Ace of Spades

In the past few months, I've noticed an increasing vibration in the steering wheel on acceleration. Sometimes it happens while braking, but not always. I jacked my car up and put jack stands under the front to allow free movement of the wheels. I pushed and pulled on them but didn't feel anything. I then removed the wheels and checked all the connecting parts to the wheel hub and didn't feel anything loose really. I had the passenger side CV joint replaced about 40,000 miles ago or more, but I don't hear the clicking sound when turning. A friend suggested it might be the tie-rods and another friend suggested the CV joints. How do you check for faulty parts and could the problem be something else? Thanks for any help you can give me.

Ace


Modified by Ace of Spades at 11:39 PM 6/21/2006

iam7head

CV joint will click, turn in tight circle and see if it will make noise


it's most likely to be the tie rod ends, or upper ball joint(check for free play)

Fix them before you crash

honda4674

im having this problem but upon braking i just had my bal joints and tie rods replaced and they cheaked everything said my cv joints were fin axles were fine and hubs were good anyone ahve any ideas

TheMuffinMan

iTrader: (1)

Rotor warpage or just a simple alignment? If it's during acceleration and braking couldn't that be a possibility as well?

YeuEmMaiMai

allignment will not fix a shaking steering wheel. Most likely a ball joint or tie rod is in need of replacement.

khunt0012

What kind of condition are your tires in? When I worked at the dealership, every couple months we'd get a customer complaining of a shaking but we couldn't find anything suspension or steering related. Ended up being some belt shifting in the tires. Not really a common occurance on Accords, but you never know.

That said, it still more than likely a suspension component as mentionned by YeuEmMaiMai.

Ace of Spades

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">CV joint will click, turn in tight circle and see if it will make noise</TD></TR></TABLE>

Nope, doesn't do that.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">it's most likely to be the tie rod ends, or upper ball joint(check for free play)</TD></TR></TABLE>

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Most likely a ball joint or tie rod is in need of replacement.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Could you tell me how to check the tie rods as I looked for loose fitting parts and couldn't budge anything.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">What kind of condition are your tires in?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Brand new. Just spent $450 at Les Schwab.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Fix them before you crash</TD></TR></TABLE>

Sounds like great advice, and I plan on doing so. Thanks for the replies so far!


Modified by Ace of Spades at 6:49 PM 6/20/2006

Ace of Spades

Update on my Accord. I have found a little play in the joint where the Drive Axel comes out of the Transmission. It seems to wobble a little more than the other side, but is minimal. Would seem like the area where it should come from since the more torque there is applied, the more the vibration is there. I am going to do another test on the Upper and Lower ball-joints tomorrow when i get home from work just to rule them out.

honda4674

same i just got new tires and and tie rods replaced i got my brakes and rotors changed and its still shaking more through braking then anything but if you find anything out let me know cause its really annoying

Trumpster

If it happens when you're braking it's most likely your rotors are warped a little. I know mine was doing the wheel shimmy thing pretty bad until I replaced the upper ball joints, helped out a ton. Still does it a bit under braking with new struts, new upper ball joints (and control arms), new axel (driver side), new lower control arm (driver side again), and new radius rods. My guess, since I'm pretty sure that this is the issue on my Accord, is the rotors. Best of luck, hope you get it figured out.

Ace of Spades

Sorry I haven't posted here in awhile. Life's been busy, but I found the problem with my Honda. I took a break from finding the problem but couldn't go any further since the shimmy was getting worse. After taking the wheels off many times and checking everything out many times, I decided to take a chance on replacing the passenger side CV axle, the whole thing. Cost me $67.00 with a $80.00 core charge and solved the problem. After asking many of my "car" friends, and just about anyone else that knows a little about cars, one thing seemed to be consistant with everyone's answer. One person told me that the drive axles are balanced, and that made a big difference in how I decided to go the CV axle route. I was going to just start replacing parts, one at a time and hope I found the right one since nothing else seemed wrong. I do think I will still replace my lower ball joint as the boot is loose and may eventually go bad anyway, and my struts as well. But for now, the problem is gone and it doesn't shimmy on acceleration anymore. WOOHOOO!!!!

Hope all of you who had similar problems find or have found answers to your problem. This is a great site here and it's nice to feed off each others experience!

Thanks to all who posted!

Nicholas D. Wolfwood

I have the exact same problem, and my dad has had that problem with all his cars. It happens when you break and i found it that when your going 30MPH or more and press on the break the wheel vibrates. A long time ago my dad knew a mechanic and he said it was the balance of the tires. All you need is a good balance, and that's what the guy did and it was gone. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the business and closed and we couldn't get a descent balance. My dad has a 2002 Pilot, and when he did a tire rotation, the vibration started to happen, and this was like 6 months after purchasing the car with about 2k, so it's impossible parts. What he did was put the tires back the way they were, and everything was okay. It would be nice to fix that problem, especially if I'm going to keep this '99 Accord EX for another 3 years.

REALCB7

I check my cv boots everytime the car is in the air. The CV boots get cut and you lose the gease, once that happens it is a matter of time before the cv joints go bad. CHECK THE CV BOOTS!!!!! IT ONLY TAKES A MIN, AND CAN SAVE YOU MONEY.

Jmumblez2001

i had to bring this post from the DEAD, I got 2 new axles from raxle.com, they are installed by myself. I them one at a time then drove the car, i did the driver side first all went well 'cept i heard a thumpin noise, but i paid that no mind. Next weekend i did the passenger side now here's the issue i take it for a test drive and it VIBRATES REALLY BAD when i get near 60-65 miles an hour, ya'll think i messed up a ball joint or is the axle doing it. Also i get no more clicking when turning @ a hard left (some good news) car is a 94 accord lx

hope someone can give me some input

EvenStar

i have this as well. changed my brakes and rotors. fixed it a bit.