Violent Shake - Brake Caliper lock-up?

FallonJeeper

FallonJeeper

New member
This is a new one to me. My sister in law bought a 2012 4 door JK, new in 2012, put a suspension lift on it this year. This week she had an issue where the vehicle began to shake violently on the thruway, until she slowed down. It drove fine after that. I immediately thought death wobble, but she told me that she thought it was her brake caliper locking up.

She had it towed to a shop and I'm sure, to "be right", she's going to tell me it was the brakes. I've never heard of brakes violently shaking the vehicle at speed, unless the brakes are scorched or warped and only during braking you would get pulsing.

Anybody hear of this before?
 
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While it's entirely possible that her ESP system is kicking in, it would not cause a "violent shake". The fact that she had to slow down to make it go away definitely points to death wobble.
 
Thanks, that's what I was thinking. She'll never admit I was right. ;o)

I'm just concerned that some local shop is going to tell her what she wants to hear, and sell her a bunch of brake parts and not fix the real issue. We all know hard difficult it can be to diagnose death wobble.
 
FallonJeeper said:
Thanks, that's what I was thinking. She'll never admit I was right. ;o)

I'm just concerned that some local shop is going to tell her what she wants to hear, and sell her a bunch of brake parts and not fix the real issue. We all know hard difficult it can be to diagnose death wobble.
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Well, if they sell her the parts and service and she still has the problem, I would think it'd be up to them to fix it. If she just had a lift installed, she probably just has a loose track bar.
 
Wife drove Knuckles and got DW. She thought it was the brakes too. As Eddie wrote, check the trackbar. :thumb: If it's not loose, then check the bushings.
 
FallonJeeper said:
Thanks, that's what I was thinking. She'll never admit I was right. ;o)

I'm just concerned that some local shop is going to tell her what she wants to hear, and sell her a bunch of brake parts and not fix the real issue. We all know hard difficult it can be to diagnose death wobble.
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Be sure to retorque everything, especially the track bar, as it may have loosened up even more after the DW episode and will probably keep having them until then.
 
What do you know, the shop told her it was death wobble, and she admitted I was right. Now I'll get her a link to the Death Wobble thread and get her to have them re-torque all the bolts/nuts.

Thanks!!
 
FallonJeeper said:
This is a new one to me. My sister in law bought a 2012 4 door JK, new in 2012, put a suspension lift on it this year. This week she had an issue where the vehicle began to shake violently on the thruway, until she slowed down. It drove fine after that. I immediately thought death wobble, but she told me that she thought it was her brake caliper locking up.

She had it towed to a shop and I'm sure, to "be right", she's going to tell me it was the brakes. I've never heard of brakes violently shaking the vehicle at speed, unless the brakes are scorched or warped and only during braking you would get pulsing.

Anybody hear of this before?
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Not sure if it was her brakes but I just had the same problem tonight. First thing was the ESC light came on then about 10-12 miles later I had this "death wobble". This is the second time I've had it and the Jeep dealer say that they cannot find a problem. If anyone has suggestions let me know.
 
MyJK said:
Not sure if it was her brakes but I just had the same problem tonight. First thing was the ESC light came on then about 10-12 miles later I had this "death wobble". This is the second time I've had it and the Jeep dealer say that they cannot find a problem. If anyone has suggestions let me know.
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search this forum. and other Jeep forums. and Google. There are about 535,254 threads/articles on Jeeps with death wobble, JK's specifically. There are a few very good write ups on here.
 
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