SpecWar

We have alot of melting snow up here in Michigan right now. And so I am driving like I usually do and putting my right tires in the puddles and splashing them up over the jeep. We are talking about puddles 1-3 inches deep at 55 mph. I have done this hundreds of times. These are well paved roads mind you.

When suddenly I go through one and the whole back up the jeep starts shuddering violently. It didn't stop until I slowed down almost to a complete stop. So I get out and look and everything seems fine. So I start back up and hit another much smaller puddle and bam the whole back end starts shaking violently again. And when I say shake I mean like you have a tire barely hangin on violent. When I got home and looked the tire that hit the puddle seems fine. But the tire on the left that was on dry pavement is almost flat. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT. Anyone................any idea.......heck, now I am afraid to hydroplane in my jeep......Hellllllllllllllllllllp. Any thoughts. These are stock tires

SpecWar

I have to be honest with ya. It was shaking so violently that I didn't look at the guage cluster. The shaking in the rear was constant however so I wouldn't put it past that computer controlled crap. However, I always turn off the throttle control the second I get in the vehicle. I am really at a loss... I am definitely taking it in tomorrow because that is not normal operation.

doojer

Are you sure the flat wasn't causing the whole issue? Did you figure out if your tire had a tear or a leak in it?

SpecWar

The tire lost alot of air because of the violent shaking. At least that is my guess. It had gone through probably 10 puddles prior to those 2 events, including several feet of hydroplaning by the right side tires and everything was solid. This was a perfectly flat and straight paved road. I will know in a hour whether or not the left rear tire is ruined or not. Another thought I had was maybe the tire spun on the rim. What puzzles me the most about it is that I wasn't pushing the jeep hard. I was just driving down the road hitting shallow puddles.

SpecWar

Ok, I checked and the left rear tire has a hole in the sidewall and is ruined. It is a very small hole and may have been there before before the incident. Could that cause violent shaking when you hit a puddle?

SpecWar

I drove another 5 miles home without any shaking at all at 55-60 miles an hour if that helps. I guess what concerns me the most is that the shaking was violent until I came to a complete stop.

Darwood

Sounds like you experienced death wobble in the rear axle. Try checking the bolts on your rear track bar and rear control arms. The flat tire may have caused the death wobble, but I have never experienced that symptom before from a flat tire.

bly109

It was probably from the flat tire. The flat tire would allow the rear axle to shift back and forth causing death wobble. The puddle was just the catalyst, not the cause. If you wouldve hit a good pothole, it wouldve happened too.

derff96963

I would have to say it was ABS kicking in due to the flat tire. It monitors all wheel speeds and steering input and calculates what direction you should be going and what direction you are going.

Having even just a tire low on pressure and any sudden movement can set it off. Once you set it off it will keep going until you take your foot of the brake or the computer thinks its over.

After you fix the tire I would have all the suspension checked over just to be sure.

SpecWar

It was the death wabble. I don't know what exactly caused it but I can say that all of the tires were 10 pounds low on air and so would have caused alot of flex in the sidewall of the tire. Keep in mind that the tire was not anywhere near flat was low. You could seee the tire beginning to bulge.