fidelito

i bought this civic thinking it only had to be allign but after i alignes it the car keeps doing sudden pulls when the car hits a hola or when street is not leveled. i took it to the mechanic and they told me to change the 2 front lower control arms and the 2 rear spindles. even after this the car keeps on doing the same thing. today i took it to another mechanic and they told me i had to change something called roca pineon or something like that, not very sure, but i know it has to do with the steering. can anybody please help ive already wasted 600 hundred dollars in the car, dont want to just keep on changing everything the mechanic tells me.
any thoughts please let me know

96dxpower

correction my friend. RACK n PINION. bump, help this guy

fidelito

Im thinking it might be the ball joints but all the mechanics told me they were good

fmrprojects

sounds like something is loose on your suspension and could be your rack and pinion

fidelito

what part of suspension might be loose? to clarify when the pulls it does it very sudden, by suprise, it's not just that it goes diagonaly or slowly moves to the side.

96dxpower

do you know if the car has been hit before? maybe the control arms or camber kits are bent?

deanh8

What about the rims/tires? I had some 205's on some 16" rims on my EF (BF goodrich g-sports) and the car pulled all over the place bad could never figure it out for like a year or so. Then put the stock steelies back on (because I was planning on lowering it soon and those rims wouldn't fit) with like 175, or 185's and its fine now. Doesnt pull or anything anymore.

snatch

Check your tie rods also.

Jack the car up, grab the wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and shake it back and forth. If you have an excessive amount of play they tie rods may need to be replaced.

You can also grab the tie rod itself and try to rotate it back and forth. If it has a lot of play that's usually not good.

fidelito

i had the front lower control arms changed and also the rear control arms spindle, but the car keeps on doing the same thing. I also had the front rims changed and bought new tires all around. The car is a little more stable now but, the problem gets dangerous in highways, because it pulls very bad.

IHateJDM

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by ****** &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Check your tie rods also.

Jack the car up, grab the wheel at 3 and 9 o'clock and shake it back and forth. If you have an excessive amount of play they tie rods may need to be replaced.
</TD></TR></TABLE>

, but what wheels and tires are you riding on? If they are wider than stock, its not uncommon to have the steering wheel pull to the side on rough roads.

fidelito

i got 16s with 205/50 tires. i had 205/45 tires but i changed them to see if it would fix the problem. it also not that it pulls a little bit, it is a lot it gets really dangerous.

sagron69

grab a pair of steelies and throw them on the front, ride around for a bit... if you still get the same problem then at least you know it's not the rims

like stated above lift up your car and check the play on your tie rods, if they wobble too much consider getting them changed.

worst case scenario change your rack and pinion, but might i suggest getting a mechanic friend to take a look at it... everyone got a friend or a friend of a friend that works on cars...

good luck, bump

fidelito

please do recomend me a mechanic to take a look. im located in brooklyn new york

fidelito

anybody got more idea. what else could be causing this?

Dwight Schrute

tie rods... shake the wheel with the car jacked up... it'll either be the inner or outer... you'll see whichever moves when you shake the wheel

northkai3

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by fidelito &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i bought this civic thinking it only had to be allign but after i alignes it the car keeps doing sudden pulls when the car hits a hola or when street is not leveled. </TD></TR></TABLE> he says it right there the car pulls when he hits a hole or if theres uneven pavement he doesnt have ps of course the car is gonna pull in those road circumstances it happens in my 95 cx all the time

fidelito

i already fixed the problem took it to a mechanic and he aligned it with a rope, he had me hold the rope from the back tires while he streched to the front and then he tightened something. we also changed the front rims to stock rims and the rpoblem is totally gone. It seems like the place i had taken it twice before wasn't doing the alignment correctly.

but thanks guys for ur help.

ABK

your knuckles could be bent (or different sizes), the part that holds the tie rod end itself. It's called bumpsteer. Do your tires squeel alot when you take moderate fast turns.

I would just take it to the alligment shop that understands the condition of bumpsteer. On the aligment rack when you turn the wheel right and left both (right and left) toe numbers should change the same if they don't something is bent. Generaly new machines can detect this sort of the thing without the mechanic having any brains whatsoever.

BTW your mechanic sucks big elephant ***** and I would request my money back for getting all that **** changed even though you didn't need too. If your rack was bad it would be either hard to turn or (if your bushings were worn out) your car would be all over the road and your steering wheel would be always offset the differnt way while driving straight.