Hey Gang, new member here...

Earlier this week I bought a very clean 2001 Accord V6 EX-L with only 114,000 miles on the clock; nice car for our daughter to use until she gets out of high school.

I'm currently driving it to I can ferret out any potential issues, and have come up with one call-out; there is a subtle wobble in the steering wheel at low to moderate speeds, and the wobble is most noticable on moderate curves. For the moment at least I'm suspecting the crappy looking Mastercraft All Season IV tires. Secondary suspects include a bent wheel (factory Honda 15" alloys), a bad CV joint (even though there is zero noise from the front end), bent suspension components...

My question for the collective here is, "Is the 2001 Accord known for a wobbly front end, and are there components I've overlooked for my suspect list?"

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and comments.

 

I'd like to know what causes this too, but I drive a 92 accord. I've been delivering pizza with mine for 5 years, so after every winter, I replace quite a few parts in the front end due to pot holes. I have always had that slight "wiggle" in the steering wheel. I have brought it to mechanic shops before after I made sure that I squared away the front end. They said everything looks solid and very safe for highway usage.

I'm not saying yours is safe, but in five years I have yet to solve this issue. I've pretty much forgot about it at this point until I read your post. Looking forward to some answers though.

I do want to guess on the wheels though, even though none of mine look bent. Mine are stock :O

 

I would say get an alignment to begain with and a tire balance... Whats low to moderate speeds? Is the boot on the cv axle torn? Can you notice any bent suspension tires? Mastercraft tires are ok but would still get them balanced to cross that off as it will show a bent rim.. Also check ball joints too and make sure the boots arnt torn.

 

tie rod ends could be worn also.

 

It's probably the bent rim, my car had the same thing, my car shook alot at about 60-70 mph, I went and got the rim fixed and trued and that fixed the problem

 

jdowen2 hit it right. tie rod ends. do they wiggle when you push and pull them? could also be a racknpinnion. do this. find a CLEAR street i mean CLEAR most likely a industrial road. take it up 5mpg and let go of the steering wheel? does the steering wheel wiggle back and forth? also start saving up for a few transmissions. these cars are notorious for bad transmissions after 1k miles if not maintained. sometimes even some that are maintained still go out around those miles.

 

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions.

More info:

The wobble in the steering wheel typically happens in the five to thirty mile per hour range; above that I don't feel it at all, in fact, the car is rock solid up to roughly ninety miles per hour. Combined with the fact that the steering feels to have no slop in it and there is virtually no suspension noise regardless of how smooth or rough the pavement is, I'm thinking the narrow speed range indicates the following are probably not the issue (this of course doesn't mean I won't check all of them anyway):

• Tire balance
• Tie rod ends
• Ball joints (a lesser degree of confidence on this one)
• Bad CV joint
• Bent half-shaft

As for the alignment, while I'm fairly well convinced the car is pretty far out of spec, I've never experienced a steering wheel wobble which was primarily due to a vehicle's alignment. Could the alignment be a secondary cause? Yeah, I'm thinking it is very possible the tires have gotten hotter than they should have due to scrubbing and a belt slipped. Either way, I'm going to rotate the tires this weekend (front to back) and see if that changes something.

On the subject of the transmission; I'm not too worried about that, I've found any number of what appear to be reputable shops selling remanufactured 1998-2002 Accord V6 automatics for under $1,000. Unless the R&R job is overly difficult compared to other FWD vehicles, then I should be able to do the swap over the course of a weekend should the tranny ever fail.