2022 gladiator death wobble

[IanNubbit]

Just an update... the dealership replaced the steering stabilizer and said they found the old unit was leaking. I drove my usual route home immediately afterward and it has made no difference at all. I've read almost every post on this I can find and there just doesn't seem to be any know solution which is amazing. For some replacingbthe stabilizer fixes it some just torque everytging, some have a signle bad tire or rim that wouldnt balance. So I am headed down the same path as so many before me wondering if this will ever be fixed now. It was a great car for 9k miles and now I dread driving it. Certainly has halted all my plans for buying any other accessories until it's fixed.

Take what advisors say with a grain of salt IMO. I've never seen any of them leak, all that are bad are due to the interval valving being shot and having a massive dead spot.

Sponsored

 

[IanNubbit]

Figured this would be a good thread to post this random story to y'all, and maybe get some people some more insit into how this is for dealers as well.

2022 JT Sport, bone stock not even stickers or a phone mount yet. 7,800 miles.
Truck has full on BAD wobble. Not the normal small shimmy.

Test drove, sure enough, worse one yet, hit a bump with the left front going 70mph, minor shake for a second, then full uncontrollable, can't steer out of the lane anyhting. Had to slow down all the way to 20mph to regain control. Poor little lady was wanting to be a waiter, we put her in a loaner on the spot, no customer should be driving the vehicle like this, its complety unsafe and not the normal issue at all.

Inspection: Remove damper and inspect, massive, about 1" dead spot in the damper, we know thats getting replaced, but I know there has to be more to this one. Inspect under Jeep while on the ground and have someone rotate the wheel about 1/8 a turn back and forth to see whats going on under neath. Found the track bar moving forward and back apx. 1" either way, defintly replacing that. Everything else looking good at this time. Lift it up, check all front suspension fastners, ball joints, upper and lower control arms, track bar, drag link, tie rod, steering gear bolts, everything, nothing even remotely loose. All good, go ahead and order the track bar and the damper.

Track bar comes in, replace. Test while vehicle is loaded on the ground, much better, less then 1/10" of flex in the bar now. Decided to test drive the vehicle without changing the damper (really trying to test everything on these shimmy/wobble cases on JL/JT's as of late to get as much personal info as possible). No change to the wobble at all, still completely uncontrollable. Went ahead and changed the damper and test again, small, very small shimmy on same bump, but goes away in less then a second. hmm. Now what. Most techs would call it good but something dosent sit right with me on this one. I have a strong feeling that damper won't last 2k miles before it will be destroyed.

Grabbed a near identical 22 on lot New with 20 miles sport as well. Hit the same bump, Truck as stable as can be (as expected). Put the Bad* damper on the unsold new truck, and test drive. Hits bump, feels just like the customers vehicle does, small initial shimmy, goes away within 1 second. hmm.

So far what I know is the Track Bar was for sure bad, how/why, couldnt tell you but the new one dosen't flex. The orginal damper, thats shot and needs to be repolaced. What I also know is the truck certainly still has an Issue.

Went ahead and road force balanced all 4 tires, all where dead on with no weight needed anywhere, closely inpspecterd tread again to ensure I didn't miss anything the first time, nope tread like new no uneven wear. Threw it on the alignment rack. Guess what, she was dead on couldn't be better! Slightly toe'd in at 0.2 degrees perfectly, camber dead on 0.3 degrees on both sides, caster right at 4.65 exactly on spec. These are literaly exact to a T the specs for a sport. Rear all dead on as well since someone will ask. Tire pressure all at 36psi as well. Boy am I confused now. We are now heavly checking everything at this point, inspecting ball joints and tie rod ends, ensuring nothing is doing anything but being perfect. Its all perfect, even attmepting to find movment in any of the control arm bushing, none to be found.

This will now be a monday problem as we are now at a complete loss for this poor lady. Up and down the service info for "shimmy" on the truck (Yes there is a step by step list for this now on JL/JTs for Techs to follow, Jeep certainly knows this is common, and wants these tickets to stop coming in too) with no resolution. Any one have any thoughts? Certainly can see how lesser Techs/Dealers would throw their hands up and classify it as "Unrepairable" now. If it was a personaly rig Id be throwing a Solid track bar upgrade, and get a larger steering damper and call her good (hopefully of course), but can't do that obviously here. Let me know what y'all are thinking and hopefully this gives some insite to some as to what gets replaced and why in warranty cases.

