Death Wobble on an 05 LJ Rubicon

FastZach

New member
I have an 05 LJ Rubicon with about 40k miles on it and it has pretty bad death wobble. Seems to come when I'm accelerating on a bumpy paved road.
The first owner hardly ever drove it. It has a 2" spring lift with stock control arms.

I have to believe that the CA bushings are dry rotted along with all the bushings in the steering system. I've been told death wobble could be one or a combo of bad ball joints, shot control arm bushings, or bad tie rod ends.

My question is, before I go replacing the ball joints, when do ball joints wear out? Is it solely a use thing or can they go bad just with time but little use?

I'm looking to put a long arm kit on soon and upgrade the tie rod and drag link at the same time. I just don't want to replace the ball joints if thats not the problem.

Thanks for the help
 

10frank9

Web Wheeler
Running heavy wheels and big tires even routine driving can wear your ball joints. Lots of variables.

Probably goes without saying but, did you already check the torque on your axle track bar and your other suspension components?
 

FastZach

New member
Running heavy wheels and big tires even routine driving can wear your ball joints. Lots of variables.

Probably goes without saying but, did you already check the torque on your axle track bar and your other suspension components?

Naw it doesn't go without saying to do all that. :doh: I'm still pretty new to this

The tires are pretty much stock size just a little wider. Went wheeling once and now I have the death wobble so I guess it makes sense to retorque everything.. i'll give that a try and I'll let you know.. Thanks!
 

Ben E

New member
I fought death wobble on my 05 LJ for about 8 months, the end cause was rather surprising to me, although it shouldn't have been after thinking about it. My death wobble started occuring shortly after a nasty wheeling trip where I got stuck in a muddy area and was thrashing the Jeep hard to get back to camp. Mine occurred (with 33" tires) about 55mph and above, but was the worst at 65. I just started with the cheapest parts and worked my way up.

- Steering stablizer (not a permanent fix and should never be, but wanted to see if anything changed)
- tire rotation (no change)
- tire balance (no change, leason learned here, see final comments)
- Torque check of all hardware on front end, everything was OK
- HD trackbar install (small change, but barely, DW still there)
- Massive front end overhaul, lots of thrown beer cans and excessive swearing. Included new ball joints, new wheel bearings, Currie adjustable upper and lower control arms, HD drag link and tie rod install, alignment, and another tire balancing. Nothing changed, DW still there, although my front end was waaaay tighter.
- Played with pinion angle (AKA caster angle) to see if DW got worse or better based on angles. No changes.
- removed wheel weights and put balancing beads in the tires. Kinda changed, but still there.
- Took the wheels (aftermarket steel) and tires off the Jeep. Took them to the only place in town with a road force balancer. Rebalanced. Slight change, but they told me their balancing machine indicated that 3 of the wheels were bent, 1 of them was bent enough that the road force balancer "errored out" on it. I brought them my factory aluminum wheels, and they put my tires on those. I went home and put the tires with my factory wheels back on my Jeep and took it for a spin. NO WOBBLE.

Turned out the entire time, the whole thing was caused by a freakin' bent wheel or 3. Even through a tire rotation, I ended up with 1 of the 3 bent wheels on the front every time. When I noted above about the first tire balance, TAKE IT SOMEWHERE WITH A ROAD FORCE BALANCER. The place I normally have do my tires treats me like a king and is very knowledgable, but they do not have road force balancer so they couldn't not tell that the wheel was out of spec.

Even though the whole process sucked, I was so relieved to have it taken care of, and I got basically a whole new front end out of the deal. I'll never go back to steel wheels again. I think what happened was the no-good-very-bad-wheeling-day I had, I recalled several months later accidentally ramming into a large tree root, among other things. That's probably what bend the wheel.
 

jeepster95

New member
My death wobble

i had a 99 TJ that had long term death wobble it had sat a long time i had to replace the shocks and steering stabilizer and trac bar, then i also noticed that the tires had weather checking only in 1 spot the spot where it sat and bulged. so i put another set of tires on it and it cleared it up.
On my 04 TJ Rubicon that i currently DD i started to get DW I looked everything over it was all tight, the dealer i bought it from had replaced front shocks and wheel bearings so I wasnt worried about those too much but the steering stabilizer was original, so I bought the $25 cheapy and installed it, no more DW when I tried to push/pull the old one it would stick at full compression and didnt want to come back out so I believe thats the root cause it was either bent or just sticky. but 1 year and 30k miles later no problems.

mine has 185000 miles on factory ball joints , i replaced all tie rods and tires this year and have 0 issues now.

Good Luck I hope its a easy one to find for you.
 

WJCO

Meme King
but the steering stabilizer was original, so I bought the $25 cheapy and installed it, no more DW when I tried to push/pull the old one it would stick at full compression and didnt want to come back out so I believe thats the root cause it was either bent or just sticky. but 1 year and 30k miles later no problems.

I'm glad your Death Wobble hasn't returned, but do you even want to hear an argument about how steering stabilizers don't fix DW? If not, I'll refrain from commenting....
 

Waldo177

New member
I have so many people tell me the steering stabilizer will fix it or even putting dual stabilizer shocks fixed there's but when I tell them this is a bandaid not a cure they want to argue. So I just walk away.
 

FastZach

New member
Replaced the UCA bushings but I still get the death wobble. The most frustrating part is that it is very inconsistent. Sometimes it will be an all day event every time I hit 45 MPH and others I won't even have the slightest wobble
 

WJCO

Meme King
Replaced the UCA bushings but I still get the death wobble. The most frustrating part is that it is very inconsistent. Sometimes it will be an all day event every time I hit 45 MPH and others I won't even have the slightest wobble

Try a tire rotation to see if you may have a bad tire or out of balance tire that's setting it off. Also, make sure all parts in the front end are tight. Even .125 of play in a tie rod or track bar bushing can cause DW.
 

Waldo177

New member
Mine ended up being the tires needing balanced the correct way. First place didn't do a good job. I did find my track bar mount axle side wobbled out and had to go to a bigger bolt.
 

racerboy411

New member
Track bar get a new one my 03 rubicon did that and I got a adjustable track bar because I want Ed to go to a big lift later but that's the first thing to check that's what keeps your axle in check
 

FastZach

New member
Track bar get a new one my 03 rubicon did that and I got a adjustable track bar because I want Ed to go to a big lift later but that's the first thing to check that's what keeps your axle in check


Cool.. I'll see if I can't track one down. Thanks.. I'm trying to do as little as possible until I go long arm in a couple months. I would hate to buy something new just to take it off with the new lift.
 

FastZach

New member
Found the culprit of the DW... It was the track bar. I replaced it with a stock track bar. Drives much better and no DW so far!
 
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