I have recently (aug. 1) installed a set of Megan racing springs onto my 96 (midori green) Civic DX 3dr. Also I have put rotas j-mag wheel on my civic with a set of 195/50/15 "matador" tires. Im the second owner, the first being an old man from Washington.
Okay so heres the problem... When driving, my steering wheel likes to vibrate (feels like from the front steering/suspension) a little bit at 60mph and increases in vibration up to about 75mph when it then begins to go "away". After 80mph i dont feel the vibration anymore. So i thought to myself, balancing issue for sure. However when i took the wheels in to get re-balanced the issue did not go away. So i thought i threw a sticky weight off right after, so i went BACK to get them balanced and they were balanced out to zero. (I saw this with my own eyes). So then i thought, okay i have screwed up wheels and/or tires, and decided to put my factory wheels back on. The same result happened, but with less of a shake (im guessing the 13in. factory wheels weigh less and are more narrow so they wouldnt shake AS much)...breath...
Now for the question...
What ELSE could be causing this vibration? Its very aggravating trying to pinpoint this problem, and im hoping SOMEONE else has had this happen to them or know a solution to help me! Could my axles be worn out?(I have 140k miles on the car) Theres is no play in the hub, so i dont think its a wheel bearing. Could it be my brake rotors? I dont feel a vibration when decelerating but im trying to thing of all possible solutions. Alignment? Im guessing not, because there is no left/right pulling. Hubcentric rings? Got 'em! PLEASE HELP!

 

any grinding noises? ..could be wheel bearing..

how's your alignment?

 

did you get an alignment after you put those springs in? my guess would be excessive toe.

 

I have not gotten an alignment, but it seems that i might as well get one done. I didnt think i should get an alignment because the car doesnt "walk away" if i let go of the steering wheel. Also, since putting on my factory 13's i have notice the shake SIGNIFICANTLY decrease. I was probably just paranoid at the problem (with the larger wheels) that any little vibration i felt (with the smaller ones) made me to believe that it equaled a problem. This friday im gonna throw my wheels on my buddys non-lowered 98 hatchback to determine if that it were indeed the wheel/tire combo.
p.s. could it be my goofy-*** tires? Whos heard of matador tires? i got these from wheelguyz.com

 

How low are you? If you are too low, people usually have problems with the tie rods... just go thru the "slammed" thread in apc

And yes, after any change in ride height, you want to get your car aligned. (toe set to 0 at least)

 

I’m not slammed out by any means; the megan racing springs gave me a 1.75 inch drop in both the front and the rear. I think ive narrowed it down to a wheel bearing (although I have no sounds from this problem), a CV axle, or a lower ball joint. Does this sound like possible answers?

 

brake rotor. usually overlooked. it spins with the wheel, smaller/lighter wheel would decrease the vibration, higher speed can make it seem like the vibration has gone away. does the vibration get worse when you are at speed and press the brake pedal?

 

good call on seeing what original wheel/tire does.

my vote is non-round tires. they will balance okay but they won't be round. on the balancer gizmo spin the wheel. as the tire spins it shouldn't move very much up/down or left/right. also, there may be imperfections in the tire which only show up at higher speeds. belts may not be perfect etc.

also check on balancing - were the wheel/tires balanced inside/outside? i.e. do you have weights on both the inside and outside of the wheel?

there are two ways to balance wheels, one is balancing the wheel up and down. that is static balancing. when balanced, the wheel can be spun on a hub and will stop evenly and not rock back and forth. this won't help when you're driving, it only looks good.

there is dynamic balancing. that's where you balance the wheel up and down AND left and right. this usually means putting weights on the outside of the rim. this usually doesn't look good. so on alloys a lot of people don't do this or they put the weights just inside the spokes and the wheel isn't really balanced.

although I normally mount/balance my tires, I had some done at a tire place as my friend with a garage doesn't have a "touch-free" tire machine. after getting the new tires on I got a violent shake from 60-75 mph which went away. the shake wasn't there before so I went and balanced the tire/rim units myself. I found ALL the weights were on the inside of the rims. Okay, looks great, but hello, it's not balanced. you can't drive it fast. I rebalanced it, using sticky weights on the flats just inside the spokes. because the weights were inboard of the outer edge of the rim, I had to guesstimate weights (added about 10-15% more) and finally got them zero'ed perfected left/right and up/down. max 125 mph, no shakes.

good luck.

