Weird Cornering Feeling

[RCracer]

Hi
I have H&R springs and Koni shocks and like the setup appart from it is a little soft over multiple bumps at speed.
Anyway the problem I am having is that the back of the car is starting to feel weird when I corner hard-ish 30-40mph round a roundabout. Almost to the point of where it breaks away (very noticable in the wet) I realise that with my wheels being 14 inch that the 195/60-14 could just be tucking under and rolling onto the sidewall but I am not sure.
Has anyone experienced this it almost feels like the rear wheel is steering. I have looked at the suspension bushes arms etc and cant see anything wrong anyone have some ideas before I start to replace stuff.
I plan to replace the wheels with 16 or 17 soon but dont want to spend money on wheels if I need some bushes or whatever.
ANY IDEAS???????????
Thanks

[Jims 86LXI HB]

The H&R springs like all lowering springs are stiffer, they increased the rear spring rates more then they increased the fronts. Theirfore you rear end in now being asked to carry more cornering loads. That may be a very small part of what your feeling. I think the biggest thing is in the wheel/tires. When I put on my oem wheel/tires the car felt really weird. I had them on for more than a week and was delighted to get them off and get my alloys back on. It was like night and day, and the weirdness was banished. Never the less it doesn't cost much to replace you sway bar bushings.

In all, I can say I'm not experiencing any funny business in the rear end during max cornering at any speed, hairpins at 20mph or flat out at 90mph through my favorite freeway onramp.
My rearend does a great job is hanging on. And when I stop to feel the tire temps the rears feal a little warm, telling me they are doing their part in helping the car corner, the fronts are much warmer, telling me I have some room for tuning sake.

[RCracer]

Hi
I will check those tomorrow. Had a quick look before but I will look better tommorow.
It seems to be ok turning left but turning right is when I get the weird feeling. It seem to happen in the 25-45mph speed range under hardish cornering. Seems ok(better) at speeds above (70-80).
If all the bushes are ok I think I may swap spring/struts from one side to the other. Then I know if its the spring/shock assembly or that side of the suspention/car.

Yes I have checked my tyre pressures and yes both rear wheels have roughly the same camber.

I will let you know what I find.

Paul

[Jims 86LXI HB]

:lol DOH!! I forgot about tire pressure's,...opps

[RCracer]

Had a look today and I was like . It went through the road safety check in mid Feb this year and there is that much play in the ball joint on the rear top arm on the left hand side looking from the back that I wont even drive the car till I have replaced both back top arms. The other side feels ok but I am changing both. Honda cant get me them for 2-3 weeks and I need my car so am getting some patern parts for now. They are costing me £130 ($195) shipped. That is if they arrive as it is a holiday weekend in the UK from tommorow evening till wed morning so I hope they come .
I really hope that the play in the top arm was making it feel and drive weird but I am not sure.
I will post my findings when I have fitted the top arms. Has anyone done this job? The nuts for the ball joints are set back into the upright with a plastic cap. They are very corroded inside the cap. I can see me having some fun.

Paul
:smokin:

[Jims 86LXI HB]

Yikes, glad you found the problem

[superaccord]

r u talking about your car being squerly? my car is that way, like way bad, it wont do it much until 40 plus. its scary, it feeels like im hydro planning, and its no fun on the highway. i like cant go too fast, what is my prob. i have nitto's and 14s. what could be the case.
thanks,
matt
any one know where i can get a rear strut bar too?

[RCracer]

Originally posted by superaccord
r u talking about your car being squerly? my car is that way, like way bad, it wont do it much until 40 plus. its scary, it feeels like im hydro planning, and its no fun on the highway. i like cant go too fast, what is my prob. i have nitto's and 14s. what could be the case.
thanks,
matt
any one know where i can get a rear strut bar too?

I have 14inch rims with toyos so dont think its the tyres anyway it only does it round right hand turns and not left. It is sooo nice and tight round left hand turns.

You can get a rear strut bar from Justin (turboaccord) he makes/modifys them for our cars.

I am thinking of getting a rear bar from justin and getting a front bar cheap(second hand) and modifying it to fit round the carb. That will have to wait for a while though.

[RCracer]

I got the new top rear arms and when it came to fit them well !!!!!!!!!!
I have never come across a ball joint that was so difficult to seperate in my life (I have worked on cars for a while), it came out though.

Anyway the weather has been nice (no rain) and yes that is strange for the UK:lol :lol anyway the weird cornering feeling has gone in the dry I will have to wait for it to rain before I can comment on that (wet roads seemed to exagerate the feeling).

As I came to do the other side (there is no play or anything in the joint just doing it for safetys sake) the rubber cover over the ball joint on the new arm was faulty (big hole) so I will have to wait untill after the holiday weekend before they can get me another.(they cant get the rubber cover on its own)

All I can say is "CHECK YOUR REAR TOP ARM BALL JOINTS" as mine wasnt making any noise that you could hear no rattles or anything yet had so much wear it was frightening.

Paul:smokin:

[Thunderstorm]

Happy you found the problem Paul.
Check your tyre pressures again, and make sure the rear tyres are in the region of 28 to 30.

That's what I have on my car, and the rear never wallows or breaks away.

Make sure you have the same type of tyres on both rear wheels.
(But of course you do, right?) When I got "Firestorm", I noticed it kept jumping sideways everytime I went over a bump.

The rear tyres were from two different manufacturers.
4 Brand new tyres later, the problem disappeared.
And I will check my ball joints regularly.
Just passed my Road Safety check on Thursday.

Peace.

Thunderstorm.

:super:

[Jims 86LXI HB]

No kidding, 2 gents from the uk, well I'll be,...cool