I was hoping that Civic experts here might be able to provide me with some helpful advice. I have a 1997 Civic DX with ~100k miles. When traveling at freeway speeds (65-75 mph), I recently noticed that the steering wheel shakes or vibrates. This is not associated with braking or with any recent incident with a large pothole. Also, replacing the two front tires with new ones and balancing all four wheels has not solved the problem. I also tested whether the tie rods might be loose but they were not. Last year, I replaced both front drive axles. Based on this information, someone at O'Reilly speculated that my problem might be due to loose motor mounts or a bad front wheel bearing. However, my front wheels don't show any obvious play and seem to turn freely.

Does anyone have a helpful suggestion?

Thanks in advance,

RonJ

 

Have you checked out your tires and rims? You might have a bent wheel that is causing you to get your vibration. Also you could go and have the tires checked with a "Hunter 9700". This machine will check to see how round your tire and wheels are. If you have a heavy spot on the wheel and tire and both of these heavy spots are in the same location it could cause the viberation. Ask them what the road forces is and make sure that each tire is less than 25 lbs to get a good ride. The lower the number the better the ride and the longer your tires will last.

 

Thanks for the suggestion. When I purchased the two new front tires, I had both original front tires and wheels rotated to the rear. Afterwards, the steering wheel vibration continued as before. This observation led me to believe that tires and wheels were not the culprits. Nonetheless, based on your comments, I should perhaps consider having the wheel balances rechecked.

 

well running your tires LOW on presure is not good!!!!!!! if anything it will ride worse and trash your tires!
never run below the cars designed pressure but with beter tires run about what they say.... i stick to about 32-35psi...


but if your wheel keeps shacking at that speed id still say its your tires... depending on where you get your tires balanced out... if its a cheap shop..... GO TO A GOOD SHOP during the weekday before 2pm.... cause if its after 3pm or a weekend then all the kids that work thier will do the balancing and MOST LIKELY will do a horible job!!!! they are just cheap @ss help!!!!

when i got my BRAND NEW RIMS AND TIRES it was during the summer so i couldnt escape the stupid kids and OF COURSE THEY DID A HORIBLE JOB!!!!!!! and ONE OF THE RETARDS even used the wrong lug nut which jacked up my wheel stud! and I KNOW THAT ****ER COULD FEEL THAT THE LUG WAS NOT RIGHT!!!!!!! but did he care NOPE!!!!!!

i went back and got them rebalanced and they did ALOT beter job... but i still had alittle shake so i went back again and demanded the centric rings put on my new rims so now it rides realy nice... just a VERY slight vibration at certain speeds but its realy as good as it will get with the stick on weights.... so im satisfied...
plus the tire shope reimbersed me for a full set of 4 wheel studs that i replaced with all OEM honda studs! no cheapies for my ride.LOL


just be sure they check them all... dont just asume its the front wheels! and if they all check out good id go get the alignment checked...

 

guys i had the same issue with my EK3 Ferio. And later on it was confirmed it was my horrible engineered rims.

 

if you have rims and they are lug-centric or get centered on the hub by getting the lugs tighter, well these will go out of balance alot faster than hub-centric wheels. if you have the lug-c and do not have hub rings, this could also help.

putting the new tires on the rear is possible, because I am sure they didn't take the time to balance the ones on the rear before they rotated them to the front. Another thing to look at is to make sure all the tire weights are together. if they are not and spread all around the wheel, this could cause a problem too as they are canceling out the balance, but 0 out on the machine.

 

The problem is now resolved. I took the Civic to my local trusted mechanic, who found that all four wheels were in fact out of balance, despite having NTB "balance" the wheels twice. The wheel balancing done by my mechanic completely eliminated the steering wheel vibration and returned freeway speed driving to normal. NTB refunded me their original charge for wheel balancing, and also replaced one of the two tires I purchased from them as my mechanic found that the tire had a "high spot." The lesson I learned from this situation is to never again trust my car to NTB.

 

guys what's NTB? and how would you know if your aftermarket rims are lug centric? or hub centric? I am suffering from a very slight zu..zu..zu..zu.. sound when travelling at high speeds or during slowing down. i took it to a rim reconditioner and he told me it's most likely not because of the small bent on the lip but because i need hub centric rims. he looked at my rims mounted on the car and the space between the center of the hub is like close to half inch space to the rims. i never knew i needed hub centric rims coz i thought when you tighten the lugs the rims will center themselves.

 

NTB = National Tire & Battery

NTB is a auto repair chain in the U.S. specializing in tires and battery replacement. I obviously do not recommend them.

 

yup NTB sucks ballzzz. after an alignment they let some kid take my friends WS6 out for a test drive. couldnt control such a powerful car and slid right into a fence trashing the passenger side..luckily out of insurance and what NTB gave him, he's rebuilt the car and its lookin better than ever haha



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