My wife recently purchased this 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee with only 15k on it. It is fully loaded. While driving down hill and you push on the brakes a little hard, the steering wheel shimmies, not the hole car, just the steering wheel. It sounds like a loose bolt behind the air bag or something. What is it? Has anyone ever had this problem before? Is it easy to fix or should I take it back to the dealer.  

Sound like warped brake rotor in front to me. Jeeps of that type are known to have this problem. It is not that rare. Had same problem with my wifes a few years ago and replace rotors and it was fine. Chrysler did not put enough meat in rotors and a few hard heavy stops can warp them sometimes.  

yes, I would agree that the rotors are warping...any time you feel pulsating in your foot as your braking or feel or see the steering wheel shake its time to either have your rotors turned or replaced.  

You should never turn a warped rotor because it results in a thinner rotor of uneven thickness that will be more prone to warp again. Part of the reason they warp is because there is not much meat in them and turning them leaves even less "meat".  

well, depending on HOW warped it is, if your within the min thickness spec that is stamped on the back side of the rotor by a couple tenths youll be fine and its about $20 to turn them compared to about $50-$80 per rotor.Ive turned rotors for a few years at a chevy dealer and had them last up to 20k miles before people had to buy new ones. Now after I turned rotors that were at min thicknes after I turned them they did not go on the rig and the customers bought new ones for safty reasons. So if your in a pinch money wise then a good turn job will work until you do have the dough.  

Don't only check the brakes, but take a look at the track bar as well. I know its low miles but I have seen this stuff go out at low miles, I work at a dodge/jeep dealership. A good way to check is to lay on the ground looking at the track bar, the top rod end is what usually goes, and steer it back and forth. Any really noticable slop is bad, not to say thats the prob, but just in case the brake fix dont work. My inital guess would be the brakes but....  

you know the more I think about it, check out the slip yolk on the steering shaft as well. and it might not hurt to pop the wheel and take a look at the splines on the steering shaft behind the wheel. With only 15000 on the O.D. it makes me think this thing might have been wrecked, being that its an 05. Working at an auto dealership, I've seen lots of weird stuff.  

If it does it when you brake, it is the rotors. Looking elsewhere is chasing gremlins. Again this is not a rare problem. It is kinda a design weakness. Rotors are thin and pads are hard and a few hard stops can warp them. What happens is when they warp they can be fairly flat when cold but when you put the heat to them the warp up more and cause shaking.  

Yeah, lets just forget about that "loose bolt" sound coming from the steering wheel. Its not like your life, or your wifes life is in any danger if your steering should fail. Any of the stuff I told you to check out would only take about 15-20 minutes to do, except for removing the steering wheel, that would take a while. Its not chasing gremlins, its being safe not sorry!  

If it was this it would shake all the time like when you hit a bump. Those rotors warp a lot of the time and it is a easy cheap fix if you do your own work. The factor hard pads place a lot of strain on rotor surface and when it starts to warp they cause hot spots which makes it warp even more and surface is heated unevenly and metal does not expand evenly. They are cast too thin and lack thermal mass for good protection against warpage. Planned obsolescence.  

to help protect against warpage, is to buy the oem pads from the dealer cause after market pads are hard and are less forgiving. and tend to squeek more the the softer oem stle pads. they might not last as long as the aftermarket but well worth the noise they dont make.  

keithpapa:
to help protect against warpage, is to buy the oem pads from the dealer cause after market pads are hard and are less forgiving. and tend to squeek more the the softer oem stle pads. they might not last as long as the aftermarket but well worth the noise they dont make.

I have to disagree with you on OEM pads. They are very hard. You want soft aftermarket budget priced pads that are not designed to go 50 or 100K miles between changes at expense of rotor. On my wife's 2000 Cherokee we bought new. At 60,000 miles not only where rotors badly warped but worn thin too from hard OEM pads. (pads still had nearly 1/2 pad left too but rotors were toast) And the thinner they wear, the more prone they are to warp.  

well then they may be differently made then, from jeep to chevy...my 86 sub had new pads on it but they were aftermarket ( theres soo many different compounds) and they squeeked and caused alot of brake dust and I couldnt go hunting cause all the deer and elk heard me coming down the road. so I went to oem new and they were a softer compound and my noisy brakes went away and my rotors were safe and the game couldnt here me.  

I always buy cheap/soft aftermarket pad and usually I even change them out on new vehicles too but I did not on that one and paid the price for it. I have put over 200K miles on original factory rotors on several vehicles with soft pads with no problems.  

thats one thing that we can agree on is the softer the pads, pretty much on any rig is gonna make the rotors last longer....so happy wheeling!