rexracerboy

Long time no see honda-tech folks!

Anyway, still have my CRX, and have noticed two problems that I'm having trouble troubleshooting. If anyone feels like lending a hand, it would be very much appreciated.

Here goes:

Steering wheel vibration. I get vibration in the steering wheel when I get past 55 MPH. At first, I thought this could be ball joints or wheel bearings, but I'm not sure. Would these act up at low speeds too? The front tires are new, the rears still have very good tread life on them (I know you're SUPPOSED to replace both, but it seemed like such a waste of money). I had the wheels balanced when the new tires were put on. Ideas?

Strange hesitation at low RPMs. This one really has me stumped. In every gear, I get hesitation below 2,000 RPM but only when I try to go mid-throttle to WOT. Instead of the car bogging down, it acts like it wants to stall, she bucks, and then eventually comes to life. This happens in every gear at any speed.

The fuel tank, lines, fuel pump and sending unit are about 2-3 years old. The fuel filter was changed last month. Does this sound like an injector problem or something else?

Thanks in advance for all of your help.

rexracerboy

Anyone willing to help me out? There's gotta be at least one decent soul out there in honda-tech land. )

dacrxguy

unless it requires installing a lip or how to drop(what color should i paint my car, eyt) a car honda tech will not help

anyways to the vibrarion it is hard to know exactly what your are feeling becouse i am on the other side of the internet so it will be kind of hard to diagnose. It seems to me that you have some sort of bushing that are shot in the front suspension. when was the last time your car had bushing ball joints tierods replaced or rotors swped. it could posibly be your rack and pinion bushings please check all those and inspect them for cracks or any other form of where and report back

johnnyonth3spot

just because a shop balances your tires doesnt mean their good If you cant find your problem bring it to tire shop and tell them your what its doing, ask them to rebalance your tires. Definitly check all the basic **** first though.

4drEF

Get an alignment.
Check your tires for wear.
Shocks could be blown.
Wheel bearings are easy to check - jack it up and push and pull on the bottom and top of the tire. It will unmistakably wiggle if the bearing is dead.

Since you checked fuel components might as well check your air filter.
Seems like an ignition problem though. Check cap, rotor, wires, and plugs.
Make sure your ignition timing is set properly (don't forget to disable the electronic advance first).

dacrxguy

that could be a issue too say the person who balanced you tires used the wrong style of weight for your wheel(lip of the wheel) and they flew off. ps op did u see them balance your wheels was this problem there before??? there are countless questions

rexracerboy

Thank you all for the replies. The vibration is in the steering wheel. It's sort of a shimmy. Actually, the whole car vibrates a little (at highway speeds only), and it's nothing new. It's been doing it for a while meaning that it did this with the old tires too which makes me want to eliminate it being a wheel problem but I dont' know? These are new tires so there's no real wear to speak of.

I haven't checked the tie rod ends, but I'll do that and give the ball joints another look. I did watch them balance the tires and they seemed to be doing a decent job. They used these flat weights. A lot of them actually. It doesn't appear that any of them have fallen off. But then again when I left the shop and got on the highway it was doing it so...

As far as how good a job the tire shop did when I had them balance it, well, the end result was, from what I could tell, the wheel didn't wobble on the machine after they put the last weight on.


As for the stalling/hesitation issue, one thing I do know is that in the #3 cylinder, there is oil on the end of the spark plug every time I do check them. Would this cause the hesitation? I know I'm getting blow by there, but not sure how serious the issue is. I mean it does burn oil, about a quart between oil changes. I would not be against changing the spark plugs and wires. They're probably due here shortly anyway.

The cap and rotor should be fine. I just pulled them off during a troubleshooting session (and they looked OK) which ultimately resulted in finding out my timing belt had ripped in half. I don't know if this is relevant but it broke while I was driving the car and I took it out of gear as soon as the RPMs dropped...it scared the crap out of me. Long story short, new timing belt on and she started right up. I might have dodged a bullet there because I was told we drive interference motors. I don't remember if the hesitation existed before the timing belt change, I'd like to say yes, but I can't remember.


Oh, it's a DX if that makes a diff. The only diff I know of from that and the other two is I'm DPFI instead of MPFI.


That's all I can think of that's happened to the car recently.

