When I first bought the car it had 16in after market rims. I had no steering or steering wheel shaking problems. I remember I bent 3 of my rims. I dont remember the tires I had but I messed those up as well. So I replaced my rims with icw's 16 inches and riken rapters, 205 40 16. At first when I had the 1st rims I had, I didnt know my rims where bent or I had bad tires. I remember getting a shake. I got the 16s because I didnt have enough to get the 18s I wanted.

I would have a shake in my steering wheel at low speeds and high speeds. After a while, it would only occur at high speeds, and then go back and forth. I literally took it to 10 different places and they said my ball joints and tie rod was fine. Those 10 different places balanced and did alignment as well. This shake was going on for a long time. Sometimes it would go away and sometimes it wont. I even took it to a honda dealer and they said nothing was wrong with it.

In october of 07, for some reason when I break it would pull to the right and i got my bearings, rotors, pads and breaks redone. It helped for about 3 months and its doing the same thing again. Since the end of Jan it all of a sudden stopped.

Between when my steering wheel would shake, I spent around 1k in balancing and alignments and another 600 on a rack pinion and I dont remember, and alot on kyb struts in the summer.

So I got my taxes back and upgraded to a 18 inch rim. They are Kumo tires 225 40 18. And they are still doing the same thing as when I had the 16 inch rims. This time with the 18s, instead of pulling to the right when I break, they pull to the left and it shakes even worse. It shakes at all speeds.

I had a friend who moved and he said he had similar problems but he had 17s on his civic. He suggested hub centric rings and a camber kit. I can prolly get the rimbs cheap. Do you think he is right? Would that help it to not cause it to go out of balance and alignment? If I need a camber kit, can anyone find some for me or what ever? I looked and I cant seem to find the right ones. If anyone could help please, I am really annoyed and quiet pissed off because I spent so much money on my car when I believe I shouldnt of. I dont want to spend more and it still wont fix the problem

 

This was just recently asked. Please use the Search feature here on Honda-Tech.

But, for the sake of not having to deal with this further:
1. Make sure the wheels are balanced when you get the tires mounted.
2. If vibration still exists, take it back to the wheel mounter and tell them (should still be warrantied).
3. If you're still having vibration issues, check your compliance bushings (front lower control arms), your steering rod ends (attached to steering arms on the McPherson struts), and your ball joints (attaches wheel hub to lower control arm).


A camber kit will deal with tire wear more than anything. Getting the car aligned properly (for toe angle), will reduce the stress on wheel bearings and suspension components. Hubcentric rings can help, if you have huge-bore wheels. Make sure you're running the right lug nut shape as well (Acorn seat for Honda OEM wheels, but most aftermarket wheels use a Conical seat or a Shank seat).