when i turn my wheel at a dead stop it has a lot of give to it, like i can turn it rapidly back and forth and i hear this sortof popping sound, no i'mnot turning it enough to turn the wheels just enough to hear a popping noise maybe 3-4 inches and when i'm at speeds 50+mph it seems like the steering wheel has a little bit too much free play before it will catch and turn me. thanks for the help

 

you might wanna replace your rack... .that sounds like it could be dangerous lol

 

my first guess would be that both bolts that hold the steering rack to the car on the driver's side have fallen out and that noise you are hearing is actually the steering rack hitting up underneath the car because of how much slack you now have. (anyone think this has happened to me? )

otherwise you might just need to just take up the slack in your tie rods and see if that helps.

3rd i would suggest getting a new/rebuilt rack, but they do go for $250 rebuilt so i would get under the car and check out what you can first.

hth, Jason

 

Yup sound like it to me, my rex is doing the same thing. I will be replacing mine shortly, in hopes to make the car safe to drive for the spring.

 

Have you checked you tie-rod ends? Check both inner and outter.

 

damn, i didn't even think i could tighten anything up, I wish Iwould have just thought about that, but I guess i'm not the only person because everybody I asked was just as clueless as me. Thanks, for the quick reply my only thing is how do i know when i've tightened the rods enough?

 

thats easy.. you'll be able to turn the wheel and NOT hear a sound. but this can/will affect your *toe* which could result in your needing an alignment done if you throw things out of spec.

get under the car and check things out. sounds to me like something is just loose.

 

so what youare saying is just tighten the crap out of them ?? And if this is done and i have alignment issues ( which i already have because of putting new shocks and puttingenergy suspensionin) will the alignment issues be taken care of when i get an alignment? Imean when they do an alignment in the front will they screw around with my tie rods?

 

If you're not too framiliar with how the steering and suspension is setup, I would recommend having a good shop check it out for you. You are looking basically to see if there is any play in the tie rod end ball joints. "Tightening" the tie rod ends can be done in two way's. There is a ball joint on the end that goes through the knuckle, make sure that there is still a cotter pin in it. It is not necessary to tighten "the crap out of it", as it is only holding the ball to the knuckle, not the cup part of the joint. Adjusting the tie rods on the rack is what's done when you have an alignment done, so if you need to do this get an alignment. I have had the "popping" noise you are talking about, and it was due to excessive play in the wheel bearings. I would highly recommend checking this out. The quick check is with the wheel in the air grab it top and bottom and check for play, if there is any at all you have a problem. You will need to determine the source of the play because it could also be either the upper or lower ball joint. Sometimes the wheel bearings can be bad, but not move much under that test, to further test it you would need to remove the wheel, caliper, caliper mounting bracket, and rotor. Then grabbing the face of the hub see if you can move it around. Here again, ANY movement means that the bearing needs replacement. The steering racks on honda's are very basic and only incorperate a few moving parts so they rarely need replacing. I've seen cars go well past 300,000 miles and not need replacement, even when raced.

 

All brand new tie rods, so in my case the last, and only thihng is the steering rack

 

Wheel bearings?

 

Man id tell you if i knew. ive been searching for my slop and poping clonking noise for years. Ive replaced everything(bushings,rack,tie rods,axlesbearings,suspension). Mines done it since i owned it but has gotton worse over time. But the really weird **** up thing is that sometimes it dont pop or make any noises and handles unbelievable and other times sounds like somethings broken and hard to control. Ive still gotta take mine to a frame shop so they can see if the frame is tweaked and maybe popping. Good Luck finding it and let us know

 

I have had the drivers side mounting bolt loosen and cause the same sound. Check out the mounting bolts. Another indication is a change in the steering mid corner without a change in steering input. That occurs just before the rack coms completely loose.

 

My rack did that and I jacked it up to see what was up. One bolt was completely missing and the other one was like .25 of the way out. Maybe jack it up and see if they are tight.


Yager-

 

Like everyone else said, maybe it just needs to be tightened. I had that noise (not much free-play, though) and was fully expecting to replace the rack. I took it to Honda and they tightened the mounting points for free and it completely fixed the noise.

 

talking with the techs here at work and they said civic racks don't go bad

 

Check the rack end bushing too. Mine had quite a bit of play in it when I pulled on the inner tie rod.

I suppose you should rule out something in the steering column also. I have some play in the tilt mechanism that at first I though was rack play. If I max the loosness in one direction and yank the wheel in a way that forces it all the way to the other end of the loose area i can feel it. Hard to detect where it's originating, but finally I realized I only felt it in certain situations when I was holding or turning the wheel differently.

 

Same thing happened to mine. It felt like I was driving a big rig. When I was stopped the wheel would just turn and turn real easy.