Steering Wheel Shake
 

Good morning all,

I have a 2005 Civic LX (daily driver) that I just had new wheels/tires put on at 73K miles. The new wheels are the 15-Spoke (08W15-S5D-101B) direct from Honda. I now have a slight shake in the steering wheel at 58-60 mph and 68-70 mph.

Everything has been rebalanced and the suspension has been inspected - I have an alignment scheduled for tonight as we cannot figure out what else it could be.

Could the new wheels have a different offset than the standard steel wheels? Could this be throwing off the alignment on the car? Overall diameter really hasn't changed besides tire wear, width is the same...

Some feedback would be great. What do you think?

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

Well, the steering wheel shake is gone. Toe was off, as was the front right camber. Rear toe was also just out of spec. Of course the car rides like crap in general now. Why? They put it on the alignment machine as a 06-09 civic. It's a 2005. Have another appointment tomorrow morning...I don't know how the old style civic compares to the new style on the alignment parameters but I'm guessing they are different.

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

Usually when the shake comes and goes at different speeds its the wheel balance... Mine just started doing it too when I rotated my tires :( It could be the alignment though. I would imagine that the spec is way different from the years of cars but I'm not sure either. Make sure they put it on as the right year and tell them to do it for free since they screwed up last time.

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

At first, I went with balancing too because that's the typical fix for the diagnosis but this was definitely the alignment. Some measurements were off the chart to start and the car seemed to be skewed to the left. The shake is completely gone but the car doesn't ride right. There is no "return to center" after making a turn and the car seems a little twitchy over 70mph. I think we'll start with camber tomorrow morning and go from there...

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

Best of luck hopefully that fixes it :) Don't forget to post if it fixed it!

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

first... take it back and have them align the car to the correct specs.

second... did your new wheels come with hub-centric rings?

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

All is good after this morning's appointment.
:sweet:
First thing we did was a test drive. I actually went out with the mechanic (him driving) and he noticed exactly what I did.

The mistake putting it under the 06-09/10 model actually made sense because the build date on the door jamb, actually falls under a 2006 model designation but it was just a very late 2005 build. As I remember, it was the last one the dealership had when I got it in September of that year...it was new with just 9 miles.

Anyways, we typed in the VIN and used it instead of the door jamb sticker and the machine ran with 03-05 specs. The alignment specs are totally different for the earlier model and the car now rides like new.

BTW - These wheels don't use the hub centric rings. They have tapered lugnuts to center the wheels on the hub.

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

Sweet!

Re: Steering Wheel Shake
 

FYI - lugnuts are not going to center the wheel on the hub, but anyways... glad you got the issue fixed. :tup: