wobble
Thread Starter
JK Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 147
Likes: 0
From: Eagar AZ.
wobble
I am posting this as a new post because none of the other wobble threads seem to be caused by the problem that I had .
I replaced my tires and wheels on my 2007 unlimited with 17x9 DC-1 wheels and 12.50 x 33 Fun Country II tires. Right from the start I had a steering wheel wobble between 42 and 46 miles per hour and a vibration between 52 and 55 miles per hour which seemed to come from the front end. After checking the lug torque and the tire weights and switching tire around the problem did not go away. I pulled the lugs off to try and determine if they were fully seated, they were not. Only about 40% of the lug cone seating area had any indication that it was making contact so I replaced them with McGard bulge cone lugs which were slightly longer than the ones that came with the new tire/wheels. I torqued the new lug nuts to 95 foot pounds as recommended in the owners manual and test drove the vehicle, the problem was better but still not good enough. I checked the rear wheels lugs and found that the conical seating area had only about 10% of the area indicating that it was making contact so I replaced the Lug with the same type that I put on the front and the vibration went away. It seems that the lug bolts on the rear wheels is a couple of threads longer for some reason but in both the front and the rear the lug nut was bottoming out before the wheel was completely tightened hence the torque looked good. I still have a very slight wobble in the steering wheel but not enough to worry about.
So if any of you have recently replaced the OEM wheels with after market wheels and have the wobble I would check the lugs to make sure that they are not bottoming out, until now I would never have thought that the length of the lugs would be a problem.
I replaced my tires and wheels on my 2007 unlimited with 17x9 DC-1 wheels and 12.50 x 33 Fun Country II tires. Right from the start I had a steering wheel wobble between 42 and 46 miles per hour and a vibration between 52 and 55 miles per hour which seemed to come from the front end. After checking the lug torque and the tire weights and switching tire around the problem did not go away. I pulled the lugs off to try and determine if they were fully seated, they were not. Only about 40% of the lug cone seating area had any indication that it was making contact so I replaced them with McGard bulge cone lugs which were slightly longer than the ones that came with the new tire/wheels. I torqued the new lug nuts to 95 foot pounds as recommended in the owners manual and test drove the vehicle, the problem was better but still not good enough. I checked the rear wheels lugs and found that the conical seating area had only about 10% of the area indicating that it was making contact so I replaced the Lug with the same type that I put on the front and the vibration went away. It seems that the lug bolts on the rear wheels is a couple of threads longer for some reason but in both the front and the rear the lug nut was bottoming out before the wheel was completely tightened hence the torque looked good. I still have a very slight wobble in the steering wheel but not enough to worry about.
So if any of you have recently replaced the OEM wheels with after market wheels and have the wobble I would check the lugs to make sure that they are not bottoming out, until now I would never have thought that the length of the lugs would be a problem.
JK Junkie
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 2,472
Likes: 4
From: Virginia Woods
excellent troubleshooting!!! You know the big oversize tires will take a balance well after being run a couple of hundred miles initially. Install your big tires and drive the jeep for a week or so. Then get them balanced. This stops almost all rebalancing. The internal structure of a new tire will shift at first, making that first balance useless. Just a suggestion for you guys that have a vibration, even after a new balance.....
JK Super Freak
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,203
Likes: 0
From: Jacksonville, FL
Pardon my dumb-assness but I've had a bit to drink.
Are you saying that the lug nuts that hold your wheels on were causing the wobble? As in the wheels were not entirely secured down by the lug nuts because they were not 'deep' enough?
Are you saying that the lug nuts that hold your wheels on were causing the wobble? As in the wheels were not entirely secured down by the lug nuts because they were not 'deep' enough?
Last edited by DeepSky; Oct 7, 2008 at 05:30 PM.