Hard Thump when car hits small bumps on road
 

I'm new here and I own a 2001 top of the range VTEC Civic. I'm having problems when my car hits small bumps on the road. It's just not smooth at riding over these. There's a loud thump on the front end.

I've taken this problem to honda many times and they say it's normal. Reading this forum it seems to be a standard problem with the 2001 model.

On top of this, the car wonders a little while driving and the wheels are hard to align. I just don't seem to have full control of this car.

Please help !!!!

i have an 02 lx and it seems that recently when i go over little bumps, the steering wheel moves like crazy and that i dont have full control of the car as i used to.

do both of you have any mods? any wheel/tire upgrade or suspension?

I have an '01 ex coupe 5speed no mods at all and I have the exact same problem. I've been to 2 diff dealers and one told me that "my car is made of plastic and is going to do that" and the other said that all Civics do that...because they have "european suspension" Is that a bunch of crap!!! I don't know what to do because every tiny crack/bump/expansion joint in the road comes right through to the inside of my car...almost like I don't have a suspension at all. My steering wheel jumps and makes noise. They say it's normal...but...my car is getting worse and when it was new (now has almost 16k) it didn't do it at all. I was reading the official press release on the 7th gen Civic and it says that the spring rates were reduced to provide a more supple ride...that would be the exact opposite of a "european" suspension. One more thing is that when I push down on the front of my car, it gives and moves a lot...like 5 or 6 inches...my friend has an '02 ex coupe auto and when I push on his it barely gives at all...and his car feels right...doesn't let every bump into cabin. Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get Honda to fix my car??? I am so frustrated...I actually hate driving my car...I go totally out of my way at times to travel on roads that I know are super smooth/no bumps. Please help! Thanks

PS. Does writing an official letter to Honda actually ever get anyone any results??

Yea,

I want a new car.....I have EX too and 31K.....I can't take it any more.....

Bump steer and poor dampening is just part of the car. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-frown.gif[/IMG]
In another thread about strut bars, someone mentioned that the Neuspeed bar helps the "wondering" somewhat.
But for now, anytime I see a pot hole on the expressway, and have to go over it, I hold on to that steering wheel haha.

my car takes speed bumps hard in the rear too. and it wanders a lot on the freeway. but that's probably caused by my mean firestone firehawk performance tires. at least thats what the dealer said.[IMG]i/expressions/laugh2.gif[/IMG]

I had my lx on a dirt road.... black fog covered civic [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/IMG]..... and my steering wheel was goin apeshit over 15mph lol

I don't know if it is designed like this intentionally, but I guess some people like the way the Civic can pick up all the road conditions, and let the driver know about them. I guess it is kind of interesting.

Hey! I started this thread thinking I was the only person in the world with this problem being in Thailand. It's a big ongoing problem for me which I'm taking up with Honda Thailand at present. Please look at my thread on wheels and tires. They're all linked together. Honda cars suck once they've sold the car.

By the way no mods, I'm just replacing tires because of my Hona problems. :cry:

yea a strut bar will make you car more predictable... as in you'll know which way the car is gonna pul into once it hits a bump...without it my steering wheel is too soft, like there is too much play in it that i can't feel which way the car is pulling.. and yes a strutbar won't make you car go faster or handle like a dream...but at least it'll stiffern the steering wheel, for more control...

[IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-nono.gif[/IMG] my '01 civic ex is lowered with aerospeed coilovers, it feels like my rear jumps off the ground when i hit a small pot hole, specially in a turn, it loses grip then a second later it huggs the turn. feel real shit*y. the front, when i turn the stearing wheel..... it sounds like tightining a cable around a poll, dung, dung, dung,dung. what the *uck??

I'm from singapore, driving the yr2002 7th gen civic too. in singapore, the civic are from imported from japan.
i too encounter the rather bumpy rear suspension. it is supposedly improved from the yr 2001 model, but i still feel it is rather bumpy, especially when I'm the only pax in the car.
to reduce the impact, I'd reduced the rear tyre pressure by 20kpa, which helped quite a bit.

