My car has gone from it's once excellent handling to me spinning completely out of control today... About 6 months ago, I was able to take a hard right corner doing about 50-60 mph, I hit gravel, the back end slid out a bit, but I was able to easily get it back under control almost instantly and took off. Words can't really describe it, but it was pretty amazing from the driver's seat; I was really impressed with the car.

A few months go by, and I take a left corner a little fast and the back end slips out on me, but I got it back under control easily. The problem with that incident was that the back end shouldn't have slid out on me at all. I know my car's handling abilities pretty well, and I know I used to be able to take corners faster than that without any problem. But, I figured that maybe it was a one time thing because the road was slightly banked in a less than favorable way and I went into the turn a little bit early.

So, that takes us to today... I came across a traffic circle and no cars or people anywhere around. I decided to test my car and see if it was really performing worse than before. I wanted to go straight, so I went half way around the circle... I got through the circle just fine, but I ran into problems when I came out of it. The back end slid out really bad, and I couldn't get it back under control at all. It was totally out of control and spun out real bad. The area was banked slightly unfavorably, but I know it should have performed a lot better than that. I've never lost control anywhere close to that badly before, and I've done plenty of crazier things too (and some of them were even before I had strut bars).

What do you guys think the problem is? tire wear? worn out shocks? The tires look fine (plenty of tread left) and the car rides nice. Could the rear sway bar wear out in some way? Maybe worn bushings? Could my tires being in a slight need of a rotation cause this severe of a problem? Any other ideas? I'll check my tire pressures, tightness of my strut bars, and some other stuff tomorrow, but I'm not very convinced that I'll find the problem.

 

could be lots of things, something simple would be tire pressure. Trust me, thats important.

 

Anything that stiffens the suspension in the back more so than the front will make the car more tail happy. However shock tower braces alone will not affect stuff like this. Those only keep the chassis from flexing, they do nothing for body roll or suspension stiffness.

 

It turns out that my tire pressures somehow jumped to 35.5 psi in the front and 34 psi in the rear. I usually run 31 up front and 33 in the back, +/- 1. I dropped it to 32.5 all around and it feels better. I guess Acura decided to air up my tires last time I took it in; factory specs say 29 psi all around for the tire size I have (P195/60R14 85H), so I don't know how they came up with 35.5 and 34. Oh well, it's better now, but I'll be adjusting them a little more too. Then I think it's time for another trip to that traffic circle, lol.