 

another Item that sould cause this shake would be worn out ball joints. so cherck those. How you do this is lift the front of the car then with the wheel still one try to till the wheel in and out both on verticaly, and horizantaly. I don't know the specs on civics, but normaly if you have over a 1/2" of play in either direction one of your ball joints should be replaced.
With the amount of miles, and knowing that most people will never replace the tie rod, or steering knuckle ball joints till the break, I wouldnt doubt if these are just warn.

 

my car dose it because one of the front wheels is bent slightly.

 

I put my wheels on a friends non-lowered 98 hatchback, to find that the shake does not exist when i throw them on his car. (eliminated one possiblity !) Im thinking now that it absolutely HAS to be a worn front end component. Good call on the brake rotor! That is what i believe it to be now. Either that OR a worn front strut. Could a worn strut cause this frustration?
p.s. THANK YOU to everyone helping me with this headache.

 

I have never heard of a strut doing that. It most likely is a ball joint on the lower control arm, or on the outter tie rod end. A warped rotor can cause a shake in the steering wheel, but that would mostly be on brakeing. Also if it was the rotor you would have the peadle feed back on the brake, not just a shakeing steering wheel. I had a warped rotor on my last car. It felt like the car was going to come apart when breaking from 60 down till 35 or so, but still. If you still think it might be the rotor resurface them first then change if needed

 

I thought i could feel the rotor causing vibration only when braking down to around 40mph. Braking at a lower speed does NOT give me vibration...
How do I check for a worn cv joint or drive axle? I would rather not buy new (d series) axles, as I am planning a B series motorswap in the near future. If it were my rotors, this would give me a good excuse to get cross-drilled/slotted rotors. Since deciding it wasnt my wheel/tire combo, i have (since yesterday) put my rotas back on my car, and it seems like the shake in the steering wheel is not as noticable at the lower speeds. I havent gotten up to the "problematic" speed (75?) since then, and i plan on getting new struts (i need them anyways) and an alignment. Any more suggestions? Lower ball joint seemed to be in tune.

 

the cv joint would click, or knock on turns if bad. to test the lower ball joint, lift veichael then grab tire and try to move it in and out verticaly. if it moves excessively the ball joint is shot. then try to move the tire horazontaly. Once again if the tire can move excessively the outer tie rod end neds to be replaced. you'll have to chek what the alowed play is, but it probably shouldn't be more than a 1/4". I don't know the exact specs, but that is the quick test. good luck.

 

sounds like could b tires... check mount/balance on tires and get alignment.

 

I have a similar problem, except my vibration kinda comes and goes. Lately it's been getting worse...feels like the damn wheels are gonna fall off, and on the highway no less. Not much fun and a pain in the *** because I <U>need</U> my car for school. I'll probably look at it tomorrow in depth and I'll post up if I find anything that might help you.

 

def. check it out and let me know!
I jacked the car up and checked for up and down play, and there was none. Then i checked for side to side play after locking my steering wheel, and there was a little bit of play, although i cant say exactly how much. So then i went on a curvy back-road to check for any noise while driving "spiritedly" and didnt notice any noises, grinds, or whistles. When i returned home, however, i did smell a "burning" smell coming from my drivers front wheel area. Upon further investigation, I realized it was probably my braking system. It smelled like someone had used one of those cutting rotor tools (sorry i forgot the name) on metal. NOTE this smell was coming ONLY from the drivers front wheel area.
Could this be the cause of my vibration problem? One warped brake rotor?
Oh and like hooded_mike said, the problem seems to be going away every now and then, especially if i "baby" the car. (drive it like a grandpa - no quick shifts, no dumping the clutch, no excessive braking)

