Hi all. I get my alignments done at Firestone (lifetime alignment service) and about 2 months ago, i got new tires from there and had them do an alignment.

SInce switching to new tires, I can feel vibrations through my steering wheel more so than I would expect when I go over 60MPH. And when I brake on the freeway, my steering wheel really starts to shake. My friend says it could be my brake rotors... Also, I had my rear brake pads replaced around 25k miles.

I've been waiting for my car to hit 40000 miles (which I just reached) before I get it checked, but I have a feeling Acura will just tell me to pay for their alignment service. Should I even bother going to Acura to have this looked at or stick with Firestone?

And btw, what's in a 40000 miles service?

 

The shaking / vibrating when braking could mean your rotors are warped.

As for the vibrations at 60mph and over, I'd go to Firestone with that complaint. It might be worth having them check your alignment and balance on all four tires.

 

If your TSX pulled to one side or another I would suspect an alignment problem. Since this is a shaking I suspect its more to do with tire balance. Do you only feel it when braking? If so then the rotors are probably the culprit (do a search on "warped rotors" and you'll see lots of discussion). If it shakes more at higher speeds and is does it whether your foot is on the brake or not, its definitely a balance issue which you should direct to Firestone. Have them re-balance your tires and see if that solves the problem. They might even try rotating your fronts to your rears. If that doesn't work then I'd say bite the bullet and take it in to the dealer and have them try to fix it while its still under warranty.

 

Another vote for tire balance. I was getting this at 60-80mph with my TSX and I had my tires re-balanced last Friday. Problem 100% solved.

 

I have a feeling my rotors are warped or just needs resurfacing. The car doesnt veer any direction since the alignment at Firestone.

But the issue that's been driving me nuts is that i feel like my car is squatting slightly lower on the left side than the right when I sit inside. I can fit 3 fingers through on the rear right wheel well but only 2 fingers on the left one with the A-Specs I have. Would this be a balancing issue? I've raised this issue in the past to Acura, but they say it's an alignment issue? Oddly, this started happening after I took my Acura in last year for an alignment...

I guess I'll take my car in to get my brakes checked while I get my 40000 miles service done. And then probably take it Firestone after to get it rebalanced :/

 

If you feel the shaking only when you apply the brakes then its a rotors issue. In that case resurfacing the rotors should make the problem go away (at least for a while). The rotor issue may be one of two items. a)warped rotors or b) brake pad deposits on rotors. If (a) then resurfacing the rotors will make the shaking go away (at least until the rotors warp again). If (b) then resurfacing will remove the pad deposits (at least until the pads leave more deposits on the rotor). A better solution to (b) is to replace the OEM brake pads with better pads (such as Hawk HPS or some other recommended ones).

If it shakes without applying the brakes then its most likely a wheel balance issue. In this case the weight of the rim and tire is not evenly distributed around the wheel but instead there is a "heavy spot". This could be due to inconsistancies in the material or in the manufacturing process of the rim, the tire, or both. When wheels are balanced the shop usually adds small weights to the inside of the rim to compensate for these "heavy spots". Sometimes the wheels aren't balanced correctly or a weight falls off. Rebalancing usually takes care of this problem.

Now, the squatting on one side is a new issue. Since your car doesn't veer on its own I don't know if its an alignemnt issue or not. I have the A-spec suspension but I've never checked to see if mine squats more on one side than on another.

 

Thanks jlukja for the insightful explanations. I think it might be both issues for me, unfortunately. I'll just have to get both areas checked.

The leaning issue is something I'll just have to hope Acura can look into and offer a fix.

 

^^ I just had another thought about the leaning. What year is your TSX and who did your A-spec installation? The 04-05 A-spec suspension makes a distinction between the right and left rear damper. This may be to compensate for the weight of the driver. You might want to verify that the rear dampers were installed on the correct sides. They should be marked "R" and "L" for the right and left sides.

 

A speed-sensitive vibration might indicate a wheel out-of-balance condition or an out of whack condition in the driveline.

Here are some suggested checks:

Wheel Bearing: With the car parked on a level surface, tug back and forth at the top of the wheel/tire. If you feel any shifting/looseness and or hear any odd noises; it might indicate a bad bearing.

Steering Assembly: Grab the tires fore and aft and try to twist the wheel. Shifting/looseness and or noises during this procedure might indicate something is wrong with your steering linkages.

