beav

i have a 98 civic cx. with a manual steering rack. the cx's didnt come with power steering as you all know.
i just came back from florida from a 2 week spring break and realized right away that my car is making this noise that it was not making before i left.
i have searched and found a good 10 posts archived on this topic, but its all useless info.
basically when the car is standing still (on or off) and i turn the steering wheel, i hear a loud screeching sound similar to that of a squeaky door hinge. it only makes the sound for the first 1/4 turn of the wheel (right or left) then it doesnt make it anymore. only when the wheel is straight turning slightly left or right. the noise is also heard when rolling very slowly. i noticed it when parking the car in and out of spots today.
the noise is also heard when rolling straight, coming to a stop, just before the car is fully stopped, probably at like 10 to 0 mph.
i dont think it is an axle, doesnt sound or feel like it.
and it cant be power steering because i dont have any.
so im thinking it might be a ball joint, a tie rod, or sway bar bushings or endlinks (i added a 22mm oem EX front bar)

if any of you guys have had this experience, please let me know if you had luck narrowing it down.

beav

bump... anyone?

sql_civic

iTrader: (3)

Raise the front end on jacks and have someone turn the wheel while you crawl around under the car to locate the source of the squeak.

beav

yeah i was thinking of that but its freakin pouring non stop in nyc right now, and i dont have a garage. also, i was thinking if i lift the front, maybe it wont squeak without the pressure of the tires against the ground. i guess ill see.

Brian Hinson

My guess would be lower ball joints...

Or if the car is lowered, it may be the backing plates rubbing against the ball joint nut.. this happend to a friend of mines integra.

djsire

i had this but it also came with a loud clunking noise.
turned out to be my lca bushing was bad.

beav

its not the back plate rubbing...i had that too before. and theres no clunking.
i was just told its probably not the steering rack. so my guess is that its the tie rod end because the lower ball joints on the hub are new.

beav

update... jacked up the car today...no noise when turning the wheel.
i couldnt really get under the car cuz the ground was still wet from the storm. but i took off the wheels and i still coundnt really see anything.
later in the day, it seems like the noise got a little louder and more frequent while driving.
starting to get worried, and i dont wanna get ripped off by a shop.
help!

beav

MAJOR UPDATE AGAIN
ok so i just found something good in the type R forums. same description as i have... guy went on vacation, described the noise and symptoms exactly.
so a few people said its a bearing that went dry in the steering rack.
and some said its a bushing in the steering rack.
i dont know too much about the steering rack and how it works, so can someone verify if there is a bushing or a bearing in my manual rack? and if it is something that can be easily lubed by myself.

beav

so i went under my steering wheel and removed the black plastic tube that covers the steering shaft from the fusebox to the firewall. i turned the wheel a few times and it seems as the noise is coming from beyond the firewall, from the engine bay.
now im assuming its somewhere in the actual rack.
one person told me it was the rack end bushing.
any ideas???
i know other peple have this problem as well....someones gotta know.
=/

RedJdm95

hey man i had the same problem with my 95 civic couple....i let it sit for about a mouth and i had the say problem you are haveing i would turn the wheel 1/4 a turn and then it would stop the rest of the way......it ended up being my lca balljoit....idk if that is any help to you......what i did for now to stop that squeekn **** that was wecked annoying was i sprayed some silcone spray that they sell at autozone foe like 3-4 bucks on all the bushing i seen...and it stoped for a while....but please dont change your lca balljoit ...because for you it might be something eles.....and i dont want you spendin money on something that you really dont need....so try for find out were exactly it is comein form......it toke me a while cause for some reason i would lift up my car and it would go away and my car is to low to stick my head under soo i coudnt tell exactly where it was comein form....but like i told you it ended up being my lower balljoint

beav

yeah, thanx for the help anyways.
i really doubt its my ball joint cuz i cant hear the noise from the outside of the car. only from the inside.

JulioM413

found my noise to be the ball joints loud *** creek 1/4 turn each way, if you also have steering walk(side to side play) another indicator your joints are bad

wunfstgsr

I was gonna say its a classic sign of bad ball joints. You can usually see they are busted or torn if grease is present.

A temp fix is to cut a very small slit in the rubber and stick the straw from the Wd40 bottle and spray inside the rubber boot, this will usually take the sound away for a few days till you can go to the shop but will come back once its dried up.