EDIT: Forgot to put this also. Used the Damper off the unsold unit on the bad truck, same as with with the ordered damper. Also tried slight toe out, no change at all. The damper is now on a No ETA back order, so maybe an updated part? but we know that dosen't help that truck. Also We popped on a dial indicator as well and checked multiple spots on the lower region of the Steering Gear Box and Pitman arm. Nothing had more then 1/2 a thou of an inch of movment (nothing esentially most likely just the imperfections on the metal at that point).

 

[Buckeye Jeeper]

This was my list for big tires in hopes that it would remain nargle free on the highway.

Apex 2.5 ton tierod and draglink
Steersmarts sector shaft brace
Steersmarts front and rear track bar
American Iron ball joint delete
Rancho geometry brackets
Exact Center centering unit
Front Axel truss kit - not yet installed
caster -7.3
toe in -0.2

Drives 200% better than when i picked it up and i can cruise at 80 without constantly worrying about loosing control.

All of this is insane to have to put on a new vehicle but i dont build things that take out minivans of kids on the highway.

So far I’ve done the Apex 2.5 ton complete system. I’ve had it aligned twice and tires balanced. Installed the steer smarts sector shaft brace today. It definitely feels better on the steering as far as tightness and feeling less input from the road. It was all pretty smooth road coming home so we will see when I drive in the places I’ve had it do it every time in the next day or so.

 

[Buckeye Jeeper]

Figured this would be a good thread to post this random story to y'all, and maybe get some people some more insit into how this is for dealers as well.

2022 JT Sport, bone stock not even stickers or a phone mount yet. 7,800 miles.
Truck has full on BAD wobble. Not the normal small shimmy.

Test drove, sure enough, worse one yet, hit a bump with the left front going 70mph, minor shake for a second, then full uncontrollable, can't steer out of the lane anyhting. Had to slow down all the way to 20mph to regain control. Poor little lady was wanting to be a waiter, we put her in a loaner on the spot, no customer should be driving the vehicle like this, its complety unsafe and not the normal issue at all.

Inspection: Remove damper and inspect, massive, about 1" dead spot in the damper, we know thats getting replaced, but I know there has to be more to this one. Inspect under Jeep while on the ground and have someone rotate the wheel about 1/8 a turn back and forth to see whats going on under neath. Found the track bar moving forward and back apx. 1" either way, defintly replacing that. Everything else looking good at this time. Lift it up, check all front suspension fastners, ball joints, upper and lower control arms, track bar, drag link, tie rod, steering gear bolts, everything, nothing even remotely loose. All good, go ahead and order the track bar and the damper.

Track bar comes in, replace. Test while vehicle is loaded on the ground, much better, less then 1/10" of flex in the bar now. Decided to test drive the vehicle without changing the damper (really trying to test everything on these shimmy/wobble cases on JL/JT's as of late to get as much personal info as possible). No change to the wobble at all, still completely uncontrollable. Went ahead and changed the damper and test again, small, very small shimmy on same bump, but goes away in less then a second. hmm. Now what. Most techs would call it good but something dosent sit right with me on this one. I have a strong feeling that damper won't last 2k miles before it will be destroyed.

Grabbed a near identical 22 on lot New with 20 miles sport as well. Hit the same bump, Truck as stable as can be (as expected). Put the Bad* damper on the unsold new truck, and test drive. Hits bump, feels just like the customers vehicle does, small initial shimmy, goes away within 1 second. hmm.

So far what I know is the Track Bar was for sure bad, how/why, couldnt tell you but the new one dosen't flex. The orginal damper, thats shot and needs to be repolaced. What I also know is the truck certainly still has an Issue.