If all else fails, and you have vehicle ramps or can raise the car; you can check your half-shafts by trying to rotate the drive axels by hand with weight on the wheels. Any play here indicates something is wrong in driveline components. The fix for this problem can be expensive if you are no longer under warrantee.

See this thread for what some other TSXers that have experienced vibration issues: https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36756

Good luck!

 

That's weird. I have a 04 with stock suspension. My left side sits about 3/4" lower than the right side, both front and rear. I think it's possible the car isn't balanced left and right. Can anyone confirm?

 

2005 model.

I recall having my A-specs installed and not experiencign this leaning effect until about a year later after Acura did my alignment. Since then, all other alignment jobs have failed to correct this issue.

 

This is what I'm experience with my car except mine is more concentrated on the rear left side.

 

make sure your tire installer balances your tires WITH ROAD FORCE. low-profile tires are harder to balance than larger profile tires. even a fraction of an ounce off can cause vibration over 60mph. another tip is to have them balance the tire at a higher PSI than you normally drive at. remember that your tires will expand a little when driving - if you have them balance the tires at 32psi and you drive around, your tires will heat up to 34-35 psi, maybe even more. at that point, your balance points are all off. i did this on my SUV and vibration went away. another thing the installer can do is rotate the tire on the wheel itself and see if they can move the off-balance point. worse case scenario - find the tire that is the hardest to balance and replace it. some tires are just bad and no amount of balancing will get rid of vibrations if that's the case. hope this helps.

 

You should bounce your suspension before you try and check the ride height if you want any meaningful information. The uneven weight of the driver will leave the left side a little lower. Just push down on each corner enough to make it bounce back up and resettle before you try to do the measurement. This sag is more pronounced on older, more worn in suspension components.

Regarding the vibration, is it more or less pronounced under acceleration? Being more pronounced would suggest the axles should be looked at more closely.

 

Steering wheel shimmy and chassis vibration? I just happened to look over the latest service bulletin, and they've concluded a five-part series in identifying and rectifying these issues. Maybe worth reading?

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?p=767636

Thanks to jlukja for posting these.

 

I've done different experiements and even my friends can confirm my right side rear suspension is higher than the left. I've even had a friend sit on my right passenger seat while I check from the outside and it's still the same result.

Regardless, it annoys me cause i can see my instrument dial is slgihtly slanted.

In regards to the vibrations i feel while driving, i start to feel it when i go over 50mph.

 

Do you have aftermarket rims?? if so, check and see if they installed your centering rings. I just put my rims 3 weeks ago and mine started doing the same thing above 50 mph. Come to find out, They forgot to send me the centering rings for the wheels. I had them shipped and put on and now car drives smooth!

 

My wheels are stock OEM.

Here's my setup:
- A-spec suspension kit
- Engalls rear-camber kit.



Is this right? Tustin Acura told me that my rotors do have some slight warping but they told me that it's not worth paying to resurface them until later when my brake pads are more worn (currently at 50-60%). So they want me to risk warping my rotors even more?? As for the leaning issue, they didn't have an answer other than that the car is 3/8 of an inch lower on the left but that it drives fine and won't be a problem at all... I brought my car in for the 40k service btw.


Frustrated, this past week, I took my car to South Coast Acura dealer to look into the issue on the slanting issue and they told me that, yes (obviously), my car has noticeable sagging on left side and that the only way to correct this is to revert BACK to my stock suspension, and they wuold charge me to do it. Once that happens, the car will be fine but I cannot go back to my A-specs which i spent $$ on already. Oh and they conveniently charged me $100 to look into this issue (labor) but to of no good news. Great.

According to them, the car's struts have already been "settled in" and cannot be changed once this happens. My question to them was, how the heck is my car "set" to lean to the left to begin with? This didn't happen 2 years ago when I had my A-specs installed at Acura. It was only a year later after they did my alignment service that i started noticing that the car is leaning to the left.


Help? Shouldn't all this be covered under warranty and I should be able to get replacement struts??

Sigh...I'm beginning to think I should get rid of this car...

 

If most of your driving is with just you in the vehicle you will see the springs on the driver's side sag more than the right side - more if you're chubby. You might want to install a few rubber spring spacers yourself if this is really bugging you.