Whittier Hawk

Whittier was on the way to Bakersfield, where the long trip to Texas would begin, and I needed to stop in Whittier at Rio Hondo College at the Smog Umpire, and had made an appointment for around noon. I arrived a bit early, and rolled about and sighted Hawk on Tower. Hawk being mobbed by Crow is Denny's Hawk, which I had sighted flying out of the Sycamore Tree across the Street while at Breakfast. And Antelope is at Carrizo Plain, pics up in earlier post, Carrizo Plain being where I nearly spent the night, Silver being broken down beside the road from overheating. I had just had an oil change, and when I checked the dip stick, the oil was so clear, that I thought it wasn't there! Fearful of going forward an inch, I called Auto Club.  As it worked out, overheating caused by low coolant, and lots of dust and bugs on radiator. Fortunatly, the cell phone reached Auto Club, and with lift with the flat bed tow truck,  I reached my sister's around midnight.  A long day!

This morning, I'm waiting for call on how repairs on Silver are doing, this time brakes.  And too, to check for the DW, which reoccurred on that roll to Bakersfield, and diverted me a second time to surface streets that take one through Ojai and over 33, which is how I came back from Bakersfield after the garage up there, who had worked on the DW, new shocks, new track bar, told me the next thing to try was new trailer arms.  (Silver is a Jeep Wrangle 2005, DW is the dreaded Death Wobble, or as Chrysler puts it, Steering System Vibration)  Rather than have work done far away from home in Bakersfield, I'm having any further DW related repairs done in garages nearby, so, so I can go rant when thing aren't working out!  I guess...actually I'm patient.  sorta 

I've driven Silver for almost 40,000 miles now, and have somehow managed the DW, usually by just slowing down from 50 miles an hour or so, when it usually commences after a bump, or bumps.  At times it has been so bad, that I've had to completely stop, and I've replaced two track bars, and the shocks, and new tires, and two alignments and balancings, and scratched my head much reading the accounts on the web!

Garage yesterday (C. dealer), said the rotors were warped, but things in the suspension seem tight and okay.  The warped rotors do what bumps do, the brakes don't stop smooth, and vibrate, and begin the DW.   Garage said they'd test drive again with the new rotors, but unless they can find a bumpy road or railroad crossing, I doubt they can get the DW to show!  No one seems to be able to point exactly at the DW cause, and it's curious ocurrance most often between 45 and 50 miles an hour.  "Some kinda harmonic..."

Well, as I post, the phone call came, 'all set'.  I'll hop on 43 now, the Bus that goes down Harbor, and retrieve Silver! :)