Mods, Admins, We need a General Maintenance and Troubleshooting section. I think this might be one of the only forums Ive been on that doesnt have one....


Last Saturday, I was driving down the highway the other day to a fishing hole and twice, within a mile or so from each other heard a sound that seemed like a tire issue... a thump, thump, like I was rolling on a blow out or something. When I heard it I let off thinkin oh crap and as soon as doing so it stopped, both instances. The trip is only like 15 miles and it happened about 5 miles out. When we got there I gave it a once over and everything seemed alright. Drove it home afterward, no problems. Went nowhere on Sunday. Monday drove it to work and back, 11 miles each way, no issues. Tuesday through Thursday rode the motorcycle. Today, Friday, drove to work and back just fine. Grabbed my fishing pole and was heading back out. About 10 miles into the trip I started getting slight vibrations like an out of balance tire. The vibrations started progressively getting worse as I was getting on the brakes the situation got much worse. The steering wheel and the whole Jeep were shaking so bad I thought that a wheel was about to fall off, it seemed like the Jeep was more difficult to stop too. Im not sure if it was actually or not or if I was just wanting it to stop and it seemed like it took forever haha. I thought for sure something was broken. Stop get out look around no issue. Get back on the road and it had vibrations like an out of balance wheel again but with light braking, swerving side to side or romping on the gas I couldnt get anything to happen again. Right when I got to the turn for the lake I started braking and the bad vibs came back the same as before. I followed down the trail and stopped. Looked around and of course didnt see anything. On my way home everything was perfectly fine, like nothing had ever happen.

I dont think its the brake rotors or pads because its intermittent. Im not entirely sure if its coming from the front or back. Ill report more after I do a more thorough investigation.

No abnormal play in the tie rods, upper and lower ball joint, upper and lower control arm bushings, motor mounts or ball joints. Tires have no abnormalities, no bends in the rims and the balancing weights still look like theyre all there. At slow speeds there arent any pops, creaks, grinding, clicking or abnormal noises I could here. I also tested this with each tire jacked up and rotating by hand.

MODS-
265/70/16 Firestone Destination AT ~12k miles
Cragar Soft 8
JBA Adjust-a-Strut lift, 22.5 in front
JBA 5.5 A-Arms
JBA 4.5" Rear springs
JBA Adjustable Trackbar set to 37.75"
lift kit installed and aligned 2 months ago and have put 3-3500 miles on it with about 5 trips offroad.

Possible loose wheel due to loose lug nuts? Or a CV joint? Also double check the lower control arm bushings they can visually look okay but may be shifting/moving, I have been a Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge service manager for 12 years and know of a TSB on the Ram trucks for the symptoms you are describing related to the lower control arm bushings that intensify when braking. I might also suggest checking the wheel bearings since it seems it may be heat related as you say it happens after driving awhile. I see you had it aligned two months ago, do you know if you might have excessively negative caster on one or both wheels? How about an internal belt seperation in a tire that intermittantly shows up under certain conditions such as load, road surface conditions, or with heat (rubber softens and expands a little with heat). Just some suggestions.

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2009 Rocky Mountain Edition
Rock Krawler 3.5
Goodyear Duratrac LT245/70R17 Load E
Bilstein rear shocks

I checked torque on the lug nuts the first time it happen. I drove it for 2.5 hours yesterday and didnt have any issues. Ill check the lower bushings again, and if i can ever duplicate it again ill put the stock rims and tires on for a while to make sure its not the tires. Thanks alot for the reply.

Balance/rotate tires and have the alignment set again,it's out after that amount of time and wheeling anyways.

That would be the 1st things I check.

In case anybody looks back and is having a similar issue, everything on mine has been fixed. I actually had two seperate problems but didnt know it, which is weird cause they happen at the same time. The first problem i had with the thumping noise was fixed with an alignment, front right was outta wack. The second problem was the front left brake caliper was intermittently sticking after it heated up. I lubed the caliper pins and all is good.