2005 Rubicon Unlimited

[irishjeep]

I just purchased an 05 Rubicon Unlimited. At or around 45mph and up the the steering wheel starts to vibrate and the gas pedal has a horrible vibration. Had the alignment checked and the wheels were balanced...

Any thoughts or hints on what might be causing this???

Thank you

[Kaffa]

I'm going to take a long shot no experience guess and say that it has something to do with the driveshaft length or angle...

Lifted at all?

[Jerry Bransford]

Speed sensitive wobble/shimmy is generally always an imperfectly balanced tire or perhaps an out of round wheel. I take it that it's not lifted and it's still running the stock size tire? Some tire jocks will check a tire's balance and say "that's good enough" even if it's not perfect. A Jeep is far more sensitive to tire balance than a car is, they really need to be balanced to zero-zero... i.e. perfect.

Sometimes an out of balance tire will also cause wheel hop when a bad or weak shock is at that position.

I wouldn't suspect the alignment either.

[irishjeep]

Thank you guys. You are right, it is still stock. No lift. I will have the tires checked again and the alignment.

[irishjeep]

I just took the Jeep for a ride on the freeway. In neutral most of the vibration goes away, but when I put it back in gear the vibration is back...
drivetrain???

[paulhead]

Do you feel the vibe at the same RPM with the jeep not moving? I just started that problem and my mech dude has'nt seen it but is telling me it could be the harmonic balancer. Seems your Jeep is too new to develope such a problem though.

[irishjeep]

Tried it and thank goodness.. no vibration...it is crazy...driving me nuts...New Jeep should not have this problem...

[NaluTJ00]

I got the same problem on my 92 ranger. Haven't found what is causing it yet.

[Jeri Lyn]

When I had a 2" lift on my TJ, it started wobbling at about 50mph and got worse as I decelerated. Total runaround- it's the brakes, no the tires are unbalanced, no the alignment's off, blah blah. Luckily the dealer honored the warranty even though it was lifted: They replaced the stock steering stabilizer with a Rancho and replaced all front end bushings. No more wobble. And this was when it had less than 4,000 miles on it.

[irishjeep]

Did anyone also feel vibration in the gas pedal??? or just the steering wheel

[Jeri Lyn]

Did anyone also feel vibration in the gas pedal??? or just the steering wheel

I remember EVERYTHING from the steering wheel forward shaking, but mainly the steering wheel. Can you feel the vibration through your left foot?

[irishjeep]

not too bad...not as much as I feel it in my right foot...

[Jeri Lyn]

not too bad...not as much as I feel it in my right foot...

I know how frustrated you are having a new jeep and having this problem and not getting it fixed. I emailed jeep/chrysler/daimler at one point asking if they knew if the problem I was having was "normal". They didn't have an answer for me but it did get the regional service rep involved. hee hee Recurring problems turn into lemon law problems after the third visit without the problems being fixed. Plus, remember that for each day your jeep is in the dealer for warranty problems your original 3 yr/36,000 mile warranty is extended by the same number of days.

[irishjeep]

Does it matter if I take it to a different dealership the second time. I bought it at a dealership that is about 50 miles away because they had the one...(lol!!!)... I wanted...but there is a dealership that is right up the street that is going to look at it...
I like my Jeep, I just want it fixed...hopefully when this dealership looks at it, they find the problem...

[Jeri Lyn]

Does it matter if I take it to a different dealership the second time. I bought it at a dealership that is about 50 miles away because they had the one...(lol!!!)... I wanted...but there is a dealership that is right up the street that is going to look at it...
I like my Jeep, I just want it fixed...hopefully when this dealership looks at it, they find the problem...

You can take it to any dealer you want. And dealers seem to like to try and one up each other, when they find out you've had it at another dealer they couldn't fix it. Good luck