sithslayer23

I'm sure there are a few here who have experienced this terrible sensation. I apply the brakes and the entire Jeep shakes violently enough to where I have to come to a complete stop for the wobble to stop. The lightly applying of the brakes is usually what triggers it. Sometimes the wobble occurs going over a bump, say a railroad track going about 20-25. Took the Jeep in to a local 4WD custom shop and they said that the tie rod was the culprit. $400 of parts and labor later, the wobble is still happening. Any thoughts on what could be the true root of the problem?

Canvas

Well sounds to me like you do not have DW but more of a brake issue. By this one or both of your front rotors might be warped which is causing uneven pad application. I arrived at this conculsion from your statement that it happens when you apply the brakes. A true DW usually happens between 30-50 mph and after going over an imperfection in the road and will only stop once you come to complete stop. The culprit of DW 9 times out of 10 is the track bar being loose or worn bushings.

there is a simple test you can do in your garage to see if your brake discs are warped. You will need a floor jack, jack stands, lug wrench and a straight flat steel ruler or piece of flat stock about 12-18 inches long. Chock your rear wheels to keep the Jeep from rolling back when on the jack stands. Place Jeep in neutral. Remove both front wheels. With the steel ruler or flat stock place on exposed surface of the brake disc checking for any gaps. Slowly spin the brake disc to see if there are any gaps.

Good luck and looking for a follow up.

R/
Will

Smudgeontheglass

Honestly it was probably a combination of problems. Your tie rod was probably bad because your track bar is probably ovalled out and wore loose the ball joints. If you have a stock track bar with the stock bolts, that is the problem in what seems like 7/10 of these deathwobble cases. If you're lifted without a trackbar bracket, check the frame side. Also check your power steering pump for play, the synergy bracket is a good solution to both trackbar and pitman arm issues.

Mr.T

DW is hard on the front end. Friend of mine had DW after the unit bearings were replaced by someone that forgot to tighten all the bolts. It drove well after putting it all back together again, and we replaced a tie rod end as well. Long story short, it's steering funny now, he suspects something else was damaged during the DW episodes, and its worn/loosened to the point of being noticed. Can't prove it, but there's a good argument for the "domino effect" of death wobble.

Some troubleshooting ideas:

• Have someone who cannot benefit from your demise move the steering wheel back and forth with the engine idling (brake on, park or neutral). Look for play at every joint/bolt, especially the track bar. Look for flexing in the various steel mounting points, including the steering gear.
• Jack up a each front wheel and check how much play there is in all directions. A crow bar can help. Here's a link to how I check ball joints with a dial indicator.
• Both tests above may miss something that takes more force to see the problem. And to make this even harder to diagnose, a small amount of play and flexing can be quite normal.
• Check torque on all suspension and steering related fasteners.
• Take the track bar out and inspect the mounts. The track bar is held in place by the friction on the faces of the clevite steel inner bushing against the inside faces of the mounts, and bolt torque provides the compression force to hold these faces together tightly. If the friction against the faces fails to hold it rock solid, it will wallow out the hole regardless of the bolt clearance -- A little play or clearance in the mounting holes just doesn't matter. What does matter is that the faces in the mount are very flat with no displaced metal from a track bar that's been moving. A flat file and some wet/dry paper on a flat steel sanding block usually does the trick. Any dings, crud, or displaced metal where these faces mate will likely cause it to get loose over time. All this applies to the other joints in the suspension with a bolt through a steel inner bushing.

sithslayer23

Thanks for all of your input. I will try to take a closer look at some of the components myself within the next week or so. After which I will have an update to see if I found anything suspicious.

BigBlueJeep

Had DW on my 07 two-door. Tracked it down to loose track bar bolts allowing for play whenever the front wheels hit a pot hole. Torqued the track bar to spec and the problem went away. I would follow Mr. T's checklist above to the letter with heavy emphasis on checking torque specs.

Here is a link to the specs.

Good luck.

resharp001

I've dealt with DW myself, and have helped buddies with DW. To me, it sounds like you have a few issues. DW is caused by worn components, loose bolts and/or wallowed out brackets. Brakes aren't the cause of DW, but there are a whole hosts of things that can trigger DW and set it in motion. I suspect you have a brake issue that is not helping things, but that at times is triggering a wobble. You have 2008, so guessing you have quite a few miles on those steering components. Also, even a single good wobble can wreak havoc on a good joint and cause it damage, so it really gets to be a pain in the ass type thing to deal with. From my experience, MOST of the time DW is caused by:

1) track bar issues (worn joint, loose bolt, wallowed bracket hole)
2) ball joints

Although TREs, DL, unit bearings, and pitman arm can come in to play, more often than not it's BJs or TB that are the culprit. If you have not, search up Planman's videos on youtube. They provide a nice place to start in figuring out how to evaluate if you have a bad joint. Note that many shops and almost all dealers are completely worthless in helping with solving wobble issues. The time they have to take to diagnose isn't all that profitable to them, and a lot of the times they're just idiots that don't know what to look for. If I've said it once, I've said it 1000 times, the best thing for a wrangler owner to do is get well acquainted with their steering components, what they are, and how they all work together. Fortunately, it's not rocket science. You don't have to be a mechanic, but you do need to have the desire to figure it out.

Mr T has given you good advice above. The best thing to do is have someone in the jeep turning the wheel back and forth as you sit in front and inspect all moving parts. This is exponentially easier on a lifted vehicle with an aftermarket bumper! If you have the stock bumper you might need to remove the the plastic air damn or whatnot to really get a clear look. Pay particular attention to how much the TB joint moves in the frame side bracket. At the DL and TREs, look for the joints to move up/down. They have misalignment to them so movement is normal, but if you have a bad joint, you can typically see them pop up/down. Put your hand on the bars and see if you can feel anything. Test your BJs by jacking up the tire a few inches and put a shovel under it, stepping on the handle for leverage. Look for excessive movement in the gaps between the knuckle and the C. If you hear anything or see much of any movement, odds are better than none that you have a crap BJ.

It has been my experience that you TYPICALLY need to have a couple bad gremlins to trigger a full on DW. Usually you can survive 1 loose bolt, 1 bad component, or generally 1 issue and just observe the common side effect of that issue without it throwing everything off. Problem is when you have 2 gremlins, you have a triggering event (bump, brakes, out of balance wheel) and it finds it's way to the weakest link....which causes a reverberation further down the line to the 2nd weakest link....at which time all hell breaks loose.....like ripples in the water converging on each other.

So, take some time this weekend and inspect your front end, then report back.