Tweet
I've got a pretty good feel for my vehicles when something starts behaving differently, so with nearly 18k miles on my truck, I'm pretty familiar with it. Today I noticed a new, disturbing behavior. I was on the freeway, going through an interchange (roughly 60-70mph) around a left-hand turn when the front passenger tire hit a decent size pothole. I felt the front end shake and oscillate 3-4 times before I slowed enough and it stopped. I kept driving, paying close attention to the behavior, looking for any wandering or other issues but did not notice any. A second time, with a smaller pothole, same scenario: left-hand turn, hit the pothole and I could feel the steering jerk to the right, like bump-steer, which I've never experienced like this on this truck. I stopped after this and shook both front tires. I could hear something knocking and figured something was loose. Not having the tools at the time to do anything about it, I finished my way home. After getting home, I checked under the truck, looked at all the bolts, tried to move all of the suspension components (track bar, sway bar, etc.) but could not find anything that seemed loose. I shook the wheels again but now I don't hear the same knocking. I don't believe this is death wobble, but I admittedly have never experienced that except on a motorcycle. However, from descriptions I've read, this doesn't feel like the same thing. I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced something similar before and what you found to be the issue?
-
-
See about having your tires balanced and really inspect the Track Bar. What year vehicle? I assume its a 22' or 23' with that mileage, but often times these don't get driven very much. Have an 18' PXL with 50K and had two good cases of death wobble. Was the tires being out of balance and badly worn. Now have new tires and the issue is gone. Had a new track bar installed at 36K prior to my experience but was waiting for some Toyo Tires. Ended up with a different brand tires. But will be replacing the track bar bushing again soon along with the knuckle. Was just at Overland Expo PNW and spoke to the AEV guys. They told me improper balanced tires are the biggest cause of death wobble. Try that first. You running 37's or 40's? -
Yeah, it's a '22 running 40" tires. I was balancing the tires every 3k miles initially just to monitor how these Cooper STT Pro tires were wearing in, but there was never any adjustment needed. It's been 12k miles since the last tire balance, so I'll get that done this weekend. I've heard several reports of people having issues with these specific tires, and have counted myself lucky that they've been very good for me so far, but perhaps they are the issue. I appreciate the the other recommendations to check. I'll be sure to go through all the bolts, bushings, and other things I can think to check under the truck this weekend, but I agree with you that the track bar will be high on my list to inspect.Comment
-
UPDATE: I got the tires balanced and rotated (they were due anyway). While there, I talked to the shop said about the wobble, so they checked some things out while the wheels were off and said that the upper passenger side ball joint was showing some play. I spoke to the dealership and I'm on the books for them to look at it next Friday. So, that seems to be a "mystery solved" for now. Hopefully the local dealership doesn't give me any trouble over warrantying the work since they're not an AEV dealer. I'll be keeping an eye on the ball joints and when I have another one fail, I'll look at upgrading all of them. Any recommendations between Carli, EMF, or Dynatrac? They all seem to be well reviewed but I'm kind of torn between using ball joints that are rebuildable and can adjust any play out of them (EMF & Dynatrac) vs buying something that's intended to last the lifetime of the vehicle but isn't adjustable and would have to be removed again if I ever did need to cash in on that warranty.Comment
-
Did you ever get confirmation when the dealer looked at the ball joint? My Coopers wore quickly and at 3k started getting death wobble often. We road force balanced them and it was a little better until it came back again at 6k miles. I posted some details in this other Cooper tire thread here.Comment
-
I remember reading your thread. I haven’t had the truck into the dealership yet. I had to push back my appointment due to an out of state funeral. It goes in on the 14th now. Hopefully they don’t give me any grief about a warranty claim, I’ve spoken to AEV support about that already, so they’re ready if I get any pushback on a repair.
I could still feel some vibration after the tires were balanced, and they used some chunky weights to try and get it under control, so it felt like a losing battle, plus at $100 per tire balance, that adds up. I decided to try some Centramatic balancing rings instead. I researched balancing beads but given these tires are already mounted, I didn’t like the options for installing them after the fact. This way I can reuse them when the tires get replaced and if I didn’t like it, then I could uninstall them easily. Got the balancing rings installed on Tuesday, and definitely a big improvement in ride quality and vibration. Slower speeds you can still feel some, because balancing bead technology like this needs speeds of about 45mph to be effective, from what I’ve read. But, so far it’s helping, and makes the ball joint wobble less severe. I haven’t had any more severe death wobble yet, but I can feel it moving around at certain times. Dealership said not to worry about driving it while I wait for my appointment, so that’s what I’m doing.Comment
-
Thanks for sharing the info. After the last service appointment they recommended I change the tires. They have been rotated once and then road force balanced and I currently have only 6k miles. Just today when heading on the the highway onramp we had it again and had to slow to a stop. It's like chasing a ghost, I think the service records show 25+ days in the shop. I reached out to AEV and opened a support request to see since I exhausted all the options locally. RAM Cars mentioned to open a buy back case with RAM but I actually love this truck and want get it resolved but might be forced to. We currently don't drive it at this point unfortunately. Well see what AEV says and hopefully there's something to get it right.
Comment
-
Dang, that really sucks you’re not getting to drive it at all right now. Hopefully they can fix it. I said I hadn’t had any more death wobble recently, but then the day after that I was back in Utah and had it happen twice. Idk if I jinxed it, if it’s getting worse, or if it’s just something about those Utah roads…Comment
-
Death wobble on these trucks is pretty scary - I experienced it multiple times on mine. It appeared to be the track bar, but even replacing that only seemed to solve the issue most of the time. This is one of the reasons I did a completely new build that replaced almost all of the OEM steering components...in my experience that's the weak point. I wish AEV would build (or source) their own steering components for these trucks, I'm sure they'd be better than OEM. The OEM bushings/joints aren't quite up to the task (IMO).
Hope they get this resolved for you, these trucks are too much fun (and too expensive) to worry about.Comment
Comment