[jimny_timmy]

I've felt your pain Joel! I replaced my tie rods after replacing kingpins twice. Fixed it. Now the panhard is the problem. Shit design imo of the ORA panhard. Stick with it mate.

[joel]

can you get replacement bushes for the ORA bushes, just threw the car on the shacker at work and its the culprit, 0.966 mm of play in the bush from diff to rod, and conservatively 1.2mm of play in the chassis to rod bush. coupled with out of balance wheels, i would reckon this would be the main problem over kingpin preload at the moment.

[jimny_timmy]

Are you talking panhard?

[joel]

zukenutter wrote:

Scary isn't it. It can be fixed but it'll need a process of elimination. Personally I think the dampener is a worthy addition in an attempt to fix it. If it was set off under light braking I'd try new rotors only first, could be that's it.

agreed, rotors and out of balance wheels, panhard rod bush play, will try to replace bush and rotors first ad get an alignment and balance.
been 40k since balance and alignment. just annoyed ahahah as i just fixed all the wiring loom oh well, thems the BRAKES and wobbles of it.

[joel]

jimny_timmy wrote:

Are you talking panhard?

yep.

[jimny_timmy]

You can. I wouldn't bother mate. The rose joints are the issue. There's too much play in the thread and they end up bending after a while too. I do give mine a hard time, but I've replaced then 3 times at $60 a go.... It all adds up.

I just bought some TD panhards as they use a rubber or poly bush in the ends.

[joel]

got a hold of new panhard rod bushes and that has fixed the wobble. i however definitely need to get a wheel alignment and balance, i actually heard a something large hit the wheel arch today, it was a wheel balance.

hopefully this is the last i have with this.

[Samurai81]

The wobble in my Samurai was horrific (bang on 50 kph and I had to virtually coast to a stop and start again while all around me thought my front wheels were falling off). I tried all the above suggestions but last January I did a fair bit of work on "Dusty" and finished by removing the body lift blocks. No more death wobble! It could just be that elevation in COG was enough to kick off the harmonic. I'm happy though.
Steve.

[TEKNO]

After owning my zook now for only 3 months and I bought it with only 11,460 kms on it.its a 2012 model jimny, I to Have noticed that mine also wobbles between 70 and 80, but not that severe,I can tolerate it,but at least I know now that it's a common problem,my tyres are still factory Bridgestone duellers ht and heaps of tread as you'd expect for a low k car.
If it gets worse I will do something about it then.

[zukenutter]

^^ Rotate your tyres diagonally front to rear.

[Bjbyrnos]

I am a recent jimny owner, and have death wobble issues. Its an older, stock vehicle with a few kms on the clock (190K). Just had alignment, balance and suspension/steering check which didnt seem to pinpoint anything.
Wobble occurs 70-80 km/hr, and only in first 10 mins of driving after car sits overnight / at work.
Im a bit lost as to what I should prioritise checking as there seems so many possible causes. Kingpin seems to be the most common, would anyone else with a jimny of similar age, kms and problem agree?

[zukenutter]

^^ rotate your tyres

I find wobble is greater first drive of the day too until the tyres warm up. My wobble has been coming back for a few months now and I'm pretty sure it's the pan hard bushes.

[Jezza86]

panhard bushes and king pin initial torque

[irodders]

Hi
I can see by this long thread that there have been a lot of issues with steering wobble on the jimny . I've got a late model jimny with low k's and after putting 215 75 bfg at tyres on it and fitting the 50 mm efs sospenion upgrade I am now getting that notorious wobble at around 70 kph. It stops at about 80 kph. It's not a death wobble but you can definitely feel the steering wheel shaking in your hands. The efs kit does have castor correction and the whole thing was fitted professionally. My thoughts are that a steering dampner would be probably a good option. I can't imagine there would be too much wear and tear on other steering bushes and components as the car only has 16 k on the clock.
The only other idea I had from reading previous posts is king pin shims. Would it be worth getting these fitted and a dampner or maybe see how the dampner goes first?

Any ideas will help

Cheers Rod

[zukenutter]

I'd suggest one or the other first. Either will probably fix it if done correctly but the dampener is an easy DIY


Suzuki, way of life

[Mike57]

The dampener is a bit of a cover up solution. It might get rid of the wobble but the problem with the king pins will still be there and may resurface again. I went down this path but so happy I got round to shimming the king pins. Shims are available from the UK really cheap.

