Advice needed, 4g Civic pulling to the left - hundreds spent

[KidKoala]

Hi Guys

I'm hoping some technical guru's on here might be able to diagnose an issue with the suspension on my 1991 Civic 1.6i 16 (4th gen).

The problem is as follows:

When accelerating, if I take my hands off the steering wheel the car pulls to the left

When coasting, the car glides along in a straight line. If I then remove hands from the steering wheel, then press the accelerator the steering wheel moves to the left a little and obviously the car follows.

When braking normally the car stops in a straight line

When braking pretty heavily, the car pulls violently to the left and if you push the pedal hard enough the left wheel locks up on its own.

In addition to this, the steering wheel shakes a little all the time.


So far, I have taken the car to the garage for the following:

Engine Mounts

After these were replaced it relieved alot of jolting between gear changes and pulling away but didn't completely solve the problem

Rear brakes

The rear brakes were siezed on, so i had them unsiezed and fresh pads put in, this improved acceleration but made little or no difference to the main problems

Bushes

Today I had the strut rod bushes (connecting the control arm support brace bar to the crossmember) replaced with new poly replacements, this completely alleviated the jolty gear changes and pulling away.

I've also had 2 different garages test the brakes, and had one garage have a good look at the braking system and they said theres nothing wrong with the effort from the brakes, however this has obviously only been tested on a rolling road (not sure if you can lock the brakes up on a rolling road?)


I really am at a dead loss with this now, and need some pointers to give the garage in resolving the problem. So far i've spent £450 on parts and labour and still my car will not brake in a straight line!!!

Cheers for any tips you may have

[Stu R]

Have you had the geometry checked ?

[Maxf]

torque steer?

scratch that - just read about heavy braking.

Edited by Maxf on Tuesday 2nd December 21:13

[andy-xr]

Do you get a clicking noise on full lock?

[KidKoala]

Not had the geometry checked, just the tracking done. It did occur to me something may be up with geometry, but then surely this would affect the car when coasting not just when accelerating/braking? Which leads me to thinking there is some play in a part ?

It's not torque steer, you wouldn't get torque steer in 5th gear at 60MPH

[Captain Volvo]

You do know this is the Pie & Piston don't you........

[KidKoala]

No clicking on full lock

I'm new round here, and the Pie and Piston doesn't mean much to me but I was looking for a general car discussion.

[Blue Meanie]

Captain Volvo said:

You do know this is the Pie & Piston don't you........

MY GOD! You're right... All stop everyone. He may have put it in the wrong forum, and as we all know, no-one can answer anything that is in the slightly wrong forum. Can we have a mod delete the internet, and do a hard reset please?

[snotrag]

No worries, some one will move it.

I'd get the Geo checked.

What do you know about the history of the car? Has it ever been bumped? I have no idea holw old a '4g' civic is...

[308mate]

Check the wheel alignment.

Check the tyre pressures.

Check the brake caliper to make sure its no seized and is returning when you let the brakes off.


Scrap the POS.

HTH

[Disco_Dale]

Sounds like more than one problem...unless the thing is bent as a banana after a big shunt and cowboy repair.
The lurching/lockups under heavy braking could be a bias valve, assuming you've ruled out calipers.

The steering probs, as mentioned already get had a proper 4 wheel laser alignment check. Once that's checked it could point straight to the problem, but if that's OK then I reckon it's a case of finding out what's moving that shouldn't be, cos it sounds like something is.

[Captain Volvo]

Blue Meanie said:

Captain Volvo said:

You do know this is the Pie & Piston don't you........

MY GOD! You're right... All stop everyone. He may have put it in the wrong forum, and as we all know, no-one can answer anything that is in the slightly wrong forum. Can we have a mod delete the internet, and do a hard reset please?

my point was that it seemed a sensible question expecting a sensible response..........

and therefore clearly in the wrong area

[andy-xr]

KidKoala said:

No clicking on full lock

OK...

Speedo needle jump around at all?

[Simpo Two]

General Gassing surely?

[schmalex]

Take the steering wheel off. When you replace it, rotate it clockwise by a few splines & bob's your uncle no more pulling to the left.

[Baby Huey]

Tyre pressures?

Not got a bulge in one of your tyres have you?

[Disco_Dale]

Captain Volvo said:

Blue Meanie said:

Captain Volvo said:

You do know this is the Pie & Piston don't you........

MY GOD! You're right... All stop everyone. He may have put it in the wrong forum, and as we all know, no-one can answer anything that is in the slightly wrong forum. Can we have a mod delete the internet, and do a hard reset please?

my point was that it seemed a sensible question expecting a sensible response..........

and therefore clearly in the wrong area

Oh lookout, Captain Sensible is here in his Volvo.
We've done OK so far haven't we? The P+P isn't all pointless political whining and dick jokes you know!







just 99% of it...

[Blue Meanie]

Captain Volvo said:

Blue Meanie said:

Captain Volvo said:

You do know this is the Pie & Piston don't you........

MY GOD! You're right... All stop everyone. He may have put it in the wrong forum, and as we all know, no-one can answer anything that is in the slightly wrong forum. Can we have a mod delete the internet, and do a hard reset please?

my point was that it seemed a sensible question expecting a sensible response..........

and therefore clearly in the wrong area

Did you mistake me for someone being serious?

[mahatma]

It would be worth swapping the tyres around to eliminate this as a potential issue.

[KidKoala]

already replaced the tyres