Shaking steering wheel

[BrownEyedGirl]

My son, who thinks nothing is a big deal, has a 1988 Civic hatchback and he says his steering wheel is shaking really bad. Should I take it to a wheel alignment place? He is relying on hearsay to diagnosis it and I would like some more experienced hearsay! Thanks.

[HONDABOND]

I bet he needs new brake pads and rotors... An alighnment would also be a good idea.

Ask him if this hapends mostly when he stops or when he is traveling at high speeds (50+ mph)

[marked001]

..if it happens under breaking... could also be upper ball joints.. jack the car up... grab the top of the tire and see if it moves in and out....

[XxLuckyLisaxX]

yes you need to tell us if it is freeway speeds or low suburb speeds anyway if it is freeway speeds it could also be that is his wheels/tires arent balanced or is missing one of the weights

[BLU CIVIC]

turn the steering wheel and check the tires....could be excess wear on the inside/ outside of one or both front tires

[BrownEyedGirl]

It better not happen at high speeds, he was convicted of reckless driving last spring by a jury of his "peers" (they were all about 80 years older than him).

Thanks for the suggestions, it helps to know what to look for even if we can't do it ourselves!

[BrownEyedGirl]

He says when he moves the tire with his hand he hears knocking noise, his friend says it is bearings?

[dirty91crx]

heh could be suspension, could be unbalanced tires. could be front wheel bearings, could be axels, could be alignment, could be a bubble in the tire....damn it could be alot of things.

[fredthedragon]

shit could be sooo many things but one thing to look at carefully is to make sure the calipers are properly greased and w/ the correct grease i have screwed up so many rotors and brake pads and caused my steering wheel to violently shake several times and i still have the problem i need to buy the $60 honda caliper slide grease, sounds like your problem is a little deeper though, wait for more expert openions i don't know much about knocking while turning try posting a thread mabey w/ the title need mechanic's help on stering vibration. or something like that.

[dirty91crx]

well were not all incompetant when it comes to diagnosing....the hard part is that we cant see the car....so yes take it to a profesional in the area and have them pin point the problem.

[fredthedragon]

it's loads cheeper than just replacing the parts you think are wrong, one time i spent $300 replacing brake parts when it turned out all i had was frozen caliper slides and all i needed was either $15 synthetic caliper grease or $60 caliper grease, course i needed a full brake job due to my delay in pinpointing this problem.

[dirtydx]

i'd get the wheels balanced. as for the knocking sound, my guess is a bad CV Joint, usually fixed buy replacing the entire half-shaft. Take it to the Honda dealership, they should be able to diagnose the problem quickly

[RedRacerCivic]

tires can be out of balance

[crxlvr]

to even further the amount of things that could be wrong with it, the tire pressures might be low on one side causing the shakes.

[fredthedragon]

hmmm cv joint sounds like the problem if you let them get bad enough it can cause those problems check the boot, to do that turn the wheel all the way to the right and check the right side axel boot, and do the same w/ the left side boot. they might be broken if broken and he left them broken for a long time and i mean a long time it can cause those exact symptoms. but definately taken it to a professional.