Went ahead and road force balanced all 4 tires, all where dead on with no weight needed anywhere, closely inpspecterd tread again to ensure I didn't miss anything the first time, nope tread like new no uneven wear. Threw it on the alignment rack. Guess what, she was dead on couldn't be better! Slightly toe'd in at 0.2 degrees perfectly, camber dead on 0.3 degrees on both sides, caster right at 4.65 exactly on spec. These are literaly exact to a T the specs for a sport. Rear all dead on as well since someone will ask. Tire pressure all at 36psi as well. Boy am I confused now. We are now heavly checking everything at this point, inspecting ball joints and tie rod ends, ensuring nothing is doing anything but being perfect. Its all perfect, even attmepting to find movment in any of the control arm bushing, none to be found.

This will now be a monday problem as we are now at a complete loss for this poor lady. Up and down the service info for "shimmy" on the truck (Yes there is a step by step list for this now on JL/JTs for Techs to follow, Jeep certainly knows this is common, and wants these tickets to stop coming in too) with no resolution. Any one have any thoughts? Certainly can see how lesser Techs/Dealers would throw their hands up and classify it as "Unrepairable" now. If it was a personaly rig Id be throwing a Solid track bar upgrade, and get a larger steering damper and call her good (hopefully of course), but can't do that obviously here. Let me know what y'all are thinking and hopefully this gives some insite to some as to what gets replaced and why in warranty cases.

First of all, I’m assuming you are a mechanic for a dealer from your story. Second of all, Thank you !! For being that type of mechanic that doesn’t want to give up and or bandaid fix this lady’s problem. I initially thought for sure it was my tie rod ends because there was the most minimal amount of play in the passenger side ends ( left to right not up and down). Dealership said my stabilizer was bad and took forever to get one. In the mean time I purchased the Apex 2.5 ton complete steering with tie rod ends. At the same time I purchased a fox 2.0 TS stabilizer. None of this made a difference, everything is tight. I’ve paid a lot of attention to the track bar. What I have noticed is a lot of flex of the steering box even with the bolts for sure being tight. One guy on here even posted a video showing his dial indicator showing the deflection stating that minimal amount of deflection in the pitman arm caused one of the worst death wobble cases he’d ever seen. Today I’ve installed the steer smarts sector shaft brace and track bar brace. Steering feels a world of difference. It should help with the deflection and or movement of the steering box. The frame where the steering box mounts could have sure used some beefier bracing from the factory in my opinion. I haven’t drove it enough yet to see if it’s going to cure my death wobble situation though.

 

[IanNubbit]

First of all, I’m assuming you are a mechanic for a dealer from your story. Second of all, Thank you !! For being that type of mechanic that doesn’t want to give up and or bandaid fix this lady’s problem. I initially thought for sure it was my tie rod ends because there was the most minimal amount of play in the passenger side ends ( left to right not up and down). Dealership said my stabilizer was bad and took forever to get one. In the mean time I purchased the Apex 2.5 ton complete steering with tie rod ends. At the same time I purchased a fox 2.0 TS stabilizer. None of this made a difference, everything is tight. I’ve paid a lot of attention to the track bar. What I have noticed is a lot of flex of the steering box even with the bolts for sure being tight. One guy on here even posted a video showing his dial indicator showing the deflection stating that minimal amount of deflection in the pitman arm caused one of the worst death wobble cases he’d ever seen. Today I’ve installed the steer smarts sector shaft brace and track bar brace. Steering feels a world of difference. It should help with the deflection and or movement of the steering box. The frame where the steering box mounts could have sure used some beefier bracing from the factory in my opinion. I haven’t drove it enough yet to see if it’s going to cure my death wobble situation though.

I guess I just relaized I didn't put that in the post. We popped on a dial indicator as well and checking multiple spots on the lower region of the Steering Gear Box and Pitman arm. Nothing had more then 1/2 a thou of an inch (nothing esentially). Even an aftermarkt brace wouldnt fix that with this one, unless its worse while driving? but theres 0 ways to test that, and wouldnt even be able to use that as a fic anyway.

 

[Buckeye Jeeper]

I guess I just relaized I didn't put that in the post. We popped on a dial indicator as well and checking multiple spots on the lower region of the Steering Gear Box and Pitman arm. Nothing had more then 1/2 a thou of an inch (nothing esentially). Even an aftermarkt brace wouldnt fix that with this one, unless its worse while driving? but theres 0 ways to test that, and wouldnt even be able to use that as a fic anyway.

