can you tell me whats wrong with my car?
 

I'll try to make this short


Ok - whenever I race or redline 1st gear my car feels like i'm going over a bunch of potholes and it pulls to the right. then once i switch to 2nd its all good. i really can't explain it more than that because i have no idea what it is. even if the road is smooth it feels like i hit a pretty deep hole.

and its not that "dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah" sound you get when your tires don't exactly get traction but are trying and its making your car bounce a bit - its actually like 1 or 2 loud "thud" sounds. and i can't take it to honda and say "whenever i race my car does this....." haha cuz that'd be just dumb. I wish i could have somebody drive my car and tell me what the hell is going on.

Where are you located?

Merced, CA, but i doubt you know where that is...um....central valley? hour from Fresno, 2 from SF, 5 from LA.........why wanna drive my car?

the is a rev limiter at the redline.
when you hit the redline it will make the dah, dah, dah sounds.

In older model civics with a distributer
You could get the msd igintion and it would eliminate the redline rev limiter
But as for the 7th gen I have yet to here of a way to eliminate the rev limiter

no, its not the rev limiter because i said it wasn't the "dah dah dah" sound - i swear it feels and sounds like i hit a group of pot holes and it pulls to the right and this is all just when im accelerating even before i get close to red line - just as the RPM's go up, but it only does it when i drive hard like in a race

when did you last check the plugs last
sounds like the cylinders might not be fireng all that well

hrmmm...never thought about that - i think i asked the same question a couple months ago and someone said something about toe alignment? 1, whats that? and 2 could that also be a problem? if i take it down to honda what should i tell them?

toe is the wheels alignment facing in or out instead of being paralelle with eachother

Here is an example of toe out

http://www.auto-ware.com/setup/toeout1.gif

If your issue is happening when you excellerate
I don not think it would be a toe issue.
You would feel that in the steering wheel.

probably none of the above, I have noticed the same in my 04 lx coupe, if you roll it on fast in first I think it confuses the drive shafts a bit, remember our cars are front wheel drive, also if the road is not glassy and you are accelerating in first gear you have a lot of torque on your drive shafts, and if one tire loses grip for an intant it will make the steering pull all over the place just my 2 cents.

so you're saying it could be my tires? what is a glassy road?

torque steer and wheel hop is what it sounds like to me. You could try an alignment to see if that helps with the pulling. But for the wheel hop you would have to get motor mount inserts. Honda will not help you with either of these.

hrmmm

OK - during my lunch hour i tried to make my car do what im talking about so i can better explain it - here it goes.....

so previously i said that it feels like im hitting pot holes when i accelerate but the reason it feels like that is a combination of 2 things - one the car is pulling to the right and 2 the engine doesn't go up the RMP band smoothly. its really weird

it sounds like im hitting the rev limiter but im not any where close to redline. it starts at maybe 3k RPM and the engine sounds like its hitting the limiter but then once it bounces down will start normal again - then it will do it again. then i switch to 2nd and everything is fine. :help:

Your pistons might not be firing correctly. Could be a big problem. Dont tell them you race, just say when it's revved high. If they give you shit tell them this is NOT noral operation, the car is obviously made to go over 4K rpm and fix it.

with the mods you have they may tell you to go suck a nut....but its still worth a try. :shrug:

that's wheel hop!My car do that all the time with sticky tires like Falken Azenis or Kumho MX.
Check your engine mount, they may be cracked. If not, get some engine mount insert.

It's call TORQUE STEER! It has nothing to do with the engine. It is inherent in almost all front drive cars. Especially cars with unequal length drive shafts- like the Civic. It happens under hard acceleration when the engine is torqing the drive shafts. The longer shaft will flex/twist more than the shorter shaft, resulting in uneven acceleration on the left and right wheels. The result is the car wants to turn to one side.

A car manufacturer can reduce this by using stiffer drive shafts, making the drive shafts equal length, and/or using both methods. Even if you do both in a front drive car, if the engine is powerful enough, torque steer will still be present (i.e. The current Acura TL).

a glassy road means smooth, no bumps, ruts, or uneven surfaces. I like in San Diego, not a flat road, not many without potholes, and bumps either. :hithead:

its not torque steer...i don't think. well, maybe that plays a part in it....but its not just that it pulls to the right...its really rough

its torque steer and wheel hop. well the torque steer making the wheel hop.
if its making your car goto the right yeah definently torque steer.

i read somewhere on the site that inserts make the car shake at idle?