Hey HT peps I'm driving in snowy wisconsin and the roads aren't too bad. Well the problem is that when it does snow even 1-2 inches and i"m driving on the interstate at 40-60mph the back end of my ek hatch wants to swing out to the lt. I thought that maybe it was the dropped suspension, so i raised it back up to look like a 4x4 civic (lol). But it still does it. Is the back end too light, driver side struts are dead, bad bushings, or does the suspension just suck? Help me out here. Otherwise my other option is to trade the ek in for somethingelse. Thanks.

 

I would first add some weight to the back and see if it helps. If not that, I know my brother had a similar issue and I think it was cause by a bad bushing and failure to get 4 wheel alignments.

 

1 of my friends suggested a bad bushing in my lca. The alignment not so sure of rt now. It does drive straight and does fine until I hit a patch of snow in the road or when passing cars spray snow over onto my lane. I'm gonna add some weight 1st and c what happens. How much weight? The spare tire is gone also. Maybe 50-70 each side?

 

I have the same problem with my si. It makes winter driving not very enjoyable. For me, I think my problem is coming from a lighter rear end, a lower/stiffer suspension setup, and a bigger sway bar. This combo causes the car to become too rigid...not allowing any body roll which is needed in these conditions to keep your car tracking straight by biting in. I am also running fairly good winter tires.

 

Yeah, with the lower stiffer suspension it seems to do that for me only when snowing. I tried passing a few cars on the semi-shoveled lane and backed off because of that. It was actually kind of scary cause i almost went into the car next to me so i slowed down and went back to the slow lane. I have only had this ek for almost 2mths and it was dropped very low. So low that i couldn't put even a finger gap in the front, and exactly 1 finger gap in the rear. Now 4-finger gap up front and the rears will be tonight (hopefully). Plus will keep some extra weight on it and i'll let ya know what happens. It's actually snow rt now and maybe 5-6" of the white stuff. Dang, i should of kept my fit too.

 

My stepsister's ek hatch did the same thing in the snow...we threw some newspapers in the back to add weight; that solved the problem. That being said, negative camber reduces your traction in the snow and the stiffer suspension can upset the car more easily in the snow.

 

my 00 EX has always done the same thing, even when it was brand new. Not sure why, but it really seems to be something with the design of the Civic platform to me.

I just finally bit the bullet and bought a $500 junker Cherokee to drive in the crap... much better.

 

I was thinking about getting a subie or a jeep for the winter and then clean up the ek for spring. But didn't happen that way and things changed so that's y i'm driving it in the snow rt now. OK so weight will probably do? I'll c if i can go get some sandbags & place it nicely in the back. Maybe just enough to fill in the spare tire pond. ha ha. I did see some 1 use that area as a beer tub. (Awesome looking mod. ha ha lol)

 

basic rule.....the lower the grip, the softer the suspension should be....the lower the temp, the lower the heat range in your tires should be.

What kind of tires you running? How many miles you have on them? Driving in snow sucks without snow tires.....A lot of that has to do with the tire temp ranges. Summer/ preformance tires work best in 70-100 degree temps, all season tires are good for 70-30 degrees and snows are good for 40 to -10....after that its time for studs.....What happens if you try to drive a all season in 20 degree weather?....they are hard as a rock and have no grip. My rule is all season tires are good for nothing. I have summer tires and snows, thats it....the one bad thing about snows is when they are half worn out, they are done. You need deep treads for the snow.....I would also look at your alinment in the rear...If you have toe in in the rear, the rear will be more inclined to brake loose. Zero toe or a little toe out will reduce the rear ends looseness....it will also make the car more inclined to understeer.

 

I do have all season m&s tires on there rt now. tread is still good. As far as the toe, i'm not sure of. It weird cause my 07 fit flies over the roads with ease with this same amount of snow. The tires on the fit were factory ones. The tires on the rear of my ek are more aggressive with cross sections. I did notice this a little when i had my ep3 with stock tires also. So maybe the best way is to get snow tires on an awd car.

 

add weight, get an alignment. Don't drive around after changing your ride height and not getting the toe corrected.

 

cool thanks every1 for the help

 

do u have low prof tires ? that can cause too work in a tire shop see it all the time