Cleaning the Jeep After Wheeling
When I went wheeling on August 2nd, 2003 at Haspin Acres I got into a little mud during the day. On the drive home, at any speed above 40mph, I had a terrible wobble from somewhere in the drivetrain. I figured it was one of 3 things:
- A bent wheel
- Some wheel balancing weights were knocked off on the trail
- Mud was stuck to a wheel causing the wheel/tire/hub assembly to be out of balance.
It should be noted that right after the wheeling trip I spent $9.00 at a high pressure spray & wash place to "clean" the Jeep while the mud was still somewhat damp. Even after the spray & wash, the vibrations continued. So the next day, I backed out the Jeep onto the driveway to do a major cleaning job on the underside. The pictures below depict how much crud was still left on the hubs and the tools I used (plus a garden hose too):
While the wheel was off, I took advantage of the chance to pick/scrub/hose out the inside facing part of the wheel. Shown below circled in red are the areas to pay closer attention to. However, not much attention is needed, just get rid of anything that doesn't look like shiny wheel or tire. It is estimated that I removed about 8-10 ounces of crusted mud off of the worst wheel; most off of one side of the wheel. This is certainly enough extra weight to cause the wheel assembly to be out of balance and therefore cause vibration.
This is also a good time to look for damage to your tire (gouges, punctures); damage to the wheels (cracks, bends). Also look for mud and rocks that have been forced in between the tire and wheel mating surfaces (the bead) as this can cause loss of air from the tire.
After done hosing off, put the wheels back on, remove the jackstands and torque your wheels back on. In this case my Jeep was about 11-13lbs lighter afterwards.
Page created on 8/3/2003
Last updated on 2/6/2004