So I was heading with my wife to a restaurant on RT-23 North in Wayne, NJ around 8pm and I think I witnessed a death wobble!

I've never owned a Jeep before (have one on order) and it scared the crap out of me as a passer-by.



We were in the left lane in my wife's car and I see a JK in the middle lane. As I'm approaching it, I see the front wheel shaking violently out of control. I though he had a blow out. I was right next to him at this point and the wheel was shaking violently left and right. I sped up to get away from him just in case he was going to lose control.

The Jeep continued ahead and passed us about 1/2 mile down the road and the tire was fine. My wife asked what the heck it could have been. I mentioned the "death wobble" and now she's worried about the new JK on the way.


I'm wondering if it was a member here. It was a JK (silver I think), appeared to have stock wheels/bumpers, perhaps a BB and it had windshield mounted lights.


If you're out there and reading this... let us know WTF that was!!!

 

I think you should have told them to pull over.

 

Wasnt really an option. I moved about 10 car lengths ahead to make sure me & the wife were safe. I slowed down because I was concerned. About 1/2 mile down the road he passed me and everything looked OK... I was in the right lane at this point because I was nearing my exit.


It honestly looked like the wheel was going to fly off and I have no idea how he did not lose control. The Jeep itself did not seem to be wobbling, but the front wheel was going violently from left to right repeatedly.

 

It's happened to me but I've never witnessed from the outside looking in. That could be allot of things like a balljoint or the death wobble. I just hope the guy stopped somewhere and figured it out.

 

I'd say you did. Just got done taking care of the same thing with mine. Theres many causes, mine was a faulty track bar. Theres also bad alignment, caster out of wack, weak steering stabilizer. Was the jeep completely stock? If so thats kinda wierd. It usually just happens to modified vehicles, you start changing stuff around and dont do it right or neglect getting an alignment afterwards and thats what you end up with.

 

hey bad it sounds like you definately witnessed death wobble, I've had it happen to me about 10times over the years in my ford heavy duty work truck and people have told me how they saw the front wheels shaking and looking like they were going to fall off...the only way to get the wobble to stop each time is to take foot offf gas and let it slow itself down, if you brake it wont stop till you are almost stopped

 

Your description makes it sound like its just one tire doing that though....?

That could be loose lugs nuts, bad tie rod end/ball joint, blown tire ply, or any number of other things.

 

yeah i just started to get it, like two nights ago, i got it one other time after my alighment was done and found out the stablizer shock wasnt tightened down, so i went back to sears and had em fix it and now its back i have a 2" BB lift and everything else is stock, i get it at 45-55 mph when i hit a bump in the road only and its bad to the point where its hard to hold the steering wheel.

 

Well, I was only on one side of him...


I definately do not think it was any of those scenarios though...

 

Bad63lac, you could not have described the "death wobble" any better, for not having experienced this any other way than, visually.

I sold an 04 X because of this concern, got tired of trying to find anyone who knew what the hell it was.

If your wife thought it was scarry witnessing it, let me tell you first hand, as a woman, it was horribly scarry. I saw a post in here which stated that the "death wobble" could not make you loose control, but having experienced it first hand, you could never convince me of that. It was not a good thing. You litterally have absolutely no control whatsoever until you get it settled down, which meant almost coming to a complete stop and having someone run up your behind. I mentioned to all my family, friends that if I am involved in an accident, the jeep most likely would be at fault.

No problems w/07 - no mods yet, but have done my research and now know all about the death wobble and solutions. Please don't let this issue be a deal breaker on the JK - you guys will love it! I have another girlfriend who has one and we just love them. They are just way too fun to drive. Just know, when you buy a jeep, be mentally prepared for things to go wrong with it and to begin saying, "it's a jeep thing". Jeepers do put up with alot more issues with their jeeps than probably anyother vehicle owner out there, hence "it's a jeep thing". It all pays off in the end, when you drive a jeep!

This forum is excellent so stick around!!!!!!!!!!!

Stacy