Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by Peter Connan »

Veck, any play at all will cause the wobble. It is magnified by the big wheels.

In my opinion, the shocks are an unlik3ly suspect.
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by ricster »

I agree with Peter, changing the shocks will help fix the symptoms BUT not fix the problem. Kingpin bearings, bushes, wheel bearings, and tyre balance ( including rims ) are usually the root cause of the problem. and often all these need attention at the same time to solve the problem perfectly.
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by Michael »

Yes Nico, unfortunately its not always one thing or the same thing on two vehicles. Just start at a point and check everything mentioned and you will surely sort it out.

On mine the main problems were the wheel bearings and the king pin bearings, they should have ZERO play
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by jonathan »

I've had death wobble with two vehicles - a Defender and Jeep Wrangler. In both cases the obvious suspect was the steering damper because in both cases they were shot. Turns out the real culprits were panhard bushes. I suspect the steering dampers gave up the ghost as result of the death wobble and were not the cause in my cases :mytwocents:
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by NMAD »

Check everything already mentioned and also check your front/rear brakes for binding, check rotor run-out with a dial gauge, caliper pistons getting stuck and brake hoses to ensure they are not twisted or damaged.Your front hubs should not run hot with normal driving.rear wheels should spin freely by hand once axle raised on jack stands and there should be no binding.
I overhauled my front and rear brake system, installed new rotors, pads, brake shim kits,hubs,wheel bearings,kingpin bearings, stub axles, steering box, steering damper, caster bushes, sway-bar rubbers, panhard rod, drag link, OME shocks etc :lol:
My rear wheels had slight binding when spinning by hand before the complete brake overhaul, after I could not believe how it just spinned freely by hand
Installing new rubber swivel scraper seals made a big difference on my car as well
Car drives like a dream now super smooth and keeps its heading and fuel consumption is around 6.5 -7 kmpl :thumbup:
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by Picasso »

Apologies for asking a naive question; :confused:

What are the symptoms of the "Death/Steering Wobble" ?

I know you get the steering wobble linked to badly balanced tyres which can manifest itself at certain speeds.
I guess that is not what yo are talking about ?

Is the "Death/Steering Wobble" something which is experienced at any speed and any surface or does it only occurs under specific circumstances / conditions.

I have on my car a steering wobble which occurs ...... say , I drive on the highway, everything is fine and perfect. Suddenly I hit an uneven spot which generates a steering wobble whereas the wobble seams to continue for a few seconds even after I have passed this uneven spot already.
Is this what you call a "Death/Steering Wobble" ? :think:
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by ricster »

As I understand it the death wobble is generally only felt during acceleration and or deceleration. So starting from stationary, as you start reaching around 80Kmh you will start feeling he steering wheel shake from left to right. It will start off slow and as you keep accelerating, the shake on the steering wheel gets worse. It can get to a point of being unsafe if the worn steering parts are not fixed. Usually, assuming the worn parts are not too badly worn out, and you survive the wobble, as you get closer to the 120Km/h mark it tends to fade away a bit.

On mine it used to happen between 85Km/h and 110Km/h. If I sat at 120Km/h then all felt fine. After I checked the front wheel bearings and replaced the tie rod ends, and finally removed the shims from the king pin bearings the steering was sorted. My steering damper is still the original and probably not in the greatest condition, and even with this damper, my steering is 100 times better and stable.
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by ricster »

If I read what you said correctly, then in your specific circumstances, I think that your steering damper may be worn out as its battling to dampen the shock of hitting a "pothole" or uneven spot. If it was the dreaded death wobble..... you will know about it.... and so will the seat of your undies....hahaha
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by Picasso »

Thanks Cedric.... :thumbup:

In that case i guess ..... I do not have the death steering wobble.... could also be linked to my nanny kind of driving stile which prevents me from reaching the outer edges of performance......... :redface:


The steering damper in my car is fairly new, and as I said it only occurs every now and then.

It appears, that you need a certain kind of unevenness and speed in order to set the steering-system into resonance / vibration. :think:
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Re: Patrol Death/Steering Wobble – Trouble Shooting & Fix

Post by ricster »

yeah pretty ..... when the wheels are banging side to side there is nothing much to slow it down so the vibration is exasperated. The extra wear on the components must be tremendous !!
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