True I understand that with warranty. I can tell you this, mine started at around 10,000 ish miles. When it does it...it feels like I suddenly have center blocks for tires ! The front wheels move back and forth 6-8” and will make you completely stop ! I can physically watch the steering box from the top of it moving 1/2-3/4” when trying to turn the wheels. I don’t know for sure if this has fixed it but I will know soon.

 

[Buckeye Jeeper]

Ok so I just got home from a drive in places where it would normally death wobble. It is still there but I would say the steer smarts sector shaft brace has probably reduced the severity of the shake by 75%. It doesn’t allow it to get to the point of scare you to death wobble. It lasts only for about 10 seconds now I’d say and straightens up. I highly recommend the sector shaft brace and it has drastically reduced it. But I’m afraid it is only a short fix until the wobble wears the brace bearing out. And inevitably it will probably prematurely wear on it still. So that being said I’m still on the hunt for a ghost. The American Iron ball joint deletes haven’t came in yet. But I was really hoping this would have been the fix and saved the ball joints to get some more wear out of the factory ball joints. And still not sure that will even be the fix. But I want to thank each and every one of you who has commented and tried to help. It is greatly appreciated and there is definitely some who definitely want to try and help !! Thank y’all

 

[Darkspeed]

im hoping the ball joint deletes do it for you.

if you have replaced track bar bushings, control arm bushings, tierod ends, drag link ends, removed steering flex, and added geometry brackets, there is not a lot more left besides ball joints.

and from what i understand gladiators eat ball joints

 

[Buckeye Jeeper]

Another update !!
So today it got down to 25 degrees here in Ohio. I was able to have time to drive it a little bit and if death wobbled 3 times on me as it did before. Came home, had my wife hop in and move the steering for me as I watched again. Could hear a clunk and feel a clunk !! Even after everyone else has looked at it still. Maybe it’s because it was colder today and let it show itself I don’t know. But I found my Clayton adjustable track bar has a bad end on the drivers ( frame mount side ) as well. The metal insert inside of the polyurethane bushing even pushes out with ease with your finger and you can see the polyurethane wollered out. Clayton has a lifetime warranty so I’m sure they will make it good. My thoughts on them wearing though ? Clayton has you re use the factory hardware ( bolts ). Now...the factory bolts are completely threaded. You take a bolt the same size with a shank or shoulder and you can clearly see the factory fully threaded bolt is smaller. And you can feel the play in a brand new bushing with a factory bolt compared to one with a shoulder. I believe the factory bolts shouldn’t have been re used instead of being replaced with a bolt with a shoulder to not allow that little bit of play. That little bit of difference in size quickly becomes a lot worse in a short time with it being allowed to move. On another note, what is the absolute best track bar ( preferably without the polyurethane bushing ) there is out there ?

 

[Lunentucker]

Figured this would be a good thread to post this random story to y'all, and maybe get some people some more insit into how this is for dealers as well.

2022 JT Sport, bone stock not even stickers or a phone mount yet. 7,800 miles.
Truck has full on BAD wobble. Not the normal small shimmy.

Test drove, sure enough, worse one yet, hit a bump with the left front going 70mph, minor shake for a second, then full uncontrollable, can't steer out of the lane anyhting. Had to slow down all the way to 20mph to regain control. Poor little lady was wanting to be a waiter, we put her in a loaner on the spot, no customer should be driving the vehicle like this, its complety unsafe and not the normal issue at all.

Inspection: Remove damper and inspect, massive, about 1" dead spot in the damper, we know thats getting replaced, but I know there has to be more to this one. Inspect under Jeep while on the ground and have someone rotate the wheel about 1/8 a turn back and forth to see whats going on under neath. Found the track bar moving forward and back apx. 1" either way, defintly replacing that. Everything else looking good at this time. Lift it up, check all front suspension fastners, ball joints, upper and lower control arms, track bar, drag link, tie rod, steering gear bolts, everything, nothing even remotely loose. All good, go ahead and order the track bar and the damper.

