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Car Forum / Honda Cars / November 2005do i have worn shocks?
my recently obtained 99 civic rides looser than my 92 civic (the 92 steers and rides tight for bone stock 4-dr eco-car!) mainly noticeable on the highway and s-curves. i get pushed around by the wind pretty bad, and when i turn through a long curve or s-curve i feel the car pull to the oposite side from where im turning once the body wieght transfers over. i dont get the typical lowrider hop hitting bumps and (although the civic is probably half the weight of an 60-80's gm car) and i don't really notice any extreme nose-diving. are there any other symptoms i can look for? or am i completely in the wrong direction? any help would be greatly appreciated > my recently obtained 99 civic rides looser than my 92 civic (the 92 steers > and rides tight for bone stock 4-dr eco-car!) mainly noticeable on the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > nose-diving. are there any other symptoms i can look for? or am i completely > in the wrong direction? any help would be greatly appreciated maybe, but not necessarily. unfortunately, the 96-00's are crap like this. i don't know what honda did, but my 2000 was junk from day 1, terrible in cross winds and sloppy as heck. after spending a small fortune on the full oem si sway bar kit, it tightened up a lot, but was still not as good as my 89. i took the kit off again before i sold that car and still have it. you live in norcal? if so, you can buy it if you want it... Tires can make a huge difference in handling - check the pressure first - I keep mine at the max as printed on the door plate. On 10/25/05 9:13 AM, in article 1130249625.039761.85210@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "butch burton" <spacetrax@wi.rr.com> wrote: > Tires can make a huge difference in handling - check the pressure first > - I keep mine at the max as printed on the door plate. Uh ... The number on the door plate is a MIN, not a MAX. Max is printed on the tire sidewalls. > Uh ... The number on the door plate is a MIN, not a MAX. Max is printed on > the tire sidewalls. Wrong. The number on the door jamb is the pressure as recommended by the car manufacturer. The number on the tire is the maximum pressure specified by the tire manufacturer. Common practice is to follow the car manufacturer's recommendation. > On 10/25/05 9:13 AM, in article > 1130249625.039761.85210@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "butch burton" [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Uh ... The number on the door plate is a MIN, not a MAX. Max is printed on > the tire sidewalls. uh, the door plate is the MAX range for that car - with two values for differing speed ranges. the tire has max for the tire and has /nothing/ to do with the characteristics necessary for the correct handling of the car. On 10/25/05 9:12 PM, in article yLednXQ6Ov9jeMPeRVn-vQ@speakeasy.net, "jim beam" <nospam@example.net> wrote: >> On 10/25/05 9:13 AM, in article >> 1130249625.039761.85210@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com, "butch burton" [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > to do with the characteristics necessary for the correct handling of the > car. What? Where are you getting this stuff? The number on the door plate is the pressure recommended by the manufacturer (of the car) to provide a comfortable ride. while it will provide adequate handling characteristics with the OEM tires, it absolutely does not provide optimal handling characteristics (unless you have a Ford Explorer or a BMW). My experience with the number on the door plate is that if you keep your tires that low, they wear out faster than you can buy the replacements, and always with under-inflation symptoms (outside edges gone, middle tread still in place). I have never seen a car with two numbers for the same tire on the door plate. They do sometimes have different numbers for the front vs. rear, but that is not a range. On what specific car have you seen this? The number on the tire is the maximum cold inflation pressure that the tire is designed to support. I agree it does not specifically relate to handling of the car (unless you exceed it and they pop). > Tires can make a huge difference in handling - check the pressure first > - I keep mine at the max as printed on the door plate. i did. like i said, the car handled like crap from day one. 3 sets of tires and 6 alignments and it still handled like crap. the sway bars and a set of mugen honda hard bushings helped a lot, but then the ride was too harsh for my taste. i've had 4 88-91's, and the contrast is huge. /those/ things are comfy, handle like they're on rails, and are impervious to side winds. i check the pressure regularly, especially before long trips. is there any symptoms i can look for as to why this car teeter totters side to side? is this typical of this year era? surely not it feels borderline of unsafe!! Tires can make a huge difference in handling - check the pressure