Really disappointed. I had finished everything on my suspension (except installing rear swaybar) and car was driving great (minus heavy understeer from only having a front swaybar). Went up to the mountains for a quick drive. When pulling off and turning around I misjudged how close I was to curb and *SLAM*, my passenger front wheel slipped off it. Our roads are a joke in Colorado and I'd imagine the wheel slipped down at least a foot. So I limped the car home.

The car is a 93' Civic DX hatchback. On the drive home there was a noticeable vibration from the wheel that hit and the steering was really imprecise. Like the wheel is wobbling or something. At first I thought I had a flat tire, but no the tire is fine (at least as far as I can tell). I noticed that braking also became increasingly bad as I drove home. After jacking the car up I can't find anything wrong. My idea is to try putting a different wheel on the front passenger to see if it's a problem with the wheel / tire, other than that I guess I'm just going to have to take everything off and check to see what's wrong.

Has anyone had a similar problem and can lend some suggestions?

 

Well at least you're being honest....

Take the wheel off and look at it closer. Then put it back on and rotate it freely in the air.

​​​​​Use something like an indicator near the rim, inside and out, while spinning to see if the wheel is bent. A zip tie or really anything close by to compare visually.

Also feel for wheel bearing roughness. Just turn it by hand and listen and feel. Any bit of roughness or irregularity is a bad bearing.

Retorque axle nut too.

 

I rotated tires this evening and went for a drive, but didn't really notice any difference. There still seems to be a vibration coming from the front passenger end of the car. I say seems because it's not extremely noticeable - but I do feel it's there.

I spun both hubs by hand with the brake pads off and couldn't really feel any difference between the two. I think I'll just replace the wheel bearing on that side. I dunno, maybe I'm imagining it.

 

Okay, drove the car to work just to see if it still felt crappy. Yea there's a vibration from the front passenger wheel constantly at any speed, it also feels kinda bouncy. Steering doesn't feel real precise and doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.

It kinda feels like a blown shock, but it doesn't really seem to shake when going over a bump, I can press down on both sides and they feel the same and there is no leaking from the shock or anything. So I bought a new wheel bearing last night and I guess I'll start with that, cheaper than the shock I guess.

 

If you jack the car up, hold the passenger front wheel at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock and wiggle it, is anything loose? Try again at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock.

If something in the steering is loose, it could be that an outer tie rod is bent or perhaps a ball joint somewhere took the hit, causing vibration. If the wheel seems to be loose all over, try to re-tighten the axle nut and re-test.

 

Honestly, I couldn't really find anything wrong. I did try wiggling the wheel but don't recall anything seem unusual. There's definitely a vibration while driving it, I'll try more tonight. Unfortunately (for this issue) I'll be on vacation so it will probably end up having to wait until next week. I wonder if the shock is slightly borked - at least enough to not be able to keep up with the springs. I need to take stuff apart, but won't have time until later next week. I'll still try retorquing the axle nut and other things, etc. Can the axle nut back off from a pothole type incident?

 

You slipped off a curb at like 1mph. A wheel weight probably came off or something.

I doubt anything is wrong with the car. The shock, especially. Its not a Mcpherson strut car. The shock is one of the last things to get damaged.

I believe Tyson's recommendation to check your axle nut was independent to your curb incident. If it was loose (previously), the brakes would feel strange, etc. Especially after a big side load.

So...you were on a raised parking lot and the car slipped off the edge? Or....

 

The vibration isn't terrible, but it is there. Steering definitely feels wrong to me. Like it's less responsive and less precise. I'm going to try and take things apart tonight to actually find out what's wrong.

Yea, I was doing a u-turn on a narrow mountain road, and didn't realize how close I was to the edge of the road, which drops off dramatically at the end of the pavement.

 

Maybe a damaged sway bar link?

 

It feels like when turning that the wheel is hopping up and down, it's more noticeable when turning left (right wheel took the fall) or as if the wheel is "tripping over itself". This is noticeable at any speed - even parking lot speeds.

 

I would get the wheel check out. Have the tire man throw it on the balancer, make sure you didn't loose a wheel weight or bend the rim.

 

Can any tire place do this? Or do I need to go to a special shop?

 

Okay, so I replaced the right tie-rod end and re-torqued (replaced) the axle nut on that side. I went for a drive and I think I eliminated the "tripping over itself" feeling that I described above. I drove around for a little while and I do think it's gone. My next steps are going to be getting an alignment and having the wheels re-balanced. I still feel like the steering is slower or less responsive than I remember before slipping off the curb, but I think my alignment is even farther out of whack due to replacing the tie-rod end.

The old tie-rod end felt okay in the center of its movement (although very light and it took little effort to move), but near the extremes of travel it kind of got stuck and felt very notchy. Perhaps I damaged it in that area, this could make since since I was doing a u-turn and had the steering wheel cranked a lot. Does this make sense or do people think it was probably okay and I'm just imagining things?

 

Get an alignment.
​​​​​​
​​​​​​There's no point in describing a bad alignment.

 

Skipping when turning in the way you're describing is usually due to a bad toe setting.

Your tie rod was almost for sure fine. When you installed the new one...you probably just twisted it in to a different toe position.

These cars aren't made of glass. The fall you're describing wouldn't have damaged it. Its lasted like 22-25 years on the road. It can shrug off a lot of stuff.

Get an alignment, bruv.

 

Yep, going to get an alignment and will post back once I've done that.

Thanks for the help so far everyone. I do apologize in advance, I'm very bad at diagnosing suspension issues - I'm learning here.

 

I had the car aligned on Friday and it's driving perfect in my opinion. 1/16" toe-out on the front and 0 toe on the rear. It does pull a little to the right if you let go of the steering wheel, but it's not noticeable during normal driving. I don't know if I actually "fixed" something by replacing the tie-rod or not, but it did seem to have some effect. I feel stupid since it seems like it was mostly a result of being out of alignment, but I dunno. I should have had the car aligned right after I lowered it, but I didn't feel like taking time off work during the middle of the day.

Thanks for helping me guys, I really appreciate it.