Uploaded September 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
death wobble finally fixed 2011 jeep wrangler jku
When I bought this jeep with only around 74,000 miles mostly for off-roading, I didn't plan on buying one that already had a lift kit. I was planning to build a jeep from stock so it had exactly what I was wanting. But buying a jeep already built was going to save me a lot of time also, you just never know who did the work, if they did it correctly, if they cut corners, did they buy cheap parts or quality parts, was it built for off-roading or was it a mall crawler, etc. You don't know if you are buying someone else's problems or not. This jeep already had a lot of aftermarket parts, rather astronomical to be honest. Almost everything you could buy from rough country was on this jeep. IDK if it was a special rough country build (or maybe a dealership built it this way) or the person just opened up a rough country catalog and ordered everything from it. To be honest, during the test drive I almost bailed out buying it because it was pretty skittish on the road but I know enough about mechanic work to know it probably had some worn steering components due to tire/lift size and probably needed an alignment. I hardly drove the jeep, less than 3,000 miles, except for off-roading, the first two years. Then my daily driver truck broke down and the jeep became my daily driver unexpectedly about 10 months ago. Within 1-2 months of it becoming my daily driver, it got the dreaded death wobble. The death wobble started just every now and then, maybe once a month. Then it got to be once a week, then once a day, then 3 or 4 times a day.....like something was wearing out over time. I've replaced every single steering component except the steering gearbox, replaced suspension components, replaced all of the front end bushings, replaced the upper and lower control arms with adjustable control arms, replaced the aftermarket 35" tires and wheels with factory tires and wheels (which imho was a good deal because fuel mileage went from 11 to 17 and a couple times even got 18 (sticking calipers fixed) -- this is actual fuel economy by dividing miles driven by gallons of gas at fill-ups - not going by the dash fuel economy which is always 1-2 mpg higher than real mpg) .... and in this video we are going to lower it from a 4" rough country lift kit to a 2-1/2" skyjacker lift kit. The reason I am doing that is so I can eliminate the drop pitman arm and track bar relocation brackets which can contribute to death wobble. I also have 1 last bushing to replace but once those 3 things are done we will see if it makes any difference. It fixed it without even doing those last 3 steps so I am not touching it :)
I point out a couple of gotchyas in this video if you are upgrading or downgrading lift kits. I also show you an easy way to remove coil springs with a prybar, how to install shock bushings without any tools whatsever, and probably some other tips and tricks throughout the video.
A lot of the video is timelapse cause otherwise it would be several hours long .... I point out the important parts as text. The front is easier to do than the rear, and the passenger side is easier to do than the drivers side.
I bought the skyjacker lift kit off amazon which was about $100 cheaper than the skyjacker website - it was sold by a 3rd party and was new although it did have a missing bolt and 4 missing nuts both required for the bump stops so I didn't install them in this video (I will pick up bolts and nuts locally and get it done)
lift kit: amzn.to/3I6ycJg
spring compressor: amzn.to/3UV5SN3
Some things I noticed not in video:
* laying the rough country springs next to skyjacker springs, they were the same length front and rear
* the rough country shocks had much longer travel though than the skyjacker shocks
* I measured ride height of the jeep before and after lift kit swap, I only lost about 1" ride height
* The rough country lift kit had a LOT longer articulation though, it was hard to jack the jeep up and get the wheels off the ground over jackstands with the rough country lift kit but the skyjacker lift kit doesn't have as much articulation.
* with the above in mind, the skyjacker shocks also bottom out much sooner than the rough country shocks - this makes me think if I want more articulation, it could be as simple as replacing the skyjacker shocks with shocks for a 4" lift kit - the skyjacker springs have plenty of articulation left but are limited via the shocks reaching end of travel.
* the jeep does ride much better with the skyjacker lift kit - this is important since I am basically driving it 1 hour and 15 minutes one way to work. With the rough country lift kit, you could feel every little bump, pot hole, uneven surface, rock, mouse hair, pubic hair, pop can top, hairline road crack, ant hills, or any other debris on any road that was any thickness.
