Jeep Cherokee Shutters and Shakes

I have a 2000 Jeep Cherokee and notice that it has begun to shake and shutter when it reaches about 45 mph during acceleration. Brakes and rotors seem fine. There is nothing that is obviously loosing the steering and track bars. Any suggestions?

Busted belt in a tire??? Maybe rotate from frt to back and see if it feels different.

Dave

I second the busted belt in tire idea. My '96 chevy 1/2 ton does that on braking. Tested the rotors, they are fine. Rotated the tires, still does it. Am still thinking tire belt issues-just don't have the cash to test the theory now. Greg

U-joints , axle joints , misfire ?

It sounds like you are developing the dreaded Death Wobble. It can be very difficult to find which part is causing the problem if in fact it is the wobble.

In the last week on my Jeep, I balanced the tires, replaced the track bar, replaced the inner tie rod ends and one outer tire rod. After all that is was only a little better. I changed the right side ball joints and it got a lot better, but not perfect.

Do a google search for Death Wobble. Lots of info there.

Good luck, Rollie

I had bought Winston tires a few years ago for three vehicles. Biggest mistake I have made for a long time. Belts seperated on all three vehicles. Never buy them again.

Have you been in mud? If so it can cake on the inside of the wheel and do that.

Me and a friend of mine own 14 Cherokees from 1989-2001. A few of them are stock, a few of them are lifted to clear 35 inch tires. We build them for offroad use, so I can pretty much declare that you have the basically "incurable" death wobble.

Cherokees are HORRIBLE handling contraptions on the highways, especially curves. Most of the cherokees that we get have over 100,000 on them, and they ALL suffer from death wobble. What I mean by "incurable" doesn't necessarily mean you can't fix it - it means that you basically have to install an entire new suspension underneath it to solve most of its problems.

The areas for death wobble, in order from the most likely to the least likely, are: upper and lower control arm bushings; steering box and tie rod end play; poor front end alignment; bent wheels; and crappy tires.

Another thing is that because Cherokees are basically crappy built chrysler UNIBODIES, the flexing and articulation can weaken and sever spot welds on them, causing vibration of the metal parts where the suspension mounts to.

BOTTOM LINE - unless you want to spend the money to rebuild the control arms and install new tie rod ends and other items, Just take the steering wheel off and drive a new Cherokee under it.

Or you can give us your death wobble problems and we'll retrofit it with 33's and a 4 inch lift kit.

Check out your shocks this can be a big problem if one or more on the front get weak. Might want to put on a heavy duty pair.
Walt

Alignment and track bar are the problem. Replace the track bar and have the alignment set with a 1/4" tow in the front. Do not go by the specs it will still wobble. I have delt with this problem many times in my years as a 4x4 repair shop that installs lift kits..

just replace the front tires. You only get about 15K on front tires on the danged things.
Worthless pieces of machinery SUV = Stupid Useless Vehicle

Mine doe this when there is mud built up in the rims

Yup, you are likely correct and a bad hanger bearing in the drive line will do exactly what has been described..I just went through that with a GMC..did wheel weights,checked u joints..finally took it in, mechanic phoned and said it was hanger bearing..came home like a new truck..I was worried the tranny or torque converter was going out..as soon as he said "Hanger Bearing" I smacked myself in the forehead and said yep, I shoulda had that figured out

If they are so terrible, why do you own so many? Just asking...

Last one I worked on had an ng stabilizer cylinder.Looks like shock, costs 4X.