99 civic ex power steering 'shake'

[Razathorn]

This is my wife's car, but I drive it from time to time, and I noticed this problem about a year or so ago. Basically, when you make minute adjustements, like just driving down a road, when you move the wheel, it will jerk or vibrate a bit. If you try and actually turn the wheel, it's perfectly fine, no lack of power steering. When it's up on jacks running, you can turn the wheels or the steering wheel with ease (power steering is working) and the problem wont reproduce. A while back I had honda replace the rack and pinion under warranty, but this didn't solve the issue and it returned later.

I have ruled out tires, wheels, and brake rotors. There doesn't seem to be play in the steering linkage at all. I'm fairly stumped. I'm going to have to go through the helms manual on this one unless somone has heard of this. I came here thinking it might be a common problem. it only shakes when you move the wheel in small amounts. If you're just holding the wheel still, it's smooth as glass. If you're turning at a corner or something, it's smooth and there is full power steering available. If you make small adjustmenets, like going around a long curved road, it vibrates.

Wayne

 

[Jezek]

Is something rubbing perhaps? Is the car lowered?

 

[Project k20]

axles clicking? or not? damn...never heard of this before....

 

[Razathorn]

Is something rubbing perhaps? Is the car lowered?

Only thing aftermarket is the sound system .

axles clicking? or not? damn...never heard of this before....

No clicking, well maintained 50k mile car. Never abused outside of some door dings.

Yeah, it doesn't make much sense.

 

[Razathorn]

Well, I did a bit more driving with the car and I think I've narrowed it down. It seems that the vibration happens at the rate of the wheel/tire when driving. If I'm going slow, the vibration is slow for instance. I only feel the vibration when there is some force against the steering system to control the wheel, ie, I'm making small adjustments to the car to continue going straight down a road or something, This leads me to believe that what is actually going on is a bad front axle/wheel bearing and I feel the vibration through the wheel when I remove all the slack / put some stress against the steering system to move the spindle etc.

Thoughts?

Since I will likely be doing this repair myself, can anyone point me to a place where I can get the parts online cheap -- say like acuraparts247.com does for my acura -- a nice catalog for ordering oem parts, just about everything in the car with exploded views for the civic etc.

Wayne

 

[loccusst]

I would say you are looking at the right area of the car. Do you hear any noise at all? If you trust your wife you could have her drive and walk/run along side of the car to determine which side and where a noise may be coming from. Just be nice to her so she doesn't decide to "acidently" run you over. I would say check the steering conections at the wheel.

 

[Razathorn]

I would say you are looking at the right area of the car. Do you hear any noise at all? If you trust your wife you could have her drive and walk/run along side of the car to determine which side and where a noise may be coming from. Just be nice to her so she doesn't decide to "acidently" run you over. I would say check the steering conections at the wheel.

No noise at all -- just vibration. I think I'm going to put it up on stands again and check for play / runout in the hubs. Heck, it could be a bent axle, but I would think it would be more prounounced.