Car wobbles left and right but only on bad roads?

[narutofan36]

My car drives amazing in all conditions except on bad / bumpy highway roads. It becomes very difficult to keep the car in a straight line and I have to grip the steering wheel very tightly as it contently feels like it will veer too left or too right.

I see normal corolla's and priuses passing by me so I know this is not just in my head. Anything I should inspect / replace to fix this issue? I went to 2 mechanics and both have said they could not see anything wrong with the car. (I asked them specifically to check on any ball socket joints/struts)


Things I have done so far in the last year:

-full suspension replaced (front and rear)
-new tires (michelin a/s 4)
-alignment and balance

Again, if the highway roads are smooth, car drives absolutely wonderful.

car: civic 2014 lx, automatic, 90k miles

 

[Steltek]

Maybe a bad motor mount? I had a car (not a Civic, though) that did something like this once, and that ended up being the cause.

 

[pcgeek11]

I would say more likely the alignment. A camber that is off will cause lots of bump steer as you describe.

Edit: I meant to say Caster not Camber.

How to Correct Bump Steer

What is Bump Steer? It is the term for when your wheels steer themselves without input from the steering wheel. It is caused by bumps in the road or track …

www.onallcylinders.com

 

[narutofan36]

Maybe a bad motor mount? I had a car (not a Civic, though) that did something like this once, and that ended up being the cause.

Thank you! I will ask the mechanic to check this but I believe I changed the engine / motor mount around 2 years ago. I do not feel any vibrations when idle, unless i am parked downhill which i heard was normal.

I would say more likely the alignment. A camber that is off will cause lots of bump steer as you describe.

How to Correct Bump Steer

What is Bump Steer? It is the term for when your wheels steer themselves without input from the steering wheel. It is caused by bumps in the road or track …

www.onallcylinders.com

My camber is slightly off due to being lowered slightly. Do you think this is enough to cause the shakiness?

 

[pcgeek11]

Thank you! I will ask the mechanic to check this but I believe I changed the engine / motor mount around 2 years ago. I do not feel any vibrations when idle, unless i am parked downhill which i heard was normal.




My camber is slightly off due to being lowered slightly. Do you think this is enough to cause the shakiness?

View attachment 45214

I should have and meant to say Caster Angle. And with your car lowered the Castor angle is probably what is causing the bump steer.

Your camber angles look good.

 

[narutofan36]

I should have and meant to say Caster Angle. And with your car lowered the Castor angle is probably what is causing the bump steer.

Your camber angles look good.

Interesting.. so just to clarify, my caster angle is way off?

 

[NutBucket]

I don't consider that way off at all. Everything looks great on your alignment.

 

[mindless1]

Maybe just excessively stiff springs or struts?

 

[narutofan36]

Maybe just excessively stiff springs or struts?

Its possible. The car is lowered but they are on OEM honda springs struts so i havent thought too much that was the issue. I beleive I was having this issue even before lowering so I dont think its the problem. Over this weekend, I plan on taking off my 20mm spacers (forgot to mention this) to see how the car drives without them

 

[Vic]

Its possible. The car is lowered but they are on OEM honda springs struts so i havent thought too much that was the issue. I beleive I was having this issue even before lowering so I dont think its the problem. Over this weekend, I plan on taking off my 20mm spacers (forgot to mention this) to see how the car drives without them

Lowering a car by cutting OEM springs and putting them back on OEM struts will always result in poor handling. It might look cool, but it's not cool. And it's definitely not "full suspension" like you said in your OP. I'm not at all surprised to hear that you're bouncing all over everything but the smoothest roads, especially after further worsening the geometry with spacers. Quit wasting your money on alignments and cosmetics and go get a real full suspension.

 

[maluckey1]

When a car is lowered, you get less camber gain and you change camber thrust ratios as the suspension compresses/unloads.

With spacers that change the wheel center (not just correcting for wider wheel), you effectively change the scrub radius.

Put all this together and you get....wait....you already know what you get.

If you put on stock wheels / tires and it drives better, your next step is to get better suspension setup. Lowering a car Can sometimes HELP handling, but you have to carefully choose spring-rates and dampening.

There are more than a few lowering kit that make the car handle worse than stock.

M