[vkAdrian]

Hi all,
I am a first time owner of a 1997 Sierra with coils. It is totally stock.
I flew down to Melbourne to pick it up to drive back to Brisbane so in the first few days have done over 2000Km's.

I thought my life was over when I hit 70Kmh in peak hour traffic, i came to a stop then started again only to get the wobbles so bad that the hands of my watch fell off.

This was bad, real bad, it was steering arm snapping stuff.
My fix to get home safe was to put 2 jerry cans (20lt) of water behind the front seats and a passenger beside me with another 40 kg's in the back, this made the death wobbles disappear completely for the trip home.
When I got home I took all the gear out and went for a drive and it was there just as bad.
I have since let the tires down to 20psi and no wobbles, at about 28psi it comes back at 32 psi it is beyond the joke.

Has anyone else tried different tire pressures?

Cheers all.

[zukenutter]

Yes, I've definitely found that high pressure adds to the problem

[pete_79]

X2.

I get a very minor shimmy at the 70km/h sweet spot from time to time, it doesn't happen very often and it's just a slight shake in the steering wheel. Nothing like you have experienced by the sounds of it.

But I can say for sure if I'm running higher pressures it does feel more noticeable.
The steering also feels vague and the car wonders/needs a lot of small corrections when driving at speed with higher pressures in the fronts.

[irodders]

Hey Thnx for replies
Is there much difference between the dampers available. I can see ironman have one and tough dog have a rtc one but don't think I need rtc. Efs make them too but I'm waiting to hear if they have one for the jimny.

Are the dampers a dead easy diy?
Anything to look out for or avoid when you're fitting one. I don't have much experience under cars and Google has taught me the little I do know.

There's no way I could comfortably have a go at the king pin shims myself but I would like them done. Now or a bit later. Would that be an expensive job to get done. I know the actual shims are cheap but sounds like there's a bit of trial and error in getting the correct amount of shim in there so wondering how much labour wold be involved. Also bit worried that they won't really know what they're doing either cause it's such a jimny specific issue. Plus who would the best to do the job ? Steering guy ? Suspension guy ? Mechanic guy


Anyway loving my jimny with the lift and the bigger tyres and the shimmy ain't that bad and we're never going back to stock

Cheers rod

[zukenutter]

The damper kit is about as easy a job that you could do, the only bit to pay attention too is getting the drag link clamp in the correct position. Should be clear in the instructions.

Don't bother with the RTC

[SuziBlu]

Trouble with using a damper is its not a fix, its a hide type thing.

Suzis only meant to have about 20psi, I run 19 up front 17 rear on my LWB

[irodders]

Hi
Wow that's pretty low tyre pressure. How does that go on the highway? My jimny is also my daily drive about 50km round trip on the motorway. I'm running about 25 front 27 rear and that feels all right. Not sure I'd be happy running 19 and 17 though but maybe I could drop them a little bit more.

I might be wrong but I think a damper could be a reasonable mod given the jimnys chronic shimmy issue and the fact that mine is now raised and running oversize tyres. Mine is also a pretty new car and I don't think a damper will hurt and it might dampen the shimmy which would be a good thing. I might also be looking at this the wrong way but running really low tyre pressures and even adding king pin preload seem like they're also kind of masking or damping the problem but in different ways. Not sure about that though.

Anyway I'm pretty sure I'm going to give a damper a go and then see about the kp shims.

Does anyone have good or bad things to say about the tough dog sv adjustable steering damper? Would the fact that you can adjust it give you more scope to tune out the shimmy?

Cheers Rod

[zukenutter]

I think if it gets rid of the wobble it's a worthy addition. Makes for a nicer, heavier road feel through the steering too.

[SuziBlu]

irodders wrote:

Hi
Wow that's pretty low tyre pressure. How does that go on the highway? My jimny is also my daily drive about 50km round trip on the motorway. I'm running about 25 front 27 rear and that feels all right. Not sure I'd be happy running 19 and 17 though but maybe I could drop them a little bit more.

