Hopefully title is fairly self explanatory. Its a '01 Honda Civic sedan w/ 5spd (if that is somehow relevant to this problem I will be slightly amazed )

I took my car in for an oil change and to get the brakes inspected today. While they had the wheels off, the shop rotated my tires (for the first time since I bought this car). And as soon as I started driving, the damned front-end was wobbling like a bat out of hell and pulling a good bit to the right. (and no I didn't take it back b/c it was the end of the day and the shop boss had just left).

My initial thought was I had a really badly balanced wheel, or a bent rim. I'd had similar steering problems on an old beater Escort that had a bent rim in back that the stupid quick lube people rotated without asking me .

The question is, besides a bent/unbalanced wheel, what are other likely culprits? And are there any of them I can check on with pretty much nothing but a tire iron?

2/23/2011 8:44:48 PM

loose lug nuts

2/23/2011 9:49:08 PM

^ yeah definately check that...they could have just tightened them down one at a time instead of tightening each of them a little at a time in the proper pattern

it could be a tire that was out of balance to begin with but you couldn't notice it because it was on the rear and now you can because it is on the front

2/23/2011 9:57:41 PM

Are the tires directional and now on the wrong side?

2/23/2011 10:03:45 PM

Ah damn, I hadn't thought about them fucking up the lug nuts. I tried tightening them with the tire iron/lug wrench with the car on the ground and they all *seem* ok... but I assume the weight of the car could make it difficult to tell if its loose or not without jacking it up.

Wish I had a damned jack.


edit: ^ no idea. I was always told to never swap sides anyways. How would I tell if they're directional?

[Edited on February 23, 2011 at 10:05 PM. Reason : .]

2/23/2011 10:04:18 PM

Besides an unbalanced rim, perhaps your alignment is off (either the front or rear) causing the wear the tire unevenly. Car feels smooth where the tires are, but then once you rotate them, you can feel the difference. Just another thought.

Directional tires usually have an arrows or say "directional."



better yet, what kind of tires you have? Doubt its the directional issue, but what the hell. it's a longshot

2/23/2011 10:10:34 PM

Does the wobble go away at speeds above 55mph? If so, it's likely an unbalanced tire.

If it doesnt go away, you've got bigger problems.

2/23/2011 10:35:11 PM

Doesn't go away over 55.

The front tires are some random crap. Delta Esteem? 185/64R15. I see no arrows.

2/23/2011 11:00:38 PM

Do you not have the factory jack in the car? Jack that sucker up and check the lug nuts. Also grab the tire and see if you can move it up/down or left/right at all while it's in the air. Any play needs to be addressed.

2/24/2011 9:29:10 AM

Quote :

"Besides an unbalanced rim, perhaps your alignment is off (either the front or rear) causing the wear the tire unevenly. Car feels smooth where the tires are, but then once you rotate them, you can feel the difference. Just another thought. "

If it's not the lugnuts as previously mentioned then what Stephen said is kinda what I thought as well.

2/24/2011 9:48:46 AM

Quote :

"Ah damn, I hadn't thought about them fucking up the lug nuts. I tried tightening them with the tire iron/lug wrench with the car on the ground and they all *seem* ok... but I assume the weight of the car could make it difficult to tell if its loose or not without jacking it up. Wish I had a damned jack."

No. You can torque just fine with the wheels on the ground. All Honda wheels are hub-centric, and there's not a lot of shear loading of the studs. The only really accurate way to check that the lug nuts are torqued properly is with a torque wrench, but you CAN verify tightness to a certain degree. Believe me, you'd know if they were loose if you're checking with the lug wrench.

I'm wondering if you ain't got a busted belt or a severely cupped/worn tire...though a busted belt due to reverse rotation and bias on the steel belts shouldn't show up so soon. Takes a little while.

2/24/2011 10:03:26 AM

Quote :

"I'm wondering if you ain't got a busted belt or a severely cupped/worn tire...though a busted belt due to reverse rotation and bias on the steel belts shouldn't show up so soon. Takes a little while. "

this; if the tires have worn a certain way, and to a severe level, you may experience tire wandering/etc after the tire rotation due to the tread shape.

2/24/2011 10:33:42 AM

So... I took it by the garage early this morning to just have them re-rotate. While it was on the lift we spun the tires (I didn't have time for them to actually put them on the balancing machine and everything). Both tires just didn't look quite right while they were spinning, but it didn't look like anything as drastic as a bent rim. From a summary inspection, I couldn't really tell if there is a wearing issue...but I'm also no expert nor do I have any experience with wonky tire wear.

Once they did the switch though, it was back to driving the way it had before (which admittedly is not stellar).

I did notice when I cut off the radio that I can hear a rumble coming from the rear. Of course, it could have been there forever and I'm just being paranoid cause y'all mentioned busted belts. I didn't really notice that sort of whoomp-whoomp-whoomp you'd expect at slow speeds with a busted belt.

2/24/2011 5:55:12 PM