UnleashedEJ1

I Lowered my 1998 Civic DX hatchback about 2 months ago, I used Arospeed coilovers with my oem shocks. Car seemed fine until I hit the highway around 65mph and over the wheel shakes, not crazy but enough to keep me under 65mph. So I took the car in for a 4 wheel alignment. It didnt change a bit. also I noticed when I hit large bumps or holes int the road the wheel also shakes hard and feels loose, but all other driveing conditions seem normal. Please let me know if you have any sugestions. And the wheels and tires are 16"x7" and tires are 205/40/16 and are balanced. Thanks

Fook_me_honda

Have you checked to see if there are any loose bolts? Or bad balljoints somewhere. You can usually tell by leaking grease.

UnleashedEJ1

I didnt notice anything out of the ordinary, I will check again. and I would hope the shop would have noticed an issue with the alignment. they didnt say they saw anything.

Stine

How do you know the wheels are properly balanced?

waaBAAH

+1

and whoever balanced your tires did a bad job.. go take it back. tell them your car shakes at 65 mph

thunee

If it's not your alignment, check the installation of your coilovers again. try to tweak the height adjustment.

yoontim23

and check the axles. We had like 3 of these threads in the past week already.

809JDM

Check for loose wheel nuts also

skodi

just a wheel balance problem im sure.. start w the easiest first though: tighten lugs, suspension, check balljoints etccc

philosofy1

how many miles do you have? if you are on oem shocks, chances are the shock need replacing. depending on how low you have it, you might have blown them. it doesn't take much to blow shocks.

also, check your tires. there can be a bubble on it. these are all possibilities.

green99civic

Probably either need an alignment or your tires need to be re-balanced

UnleashedEJ1

Ok all is great info, thanks. The car has 97,xxx miles, and was completly fine before i lowered it, tires are almost new with very little wear. I lowered the car and put the wheels on at the same time. Some time this week I am going to put the 14" stock steel wheels on and hit the highway, the only reason I dont think it is a tire balance issue is the shaking when I hit large bumps and holes. the shocks seem fine all but the driver rear, it is starting to go bad. all other driving is smooth and responsive. I hope this is one of the minor issues, Ill keep the post informed with any progress, Thanks

Stine

Sounds like you may have 2 problems. Throw on the 14's and let us know what happens. Does the car bounce up and down excessively after the bumps(rear shocks = blown) or explain what you mean by "shaking" further.

BigLazy55

how new are ur tires?

UnleashedEJ1

I dont have much bouncing, the car drives pretty good for coilover sleeves. when i say shakeing its very sutle shakeing of my steering wheel around 65mph and over. tires on the front have maybe 2-3000 miles and rear tires I bought used with about 75% tread left.

eros18

OMG! not another WHEEL BALANCE suggestion

ok

you can deduct the problem by doing this

you already checked for alignment
check wheel balance like they always suggest
check the axles

mrjdmek98

my 98ek does the same thing but i know i need my driver side axle.

waaBAAH

i would love to hear your explanation of why it wouldnt be a wheel balancing problem?

Jimster480

could easily be a wheel balancing problem. But u should check ur hxles. And the shaking is only in the steering column? Not the car itself? do you have power steering?

UnleashedEJ1

Sorry it has taken me a few weeks to respond to the thread, I jacked the car up and simply redid the coil over sleeve install, I didnt notice any problems but the spring was loosely just sitting there with lots of play. I took them apart and kinda installated the sleeves and springs with some thick rubber hoseing. after that they were pretty stable. so I put it all back togather and took a test drive to see if anything has changed. The ride quality is 80-90% better with very little movement over 65mph and even felt good at 80-85mph. I think any vibrations if any that are left are probablly the tire and wheels. Im very satisfied with the outcome and I would like to thank everyone how helped with suggestions. Thanks

40mpg_dx00

I'm glad you got it sorted out. I just wanted to say one thing. There were a boatload of people saying tire balance, tire balance. granted, sometimes people screw up balancing but CHEESE WHIZ if you say they're balanced, they are balanced. I hope none of those people call themselves mechanics cuz that was ridiculous. for those guys that want to be pissed at me, you keep beating that dead horse

waaBAAH

OP should have said this in the very beginning. OP didint and just said his car shakes at highway speeds. he was linking the two shaking highway speeds together as one problem.



OP still has a vibration...and more then likely it is from wheels balancing. ANY mechanic would state "wheel balancing" first as the potential cuase due to the fact it is the simpliest and cheapest route to go.

if loose lugnuts was the problem this would be found while balancing. once you rule out balacning 100 percent then you cn move onto other stuff but there really isnt much more that can cause a 60 mph shake/shimmy while cruising.

40mpg_dx00

I'm not disputing that it is a common issue but the OP DID say they were balanced (right after providing tire and rim size). Yes, people screw up balancing, often from a machine needing calibration, but when you diagnose a problem with second-hand info you have to take what you are given at face value. If you second-guess every piece of information then the problem will take much longer to solve