I parked my Jeep about a week ago when I left for vacation and it seemed fine. I just took it out and now, when I turn, the steering wheel wobbles back and forth strongly. There is no problem when I'm driving straight. It is almost like when you are in 4wd on dry pavement and turning but I haven't engaged the 4wd in over a month and don't use it often. I felt a much lesser feeling like this a couple months ago and was told that I had a tire with some cupping and a rotation would fix it. It did seem to help but this is so much stronger, I'm not even sure the 2 things are related.

A little background:

• Jeep has right around 50,000 miles
• I have a Teraflex leveling kit installed a few months ago and I'm not sure but the problem may have started around the time of that install. I had an experienced shop do the install.
• Stock original MTR tires
• Lug nuts are all in place. I'm not sure if they are over-tightened but they aren't loose.
• Tires don't show any signs of cupping or failures.

The problem is bad enough I'm sort of afraid to even drive it in case it is some kind of steering problem. I've heard of the "death wobble" but I thought that was something that happened all the time from a more aggressive lift. I drove on the highway and it was fine going straight down the road.

Any help is appreciated.

 

I would check out your wheel bearings.

 

I went down to a nearby parking lot to do some turns and look underneath. After doing several figure eights, the problem went away. Now it seems to be driving fine.

Could this be a tire issue? It was only sitting for a week but I thought maybe I have a tire defect? Have any of you heard of a tire issue with the MTRs?

I also wondered if there was a problem with the 4wd or lockers that could be causing this but since I haven't engaged either in a while, that seems unlikely. If that is what it is then I guess it should come back, right? I have the warranty but if the dealer can't see it then they aren't going to want to do anything.

I guess I might be waiting until it happens again and taking a video which I had to do once before to prove to the dealer what was happening.

 

Possibly a bad outer front axle U-Joint.

 

I have the same problems with my nitto mud grapplers, they flat spot when left for a period of time, after they get a little warm everything goes away, dont worry about it to much.

 

Was thinking that also.

But my stock MTR's seem to sometimes cause this on a tight turn, maybe their way of complaining that I am past rotation time. I think the outer/inner lugs get choppy and the tight turn makes the Jeep ride up on them and sway the steering back and forth. Might be more pronounced on a 2-door? Don't know for sure.

Like other Jeep quirks, noticed it years ago and it never got any worse, so I stopped worrying about it.