Scary Death Wobble!

Post by **Nisspatrol** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:36 pm

Hey fellas,
Here's the story, driving at about 60k's on normal suburban streets, hit a small bump in the road, and the wobble from the bump gets worse until im using all the strength in the world to hold the wheel, if i look at the tyres whilst it is happening they are wobbling left to right, the only way to stop it is to accelerate out of it, it only happens at about 60.....i have had this happen but it was on a GQ, it was the top rubber on the shocker, it was perished and had disappeared, it was getting the small bump from the road, and without the shock to stop the bump with countering the bounce, it continued to get worse until it was uncontrolable...again acceleration was the only out.....the rubbers are fine in my current shocks, but could it be the shocks them selves, their the original struts!
cheers
warren
ps 97 coily

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:41 pm

OK - going by the sig you have a currently stock Coiler.

Carefully check the condition of all bushes, shocks, wheel balance, tie rod ends, wheel bearings and steering damper, also look for play in the steering box.

This happens with lots of cars and it's not IMHO down to any one thing, rather a combination of small tolerances.

Some cars will be fine until the owner changes one element.... then bingo - death wobble.

Steve.

Post by **gman79au** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:51 pm

also check the seals around the swivel hubs or simply replace them. they are designed to absorb on road vibrations and with age stop absorbing. sounds weird? yeah well thats what I thought till I read about it in a genuine suzuki manual had the same problem with a 96 coily I used to have same speed and all, replaced the seal only (to see if Suzuki was full of it) but it went away. I've fix this problem in my Jim the same way in the past too.

Post by **Nisspatrol** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:40 pm

also check the seals around the swivel hubs or simply replace them

Your kidding!, ill have a look but....what those tiny little rubber seals soak up vibrations?
well ive seen stranger things happen, but that was on the GQ!!!!

Post by **mugginsmoo** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:47 pm

definetly on a jimny they are, they have NO felt, and no stearing dampener
A leafy sierra has felt and rubber, they have a stearing dampener to help.

as steve said check every thing, i'd check the wheel bearings first.

Post by **suzimad** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:07 pm

When you have done checking all that other stuff ^^^^
replace your front control arm bushes to nolathene ones and then come and tell me if it worked ....

Post by **want33s** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:14 pm

Mine was doing exactly the same thing... It turned out the track rod was bent and wheels were toeing in 16mm instead of 0mm as recommended.
was jumping left to right and back again REALLY fast.
I suggest you get a wheel alignment.

Post by **Spike_Sierra** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:58 pm

i had death wobbles too
mine was because of either rocks or disintegrated tyre inside my tyre.
it caused the wobble becuase they would get out of alignment after hitting a bump.

just take a tyre of and roll it along the ground and listen for anything inside.

Post by **Dee 4x4** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 7:56 pm

I had mad scary wobbles. Ended up being...

- Worn tie rod end
- Play in the steering box
- Play in the steering shaft due to body lift extension
- King pin bearings
- Wheels spacers
- 30" muds with worn tread

Only when I remedied all of the above did the wobbles go away.

Post by **Nisspatrol** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:23 pm

OK thanks for all the 7 suggestions ha ha, ill get in there and have a good push and pull on bits and pieces, see what i can find.......
thanks heaps again fellas

warren
any more suggestions..keep em comin!

Post by **muttis3LV6** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 10:45 pm

Sorry to say this but you have a chronic case of Troll Fairies, When you are hitting the bump at 60 it really anoyies them, try leaving Anzac cookies and milk near the front wheel promise it will work

Honest ring a mechanic and ask "can the Troll Fairies be messing with my wheels" 100% sure they will say yes

Post by **BlueSuzy** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:09 pm

seems to me these troll fairys are really becomeing a problem.... nah death wobbles has happened to mine as soon as i put huge shackles on, but i have put it down to my wheel bearings as they were ready to let go in my hub to have a party....the whole hub moved up an down.. scary

Post by **zookimal** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 11:24 am

Check the control arm bushes. My bet is them. I've found zook diffs very sensitive to castor change. It can be fine, but as Steve said a combination of things and a change to one can make them go. I bet the bushes are flogged out causing castor change.

