Steering wheel wobble

[Ghostwhite]

I must comment as I just found a loose upper control arm, when the suspension was unloaded or in the air it would not show any movement but if you rocked the wheel/tire while the car was on the ground it would clunk. It did cause a wheel shake but mine was most noticeable under braking.

[Kev1990]

It appears that it was the upper control arms, ball joints barely had any play but did have torn boots when I took them off and the bushings looked pretty good as far as I could tell they were the original control arms as every bolt had the factory yellow paint on the threads, I remembered I had two new AC DELCO professional control arms sitting in the garage unopened from like 3 years ago and thought it would be a good idea to just go ahead and install them and I instantly noticed the difference on the first ride so I wanted to thank everyone for all of your help as it's greatly appreciated.

It only took so long to repair because right after my last post I found a deal on a 1999 Honda Civic EX 5 speed that I couldn't pass up with 130K on it. Only necessary repairs were a new power steering belt, a muffler from my last civic, valve cover gasket, serviced the transmission, new plugs and wires NGK, air filter, fuel filter and oil change just so I knew when it was last done. I was very surprised to hear no knocks or ticks when I first looked at it and no signs of a bad head gasket. I'm the 3rd owner and it has factory keyless entry, 36.8 mpg shifting below 3k rpms before maintenance and 41 mpg on the next tank after doing the maintenance shifting below 3K and I put about 1,500 miles on it so far with no further problems.

[toycar]

It appears that it was the upper control arms, ball joints barely had any play but did have torn boots when I took them off and the bushings looked pretty good as far as I could tell they were the original control arms as every bolt had the factory yellow paint on the threads, I remembered I had two new AC DELCO professional control arms sitting in the garage unopened from like 3 years ago and thought it would be a good idea to just go ahead and install them and I instantly noticed the difference on the first ride so I wanted to thank everyone for all of your help as it's greatly appreciated.

It only took so long to repair because right after my last post I found a deal on a 1999 Honda Civic EX 5 speed that I couldn't pass up with 130K on it. Only necessary repairs were a new power steering belt, a muffler from my last civic, valve cover gasket, serviced the transmission, new plugs and wires NGK, air filter, fuel filter and oil change just so I knew when it was last done. I was very surprised to hear no knocks or ticks when I first looked at it and no signs of a bad head gasket. I'm the 3rd owner and it has factory keyless entry, 36.8 mpg shifting below 3k rpms before maintenance and 41 mpg on the next tank after doing the maintenance shifting below 3K and I put about 1,500 miles on it so far with no further problems.

Nice find. Civics have my sons attention so we’ve been playing with them lately. Fun cheap cars.

Rule of thumb with steering wobble;

If it’s speed specific it has to do with something that rotates

If it’s inconsistent in nature, as in it’s not predictable at a given speed but consistently the same symptom it’s most likely a bushing somewhere

Main exception is a bad belt in a tire. They have a mind of their own and can be difficult to diagnose because their behavior has a lot to do with temperature outside

[Kev1990]

True. Not only are they fun but if your broke for two weeks 24 dollars gets you real far if you drive them like their supposed to be AHAHAHAHA. 9.256 gallons got me 379.5 miles at 41mpg that's better then the best my last civic by 1.3mpg

I treated my wagon to a new light bar the same day I installed the new control arms and I hope it's fine if I post pictures of it here.