Death Wobble cured

Took brakes apart today as the car was pulling to the right. The calipers were fine as the pads and the discs. But on closer inspection I realised that the pads were stuck fast after tapping them out I took the little stainless retainers out and cleaned them up with a knife and did the sames to the pads were they fit in at each end. And cleaned all the rust where the retainer clips fit which enabled me to fit the pads back in with ease. The pads now move with ease and then I noticed that the disc was slightly warped but only slightly. Did the same the other side. The result si zero wobble . which tels me that this could be the main factor to the elusive death wobble problem.. The king pins were done about 5 weeks ago so I knew it could not be that. Had this problem before on a black soft top and I pushed the calipers out on both side and did not touch the brake pedal while driving and had no problems until I had to brake and thats when the wobble came back. My truck is lush to drive now

Hi Jo King, I had something similar with mine, slowing down at high speed (50mph >) resulted in the steering wheel wobbling like mad. On inspection the disks were warped and scored, like yourself after changing the disks and brake pads it was ok, thanks for sharing as it confirms the same problem

any distortion in wheels brake disks etc in fact any part that has rotating mass will cause an unbalance

many jimnys suffered the "death wobble" due to shim wear and the bearings ,this is a problem well known to suzuki but they seem to not want to do a recall or even admit its a problem

i believe they revised it after 2004

Nope! I have a 2008, still happens.

Have you checked the pads to see if they can slide out and back in!!

I reckon the death wobble is purely a frequency issue. My 07 has just about had it in all variations. I've fitted and pre-loaded new king pin bearings, fitted new swivel seals (as Suzuki recommend in the w.s manual to damp it out), they all worked to a point. I had the front wheels balanced mid rim not the edges (now that did work). Last year I fitted a new pair of tyres and tried the 5 stud flange mount balancing method and it came back but no to badly and at that point I gave up deciding to live with it.
Two days ago I had a puncture in a rear tyre. After refitting the repaired and balanced wheel the wobble came back big style. It was then I remembered my old mate's then brand new early front wheel drive Escort had to have the rear wheels carefully balanced or the steering would vibrate like hell. I had both rear wheels carefully rebalanced and bingo no wobble. Is that how they fixed it under warranty without any signs of actually doing anything??
My mate's 04 without anti-roll bars model has never had the wobble and it's covered 120,000 miles.
I've got a LR steering damper and I've threatened the Jimny if it doesn't behave I'll fit it this summer.

Cash

I had the Jimny wobble only between 40-45mph then it went away.I bought some new off road wheels and tyres and walah it diapered its as steady as a rock now. I am fitting the steering damper.

thanks
james