Death wobble

Tires were brand new when I bought the truck 4 months back. Steering box is tight

 

Did you replace the rotors yet

 

total guess i have no idea but bad bushings or loose bolts in the steering rack, front strut mounts, or control arms?? what is the wheel alignment like?? stock truck also means stock size tires?

 

If it's not affiliated with brake application, how do rotors create the problem?

 

My guess is it's something in the suspension geometry that allows the oscillation to happen. If you have checked all the front suspension components, and still can't find anything, I'd try a little more caster in your alignment. This will help with the wheels wanting to point themselves straight. It could be that without enough caster your wheels are on the edge of stability. Think trying to push a grocery cart with at least one front wheel pointed in the wrong direction. You can't make it more than a few inches without going very slow and often not in the direction you want. Of course you could have a situation where the carts wheel just shakes up and down every aisle, in which case you have a defective component...

 

I can get the wobble/shake to happen when ever if I go down to a bout 35 mph in 5th gear and then speed it up it happens when I'm speeding up again. But it happens mostly after I go over a bridge or an over pass on the freeway but it comes at random times

 

I had a slight version of this when on the highway until I replaced the steering wheel bushings. Tightened everything right up.

 

Wow that video is shocking, i just cant happing without a really fucked tie rod or loose A arms, if is was a loose wheel bearing that was that bad theres no way you couldnt hear it going down the road.

 

Well on my solid axle just he alignment being off with too little caster caused it. Tires were too neutral and had no resistance. i went through and bough Carli ball joints, new steering box, new tie rod and drag link, steering box stabilizer. You name it. Just needed some caster. I'd button everything up and check everything, rotate tires rear to front and check alignment

 

Voilà! Validation! Lol, This would be the cheapest thing to check. So two votes for caster...

 

Was steering rack bushings suggested? Or control arm bushings? Rack bushings can easily be checked turning the tires (parked) and watching the rack for flex. Also id have the rag joint as well as the steering arm yoke or whatever it's called, I forget. Mine went bad, the joint located in the firewall. Didn't have that wobble, but I suppose it could cause it.

 

Another obvious one is tire pressure. Double check it. On an SAS 4runner I used to have, we went through all the other stuff (including the important caster!), and realized lower pressure was setting it off. A cheap one to check off if you haven't.

 

Concur with alignment. If you're not a Jeeper (I'm not either) you probably aren't familiar with death wobble, having seen it happen at 65 as my buddy was following me....it's terrifying. For him it was new(er) tires, and an alignment that mostly cured it. @JJ04TACO hit it on the head with suspension geometry. Unless you're super lifted or your entire suspension shit the bed you shouldn't have death wobble like a Jeep or anything even close.

All you guys talking about brakes...

 

Front struts would have been my first thing to check. A more rare and unfortunate occurrence would be bad bearings in your front differential.

 

If you had a solid axle I would say it was your track bar. With an independent front end I would say control arms also check draglinks and tie rod ends for play.

 

Any updates?

 

I had a wobble problem last year that started out quietly and increased in volume and intensity over the next 2 miles, then gradually stopped over the next mile or so. That happened in two different locations on the interstate. Haven't had it since but you know what they say, "Problems that go away by themselves come back by themselves..."

This first happened after I replaced the rear brake linings. To see what was going on, I drove about 60 and then very slowly applied the emergency brake. For my efforts I was rewarded with the same exact "wobble", starting with when the brake shoes first started to make contact with the drums. I'm still working on the problem as of today though. If I find anything definitive I'll definitely post a notice in this forum.