Track bar comes in, replace. Test while vehicle is loaded on the ground, much better, less then 1/10" of flex in the bar now. Decided to test drive the vehicle without changing the damper (really trying to test everything on these shimmy/wobble cases on JL/JT's as of late to get as much personal info as possible). No change to the wobble at all, still completely uncontrollable. Went ahead and changed the damper and test again, small, very small shimmy on same bump, but goes away in less then a second. hmm. Now what. Most techs would call it good but something dosent sit right with me on this one. I have a strong feeling that damper won't last 2k miles before it will be destroyed.

Grabbed a near identical 22 on lot New with 20 miles sport as well. Hit the same bump, Truck as stable as can be (as expected). Put the Bad* damper on the unsold new truck, and test drive. Hits bump, feels just like the customers vehicle does, small initial shimmy, goes away within 1 second. hmm.

So far what I know is the Track Bar was for sure bad, how/why, couldnt tell you but the new one dosen't flex. The orginal damper, thats shot and needs to be repolaced. What I also know is the truck certainly still has an Issue.

Went ahead and road force balanced all 4 tires, all where dead on with no weight needed anywhere, closely inpspecterd tread again to ensure I didn't miss anything the first time, nope tread like new no uneven wear. Threw it on the alignment rack. Guess what, she was dead on couldn't be better! Slightly toe'd in at 0.2 degrees perfectly, camber dead on 0.3 degrees on both sides, caster right at 4.65 exactly on spec. These are literaly exact to a T the specs for a sport. Rear all dead on as well since someone will ask. Tire pressure all at 36psi as well. Boy am I confused now. We are now heavly checking everything at this point, inspecting ball joints and tie rod ends, ensuring nothing is doing anything but being perfect. Its all perfect, even attmepting to find movment in any of the control arm bushing, none to be found.

This will now be a monday problem as we are now at a complete loss for this poor lady. Up and down the service info for "shimmy" on the truck (Yes there is a step by step list for this now on JL/JTs for Techs to follow, Jeep certainly knows this is common, and wants these tickets to stop coming in too) with no resolution. Any one have any thoughts? Certainly can see how lesser Techs/Dealers would throw their hands up and classify it as "Unrepairable" now. If it was a personaly rig Id be throwing a Solid track bar upgrade, and get a larger steering damper and call her good (hopefully of course), but can't do that obviously here. Let me know what y'all are thinking and hopefully this gives some insite to some as to what gets replaced and why in warranty cases.

EDIT: Forgot to put this also. Used the Damper off the unsold unit on the bad truck, same as with with the ordered damper. Also tried slight toe out, no change at all. The damper is now on a No ETA back order, so maybe an updated part? but we know that dosen't help that truck. Also We popped on a dial indicator as well and checked multiple spots on the lower region of the Steering Gear Box and Pitman arm. Nothing had more then 1/2 a thou of an inch of movment (nothing esentially most likely just the imperfections on the metal at that point).

Throw a pair of Mopar long LCA's on it if you have some. See what a pinch more caster does for it.

 

[Darkspeed]

Another update !!
So today it got down to 25 degrees here in Ohio. I was able to have time to drive it a little bit and if death wobbled 3 times on me as it did before. Came home, had my wife hop in and move the steering for me as I watched again. Could hear a clunk and feel a clunk !! Even after everyone else has looked at it still. Maybe it’s because it was colder today and let it show itself I don’t know. But I found my Clayton adjustable track bar has a bad end on the drivers ( frame mount side ) as well. The metal insert inside of the polyurethane bushing even pushes out with ease with your finger and you can see the polyurethane wollered out. Clayton has a lifetime warranty so I’m sure they will make it good. My thoughts on them wearing though ? Clayton has you re use the factory hardware ( bolts ). Now...the factory bolts are completely threaded. You take a bolt the same size with a shank or shoulder and you can clearly see the factory fully threaded bolt is smaller. And you can feel the play in a brand new bushing with a factory bolt compared to one with a shoulder. I believe the factory bolts shouldn’t have been re used instead of being replaced with a bolt with a shoulder to not allow that little bit of play. That little bit of difference in size quickly becomes a lot worse in a short time with it being allowed to move. On another note, what is the absolute best track bar ( preferably without the polyurethane bushing ) there is out there ?

