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I was driving my '90 RR(110k miles) today out to a bike trail. I was on a 55MPH section of the road and it was running fine. Suddenly, it started shaking violently. The steering wheel basically just jerked back and forth in my hand rapidly, basically trying to rip itself out of my hands. It was extremely fast and quite forceful. I pulled over and checked everything. It was kind of a "shiver" motion. Like when you're cold and shake... just back and forth really quickly. I fully expected to get out and see that a tie-rod had snapped. I checked all the steering links, tie-rod ends, drive-shaft, power steering lines, everything. I had the friend I was with move the steering wheel back and forth while I looked for something wrong. Nothing at all seemed out of place. I cautiously started driving again and it seemed fine. I checked the road where it happened and it was perfectly smooth with no debris, so it doesn't seem likely that it was the road. That being said, I drove it 10 miles home normally(at up to 50-55MPH) and it seemed fine. But that event was so random and strong that I'm a little trigger shy. Anyone have any insight?
Search forum for "Death Wobble" - more common in Discovery, but I don't see why it would not happen in a Rangie. In mine it was a combination of things, but the strong oscillation happened on smooth pavement, at about 60 mph. I had wheel bearings, warped rotor, sticking caliper, grease leak on another set of rear pads, and steering stabilizer issues.
It certainly takes the pucker factor up another notch.
Mine did this, steering stabilizer fixed it. You can get nice inexpensive aftermarket ones. Its pretty simple to replace too. Only took me 10min to replace and it solved my "Epileptic Range Rover"' problem. lol, btw very nice title.
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A Land Rover doesn't leak! It marks its territory.
What do Jaguars and possums have in common? Both play dead at home and get killed on the road.
1996 Range Rover 4.0SE 167k Miles
1998 Jaguar XJ8 107k Miles
2003 Land Rover Discovery 114k Miles
2005 Jaguar XJR 52k Miles
Mine did this, steering stabilizer fixed it. You can get nice inexpensive aftermarket ones. Its pretty simple to replace too. Only took me 10min to replace and it solved my "Epileptic Range Rover"' problem. lol, btw very nice title.
Steering stabilizers only mask problems, they never cause them or solve them. You have something else going on with your truck that you will eventually need to address.
It sounds like you need to get under your truck and go through the procedure of checking the panhard rod bushings, radius arm bushings, tie rod ends, and anything else that may be loose that has anything to do with your steering. Finally, if everything checks out, the next step is to check the preload on the swivel bearings.
Savannah Buzz, that death wobble thing is only more common on DI's because there are five times as many of them on the road. This death wobble thing goes all the way back to Series I (Not Discovery's) Rovers from the '40's and '50's. I had to set the preload on my Series III when I was building it up from scratch. It's all related to these archaic swivel balls with swivel pins and Railko bushings and so on.
Yep, I changed my tie rod ends, and a bunch of other things at the same time, which all needed it. I will admit it was exciting hitting a pothole on the sharp hairpin exit ramp from the expressway.
Epileptic Range Rover Classic
