Another steering death wobble

I agree with the other comments about the bolts.

If the vehicle has more than 200,000kms (or 20+ years old) for example you can assume that the bolts etc will probably be a bit worn.
I think you should consider re-doing the whole front end at once - if the Pitman Arm was worn I would assume the other joints were worn no matter how they looked. The steering is a whole system and all parts affect each other. That's why I think it's worth just doing the whole lot at once to the spec in the book.

Standard Panhard is perfect, superpro bushes + fresh bolts will sit very nicely.

Hi everyone and thanks for all the input.
I think I might have cracked it. while checking the panhard rod bolts I found that they were loose. Tightened them up and shake has gone. so have ordered as set of poly bushes and new bolts to go in. I am just wondering how something can be designed so close to the limit of not working properly when one item can affect it so much

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Originally Posted by westaussiedefender

.... I am just wondering how something can be designed so close to the limit of not working properly when one item can affect it so much

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I don't think it's a matter of being designed so close to the limit.
Panhard rod is a very important piece of kit to hold the front axle(actually the body) in place.

In effect, it's good to see that a slight anomaly in such an important assembly managed to give you just an annoying issue(that allowed you to maintain mobility) rather than a potentially disastrous ending!

As said, it's not designed close to the limit, any play is past the limit.
It's no different to wear in any of the tie rod ends or swivel bearings, it's within tolerance or not, and when it's not the steering goes to ****

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Originally Posted by Wicks89

The type of steering damper matters. You want an oil filled one not a gas one.

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Mono tube steering dampers like Bilstein and deCarbon use oil as the damping medium too, they just use a dividing piston and gas pressure to keep the working cylinder fully flooded.
And FWIW I used a Bilstein for years on a Defender without issue, and there shouldn't be a problem if the swivel preload is correct.

I used to have this issue on an old 86 Patrol, happened between 60-70 km, when going over a bump, the steering wheel and front or the car would shake violently until i slowed to 40km an hour, i bought the car off my cousin who also called it the "death wobble" i didnt know it was the correct terminology...till now.

i tried changing the steering dampener, didnt work, but the one thing that fixed it was getting the right combination of tyre pressures, left/right and front/back...

These death wobbles are always the result of free play in the steering/suspension, although they can be triggered by out of balance or worn or low pressure tyres.

The free play can be in tie rod ends, suspension bushes, panhard rod bushes, wheel bearings, loose wheels, loose steering box, loose pitman arm, worn steering box, steering shaft universals, but the first places to look are tie rod ends, swivels and panhard rod.

And note that the wobble may result from a number of very small amounts of free play in different places. The problem will be exacerbated by suspension lift, oversize tyres, non-standard offset.

I think people should understand the difference between a 'death wobble' and a steering wobble.
I've had both, easy fixes.
My death wobble, was one when on a trailing throttle only. It was quite specific on my D1. Trailing(or light) throttle, AND I had to hit a joint in the road with both fronts at the same time.
If there was just the slightest angle on the road joint(we have many on the Ring road around Melb, .. no death wobble.
Hit a bump with an individual wheel, no problem. Hit a joint in the road square on, but under power .. no problem .. only under light/no throttle, and at about 70+ k/h it basically violently shakes the wheel close to wrist breaking levels .. and felt like car was going to collapse Blues Brothers style!
That turned out to be the hopeless, 50K klm new, Pedders steering damper.
Standard Armstrong damper fitted, death wobble gone.
Stupid part was, I pulled the damper, and checked for slack spots in it's travel .. feels like new(just works like "carp").

But I've had steering wobbles along the way too. D1 has high 300's(I think 390K) now, I've replaced both LHS bearings, and only checked RHS bearings but not renewed.

Had a steering wobble issue for a couple of months again. I had a very strong suspicion it was my RH front bearing. Steering wobble was very light, made no difference if over choppy road, smooth road, straight ahead, or in a turn. It came and went randomly.
So rechecked front RH bearing this morning. Front(locking) nut was too loose for an expected 61Nm nut to come off. undid by hand with hub nut socket.
Main nut behind felt OK. But put back together as per RAVE method .. 61Nm, back off 90°, and 4Nm back on(supposed to give a 0.01 endfloat, apparently).
I only did by hand to what I think was 4Nm, then lock nut on and set to 61Nm, wheel back on ... down my regular freeway run I use to work, no wobble. Veered over towards a bumpy part of the freeway, a little strong feedback through the wheel, as expected, no wobble. All good again.
Need to do RHS bearings one day soon.

Brother got rid of his '99 Patrol(4.5lt I think), due to death wobble AND possible head gasket issue.
Head gasket would have been an easy fix, death wobble, taken to 3 different mechanics, one of them being my mech, who's a bit of a Patrol nut himself .. all things checked and renewed, but still no good.
My mechanic was the 3rd to have a go, and he did the swivels. Other mechs did bushes, damper, tie rod ends(I think) .. etc. From memory the front steering was all new in the end.
My only concern with the two mechanics that did his suspension bushes, was that I don't think they changed the nuts/bolts .. they didn't look new! .. clean yes, but not new.
And I reckon that may have had an impact on his Patrol death wobble. Plus the 2" lift, AND 100" tyres!(I dunno, maybe 35's .. something stupidly too large). But I reckon it was the bush bolts.
Being a Patrol, and the horror NVH they produce compared to a Disco .. I never volunteered my time on it! [biggrin]