3g Death Wobble

[ACoffel]

I experienced what I suppose to be " death wobble on my 04. 5 this past Sunday and can now attest to the hair raising effect. I was playing around

on my way home (alone) and after hitting a SLIGHTLY rough patch of road,

the steering began to oscillate violently Almost causing me to lose control.

I was accelerating and had hit about 70 m. p. h. when the incident occured.

I thought I had eliminated this problem with the installation of the Windecker

steering stabilizer. Does anyone know what might cause this ? My first check

will be the balljoints !

 

[j.m.mcfly]

ck air press and outer tie rod ends or poss axle u joints

 

[Yo Hoot]

Are you running Goodrich tires?

 

[RDyson]

I just did a search here last night for the DW. A friend of mine just bought an 04 and has the DW pretty bad. It has the michelins on it.



Dodge has just came out with a TSB for DW. It suggests 60# air pressure, checking the steering stabalizer, tie rod ends, and I think shocks.



Old threads suggested that the caster may be out of spec.



Do a search on DW and you'll get the TSB #



Randy

 

[Yo Hoot]

Changing tires and a better steering stabilizer setup removed ALL hint of DW for me. I can't make it do it at any speed or road situation. I have tried.

 

[PatrickMarshall]

Front end shimmy

Found this over on another site:

http://www.carsondodge.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=193

 

[ACoffel]

I still have the stock MICHELIN tires (40 p. s. i. ) , ball joints , and tie rod ends (32000 mi. ) . I have new axle u-joints although I can't see how they figure in to

this equation and I also have DSS . This is the first time I have experienced

this problem and I drive PLENTY of bumpy gravel roads. I had this problem

with a Chevy leaf sprung Dana 60 once and solved it with a set of caster

shims.

 

[betterthanstock]

BFG 315 do not cause death wobble. I am on the second set, and no DW. (on stock rims), stock height, etc. I have tried every pressure between 30-50, and if they are soft, there is a tendency to wobble a little at highway speeds. I run my 315's at about 45/35 front/rear.

I have about . 015 of vertical play in ball joints. (56K)

I would suspect any alteration to the wheel offset (dynatrac) would increase the tendency.

I just saw a post where there is a TSB to install damper 52106909AE to correct DW.

For stock tires, you should run about 60/45 F/R empty.

 

[4xquadrod]

I experienced the wobble at 70 mph. Replaced lower ball joints with spicers due to some play in them. The wobble hasn't been back... ... . yet.

 

[JonKing]

Had three trucks do it, a 03 and two 04's all three were fixed under warranty by replacing the steering boxes. Dodge is well aware of the problem, so check with a dealer.

 

[JNeves]

Kore/Fox steering stabilizer and Toyo 295/70 17=bye bye dw. Of course the Kore Pace helps smooth things out. My tie rod ends were still good.

 

[ACoffel]

Thanks for all the input guys !!

 

[HLewallen]

BFG 315 do not cause death wobble.

Lets try not to lead people astray with unfounded statements. BFG 315s may very well not cause DW on your truck. It is generally understood that DW can be caused by a long list of inputs in combination from many areas of the suspension and steering. For many people, BFG 315s have enough of a contribution that when combined with the other factors on their truck will cause DW.



I made one change to my truck - replaced the BFG 315s with E rated tires - and have not seen DW in the 20k miles since.



Specifically on the caster issue, I have heard many arguments about that. I was worried about that specifically on my truck, as I can't even get the caster within factory spec. The KORE/DRC guys cited a bunch of testing they had done with different caster settings and found that on their trucks they had to darn near zero caster to induce DW (search will turn up the specifics). Mine is still only about 3-3. 5 degrees.

 

[bighammer]

Lets try not to lead people astray with unfounded statements. BFG 315s may very well not cause DW on your truck. It is generally understood that DW can be caused by a long list of inputs in combination from many areas of the suspension and steering. For many people, BFG 315s have enough of a contribution that when combined with the other factors on their truck will cause DW.

I made one change to my truck - replaced the BFG 315s with E rated tires - and have not seen DW in the 20k miles since.

Specifically on the caster issue, I have heard many arguments about that. I was worried about that specifically on my truck, as I can't even get the caster within factory spec. The KORE/DRC guys cited a bunch of testing they had done with different caster settings and found that on their trucks they had to darn near zero caster to induce DW (search will turn up the specifics). Mine is still only about 3-3. 5 degrees.

I guess I'm on the other side of the coin. I had what I think must've been the Death Wobble on my truck when it was still fairly new . (~4 or 5 months old with STOCK TIRES)

I was on the freeway one night and out of the blue had a really violent shake. I thought for sure I had blown a tire and pulled over to the side. After walking around, crawling under, and scratching my head, I drove away. I've never had it happen again. I've driven the same lane at about the same speed, and couldn't make it happen.

I've had 315s on the truck for almost 3 years and have never had any similar shaking.

 

[JARichard]

I had DW on my 03 when I had the 315's on it. The new steering stabilizer cured the problem for me!

 

[brianv31]

I had this condition on an '04. 5 with stock tires and suspension. The steering stabilizer shock was bad, and replacing it corrected the condition. As was mentioned above, a KORE/Fox or the like is probably a good solution. A $40 OEM stabilizer fixed my problem though.

 

[vrabelm]

Do you have a lift kit in the front of the truck?

 

[DPKetchum]

My neighbor got D/W on his stock 05 dually 4x4. His tires(Factory)were worn even, just getting near the wear bars. New tires and it was cured.

 

[sag2]

Death Wobble is fairly rare on STOCK trucks. However that being said there is a TSB (22-005-06) that gives the proper diagnosis procedure in the event it does occur. Most times it is worn parts or bad tires.

 

[GTani]

Last Thursday I experienced what I believe was DW. Traveling on the freeway at around 70 mph I hit a patch of rough,uneven pavement. I had the same violent shaking that was mentioned. It lasted a very short time and I too thought something broke or came loose. Took the truck to my friend's alignment shop,checked the nitrogen in all the shocks(T/Rex,Bilsteins) and the stabilizer(Kore race). Checked the torque on track bar(Kore race)control arms,etc. Alignment was fine. Little play in upper ball joints but not enough to worry about. Balanced the tires(315 Goodrich,worse one was about 1oz. out). Still don't know what caused it. I ordered a set of Toyo's anyway.

I travel a lot in Baja,lots of washboard roads and never experience DW. Very disoncerting to say the least.