This is why i spent time going through bolt tolerances.

Poly is good if it is the correct durometer and it does not have that initial play.

This is what im using:

https://steersmarts.com/products/yeti-xd-jl-jt-pro-series-adjustable-front-track-bar

https://steersmarts.com/products/yeti-xd-9-16th-track-bar-bolt-upgrade-kit

"YETI XD™ 9/16TH TRACK BAR BOLT UPGRADE KIT CONTAINS GRADE 8 MAGNICOATED HARDWARE TO REPLACE YOUR FACTORY JK, JL, OR JT TRACK BAR BOLTS. THE STANDARD/OEM BOLT IS AN M14 BOLT THAT IS SLIGHTLY UNDERSIZED FOR THE BUSHING/MOUNTING HOLES ON THE VEHICLE. THIS BOLT KIT WILL FIT SNUGLY INSIDE BOTH THE BUSHING AND THE MOUNTING HOLES AND CAN HELP ELIMINATE EXCESS MOVEMENT IF TORQUE FALLS OFF. "

 

[Rusty PW]

Another update !!
So today it got down to 25 degrees here in Ohio. I was able to have time to drive it a little bit and if death wobbled 3 times on me as it did before. Came home, had my wife hop in and move the steering for me as I watched again. Could hear a clunk and feel a clunk !! Even after everyone else has looked at it still. Maybe it’s because it was colder today and let it show itself I don’t know. But I found my Clayton adjustable track bar has a bad end on the drivers ( frame mount side ) as well. The metal insert inside of the polyurethane bushing even pushes out with ease with your finger and you can see the polyurethane wollered out. Clayton has a lifetime warranty so I’m sure they will make it good. My thoughts on them wearing though ? Clayton has you re use the factory hardware ( bolts ). Now...the factory bolts are completely threaded. You take a bolt the same size with a shank or shoulder and you can clearly see the factory fully threaded bolt is smaller. And you can feel the play in a brand new bushing with a factory bolt compared to one with a shoulder. I believe the factory bolts shouldn’t have been re used instead of being replaced with a bolt with a shoulder to not allow that little bit of play. That little bit of difference in size quickly becomes a lot worse in a short time with it being allowed to move. On another note, what is the absolute best track bar ( preferably without the polyurethane bushing ) there is out there ?

The Core 4x4 Tier 4 track bar uses Johnny joints on both ends. Plus they have a up-grade bolt kit too.

https://www.core4x4.com/product/t4-j-jt-ftb1/

 

[wachuko]

All this time I thought the death wobble was self induced by folks making changes to their stock Jeeps...

I was not aware that this was present in some Jeeps directly from the factory. Or, even worse, that it was just a matter of time for it to manifest even in those vehicles that did not suffered from it from the start.

I only have less than 3,000 miles on my 2022 Jeep Gladiator Mojave. Nothing so far. I can even be driving at any speed from 55-80 and this thing tracks nicely.

I look at the components and they all look so frigging beefy...

Learned something today...

 

[Lunentucker]

All this time I thought the death wobble was self induced by folks making changes to their stock Jeeps...

I was not aware that this was present in some Jeeps directly from the factory. Or, even worse, that it was just a matter of time for it to manifest even in those vehicles that did not suffered from it from the start.

I only have less than 3,000 miles on my 2022 Jeep Gladiator Mojave. Nothing so far. I can even be driving at any speed from 55-80 and this thing tracks nicely.

I look at the components and they all look so frigging beefy...

Learned something today...

Beefy bars and other components can still be poorly assembled. Jeep seems to have a serious problem with getting things torqued properly from the factory.
Even if yours is driving flawlessly it wouldn't be a bad idea to spend some time with a torque wrench under there. It's a good opportunity to get to know the various components and increase your confidence that everything is as it should be.

 

[Darkspeed]

All this time I thought the death wobble was self induced by folks making changes to their stock Jeeps...

DW requires worn or loose components. I found loose components on mine from the factory. Larger tires causes this ware to happen more quickly. Allow components to ware over time without inspection and you will have DW.

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