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by humpdatbooty &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">def. check it out and let me know!
I jacked the car up and checked for up and down play, and there was none. Then i checked for side to side play after locking my steering wheel, and there was a little bit of play, although i cant say exactly how much. So then i went on a curvy back-road to check for any noise while driving "spiritedly" and didnt notice any noises, grinds, or whistles. When i returned home, however, i did smell a "burning" smell coming from my drivers front wheel area. Upon further investigation, I realized it was probably my braking system. It smelled like someone had used one of those cutting rotor tools (sorry i forgot the name) on metal. NOTE this smell was coming ONLY from the drivers front wheel area.
Could this be the cause of my vibration problem? One warped brake rotor?
Oh and like hooded_mike said, the problem seems to be going away every now and then, especially if i "baby" the car. (drive it like a grandpa - no quick shifts, no dumping the clutch, no excessive braking)</TD></TR></TABLE>

I got that same smell the other day...only that one time but it worried me. I also switched my wheels from front to back and that helped a lot, so I'm sure they aren't balanced properly. While I was switching them, I inspected the suspension and axles too and everything seemed pretty solid. I wasn't sure about the tie rods though because I was able to rotate them on the bushings, like you would if you were unthreading them. Is that normal?

 

I dont know whats normal anymore...
someone help US.

 

I mainly just need to know what kind of play the tie rods should or shouldn't have - no one has answered this in my thread or yours. Also, on my 25 minute drive to school today I got a chance to really see the difference that rotating the wheels made, and it was a pretty big improvement. So that they were a major contributor to the vibration from being out of balance. There is still some there from my blown shocks though, and I'm positive that I need an alignment too...and again I am wondering about the tie rods.

 

more or less with tierods, if it is easy to move the ball joint, when it is disconected from the steering knuckle it is most likely junk. if the boot is ripped, it is the best idea to just replace THE WHOLE unit, and not just the boot. also did you all take a look at all your bushings? are they cracked, or dryied out? that could be a factor. and if it is a warped rotor, you would only feel it when breaking. so do you only feel it when breaking sometimes? take a look and tell me what happens

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheHooded_Mike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I mainly just need to know what kind of play the tie rods should or shouldn't have - no one has answered this in my thread or yours. . </TD></TR></TABLE>

If you can rotate the bushing 360 degress freely, without any tension, replace the tie rod end. The tie rod end should feel somewhat stiff when moving the ball joint left to right.

 

It's not under braking at all, so I know it isn't the rotors (they're due anyway). I didn't unbolt anything though, I just jacked up the car and grabbed the tie rods and was able to rotate them on the outer side. There was a lot of free movement that seemed abnormal considering the job the tie rods have to do. I assumed that they should be really tight because otherwise the wheels would shimmy and shake and cause this vibration I'm feeling...are you guys saying that they should have some play like that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by TheHooded_Mike &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It's not under braking at all, so I know it isn't the rotors (they're due anyway). I didn't unbolt anything though, I just jacked up the car and grabbed the tie rods and was able to rotate them on the outer side. There was a lot of free movement that seemed abnormal considering the job the tie rods have to do. I assumed that they should be really tight because otherwise the wheels would shimmy and shake and cause this vibration I'm feeling...are you guys saying that they should have some play like that?</TD></TR></TABLE>

Can you rotate them REALLY easily? If so, i'd change them out simply because they're inexpensive. They should be snug tight when you first get them, and obviously loosen over time. But if in good condition, they should still take some effort to rotate.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by EnjoyTheRideDC2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Can you rotate them REALLY easily? If so, i'd change them out simply because they're inexpensive. They should be snug tight when you first get them, and obviously loosen over time. But if in good condition, they should still take some effort to rotate.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Ya I could do it pretty easily...probably a little more resistance than you get when you rev the throttle on a motorcycle. But I could rotate it however many degrees before it binded up and couldn't go further.

btw humpdatbooty I hope you don't think I'm trying to steal your thread at all...seems like we have a similar problem.