shaking/vibration while accelerating?

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FLounder

FLounder

power hungry
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got a 92 hatch with b18c1 and it vibrates and shakes when you accelerate, particularly under hard acceleration. its definitely something in the front end. the best way i can describe what its doing is that it feels like somethings jerking the steering wheel side to side. a brief visual inspection doesnt reveal anything obvious. i just put new springs and shocks on since it had cut stock springs when i bought the car. and i just put brand new tires on it... actually i thought the old bald tires were the problem. i was wrong.

so what should i be looking for? :confused: any advice is appreciated

btw, i am a boat mechanic, outboard and gas inboard... i know my way around a wrench, just looking for someone with more honda experience to point me in the right direction.
 
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Have you had a balancing and alignment done? Also, it could possibly be a wheel bearing.
 
my b16 hatch did it.. never figured out what it was.. my guess would be possible worn bushings in the front suspension or something
 
eg6sir said:
my b16 hatch did it.. never figured out what it was.. my guess would be possible worn bushings in the front suspension or something
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I forgot about those. haha Mine are shot on my EG and it shakes, rattles and rolls whenever I'm doing around seventy or so. Well, not that bad, but you can definitely tell it has a nice shake to it. I know that all of mine need to be replaced. Then again, after ten years of owning the car and not really having suspension problems, I'll take this small issue. :D
 
balancing... yes
alignment....no

however the car does not pull to one side or the other and has a nice ride. i am waiting to get an alignment until after i replace the rear lcas and get something for the front camber.

so bushings is probably the culprit?
 
I would first guess alignment and then bushings. Heck, alignment, bearings and then bushings, but that is just me. Let us know what ends up being the culprit.
 
Luis998 said:
I would first guess alignment and then bushings. Heck, alignment, bearings and then bushings, but that is just me. Let us know what ends up being the culprit.
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+1.. i was just throwing the bushings out there as a suggestion.. not really sure since i never figured mine out
 
eg6sir said:
+1.. i was just throwing the bushings out there as a suggestion.. not really sure since i never figured mine out
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My theory is out of personal experience as I had a lovely time when my driver side wheel bearing went out once. Then again, an improperly balanced tire will wreak havoc as far as shaking and all along side no alignment.
 
the shake was there before with the old tires and still does it with brand new tires... im going to jack it up and check out the bearings and look a little closer at all the bushings. it just seems weird to me that it only does it when im accelerating. cruising at any speed low or high its perfect.
 
my b16 eg was doing this and i put stock spring on the front changed the axles and its good. i bent both from being to low.
 
my rex had all sorts of handling oddities awhile back. when driving in a perfectly straight line, if the road was smooth, it was perfect, straight as an arrow. however the slightest bump would have me fighting it to keep it in it's lane. when making turns, it felt as if the car was bottoming out, even driving slowly on mostly smooth surfaces. and lastly the steering felt as though there was a dead zone in it, as if you could turn it about 1/16 of a turn without any reaction from the vehicle.

my problem turned out to be the upper control arm mounts. there's a small bracket up there, with two rubber bushings pressed in per side. the rubber in my bracket had deteriorated and was separated. i'm not necessarily convinced that it's the bushings in your vehicle, my vote is actually your ball joints, however they can cause a lot of problems when they get bad enough.

you can try to jack your vehicle up so the front wheels aren't on the ground. then go lock the steering wheel and go to each side and see if you can push/pull/shake/etc. each wheel. if the wheel moves up and down (this could be because the springs you bought dont have enough droop travel, verify by looking to see if the spring is seated on both the upper and lower shock mounts) look at the ball joints and the bushings in your control arms, both upper and lower. check the torque on all suspension mounting hardware. if the wheel moves forward and backward (relative to the vehicle) then check the lower control arm mounting and the tie rods/steering rack. let us know what it turns out to be.
 
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the car was excessively low when i got it, tucking tires pretty hard in the front and it was on cut stock springs with stock shocks :eek:

i was wondering if axle damage was a possibility, although its not making the usual CV joint pop when you turn. it looks like im just going to have to get in there and check EVERYTHING out. thanks for the advice everyone, ill let you know what i find.

just for the record, it now has H&R sports with kyb agxs in front and koni reds in back, looking for some upper control arms with camber adjustment
 
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