I dunno if this is the same. but my front wheels seem to chatter, over any bump, it's gotten worse and worse. gonna take it to a dealer next week and see what's up. It also has blown struts. It's definatly time to sell this car. I can tell it's not going to hold up at all.

I dont know if this is related, it might be. when i had less than 10,000 miles on my 01 civic ex, i had that bumping in the front end too, like the suspension was bottoming out at 5 MPH going over mild speed bumps, or when pulling into a driveway at normal speed. So i took it to the dealer. They replaced my front coils, free. You may want to take that route.

I have konis, and i had this problem about 2 months after i got them installed. I took it to the place i got it installed at they said they put a bolt on the control arm upside down and it was hitting somthing and making a knocking sound. It took them only 15 minutes to find out what is wrong and fix it. But if your car is still stock i dont know what could be wrong with it.

My 01 civic is lowered and when I make a turn it feels like the back end is swinging. I hate driving it in the rain while on the freeway because the back end just jumps around. At first I thought it was because my tires where wearing out, but after I replaced them it is still happening.

it sould be just the crap breaking in the front end, i had this problem before too

I brought my car in for the same problem. It seems that on the 01 civic, there is a problem with the front struts, My front stuts are both leaking which is causing the hard thumping over small bumps and holes in the road. My struts are on order through honda right now...but they are backordered. They are also covered my Warranty, so I dont have to pay a dime.

how do you all get Honda (your dealers) to admit that there is a problem with the struts/springs??? I've been complaining about this for over a year now and they just keep saying that there is nothing wrong with my car...saying that it's "typical" for the 7th gen civic.

Got a different dealer. The service manager told me to tell the service writer that I think the noise is coming from the struts. It is all covered by warranty including the parts.

Sloppy Steering
 

It may be a problem that was remedied sometime in '02. I just drove my mother-in-law's '01 LX sedan and the steering was EXTREMELY loose compared to our '02 EX sedan. It was very noticable - I was aware of it as soon as I pulled out of the driveway.

I'd register at the HONDA OWNER"S LINK and see if you have any recalls.

Be sure to have your VIN# and Radio Security Code# ready.;)

Yeah me too. My suspension bottoms out in the front over speed bumps when my car had 5000k on it. I didn't know why back then but now my ride is like sh*t. The car just doesn't handle well. Good thing I got a front strut bar which helps tighten up the steering but the struts are blown for sure.

Yup, mine are bad too. I have 25k miles, but they've been bad for maybe 5k or more. Not horrible, but I called the dealer and he said they've had that problem. He also mentioned that Honda has a new strut or shock design design to correct this. It goes in on Wed (Apr 2nd) I'll let ya know how it goes.

Is this a problem with the 2003's? What problems do the 03's have besides suspension?

Ok, so I went to the dealer and dropped off my car and they called later to confirm that the front shocks were bad. But, they are on back order FOR TWO MONTHS! So I'm not sure what I'm gonna do, but Honda of America will hear about this. Two months is nuts! I called other dealerships and they're all backed up too of course. Hmm, I'll just tell them to install some performance struts!

WOOT WOOT I just got a call from my honda dealer. The struts that I had on back order are finally in...and it only took a month lol.

Well, I just got my car back from the dealer yesterday -- I took it in for the very same problem; the steering has gotten very loose-feeling, and the "bump-steer" is very pronounced. They said they looked over the suspension very thoroughly, but did not find anything out of the ordinary.

The service writer told me that "the car just has a really hard suspension", and that's "just part of the deal of owning a Civic". I told him pretty much what everyone here has said: it wasn't like this when it was new! He told me that it was probably the tires - he had an attitude about it, like I chose to put piece-of-crap Firestones on a brand new car; I told him that it was Honda's fault, not mine. :mad:

Hmmm...strut bar, you say? Maybe I'll try that.

Goto another dealer and tell them you think your struts are bad. It is coming from there. I just think they were just being pricks about it. This is why I hate car dealers.

After 1 year of fighting Honda they finally replaced the struts, steering rack and suspension wings. The car seems much better, but I think Honda 7th Generations suck in these areas.