Hello all, as this forum has helped me become much more educated about cars and Honda's in particular I thought I'd post here for support.
My 91 Civic DX hatch has an issue while making left turns while under throttle, the trany wobbles. Seems like the easy diagnosis is trany mount. Is there a tested and true way of making sure, within reason? have jack stands and floor jack flashlight etc.

This car had front end collision damage that I was unaware of (due to a supposed Honda dude family mem. who "inspected" for me) it did not take me long to deduce the front end repair work and the car sits about an inch lower over the left wheel, seems to be front of car only. While I am under there should I be looking for chassis damage, something more then strut/strut housing. A strut replacement and trany mount does not scare me off and I'll have an ex-mech-tech helping me with air tools and whatnot but I fear the frame is twisted and that would pretty much be a wrap!!!

Bought the car for 1800 and plated Historic as I wanted a cheap daily driver for next 2+ years...that seems to be looking on extreme bright side now. I hope I have learned my lesson.

Thanks in advance for any help/support/sympathy

 

Noise when turning could be a bad CV joint. Sitting low on one side, check for a broken spring.

 

Yup Yup Yup...more I thought about it more it seemed that a mount would be jumping and whatnot all the time. Had car on lift at a friends garage (not complete inspect. diagnostic tho) and didn't see the signs of mount damage. When the car was lowered we found that the damper jacket/cover of right strut is actually catching on strut column and when it is wiggled back over the car sits fine...WTF! Struts and springs seem to have life in them yet but because of the "fit" issue I will have to replace soon anyway, grrrr Just a case of using an after market "performance" item instead of a well made OEM spec. part I fear. I am just returning to cars, working on them that is, but that was a lesson I learned long ago.

Since the wobble only happens on left turn under throttle it behooves me to address an axle/CV joint, the boots are fine and not doing the old clicky thing so its internal failure I presume. Problem now is, its left turn rattle, wobble, thumping on left side but IIRC bad left turn usually meant bad right axle joint. This does not seem the case but I have never owned a Honda previously and have little experience with FWD cars (mechanically).

I have a nephew who has exp. and air tools but lives about 70 miles from me and don't want to take this car for a long trip until I know within 90% certainty what is wrong. I guess its equal parts ego and money as to why I don't want to hand over cash for diagnosis when this is my fixer up car.

Thanks for taking the time to read/respond.