Anything to add, or should I start with your suggestions?

cmedrive

Make sure everything is grounded properly. My friend's hatch was having a somewhat similar problem and he noticed one of the ground straps was mounted incorrectly (bolted to an insulated piece of metal).

dacrxguy

lol what wrong thread dude

johnnyonth3spot

for your steering wheel vibration you should try to eliminate one of the factors
-Wheel or mechanical problem- try swapping the front wheels to back if there's no change then its definitly either your steering rack, tie rods, upper or lower ball joints, or wheel bearings. Next jack it up and look for play like dxcrx said. You could have a bent wheel also but tire shop should of noticed this.

dacrxguy

this is a good tip that can also be used when diagnosing pulls too

EF-Devotion

try these links

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Why_would_...g_wheel_wobble

http://www.tundrasolutions.com/forum...en-speed-over/

DCRB

long shot in the dark, but your brakes or hubs wouldn't be warped would it? i have a warped passenger rear hub (disc swap) and it causes a slight vibration... (up and down out of round ness

Fine_EF9

I know when my car would vibrate at around 50mph it would shake. turned out to be the tie rod ends. just a thought. hope it helps.

rexracerboy

Thank you all for the suggestions. Hopefully tomorrow I can get out there and do some more troubleshooting. Just to verify, I normally tighten the lug nuts to 100 lbs-ft. Is this this too loose/tight?

rexracerboy

I might have my answer and this weekend I ended up having to work on my g/f brakes, but I took my car out for a spin and heard the faint sound of scraping/whining coming from the rear wheels (and I think it is just starting to happen on the front wheels as well). Usually I am too busy listening to music with the fan on high to notice.

I guess wheel bearings it is then. For the rears, it looks like a sealed unit. For the fronts, what do you do? Does anyone try to do this themselves, or do you just take it to a shop and have them press in a new one? I do have exactly one very trustworthy Honda dealership in the area that I know would do a good job.

Anybody done the fronts before? How difficult are they to do correctly without access to a garage (won't have access to one for a few months)? I'm planning on doing a swap over the winter on this car, but still gathering research and trying not to do a job twice and waste money.

rexracerboy

I changed the ground straps out and she starts right up now. Problem is, it's still hesitating under 2K, but doesn't seem to be AS bad, but still does it. Wondering if I should really worry too much about it at this point.

dacrxguy

the rear is really easy look it up on service manual you just remove the rear spindle. the front is another story since it is a nonservicible sealed unit. the front hubs need to be removed and then the bearings must be pressed out. right now would be an ideal time to do any lug stud work (replace them if the threads are starting to go bad with good quality units.)

rexracerboy

Thanks for the tip. For the rears, it looks like I am getting new lug studs with the new wheel bearing unit, but for the fronts, what would you suggest? Honda original? I've had mixed results with aftermarket "direct OEM quality replacement (not)" parts. BTW, this is what I was looking at for rear wheel bearings:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/WBI-513035/

Is there a manufacturer who makes decent stuff for the rex or is Honda really the only place to go for that "i don't want my car falling apart" quality?

4drEF

For lug studs it probably doesn't make much difference, but the bearing I would go to a dealership. OEM is always safe. Typically it costs a little more, but for an only car/daily driver it's worth it in my opinion.

rexracerboy

One thing I almost forgot. When I did my drum to disc conversion, I remember there being a HUGE problem with the compensator arm and I think I ended up with the trailing arm from the 90 or 91 Integra, but that eventually got sorted out and the alignment came out fine. I think the part numbers for the TAs though are the same for the CRX and 'teg, however, so I can't really tell the diff. Also, I can't find the rear wheel bearings at Majestic Honda, but before I go ahead and try to get them from somewhere, does anyone know if the CRX rear wheel bearings will fit if I do have the 'teg trailing arms?

rexracerboy

Anyone know this one? Are the Integra and CRX si rear wheel bearings interchangeable. I don't know which rear trailing arms/hubs I got when I did the swap, and Majestic Honda says they're not familiar with that modification (really?).

Can anyone help before I go ahead and place an order for the parts?

4drEF

If nobody can answer that one you can always measure the one you have in there now. Bearing is typically listed with it's dimensions.

99civic2

i had this similar problem on my 99 civic, what my mechanic told me was (im a mechanic too btw lol) that i have an air pocket in the cooling system, does the car buck around whenever you slightly let off the gas pedal? if so you need to take off your radiator cap, start the car, and let the engine warm up with the cap off, and give the throttle a few taps in different rpm ranges while you are still under the hood, dont forget to add coolant as necessary

dbmora

Did you check to make sure your axles nuts are not loose before you buy bearings. they sometimes become loose when driving your car ruff.