Death Wobble!!!

Hey guys.. New to TW and joined cause I have an issue.. The all too familiar DEATH WOBBLE!!! I've searched high and low. At first I thought it was warped rotors, wrong. Checked bushings and no visible damage or missing rubber.. I'm lost. It generally does it when its cold (First 20 minutes on the rd or cold temp) or when its raining and its getting worse. Any clues??

 

Need more information.

Welcome

 

Usually does it on braking, sometimes you can barely feel it on acceleration.. And on first start up.. The colder it is, the worse it is. I've noticed it usually shows its ugly little head around 50-55 but its not always at that speed, sometimes more or less.. Im not a mechanical moron, but this has me scratching my head

 

how cold are we talking? and is there typically a lot of snow/moisture when it happens?

(not really good at the vehicle troubleshooting but here goes nothing)

my thought is maybe the brakes sticking intermittently due to ice build up? are all bolts tight in the suspension leading to the wheels?

 

Death wobble ? Sounds like the way i walked coming back across the border from Tijuana back in my partying days.

 

No ice or extreme cold temperatures.. I'm from Georgia so we are talkin between 30 and 50 degrees.. And yes, all bolts are tight

 

loose studs on the rotors?

 

Negative all wheel hardware is tight

 

I thought death wobble was a jeep thing.
Could be tires out of balance. Worn out ball joint or other suspension component worn out or coming loose.

 

What PSI are you running your tires? How old are they?

 

32 psi.. They are maybe a year and a half old. And yes in the steering wheel and brake pedal.. Its the stock suspension

 

I had the death wobble on my 08 Dodge Cummins after I put the leveling kit on the front end. When I hit certain bumps at highway speeds the whole front end would shake so bad I would almost wreck. It was sketchy as fuck!

Your problem sounds like something else.

 

I feel stupid for asking, but have you tried having your truck aligned and tires balanced?

 

Is it happening while your already moving, or does it happen when you take off from a complete stop? Does it happen when you're driving straight or only when you're turning? Does it only happen when you hit a bump or pothole?

 

You need to go from basics... as stated before: take your truck for an alignment and get your wheels balanced...

I may think you have a bent wheel, happened to me before...

 

Not sure if death wobble. DW is a self-perpetuating occilation of the steering components as they try to self correct at speed. Its mostly an issue only on solid front axle vehicles and motorcycles. Motorcycles rely on rake/trail to give the caster numbers to keep it upright and the wobble come from the wandering contact patch. On solid axles it's triggered by inputs from the wheels/tires that feed back into the slop in the linkage causing dynamic castering and cambering in oposition when the suspension rapidly cycles side to side. Never heard of it happening on IFS.

 

I second getting an alignment.. When ever I'd pass over sections of road where they "chip and sealed" I got what felt like the death wobble. Got it aligned and it's gone. Granted this was after new UCA's though so my alignment was way off

 

Im pretty sure what this guy is experiencing is not death wobble. Death wobble is pretty violent and is a little more than a wobble.

I experienced similar symptoms to what the OP is describing in my 04 Taco, it was a bad ball joint.