first - I keep mine at the max as printed on the door plate. Could be an alignment problem. Best to have it checked out. Where I live, the state safety inspection is very thorough, and a pretty cheap way to go for any non-alignment problems. well when going down the highway it'll drive itself straight, and i can jerk the wheel back and forth and don't notice any slack,i guess i'll have to crawl underneath and look around. hopefully something will catch my eye!! thanks for all the help!! Could be an alignment problem. Best to have it checked out. Where I live, the state safety inspection is very thorough, and a pretty cheap way to go for any non-alignment problems. A bad rear tire that's low on air can cause the bad handling behavior.If not (and you're planning on keeping the car for a long time), get Tokico & Eibach. After the spring&shock modification on the 99, the ride should become more akin to the 92 Civic, but handling will be scientifically better then 92 and it'll do a better job a soaking up the big bumps/pothole. btw, 99 Civic weights as much as Sunfire/Cavalier. With the GM, the weight is spent on fattening it up, while the Civic has a very sturdy suspension system to blame (except for shock&spring, which needs to be improved in order to do the suspension system justice). Using role bars can cover up for the weak shocks&springs, but bad weather performance will suffer if you go that route. Pars 98 & 2000 Civic > my recently obtained 99 civic rides looser than my 92 civic (the 92 steers > and rides tight for bone stock 4-dr eco-car!) mainly noticeable on the [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > nose-diving. are there any other symptoms i can look for? or am i completely > in the wrong direction? any help would be greatly appreciated well i do have an odd ball tire in the rear, a bartam? but the pressure is good, @ 40 right now, the michelins call for 44 cold and i noticed a slight difference from 35 psi. but it slops around like im running on 10 psi. and the tires are oversized 195/60 compared to 185/65 stock. even though they are lower profile ratio than stock, is the extra width causing me problems? i haven't got the 1 replacement for $100 cause 2 bf goodrich in the stock size will be $50 ea. $100 more and i'll have a whole set. if the shocks aren't the problem @ $50 ea. i can swing a set of tires. any info would be greatly appreciated A bad rear tire that's low on air can cause the bad handling behavior.If not (and you're planning on keeping the car for a long time), get Tokico & Eibach. After the spring&shock modification on the 99, the ride should become more akin to the 92 Civic, but handling will be scientifically better then 92 and it'll do a better job a soaking up the big bumps/pothole. btw, 99 Civic weights as much as Sunfire/Cavalier. With the GM, the weight is spent on fattening it up, while the Civic has a very sturdy suspension system to blame (except for shock&spring, which needs to be improved in order to do the suspension system justice). Using role bars can cover up for the weak shocks&springs, but bad weather performance will suffer if you go that route. Pars 98 & 2000 Civic > my recently obtained 99 civic rides looser than my 92 civic (the 92 steers > and rides tight for bone stock 4-dr eco-car!) mainly noticeable on the > highway and s-curves. i get pushed around by the wind pretty bad, and wheni > turn through a long curve or s-curve i feel the car pull to the oposite side > from where im turning once the body wieght transfers over. i dont get the > typical lowrider hop hitting bumps and (although the civic is probably half > the weight of an 60-80's gm car) and i don't really notice any extreme > nose-diving. are there any other symptoms i can look for? or am i completely > in the wrong direction? any help would be greatly appreciated > well i do have an odd ball tire in the rear, a bartam? but the pressure is > good, @ 40 right now, the michelins call for 44 cold and i noticed a slight > difference from 35 psi. but it slops around like im running on 10 psi. and > the tires are oversized 195/60 compared to 185/65 stock. even though they I'm running Toyo 195/50/15 on my car (which I think is an ideal size for the 5sp DX tranny). My tires and wheels are perfectly balanced. Enough so, that if I was 5 PSI off on one of the tires, I'd be able to feel it. In your case, the mixmatching tires could return abnormal behavior. Perhaps in stock size, there wouldn't be enough mix-match grip to register, but at 195/60, it could be an issue. My personally motto is to never cut corners (or cheap out) on the tires since they're the most important factor governing you cars driving/handling. Pars > are lower profile ratio than stock, is the extra width causing me problems? > i haven't got the 1 replacement for $100 cause 2 bf goodrich in the stock [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > completely > > in the wrong direction? any help would be greatly appreciated |
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