Well back again already. Got the brake job done on the rear myself a few weeks back, did an ignition harness myself several months ago and then last week had someone put the new timing belt, water pump, tensioner and all that good stuff on for 150 dollars labor...

I was hoping that would be it for a while. Now I'm getting a wuh wuh wuh sound that sounds like it is coming from one of the wheels. Couldn't tell if it was front or rear. So I went out this morning and lifted it up to check for play in the wheel. The front drivers side wheel had a lot of play in it from side to side. Can anyone give me an idea of what to look for next and what this might be and level of difficulty to fix?


Just checked the front passenger side and got the same thing, i.e. play side to side. So I looked underneath as I was moving it side to side and couldn't visibly tell anything was broke. I could see what looks like the lower arm moving with the wheel when I moved it side to side

Note: On the driver's side front wheel, the only side to side play was at the wheel. That is I didn't notice the lower arm moving with the wheel at all. Both wheels when spun with tires on had some slight resistance, but no grinding sound like I've heard that you get with bad bearings. I'm guessing that might have something to do with the front brakes, but haven't looked at them yet.

Thanks,

Steve

 

There should be no side to side motion unless you are also moving the steering rack and the wheel on the other side. Grab the top and bottom of the tire and check for wobble in that direction. Remove the wheel so you can see if the hub moves independent of the knuckle. If it does that means the bearing is shot.

 

Make sure you jack up one corner at a time, you will be able to turn the tires if the front end is off the ground and will be hard to tell if there's play.

I had a bad front wheel bearing that I couldn't hear at all standing next to the tire with it moving around 30mph (off the ground). I'd climb back in the cabin and could hear the hum very well. The wheel had no play in it as well. It confused me to no end but it did end up being a wheel bearing.

Does the noise change at all when you turn left and right?

 

the wuh wuh wuh sound I had on mine was a bad wheel bearing. Though, if your lower arm is moving in/out maybe your LCA bushings are shot, causing your tires to wear weird?

 

It's been a while since I got back on here. I kept meaning to jump back on to update, but never got the chance. I'm actually at work right now and probably shouldn't be on here. Anyhow, I ended up taking the car back to the guy that put on the timing belt for me.

mk378 - I did what you said and noticed the side to side play, but no top to bottom on the drivers side. Passenger side was ok. When the mechanic saw it he did the same. then he reached back up underneath and grabbed the inner tie rod and said it was really loose and needed to be replaced. Had that done and got an alignment and seems fine now.

As for the back end, I just starting getting the same sound again, but no vibration in the wheel. I looked at the tire on the rear passenger side and it was all chopped up. It looked like someone had literally taken a grinder and grinded flat spots in the tread in about 8 places all the way around. I'm going to get new tires for it and will have to get another alignment (from what I've been told), but does this sort of thing happen just because the back end is out of alignment. I don't think they did an alignment on the rear end when I had the inner tie rod replaced. Looks like they only did the front end.

 

That kind of wear on a tire is often because the shock or strut is completely worn out. At speed, the tire ends up bouncing and skipping on the road instead of rolling smoothly.

 

Other than pushing down on the back of the car and seeing if it bounces back to position right away versus keeps rocking like a boat in water, is there an easy way to see if they are bad? How hard are they to replace?

 

I pushed down on the corners of the trunk on each side this morning and it bounced right back to its original position. Did not bounce up and down at all and did not sway like a boat in water for a while. Does that mean that shocks/struts are ok?

Talked to someone today and they told me that the strut not bouncing up and down at all was also a sign that the struts are bad. That is, they said it was basically the spring that I was pushing down that bounced right back to its original position with no further up and down movement. They said the strut was doing nothing. Does this sound right?

 

How much trouble is it to change out the rear struts on a 94 Civic EX? It has ABS if that makes a difference. Just want to know what I need to get when I go to the parts store anything else that I should know before I start on this over the weekend.

Thanks,

Steve