Liftkit and death wobble

Hello my fellow Jimnyists!

i just bought a brand new 2024 3door lcv. I have had a full 2” Ironman liftkit fitted with springs, dampers, castor correction bushes and cross member. Also I had the standard wheels replaced with a set of 15x7 Dotz Dakar Dark steel wheels with BFG KO2s in 235/75/15.

Now I have a significant death wobble (which comes and goes) at 60-65 km/h. 

Any ideas on what could be wrong? 

All the best from a both happy and frustrated Jimny owner.

I am assuming that your LCV is very low kms so we can rule out wear on any of the components. Lifting a vehicle which has any wear in any of the components just makes the wobble worse, but that shouldn't be the case here.

I am just considering a 2" lift kit, so have already looked at this in some detail. A 2" lift is not excessive so shouldn't cause a death wobble and you have had castor correctors fitted, all of that should have been OK. The tyres are quite big, but again are doable, so we need to look for something wrong with the fitting.

Did you drive the vehicle before the lift kit and big tyres were fitted? I.e. do we have a baseline of what the vehicle was like before?

I am not sure of your experience with a vehicle like a Jimny before, but they can feel different to other modern cars oir even 4x4s due to the 'live axles' and suspension set up. However, they shouldn't have a death wobble.

Start with wheel balance, were the tyres and wheels correctly balanced? It's often hard to balance these tyres with weights and a lot of people use 'balance beads' which go inside the tyre and balance the wheels automatically.

Next, rather obvious, but is everything on the new suspension and steering arms tight?

After that, did the garage who fitted the lift kit check steering alignment?

Are the dampers adjustable on the lift kit? If they are then check the settings are the same and perhaps increase the damping force.

The springs are usually a different length and often designed for a Left hand or Right hand drive (I don't know about the Ironman kit), but did the garage fit the correct springs in the right place?

Someone else might wade in here but if it was me I would go back to the garage who fitted the lift kit and explain the problem.

Robin

Did you have the 15x7 Dotz Dakar Dark steel wheels with BFG KO2s in 235/75/15 fitted prior to the lift or done at the same time?

If they were on before, how did it drive?

If fitted after, can you try your old wheels and tyres and see if that "fixes" it.

Wobble at a set speed all the time that you can drive through sounds more like wheel balance if honest.

Like others have said work backwards from what was last done to the car or perhaps both the lift and tires were done together? As 300bhpton suggests if you can refit the old wheels and that will rule them out if it still does it. I would be very surprised if a 2inch lift has created wobble and that would be a first i've heard that has. I've got 2 that have been lifted with different kits to the one you've fitted and it didn't change really anything to how it handled so my bet would be some kind of tire balencing issue. Also a simple fix would be to check the tire pressures if a garage did them for you as many over inflate and you'll be surpised at just what effect that has on a jimny.

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. Indeed the car is brand new.

I will take all your advice to the garage who installed the kit and the new wheels/tyres.

I did drive the car for a few days before having the upgrades done. From the dealer it came on standard suspension with original 5,5” alloys and 215/75/15 KO2’s. It drove perfectly with no wobble of any kind.

I have had a full wheel alignment done so geometry should be spot on.

The new wheelset with the 235 tyres are now taken off and the car sitsbon standard 5,5” steelies and 195/80/15 factory tyres. With this weel configuration it drives just as smootly as when I picked it from the dealer sitting on the 215 BFG’s

The 235-tyre wheels have been balanced by the garage who did the liftkit, but I guess it would be worth while having a tyre specialist re-blanace them and check that both wheels and tyres are not faulty in any way.

Ot is however strange that the wobble is not conistent but comes and goes - iwhen it occurs, it is however always at 60-65 km/h.

Cheers
Lars

Thank you very much for your input. I am right now standard 15” steelies with 195/80/80 standard tyres and the car drives smoothly with no wobble.

To the point of pressure, what would you reccomend?

Thank you very much!

Currently on standard wheel/tyre set and the car runs smoothly with no wobble at all.

Will go for a re-balancing of the aftermarket set.

26psi all round. Ideally you want lower that with a bigger tire although the tpms limits that on newer jimnys.

Good work Lars, it looks like the lift kit isn’t to blame.

Apart from balance (most likely the problem) check tyre pressure and make sure they are the same.

Whilst jacked spin the wheels by hand and check for flat spots or un-even rotation.

I have even heard that a layer of grease between the hub and wheel can stop the wheel siting square on the hub, if it’s bad enough to cause a speed wobble it should be obvious even with a spin by hand.

Good luck and keep us updated.

Robin


When the wheels are put back on check they fit square on to the hubs

I have a set of 205.70 renegade at5 that are proving to be something of a test for the 2 places I have tried to get them balanced by. That said I think it's an element of being too busy to do it precisely on the part of the second place insofar as 10g either side is close enough when on a live axle it actually needs to be nearer than that. Although it's worth mentioning that in some cases the wheels need to be bolted on via the studs rather than the centre bore but getting a place to do that is an uphill battle.

I had issues with my heavy 235 BFG MT's and balancing for a while but they seem to have settled now the last few years. I have no idea why this was an issue earlier but since balancing them the third time they have been ok.
I mentioned to the tyre shop that the original alloys center could be off, but i think they just spun them up and checked and reseated and redid the balancing thouroughly and that helped. Better to pay extra the first time for a good helping than to pay several times for next to no help.

Thank you very much!

So, a short update. Today the authorized Suzuki garage went through the car and (as expected) all bushings, bearings etc are in new and good condition.

Then went to the offroad company who installed the liftkit and the 15x7 and 235/75/15 wheelset. They have upgraded quite a few Jimny’s with the exact same package without issues. However they have used 15x6 rims rather than 7”.

So, to rule out that a 235 tyre on a 7” wide rim is to much, they will now mount the 235 tyres on my standard 5,5” wide steelies and see which result that brings.

I beleive that many use 15x7 rims, so doubtfull whether this is why the problem occured. More likely that balancing has not been done correctly or that wheels have not been sitting dead center on the axle.

A question: is it unwise to mount 235’s on a 5,5” wide wheel?

Will keep you updated.

Many regards from a wintercold Denmark