smash fascism

First off the car is a 94 civic cx with a b16. I am using a Del Sol VTEC intermediate shaft along with the drivers side axle. However, on the passenger's side there is a DA axle. Now my problem is that when I am drive at about 70 on the highway or so the car veers back and forth pretty severly. You can feel the wheel turning from one side to another. Another thing that's weird is when I am driving on stones or like a gravel driveway and I hit the gas, the wheel turns all the way to one side. It will actually take the wheel out of my hands, it's pretty violent. I thinking torque steer, but doubting it since this only started happening this year. I had an alignment done 2 months ago and the car will track straight some of the time, but it seems to be affected by bumps in the road. Could the steering rack be bad? I'm kinda at a loss. I can explain more if needed.

Thanks.

nocturnaldragon

Sounds to me like it could be a bad steering rack acting up intermitedly, or more likely a bad ball joint or tie rod end. It sounds like something is lose and only happening under torque some more details would be helpfull once again tho Im just guessing here and dont know 100% but its something to check out.

snowman0520

i highly dought that it does, but does it have power steering?

95DxSi-R2

yes, bump steer is from worn out ball joints, tie rod ends. It's probably not the rack, but could be. Check your ball joints, tie rod ends, check for loose wheel bearings also. did start right after the swap? i'm up on integra stuff, but what year teg axle is it?

95DxSi-R2

not up i mean

smash fascism

The car is a cx so there's no power steering. There is no play in the wheels when jacked up. It does only occur under load and this didn't happen last year with the same axles. The car is lowered more this year so it could be the tie rods. Everything in the suspension is tight and has been triple checked.

smash fascism

Sometimes when I brake the wheel will turn one way or the other. What's up with that?

Mohsin

im getting a similiar problem, when i go over some bumps or uneven ground steering will just move by itself (with force), i have P/S.

95DxSi-R2

somehow check your tie rods with a load on the, put your index finger on top of the tie rod joint and your thumb on the bottom. have someone turn the steering wheel bad and forth. does'nt matter if the engine is on or off cause it's non power assist. if u feel a bumb vibration, replace it. for the ball joints, put a jack under the lower control arm and pry on the upper/lower ball joints with a pry bar or something, if there is anyplay, replace them. i'm sure there's more ball joints for manual rack? if so check so to like the tie rods

95DxSi-R2

what year axle do you have from an integra? i think for 92-95 civics you can run 94- 96 or something axles, i have 94's in my 95 dx

smash fascism

The axles are from a DA Integra. 90-93

95DxSi-R2

i'm not sure if those work or not, do u no for sure that u can use them? if not post a different ? about 90-93 teg axles for b-seriers swap into 92-95 eg

smash fascism

I've used them all along. They seem to have worked fine. I'll replace the tie-rods and then see what happens.

smash fascism

Whatever is causing this is definitely affected by the terrain i'm traveling over. A rough road will cause it to go back and forth. ???????

wankelTII

Hey, im a noob here, but not to bump steer. It is caused when a cars tie rod ends and a-arms are not in the same plane. In the resting position and in stock form the lower a-arm and the tie rod ends are as close to the same angle as possible. In other words they connect to the hub with basically the same angle of approach. On most FWD cars it is impossible to get the angels to match perfectly because of where the steering rack must be mounted do to space. When a car is lowered the small amount of difference between the 2 usually gets worse, and when a car is lowered 2 inches or so bump steer can become really bad and the car's roll center becomes so low that the car actually looses some of its ability to grip in hard turning. The only way to fix these is lower where the a-arms attach to the hub an inch or 2 and the tie rod ends the same. Its actually not that hard to do and is done fairly often (SCCA race cars). I try to explain exactly how to do it later, and find some links to parts. Its not too expensive though, and i believe it can be fixed with completely bolt on parts.

smash fascism

Thanks for the reply wankelTII and welcome to Honda-Tech. This problem just started recently, would something as simple as having a tire unbalanced cause this? Cause, maybe one of my sticky weights fell off. I'm at a loss. The thing that gets me is when i'm a stone driveway and hit the gas the wheel will go all the way one way. I don't know what would cause that.

Smash

wankelTII

well, how much below the stock ride height is the car lowered?

smash fascism

2 inches. It's been aligned since lowering. A couple of my struts are blown, would that affect this?

wankelTII

well replacing the struts will probably help, but the only way to completely get rid of the bump steer would be to change how the a-arms and tie rod ends are mounted to the hub. If you went with a 1 inch drop it would probably be half as bad.

I have a one inch drop on my DSM and if i hit a bump without holding the wheel, the car will turn some, but its not too bad, and i have gotten use to it now. But a 2 inch drop makes it that much worse and its pretty much the same with most fwd cars. Everyone deals with it to some degree. You should drive someone esles civic with a 2 inch drop and see if its much different. There may be something else wrong, but i would guess its just the fact that its lowered.


Modified by wankelTII at 8:44 PM 8/14/2005

wankelTII

Ok, i made a mistake, with double-wishbone suspension, the tie rod end doesnt need to be in the same plane as the lower a-arm (thats only with MacPherson). Its alittle more complicated than that, the tie rod end has to be in a plane with the upper and lower a-arms and pointing toward the car/suspension's instant center.

Your instant center is lower than it should be, so i would assume you might need a spacer to raise the tie rod end, but i could be completely wrong, im kinda tired and its hard to think. Just search around for a company that sells a bump steer correction kit, i cant find one right now, but i know they are out there. I think there is a thread about bump steer correction on this site, so search that too.