Steering Wheel intermittently Vibrate After Steering Rack Replacement

[madbikes]

I am scratching my head, as I am running out of clues why this is happening.

Prior to the steering rack being replaced, the front wheels were balanced. The rack managed to fall apart one night and it was making knocking noises when the car is not moving by the steering wheel left and right. Took the car into the dealer and verified the rack took a dive.

A replacement updated steering rack arrived a month of backorder. While that was the remedy, I now got an intermittent vibration from the steering wheel that only happens in a very narrow range of freeway speed (around 65 to 70), which was not present before the replacing the rack.

To best describe how the steering wheel vibrates, think of an imbalanced tire, but doesn't vibrate that bad. Yet you can still see the steering wheel vibrate. If you hold onto the wheel too firm, you may not notice it as well when that happens.

I tried to demonstrate the phenomenon to the tech who performed the repair after driving the car for the entire afternoon. He couldn't quite feel it like I did and tried to blame the road, which it could not have been the cause.

We double checked if the lugs were tight. 2 out of 10 lugs (rear wheels were not removed) were not tight enough.

I was advised to head back if I still do experience the same issue. Sure enough I still do, but not as pronounced.

Any ideas what may have happened?

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[Chilly613]

If they replaced the rack, did they bother to do an alignment after the replacement and give you a print out of the alignment?

 

[madbikes]

If they replaced the rack, did they bother to do an alignment after the replacement and give you a print out of the alignment?

They did not provide a printout. They assured alignment is part of the warranty procedure when the rack was replaced.

I am fairly certain alignment is not going to cause vibration in that fashion.

 

[Shingo Shoji]

Interesting. I thought it was in my head but I'm also having issues after the recall. It feels like the toe is out or something. I get a bit of twichyness and vibration but it's intermittent so hard to nail down.

 

[jtlctr]

Sure sounds like a wheel balance issue being that it only happens at a specific speed. I would recommend having the wheel balance checked again by someone other than the dealer. Maybe they knocked off a wheel weight when replacing the rack?

 

[madbikes]

Maybe they knocked off a wheel weight when replacing the rack?

The front wheels have to be removed first before disconnecting anything that will let you get to the steering rack.

If it is a tire balancing issue, vibration will not be come and gone within a narrow window.

 

[madbikes]

Interesting. I thought it was in my head but I'm also having issues after the recall. It feels like the toe is out or something. I get a bit of twichyness and vibration but it's intermittent so hard to nail down.

Was your fix replacing the rack instead of the updated re-grease procedure?

 

[AZCWTypeR]

If the vibration always happens in a speed range, at least one tire is out of balance or out of round.
If the vibration comes and goes at a constant speed, both tires are out of balance in the secondary plane. Due to tolerances and cornering, tires on the same axle rotate relative to each other. The secondary unbalances can add at one relative position and conversely offset each other when one tire rotates half a turn from the other.
Most shops don't balance tires anywhere near perfect, due to machine calibration and/or operator time constraints. As I've always owned sports cars with direct steering, this is a pet peeve of mine.

 

[jtlctr]

The front wheels have to be removed first before disconnecting anything that will let you get to the steering rack.

If it is a tire balancing issue, vibration will not be come and gone within a narrow window.

I meant maybe they could have knocked off a weight when pulling the wheels off.

I think I may have misread what you said about it being intermittent. If the vibration comes and goes within that certain speed window, that I have not experienced. But if it starts happening constantly at 65-70 and then goes away above and below those speeds, that sounds like a wheel balance issue.

If you have the means to rotate your tires front to back, that might be a good experiment to see if it effects your symptoms.

 

[madbikes]

I was about to have my local America's Tire to check if the front two tires are balanced, until I noticed they were on the sketchy side of things. Each bay is equipped with four floor jacks and just have cars up in the air that way. So I immediately left.

Eventually, I gave your idea a shot.

If you have the means to rotate your tires front to back, that might be a good experiment to see if it effects your symptoms.

I did not notice wheel weights went missing while rotating the wheels front to back. It seems like that did the trick so far. Only quickly went out to the freeway and back, so I'll verify on a different day.

Who knew unbolting a wheel and put it back on will immediately throw off its balance? It's very strange and didn't make sense for some time.

 

[jtlctr]

I was about to have my local America's Tire to check if the front two tires are balanced, until I noticed they were on the sketchy side of things. Each bay is equipped with four floor jacks and just have cars up in the air that way. So I immediately left.

Eventually, I gave your idea a shot.



I did not notice wheel weights went missing while rotating the wheels front to back. It seems like that did the trick so far. Only quickly went out to the freeway and back, so I'll verify on a different day.

Who knew unbolting a wheel and put it back on will immediately throw off its balance? It's very strange and didn't make sense for some time.

Hopefully it’s just a simple balance issue.

Good call avoiding that tire shop. It’s not easy finding trustworthy professionals to do any kind of auto service these days. I feel lucky to have found an independent tire shop near my work that I trust. I always try and avoid chain store type shops and use mom and pop joints if possible. This is no guarantee of quality, but usually you get a better sense of who is doing your work. Google reviews can be a good place to start in finding someone.

 

[madbikes]

I drove the car again today and the wheel rotation seems to do the trick. I just need to decide where am I going to have two, or all of the tires balanced on the safe side.

Many Thanks!

 

[jtlctr]

Nice! Glad you got it figured out!

 

[TypeRD]

I drove the car again today and the wheel rotation seems to do the trick. I just need to decide where am I going to have two, or all of the tires balanced on the safe side.

Many Thanks!

I’m glad you got things figured out. However, my brain is having a hard time accepting the idea that a wheel or wheels became out of balance just from removal and replacement. This just doesn’t make sense.

What I am hypothesize is that the lug nuts weren’t properly torqued to 94 ft lbs (pretty sure that’s the spec) when the wheels were put back on. I’m betting that the technician torqued them to 80 ft lbs, which is normal for all other Civics and many other Honda models. So, at speed, the rotational forces revealed the slight looseness in the wheel(s). This is why, when you rotated the wheels/tires, everything went back to normal when you torqued the lugs properly.

I could be totally wrong. I’m just trying to make sense of the situation and there was no mention of checking the torque on the lug nuts. As we all know, sometimes the most obvious things aren’t so obvious.

 

[madbikes]

I’m glad you got things figured out. However, my brain is having a hard time accepting the idea that a wheel or wheels became out of balance just from removal and replacement. This just doesn’t make sense.

That is exactly what did not make sense at all. I have replaced an engine once while disconnecting the steering rack on a different vehicle. I have removed and bolt on many wheels on the same end of the car countless of times. Steering wheel should not be vibrating afterwards.

What I am hypothesize is that the lug nuts weren’t properly torqued to 94 ft lbs (pretty sure that’s the spec) when the wheels were put back on. I’m betting that the technician torqued them to 80 ft lbs, which is normal for all other Civics and many other Honda models. So, at speed, the rotational forces revealed the slight looseness in the wheel(s). This is why, when you rotated the wheels/tires, everything went back to normal when you torqued the lugs properly.

The lugs were definitely not torqued to 80 ft lbs and I did ask the tech how much should they be torqued to. 2 of 10 lugs were a little loose when he tried to check them. I doubled checked the lugs were tight on my own and was still vibrating until I rotated the tires.

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