Jeep Repair & Service in Worcester, MA

Fixing death wobble for good

Death wobble is a violent shake of the front end on solid-axle Wranglers and Gladiators, usually set off by a bump at highway speed. A new steering damper can calm it, but it only hides the cause. The cause is almost always looseness somewhere in the front end: worn track bar bushings or a loose track bar bolt, worn ball joints or tie rod ends, or unbalanced and out-of-round tires. Lift kits and larger tires make all of it more likely.

We check every joint under load on the lift, torque the track bar, and finish with an alignment that sets the caster correctly. See suspension and steering repair and wheel alignment.

The Pentastar oil filter housing

The 3.6 Pentastar V6 has a plastic oil filter housing, with the oil cooler built in, that sits in the valley between the cylinder heads. When it cracks or its gaskets fail, oil — and sometimes coolant — runs down the back of the engine and onto the transmission bellhousing, so it often gets mistaken for a rear main seal leak. Early Pentastars also had a known left-cylinder-head problem. We find the actual source before quoting the repair.

Grand Cherokee Quadra-Lift

Grand Cherokees with Quadra-Lift ride on air springs at every corner, controlled by a compressor and a valve block. A “service air suspension” message, a corner sitting low after parking, or a compressor that runs constantly all point to a leak, and salt speeds up corrosion of the lines and fittings. A leak test finds the failed spring, line or valve before anything is replaced.

9-speed automatics and 4x4 fluids

Cherokees, Renegades and Compasses with the nine-speed automatic are known for rough or hesitant shifts, which manufacturer software updates have addressed — those flashes are done at the dealer. Beyond that, a four-wheel-drive Jeep has a transfer case and two axles with their own fluids, and in a New England winter they get used. Changing them on schedule is cheap insurance — see transmission service and the lifetime fluid myth.