Updated:
Death wobble fixed, finally!
death wobble finally fixed 2011 jeep wrangler jku
When I bought this jeep with only around 74,000 miles mostly for off-roading, I didn't plan on buying one that already had a lift kit. I was planning to build a jeep from stock so it had exactly what I was wanting. But buying a jeep already built was going to save me a lot of time also, you just never know who did the work, if they did it correctly, if they cut corners, did they buy cheap parts or quality parts, was it built for off-roading or was it a mall crawler, etc. You don't know if you are buying someone else's problems or not. This jeep already had a lot of aftermarket parts, rather astronomical to be honest. Almost everything you could buy from rough country was on this jeep. IDK if it was a special rough country build (or maybe a dealership built it this way) or the person just opened up a rough country catalog and ordered everything from it. To be honest, during the test drive I almost bailed out buying it because it was pretty skittish on the road but I know enough about mechanic work to know it probably had some worn steering components due to tire/lift size and probably needed an alignment. I hardly drove the jeep, less than 3,000 miles, except for off-roading, the first two years. Then my daily driver truck broke down and the jeep became my daily driver unexpectedly about 10 months ago. Within 1-2 months of it becoming my daily driver, it got the dreaded death wobble. The death wobble started just every now and then, maybe once a month. Then it got to be once a week, then once a day, then 3 or 4 times a day.....like something was wearing out over time. I've replaced every single steering component except the steering gearbox, replaced suspension components, replaced all of the front end bushings, replaced the upper and lower control arms with adjustable control arms, replaced the aftermarket 35" tires and wheels with factory tires and wheels (which imho was a good deal because fuel mileage went from 11 to 17 and a couple times even got 18 (sticking calipers fixed) -- this is actual fuel economy by dividing miles driven by gallons of gas at fill-ups - not going by the dash fuel economy which is always 1-2 mpg higher than real mpg) .... and in this video we are going to lower it from a 4" rough country lift kit to a 2-1/2" skyjacker lift kit. The reason I am doing that is so I can eliminate the drop pitman arm and track bar relocation brackets which can contribute to death wobble. I also have 1 last bushing to replace but once those 3 things are done we will see if it makes any difference. It fixed it without even doing those last 3 steps so I am not touching it :)
I point out a couple of gotchyas in this video if you are upgrading or downgrading lift kits. I also show you an easy way to remove coil springs with a prybar, how to install shock bushings without any tools whatsever, and probably some other tips and tricks throughout the video.
A lot of the video is timelapse cause otherwise it would be several hours long .... I point out the important parts as text. The front is easier to do than the rear, and the passenger side is easier to do than the drivers side.
I bought the skyjacker lift kit off amazon which was about $100 cheaper than the skyjacker website - it was sold by a 3rd party and was new although it did have a missing bolt and 4 missing nuts both required for the bump stops so I didn't install them in this video (I will pick up bolts and nuts locally and get it done)
lift kit: amzn.to/3I6ycJg
spring compressor: amzn.to/3UV5SN3
Some things I noticed not in video:
* laying the rough country springs next to skyjacker springs, they were the same length front and rear
* the rough country shocks had much longer travel though than the skyjacker shocks
* I measured ride height of the jeep before and after lift kit swap, I only lost about 1" ride height
* The rough country lift kit had a LOT longer articulation though, it was hard to jack the jeep up and get the wheels off the ground over jackstands with the rough country lift kit but the skyjacker lift kit doesn't have as much articulation.
* with the above in mind, the skyjacker shocks also bottom out much sooner than the rough country shocks - this makes me think if I want more articulation, it could be as simple as replacing the skyjacker shocks with shocks for a 4" lift kit - the skyjacker springs have plenty of articulation left but are limited via the shocks reaching end of travel.
* the jeep does ride much better with the skyjacker lift kit - this is important since I am basically driving it 1 hour and 15 minutes one way to work. With the rough country lift kit, you could feel every little bump, pot hole, uneven surface, rock, mouse hair, pubic hair, pop can top, hairline road crack, ant hills, or any other debris on any road that was any thickness.
Updated:
Death wobble fixed, finally!
