Hi everyone,

A while back, I noticed that my car's suspension was iffy when my Skunk sway bar tore off the subframe. I have since repaired the subframe and reattached an ITR bar yet the problem persists. The car still still squats and pitches while braking and sways excessively during turns. The steering is so numb it is damn near impossible to stay in a line without constant correction.

Could it be that I have a bad strut (10 yr. old setup)? There doesn't appear to be any obvious signs of leakage around the strut housings since I last checked (but will check again). If so, how else can I determine whether the struts are bad?

Also, I've just recently discovered a torn outer boot by the driver's side wheel. Sorry, couldn't tell you what it's called exactly. Could this be a possible contributing factor?

Thanks for taking the time,
Adrian

 

do u still have stock shocks on

 

You can tell if your shocks are bad by pushing down on each corner of the car. Just lean on it and push down hard, then let go. If the body just returns to stock height with little to no bouncing you're good to go. If it keeps bouncing up and down a few times you need a new shock on that corner.

 

Thanks, will give that a go.

Gotta find out what that boot is called though (CV? Axle?). Most of the grease has come out of it so gotta get that fixed.

Thanks,
Adrian

 

The boot could either be a steering rack boot or a CV axle boot. If it goes into the back of your knuckle then it's a CV axle boot and if it goes to your tie rod end it's a steering rack boot.

 

Thanks d1ck for pointing me in the right direction. I just might take a quick snapshot and post it up to help ID the boot in question. If it is the steering boot, it'd explain a lot as I've been driving with a ridiculous amount of steering slop for quite some time. Then maybe I can finally figure out why my dad's crappy 'ol Civic DX w/ stock suspension handles better than my car...lol!

Adrian

 

Got the car back yesterday. Turns out it was a torn CV boot. Along with the alignment that was never done when I got new tires a few months back, it now drives straight and centered. I'm so used to the numb steering and making corrections while driving a path that I actually have to get used to the car driving straight!

However, I still kinda miss my old RS*R race spring setup. It was quite harsh, but man, did it track! The current setup's comfortable, but kinda "meh"...

Anyway, just wanna say thanks to all that chimed in.

A