i just picked up a 94 Accord EX and am real happy with it except for 1 thing.

While accelerating from 40 to 70 the front end wobbles like the tires are out of balance. I did take it in and they were rebalanced. The part that is weird is it only happens under acceleration if i let off or level off to hold speed it stops.

It is worse under heavy acceleration compared to light acceleration. any info is appriciated

 

alignment, its like $70 where i live, and $145 for life time or something like that

 

Try rotating the front tires to the rear and re-roadtest. You may have a broken belt in the tire.
If you now feel the wobble in the seat of your pants (as opposed to the steering wheel), the condition followed the tire(s) and confirms this diagnosis.

P

 

I would say alignment too!

 

well i am doing one tomorrow hopefully that is all that it is, but shouldn't it do it regardless?

 

A visual check of the outer tie rod end ball joints wouldn't hurt. If you can, jack up the car and shake on the tire/wheel to generally check for a worn wheel bearing. Other possibilities may be a bad engine or transmission mount or a horribly worn cv joint. Otherwise, try the alignment and let us know how it goes.

 

this is the cheapest route to go w/... i personally had this problem on 2 vehicles w/ older tires that shifted/broke d/t hitting a pothole/ bump on the road & got progressively worse

 

well i can feel it pull a little to the left so i already planned on the alignment so hopefully that is it. I'll try rotating the tires too i hope that's not the problem since they are fairly new tires. i don't think it is the CV boot(s) since they have no rips in them but as far as the tie rods who can tell. about the only bonus is every shop i have ever been to is the won't do a alignment when the tie rod(s) are bad. at least i will find out if they do the alignment that they are good. My biggest problem i have now is the only shop i ever found that i could trust closed and now i need to find a good shop i can trust. as a side note i have to replace the air bags and clock spring on the car. think i should hold off on the alignment till after i put the bags back in to keep the wheel straight? They were stolen previous to buying the car so i was able to get a pretty good deal beings how either the engine and tranny were replaced or rebuilt recently

 

Mounting the steering wheel on straight really isn't bad, I dealt with that when I installed the Nardi. Whether you get the alignment before or after you should be ok. Just pull straight forward and roll a ways making sure the wheel is straight up and down then pull it off. You'll be fine.

And worst case if you can't trust a place to diagnose the problem - take it to Honda and have them diagnose it for like $50-70 bucks depending on where you live. They'll tell you every problem with the car. Find the issues then fix yourself or have a decent shop do it with parts you purchase.

 

well took it in and the mechanic looked it over and agreed visually everything looks fine but after putting it up on the rack it was a different story.

i don't quiet believe all he says because at first he tried telling me that the f22b1 didn't go with my car. granted it is not the original engine and tranny but it is the correct one.

he than said it looked as if the axles were pieced together and aren't the correct ones and that is why i get that shudder at speeds since they don't line up correctly. and i would have to order 4 axles and Frankenstein them to make 2 but would have to order various ones till i got the right combo. but after he went into his system and found that yes that is the correct engine and tranny he said well we can order what is suppose to go into it and see if that doesn't work.

than he told me that he would need to replace both axles, bushings on both sides and the rotors and the bearings.

he said the bushings were worn real bad and there was play in the control arm, than said there was a indentation of the brake pad due to rust and that they were shot too and that most likely the wheel bearing would fail when removed so all together, and of course a alignment, it would be $1,250 after the $40 diagnostic.

I picked up my car and went home. i went online and found all the parts at napa for about $400 and they wanted almost double. does the words kiss my @zz sound right.

see what i mean that i have trouble finding a place i can trust

on the positive side the motor mounts and tie road and ball joints are fine

 

So, you gonna rotate them like I suggested or are you gonna put yourself thru this forever?

 

LOL yeah that will be my next thing i try, it's worth a shot, tires are PRETTY new but anything is worth a shot. i won't hold my breath on it. i have had cars with that problem before and it doesn't feel the same.

plus forgot to mention went on a small trip and usual i just downshift to slow down but this time i decided to use the brakes and needless to say yes the wobble/shudder is WAY worse when braking

 

your brakes are to be checked for run-out then... new pads & possibly resurfacing the rotors as well...

 

well replaced drivers axle and yes it was the wrong one. now the ABS light is off. wobble is very minimal but some how it threw the weight on my drivers side wheel. i am thinking that should take care of the rest of the wobble. braking still has a little bit in it but i can tell the rotors need to be replaced but pads are almost new so no rush on that. would have done that too this weekend if the dam bearings weren't pressed in.

god i hate small towns!! went to visit a buddy this weekend figure get to hang out and work on car at same time. anyways went to install my new header and no one in the area has the right gasket. if i would have known i would have i would have bought it before i left town. yeah i probably could have used the one on it now but better to do it right the first time than have to redo it because i cut corners

 

was wrong again. had to replace passengers side axle too and had a shop replace rotors and now the wobble is all gone. had the tires rechecked and they said they where balance already but i was positive it didn't have a weight on one and when i got back it had one... weird