Hi everyone,

Glad I found this forum, hopefully someone could help. I have a 2005 Civic, no modifications at all, nothing ever done to it, all stock. It has almost 90,000 miles on it. The last service I had done was a replacement of the control arm bushings because I was told they were cracked. That was sometime back.

Now the dealer is telling me my sway bar links need to be replaced also, because they can cause vibration at high speeds and wear out my tires faster. I didn't get them replaced when they recommended that to me because I wasn't getting any symptons he mentioned of vibrations at high speeds and any other noises on my front end.

Until recently (few weeks after they recommended that), I started to get a sort of pulsating sound at around 45mph and then on highway around 65 I get a pulsating/vibration. I know this might sound stupid but think of like a "lop-sided" sound, like a whirling sound.

This might sound stupid also but when my I have a passenger next to me, it sort of helps lol

Tires are all at 35psi hot. I just want to make sure the swar bar links is the culprit before doing the 250$ service to replace them (replacement + alightment).

I'm thinking maybe it could be tires aren't balanced anymore, maybe a weight fell off? Or maybe a warped rotor, but I rarely break hard. But I don't know, I'm just assuming things. I'm sorry for making this so long, just want make sure to describe as good as I can.

And I absolutely thank you in advance for all your help!

 

I just replaced my sway bar end link on front right side yesterday. If you have any mechanical ability and have done small jobs before, then you can handle this one yourself. You'll need a floor jack, metric box end wrenches, and a pickle fork. The end link (Moog product) cost #41.99 at Advance Auto Parts. The whole job took 50 minutes including cleanup and putting away all tools. If you replace an end link, you don't need an alignment. Has nothing to do with your alignment.
I posted the how to yesterday in a reply that someone else had about a front end noise. Look it up and I even have the size of the wrenches you'll need. If you've ever changed brake pads on your Civic, then you are more than qualified to replace an end link. Nothing hard or dangerous about it. By the way, my local shop wanted $59.97 for the part and 2 hours labor @ $60 per hour to do the job, and they'd have had it on a lift. Would have taken me 15 minutes if I didn't have to get out my floor jack, etc.
Good luck!
Duane

 

hey duane!

thank you so much for the reply! i really appreciate it! i did some digging of my own and jacked my car up to check the links myself. even though i was doubting it was them since what i was getting wasn't a clicking or rattle when i turn or anything. and it turns out, they feel fine to me, there's no shake or wiggle in them at all. so i figured i would just get my tires balanced and rotated. turns out, that helped with a good amount of them problem.

now there's still some pulsating but i think thats because my tires are choppy since my suspension is getting old, and i might have a warped rotor. oh well, i put almost 100,000m on this civic myself. i'm not use to anything feeling out of place haha

thanks again for your help and recommendation duane! sounds like an easy job i can do in the future myself when i do need them replaced.

 

Good to see you looked for yourself because bushing replacement is easy money for the dealer, beware. Sway bar bushings causing vibrations at high speeds? That's the first time I've heard that line used.

Am really surprised you needed control arm bushings at 90,000 mi.

Warped rotors wont cause vibrations when cruising on the highway. If anything tie rod ends since your control arm bushings should be fine.

 

yeah i made the mistake of agreeing to them doing that repair of the control arm bushings on the spot, sort of learned my lesson with that one. so you think the vibration/pulsating could be tie rod ends?

would you happen to know what the typical repair cost for those are?

thank you so much for replying! truly appreciate your help!

 

To check the tie rod ends jack up the car so one front tire is off the ground but the other one is still down. Then try to wiggle the lifted tire back and forth, there should be no looseness. Repeat on the other side.

 

Yea, exactly what mk said. Basically looking for slop. Check out the tie rod boots as well. I've never actually seen bad tie rods and I've had 20 years worth of honda, but it's worth a look I'm wondering if they messed up your toe when they replaced the control arm bushings and did a poor alignment.

Do your tires have cupping yet? What tires are you running? BF Goodrich by chance?