What was the weather like when this occurred? Snow or Ice on the roads? I had a similar symptom once in the old NB Miata in slushy weather. It wasn't obvious but slush had accumulated inside 2 of the wheels and frozen and made them severely out of balance.Last night, my wife and I went out for a nice romantic drive in the Jeep, it being Family Day here in Canada.
About 30 minutes into our drive and it felt like the road was getting rough. Like I was driving on washboard. This got worse. I hit the gas to see if that had an impact. Nope. Hit the brakes, it went away almost completely, then came back shortly after I let off. A change in road surface did not have a change in the feeling. Slowing down, it turned into more of a thud thud thud.
Pulled into a small town and parked. All the wheels smelled and looked fine except for the left front, which smelled hot, but the brake calliper was not hot.
I called roadside and had the vehicle flatbed'd to the dealership.
Three test drives, totalling several hours today, they've been unable to reproduce the issue, so, I'm off to pick it back up now...
I was originally thinking wheel bearing. However, that wouldn't magically go away. I wonder if I got a rock jammed in the brake pad? Though I would have expected that to make noise?
Any ideas?
The mystery "failure"
- Thread starter OVERKILL
- Start date
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Cool, around -2C (so below freezing), but it had been warm earlier in the day. Roads were dry/clear aside from salt/dirt/sand.
I've had that happen before with this vehicle (huge snow build-up in the wheels) but that of course didn't result in one stinky and hot wheel.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Any chance the skid control engaged just on that wheel? Any codes?
We had dragging brake problems on our ‘17 Wrangler where one rear caliper seized up and one front brake hose delaminated causing the same problem. I might get both front wheels off the ground with the parking brake on & trans in neutral and see how much torque it takes to turn each front wheel after applying the brakes. Try it cold then go drive the Jeep again get it good n hot and try again. I used a torque wrench on a lug nut to check.
We had dragging brake problems on our ‘17 Wrangler where one rear caliper seized up and one front brake hose delaminated causing the same problem. I might get both front wheels off the ground with the parking brake on & trans in neutral and see how much torque it takes to turn each front wheel after applying the brakes. Try it cold then go drive the Jeep again get it good n hot and try again. I used a torque wrench on a lug nut to check.
. Wow!
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
That would have pulled power though, I was able to accelerate when it was happening without issue, I gave her a stab and she did her thing, shaking away, lol. My witech pod is buggered up, so I can't check, but they did pod the car and nobody mentioned any codes, so I'm guessing there weren't any.
It has full-time AWD, which may complicate this sort of testing, though the front has an open diff.
I did get the brakes nice and hot this afternoon, everything seemed normal.
I have to say modern repair costs are frightful. I wanted a late model Grand Cherokee with the 5.7 Hemi but every single one I found (except a 2020 SRT that was listed for $65,000!) had the air suspension. When I gotta sense of what these systems can cost to repair it definitely gave me pause.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
That could have been my previous SRT, lol, also a 2020, it went to NY IIRC. I know unlikely, but amusing thought. Was it black on black?
Just think, there are guys who own these that are getting $3,000 brake jobs every 20,000 miles or so.
My thought was a locking/hanging front diff of some sort....like the way part time 4wd'ers remind you to unlock things
Yes it was black on black but had the speedo in miles, had about 40,000 miles on it
Loved it but my better half vetoed the price lol. So I’m back to driving the old ‘07 WK Limited 5.7. Still pulls like a freight train.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Good thought, but the front diff on this thing is pretty basic, it's the rear that has the extra goodies (electronic locker). T-Case is variable split, but you can't go below 70/30 IIRC.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Speedo can be either, I can switch my instrumentation to miles/US units completely, it's just a setting. I don't think there are any Canada-only or US-only versions with these, FWIW.
My F150 has done that a couple of times. For me, it was parking brake is engaged via a lever from outside the drum (parking brake is a small drum inside the rear disk). Water will get into the lever and freeze the lever in place overnight and when you release the parking brake in the morning the lever doesn't remove the pressure on the shoes completely and it will get hot, start vibrating with a drumming noise. once the lever releases, everything seems fine again. This is the piece that seizes up:
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
No risk of it being the parking brake here, since it was a front brake. Looks like this:
Here's what the pads currently look like:
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
If the ECM had intervened, I'd be inclined to think along this line too, but I was able to accelerate and it didn't seem like there was any intervention unless the ABS computer just went nuts and decided to just pulse this one wheel, but then I would have expected to feel it pulling, and it didn't.
I had a similar parking brake issue with my WK. Intermittent vibration; hot brake on one rear wheel. Happened once every few months. Caliper not sticking. What I found was rust flaking off the 14 year old parking brake shoes jammed the actuator. New shoes/springs hardware fixed it. But your issue is on the front. I’m wondering if the caliper mount is loose or the caliper itself is slightly loose. Caliper bushings? What about those nuts that hold the rotor to the hub?
Last edited:
Yeah, I thought that, too. Plus you'd think you'd get a TC light or message. I'm not sure why modern vehicles so urgently want to tell us they've engaged traction control, but they do.
Similar threads