I might be wrong but I think a damper could be a reasonable mod given the jimnys chronic shimmy issue and the fact that mine is now raised and running oversize tyres. Mine is also a pretty new car and I don't think a damper will hurt and it might dampen the shimmy which would be a good thing. I might also be looking at this the wrong way but running really low tyre pressures and even adding king pin preload seem like they're also kind of masking or damping the problem but in different ways. Not sure about that though.

Anyway I'm pretty sure I'm going to give a damper a go and then see about the kp shims.

Does anyone have good or bad things to say about the tough dog sv adjustable steering damper? Would the fact that you can adjust it give you more scope to tune out the shimmy?

Cheers Rod

Suzis are really light, 20psi is about average, I have a bit bigger tyres than most, so lower tyre pressures.
I run a damper, as all should. But, its not a fix, its an enhancer, get your steering set up properly, and add a quality damper, not add a damper to hide things.

Suzis with high tyre pressure, IMO are not on, means you run on very thin center lines, very bad in so many ways, wet, braking, turning, ok, it may make a bit better fuel milage, but, with 4wds built like a brick, never think you are going to get good fuel milage, if you want that, buy a hyundi.

[fishjoe]

Jezza86 wrote:

got them at work to get opinions from various mechanical engineers. mostly their just wondering why they haven't seen something like this before...
those who have seen similar said that the play in the thread could increase over time making it harder to adjust, but noted that the lack of play (there's no noticeable play in the thread) seams to suggest it is a unlikely problem.

Hi jezza86, I just googled out your picture from the internet and very interested in the adjustable kingpin you have posted her. Are these available in the market? If so can you please tell me where to buy it? Thanks.

[Sage]

Thought I'd better post up about the wobbles I've had in the time I've owned my Coily (currently not wobbling).

When I first bought the car i would occasionally get a death wobble when braking at speeds above 70kms. When I had a look at the front brake setup the previous owner had put in new pads but retained the old discs. The old discs were undersized per the FSM and so i believe the pads were slapping against the discs causing the wobble. I fitted a new set of discs and new pads and this fixed the problem.

A year and 20,000 kms later, I developed the infamous 75 kms death wobble which would most frequently occur when the car was traveling at about 75 kms and driving around a long sweeping turn or if I was driving in a straight line and would hit a bump in the road. To have the issue diagnosed i had the front end steering knuckles/hubs stripped down where I discovered that the axle oil seals and king pin bearing were pretty worn out (but hadn't completely let go). There was also zero preload. I had the hubs completely rebuilt with a rebuild kit, replaced the king pin bearings then shimmed the preload back to the FSM specs. I also replaced the all the bushings in the leading and trailing arms and checked the bushes in the swaybar, lateral road and tie-rod/drag-rod ends however these were all fine.

Doing the above repairs has stopped the wobble and the steering feels a lot tighter now. I'll probably make the replacing king pin bearings and overhalling the hubs a 3 yearly periodic service job to ensure the problem doesn't surface again.

Hope the above helps someone.

[Gwagensteve]

And that's the definitive answer- kingpin bearing preload and seal condition.

[fordem]

Sage wrote:

Thought I'd better post up about the wobbles I've had in the time I've owned my Coily (currently not wobbling).

When I first bought the car i would occasionally get a death wobble when braking at speeds above 70kms. When I had a look at the front brake setup the previous owner had put in new pads but retained the old discs. The old discs were undersized per the FSM and so i believe the pads were slapping against the discs causing the wobble. I fitted a new set of discs and new pads and this fixed the problem.

More out of curiosity than anything else - why, when you're braking, which means the pads are being squeezed against the disks to slow the vehicle, would they be "slapping against the discs"? Under normal operating conditions the pads are always in light contact with the discs as there is nothing to retract them - there is no return spring as there is with the shoes in a drum brake system.

As far as I know the only issues that would/should occur from the discs being "undersized" (presumably below the minimum thickness) is an increased possibility of the discs themselves overheating if used for example in a prolonged downhill scenario, and/or the pads slipping out if the pads are also worn.

I'm not doubting that replacing the discs & pads solved the problem, but I suspect that the problem was more likely caused by warped discs rather than any pad "slapping". I'm also curious as to whether this was a "death wobble" or just a wobble when braking.

[Gwagensteve]

100% agree Fordem. I didn't address that as it proved to not actually be the source of death wobble, and was a separate issue.