Steering Problems - Honda Prelude Forum

AlexJReid · 02-02-2004, 03:33 PM

Hi,
First post here so your help would be appreciated.

My JDM (I'm in the UK so imported it very cheaply) 'lude has had a steering wheel shimmy at speeds from 45-80 since December. It varies in speed, ie: sometimes 70 will have no vibration, but sometimes it will.

At around 80 the steering wheel seems to stop shaking, but the vibration is felt through the seat. At 100 and above all vibrations stop and it's absolutely perfect.

I thought the obvious solution was to get those wheels balanced / rotated. Well I've done that (FOUR different places - one place tried 3 times) .... and it's still the same.

I have noticed a bit of excessive play in the steering wheel when parked, maybe 1-2 inches in either direction. Could this be related? PS fluid level is fine, no strange noises when steering.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

azjs · 02-02-2004, 06:29 PM

Things to check - axles, warped rims, CV boot condition, swaybar endlinks, all bushings. Since its a used car, I'm assuming it's either an endlink or bushing issue assuming that the car hasn't been in any accidents previously.

Also, a really cheap crappy set of tyres no matter how well balanced can also sow those sort of symptoms...

-az

AlexJReid · 02-03-2004, 03:58 AM

Nope I'm certain the car hasn't been in an accident - I had it for a while before it started doing this.

Funnily enough, the problem started about a month after getting new tyres - but they're Toyo Proxes T1-S - quite a well respected tyre, no?

bogus · 02-03-2004, 06:58 AM

good tire... but you can get a bad batch. if the tires were stacked, and you were the unlucky soul who bought the tires at the bottom of the pile, they can ride very strange.

I had this happen a number of years ago. They had to replace the tires.

Other thoughts... speed dependant makes me think it's rotational. How many miles/km's are on this car? You may be dealing with a dying wheel bearing.

Raise the car and wiggle each wheel. if you have movement, you have a problem. It could be either a bearing or a suspension bushing.

AlexJReid · 02-03-2004, 12:46 PM

If the tyres (I'm gonna be stubborn and continue to spell it the English way!) had been defective, wouldn't it have shown up right away? They were on my car for maybe a month and a half before the wheel wobble started.
Hmm... they were bought from some VERY cheap online supplier.
Will look into the other things you suggest... thanks.

azjs · 02-03-2004, 06:01 PM

Mine didn't go wobbly until after its second heat cycle (2nd time of 'spirited driving'), and I hadn't hit any wierd potholes so the tyre guys put it down to the tyres...

-az

Whitea207 · 02-03-2004, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bogus
good tire... but you can get a bad batch. if the tires were stacked, and you were the unlucky soul who bought the tires at the bottom of the pile, they can ride very strange.

I had this happen a number of years ago. They had to replace the tires.

Other thoughts... speed dependant makes me think it's rotational. How many miles/km's are on this car? You may be dealing with a dying wheel bearing.

Raise the car and wiggle each wheel. if you have movement, you have a problem. It could be either a bearing or a suspension bushing.

What kind of problems with the wiggling movement thing. I did that with my tires a couple weeks ago with my new tires, and i had just a slight movement in the joint there. I'll take a pic later. Is this a big problem?

vf1-sh · 02-04-2004, 12:28 AM

Check the tie rods, tie rod ends, and ball joints also.