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[Yakko]

Driving at about 30mph hit a small pot hole, had sudden Death Wobble, car felt like it was going to shake itself apart, carried on until I slowed down.

Couldn't reproduce it afterwards.

Don't fancy it happening again. Any ideas?

[Jonny Jeep]

Loose track bar/worn bushing or worn control arm bushings seem to be favorite.

[georgen]

Re tighten everything and check for worn bushes, mine happened at 55-60mph and jumped all over two lanes of the carriageway, I had no control and if anyone was passing me, they would of ended up through the amour-co. mine ended up been cheap top control arms I fitted.

[Arno]

Silly question , your tyres propperly inflated. When I put bigger wheels on, my TJ reacted similar, when I chk tyre pressure, it was 33psi... Deflate to 28 and no more nasty suprices when I hit a pothole

[dieselj20]

steering damper knackered

[Dave69]

 

classic case of bump steer

[JamesH]

There is a big difference between bump steer and what happens when you get proper death wobble - Georgen's description is pretty good for full death wobble and it will be down to a component being really badly worn of the results of you not put something back together right.

The only time I've had it was when I did loads of work on the Jeep and hadn't seated the taper of the tie road end into the steering knuckle properly. The first 20 minutes of the journey was fine, everything spot on and then I hit a fairly big pothole, the tie rod end must have jumped out and it was all I could do to hold onto the steering wheel  and try and guide the Jeep to the side of the road - it did literally feel like it was going to shake itself apart and I had not option about where it was going to steer.

If it is bump steer, then sensation will be constant pulling back and forth of the steering as your wheels go down potholes and undulations in the road. Hard work and no fun but I have driven 50+ miles like that when my XJ steering angles were not setup right and I had no steering damper. With death wobble 5 metres feels like the end of the world.

[Yakko]

Found it. Trackbar bracket had worked itself loose.

Amazing how a little movement in that bar can have such a dramatic impact.

Think I'm going to upgrade my steering damper anyway.

[Brachunky]

You are lucky! Many folk spend ages trying to pin the problem down

[wildwood]

Glad you found it.....as James says can take a while.....had it on the 1 Tonne when it was a road vehicle..... Turned out to be left side spring u bolts loose.....


Operator error

[JamesH]

Operator error

99% of my problems are this 

[mark@thunder-struck.co.uk]

hi chaps , just got my Grand Cherokee back from having some work done on it and hey presto DEATH WOBBLE at 50 mph it was perfect before having the work done . Thanks for the info every little helps !!!!