LTJ

I bought the car with 43K miles on it. The one thing I really liked about the car was it handles like a slot car. The car started to vibrate and the tires (only 20K miles according to the previous owner's records) started to make a lot of noise. I did some searching on the web and found there was a Honda service bulletin that said the rear upper control arms needed to be replaced. I confirmed the inner tire tread on the rear wheels was wearing faster. I called my Honda dealer and they said they would do the retrofit (free parts, .5 rate on labor). So I had them do the retrofit, 4 wheel alignment, and new (stock) tires.

Now the only thing I really liked about the car is gone! It handles like a truck. It use to have really responsive steering, but now it's really vague and sluggish. Before I could never get the tires to make noise when I pitch it into a corner, now the tires squeal and the car is not stable at all, but wallows around.

I know the new control arms change the camber from -1 degree to 0 degrees, could that make the difference? I'm hoping Honda can re-aling the car to get some if not all of the response back and it's not the camber angle. If it's the camber angle, then I either choose tire life or handling?

Anybody notice this when they did the upper control arm retrofit? Did your car handle like crap afterwords? I'm really bummed about this because the car feels like it's been neutered.

Crusty

+ 1 degree of camber angle should not make that much difference in your car's handling. I suspect that something else is wrong that may have been hidden by the defective upper control arms. Take it back to your dealer, they usually are receptive to calm discussions.

LTJ

I just took the car on a 70 mile round trip for work and was paying attention to the car on the highway. The thing hunts all over the place, I have to constantly correct it while I'm driving on the highway.

I'm convinced they have something wrong with the alignment. It must be a toe issue because the car wonders all over the place.

MindBomber

Having -1 degree of camber will increase your corner turn in speed ability slightly, at the expense of tires of course. The change in handling makes sense, but since you really enjoyed the handling characteristics I'd suggest considering upgrading a few of your suspension components to aftermarlet. A larger rear sway bar would transform the handling.

As for wandering, I think honda F*d up the allignment.

LTJ

Problem solved: When the dealer installed the new tires they filled the tires to 40 to 50 psi. This caused the tires to have a slightly crowned profile that caused the strange handling I was feeling. The dealer corrected the air pressure and added slightly more toe in and now the car handles great again. Even though it's been a pain, the dealer Ocean Honda in Santa Cruz did their best to figure it out and gave me a loaner car free of charge with gas while they figured it out.

By the way, I looked under the car and I don't see a rear sway bar (my car is an LX). Is it pretty easy to install a rear sway bar? I found some sway bar kits on line that have larger diameter sway bars and was wondering if they make a big difference in handling? Do they affect ride quality (already not that good for this car)? This car is very fun to drive on the back roads and it would be fun to make it handle more better!

Also, has anybody tried installing dynamat sound absorbing material under the carpet to quite the car down a bit?

MindBomber

Swaybars are very simple to install and fairly inexpensive. On a front wheel drive car, other than good quality coilovers or a strut/spring combo, it will give a bigger improvement in handling than anything else you can do.