Post by **spamwell** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 12:27 pm

panhard bushes where my main issue, then new shocks and tyres and bearings and also tightening the tie rod nuts cleared it up for a while then it came back a little bit so i got a steering dampner which made it super nice.

sam

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 5:35 pm

Gwagensteve wrote: Carefully check the condition of all bushes,

I did say that.

steve.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 7:32 pm

irecently had the wobbles and even after a wheel alignment it still had them.

Turned out to be a combination of stuffed damper and not enough toe in. Tyre place didnt even notice it had 0 toe when its suposed to have at least 4mm.

IDIOTS

Post by **Gwagensteve** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:12 pm

O deg toe is recommended for cross ply tyres.

Just thought i'd mention that.

whenever I've rough aligned anything of mine (I wouldn't spend money on "aligning" a solid axle car that goes in the bush) I've always gone for 0 toe.

Likewise, I don't go out of my way to run a steering damper on Sierras.

I think rim offset and caster has a big effect.

Steve.

Post by **want33s** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 8:21 pm

built4thrashing wrote:irecently had the wobbles and even after a wheel alignment it still had them.

Turned out to be a combination of stuffed damper and not enough toe in. Tyre place didnt even notice it had 0 toe when its suposed to have at least 4mm. IDIOTS

Sierra toe in is listed in FSM as 2-6mm. but.....
My last wheel alignment was set at 0mm toe in and it drives great.

Post by **built4thrashing** » Thu Sep 20, 2007 9:03 pm

4mm fixed my wobbles. and everything is within limits and they were checked by 2 different places and one was pedders.

Post by **ZookNC** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:46 am

Warren,

I too own a coily (bought it new) and it started doing the death wobble after a few months as soon as I hit 70 or 80 kays. This happens on all unlifted coilies as soon as the front springs sag and the castor angle increases. The problem doesn't really ever go away until you raise the suspension a couple of inches (worked for me) but adjusting the steering box for very little or no play helps. King pin and wheel bearings also play their part and have to be in top nick.
As for other suggestions, and this is just my two cents worth, my car has done almost 100,000 kays, most of which were off-road and I don't have any play in panhard, tie-rod or other links and bushes. Never had to do a wheel alignment either so I doubt the problem would come from there.

Hope this helps !

cheers,

Post by **Pinball** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 9:14 am

Just fixed my DW's on a leafy....

between 40 and 60, hit a bump and hold on for the ride, accelerate hard past 60 and it'd settle, decelerate and it got worse till you were around 10.

Solution..

remove and replace bent passenger spring, remove and replace shackle bushes....

course now i noticed that the shackles and bolts are near shot...

Spock

Post by **spamwell** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:34 pm

Gwagensteve wrote:O deg toe is recommended for cross ply tyres.

Just thought i'd mention that.

whenever I've rough aligned anything of mine (I wouldn't spend money on "aligning" a solid axle car that goes in the bush) I've always gone for 0 toe.

Likewise, I don't go out of my way to run a steering damper on Sierras.

I think rim offset and caster has a big effect.

Steve.

yeah i suppose it would but my biggest death wobble problem was while my car had standard wheels and tyres and sat standard height.

Post by **Nisspatrol** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:40 am

Bump, ok new update, the right hand side front disk and rim and everything around it was purple hot when i got home today, not through excessive braking though, is that bearings?

Post by **want33s** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:44 am

Could be bearings but you'd have heard rumbling by now if it was.... I'd say a brake caliper is part or fully seized and is sticking on. Happened to me last week.... Have to clean mud out better next time!

Post by **Nisspatrol** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 7:56 pm

Yeah i think your right, the caliper seems a bit on the sticky side, ill rip it off on the weekend, oh and by the way i put the sway bar back on and it seems to have stopped it a bit, this give any of you any more clues?

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