouldn't trust your dealership and i would either verify that everything checks out yourself or, take it to a well recommended shop in your area that can check things out for you.

 

Thanks man I really appreciate it alot! There's a shop in longview the city I work in that has a good reputation! Man I love this forum! Im calling them tommorow

 

My brother has a 2003 TJ. First time I experienced DW was when I rode with him. At 45 mph the steering shook so violently it felt like the whole jeep was going to rattle apart. Everything in the front end checked out ok. The BFG All-Terrains 33 -12.50/15 appeared fine. No cupping and had about 30% tread left. The tires were about 6 years old and he was told the problem was the tires. The repair shop mounted some loaner tires on the Jeep and it drove perfectly. He purchased new tires 2 weeks ago and problem solved. I'm still curious why the tires caused the problem because the balancing was checked and it was ok. I'm thinking that possibly a belt got separated inside but not too sure.