Chasing a front end vibration

I might be in a similar boat. Alignment fixed the wandering, but I'm still getting weird bumping and flex while driving on bad roads.

Bumping and flex that shouldnt be happening

 

Does it get worse when braking?
? Small shimmy in steering wheel braking at 35 mph or less?
? Large pounding felt in steering wheel upon hard rapid braking at 70mph? Or when abs activated?

Rotors warped?

 

Look at your brake pads, are the inside/outside worn evenly?

what psi are you running in your tires?

have you checked for play in the cv axles and driveshafts/U-joints?

this is a guessing game at the moment...

 

Braking has little change in the wheel shaking.

 

New CVs, rebuilt driveshaft a year ago.

 

Had a mechanic shop look it over a couple weeks back. They think it's worn out rack and LCA bushings. So I spent some money at PolySuspension and got all of those. Decided I didn't want to fight the steering rack myself, so I'm just going to have them do it. I'm burnt out from working on shit this year. Between the daily, the drift car, and the truck, I've spent a lot of time crawling around on the ground and busting my knuckles this year.

 

Get an lc200 rack.

 

SHH My rack isn't dead..... (yet)

 

that means you are seasoned to help my swap project lol

 

oooh come on its not that bad! just unbolt things from one shell and bolt it onto the other shell!

 

Sir this is a Taco thread. Not a shit box civic thread.

 

tacos are shitboxes as well siiiir lol

also most of those forums are basically dead now days since well its many many gens behind lol

 

You just aren't in the right threads

Yes... Tacos are shitbox tacos. Not shitbox civics.



Besides, with ATR fast approaching, I'll be posting so much crap for people to read and look at.... It'll be a veritable TW revival

.at least in the various Midwestern threads

 

i mean is anyone now days?

why not both lol

i mean i have no care for atr lol. im just meaning the old civic forums are dead af lol

 

Oh lol. I thought you meant tw.

Which is always open to shitbox posting

 

haha no no the civic forums work kiiinda like this.

wow the 8th gen is amazing and we all love it! super active forum

"9th gen comes out"

9th gens get bought and poof the old forum is dead.. since they reallly dont have a forum like this where its all gens together its one gen per webpage.

 

So it was brought to light, that we put LCAs from a 3rd gen onto my truck, and apparently the bolt sizes are a bit different. The shop called and informed me the bushings I bought weren't the right size and so that confirmed that the LCAs aren't exactly the same. I thought the only difference was the alignment cams, not the bolt diameters or the size of the bushings. Could be part of the issue. They told me they went ahead and just ordered me some new lower arms since they had already ripped the truck apart and pressed the bushings out of those arms. Supposed to call me today to see if the vibes go away with just the right arms or if they'll try to do the rack bushings. Tried to sell me on just replacing the rack but it's not bad. There's no play in the rack, and there's only a very very slow leak from the rack seals. I've topped off the PS fluid once since owning the truck, and that was last week. Not a bad run for 7 years of ownership and having 178k total miles on it.

 

If you're not upgrading the rack and it's not whining/squealing/squeaking/bitching etc .... Leave it in.

Good call.

 

Turns out it was the LCAs and Cam bolts off a 3rd gen. Either a combination of mismatched parts and worn out components, or one or the other. New 2nd gen LCAs and bolts and we're back to no vibes.