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for the first 1500 miles, my 02 civic drove great. then my left front wheel hit a really huge pothole (at night)while turning to the left, and since then it "wanders" when i drive straight. i've had an alignment, and three trips to two dealers, who found nothing. they claimed the car was breaking-in. so in order to get it to drive in a straight line, at both slow speeds and highway speeds, i have to turn the steering wheel left and right a lot. but cornering is still tight. its still drivable, but about the worst driving car i've had. does anyone have any suggestions? i have 7k miles and 8 months on the car, and i don't want to screw up the warranty. thanks.

 
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man I would have said alignment.... I'm no expert but just a guess is maybe ur balancing on your tires??? I have no I dea, its gotta be alignment, but u said its not... Pretty funky... Hopefully some experts come in and tell ya.. Good luck.

 
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I dont know jack man, but I'm sure the dealer or someone can fix it...take it in

 
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Did you dent your inner rim? I was thinking alignment too, but you said you've had that done already. *shrug*

Steve

 
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Well, if you did the alignment already, you can eliminate that as a possiblity. Could be the tires are out of balance, the tire pressures could be all off or you could have a bent rim...how deep was the pothole?? If they are the steelies, they should take hits like a champ...


2Hottie

 
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first of all for u not to do is to goin back to the shop where the guys told u about the "breaking in" period..not much of professionalism there.. now u go to another place to have the TOE and the lower A frame check...they could be bent from the "deep" pot hole......

 
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For 1955: thanks for your advice. the toe and camber are within limits, though i'm having trouble finmding a place that will check the caster since it can't be adjusted anyway (they just dont want to bother). so i'm going back to the dealer I bought it from to use the 12K/12 mo alignment warranty. one question though: i'm not sure what you meah by the a-frame, is there a simple explanation for a newbie? thanks.

 
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hey third honda..i forgot to mention about the tie rod end could be damaged,,its attached to the strut,,the A frame (they still call it) is the A shaped frame that attached the lower part of the caliper to the sub frame/chasis.if the car is wandering,its more likely to be a steering componet related problem,btw the dealer is gonna tell u its not cover by the warranty once they find out its caused by an accident but what the heck..they may be nice enough to fix it for free...hey,,take it to them on a friday..its the best day they have..trust me..