ngcreese

My frontend wobbles very much when I'm accelerating. It doesn't do this when I'm coasting, although I can feel something that doesn't feel right. So, it's definetly not my wheels being out of balanced.

It has been intermittent so far, but it's starting to occur more often.

Here's the thing, when I hit a bump and then hit the gas the car really wobbles. If I let off the gas for a little while and then get back on the gas, it goes away sometimes.

Also, I can tell when it's about to happen because if I'm coasting and it is about to happen you can feel it in the steering wheel as sharp thump/tap with a rythm in sync with the rotation speed of car's tires, kinda like going over a small seem you would find between to slabs of concrete road, repeatedly.

The sharp thump/tap rythm would increase as I go faster and would cause front end to start wobbling when if at that point I try to accelerate hard.

Now, this feels to me as if the CV joint (driver's side) is bad and is locking up when placed under the added stress of hard acceleration.

BTW, this usually will start happening when I drive over rough ground or after turning a corner. Hard acceleration after this usually ends up with frontend wobble.

What do you think?

If you've had a similar experience how did you visibly identify this problem? Broken CV joint boot? Grease in that area?

I could use some good input

daverman

Since your car is still under warranty, definitely bring it in to the dealer's.

It sounds like a wheel balancing problem to me.

SinnedTL

did you check to see if your lug nuts are tight...seems elementary but it is very important...

Jens

Sounds like a bad tire to me.Your description chimes right in there for a tire with a shifted belt.Check all the usual stuff like the lugnuts but to me it seems a classic case of a shifted belt.Your best bet is to go to your servicing dealer and let them check it out for you.If it is a tire you may need to approach Michelin directly as the tires on cars are covered by their own warranty and not all dealers can provide or are authorized to provide warranty service on Michelin tires.Jens

ngcreese

The problem was there before I went in for service, where they did rotate and re-balance my tires. The problem is still there now. sigh...

Jens

Then it could indeed be some sort of driveline component failure.Sounds like your best bet is to reschedule another appointment with your servicing dealer.If at all possible see if you can determine what exactly you have to do with the car in order to get the problem to happen.As you mentioned in your first post about this it is an intermittent problem so if you can demonstrate the problem to a technician or other service person at your dealer it will go a long way to solving this problem.At times here at the dealer where I work we have situations where cars have intermittent concerns that may require participation by the owner of the car to help us out in fixing it.Jens

ngcreese

Jens, I hear you. Yep it definetly seems to happen after passing over some bumpy roads. As if something is knocked slightly out of wack and you get this thumping feel under your feet and through the steering wheel. Then if during that time you apply stress to the drive train (by applying gas), it becomes exaggerated and turns from a thump (like a gear in the tranny is missing a tooth or something) into a wooble that shakes the entire front end from side to side. If I let off the throttle for a little and then get back on it again, things seem to become ok.

Sigh... And I so love everything about my car, espically the suspension.

jps

If it is not an obvious mechanical problem, could it be a problem with the VSA? Perhaps it is somehow getting triggered/bad input and applying braking etc.

jps

ngcreese, did you get this resolved?

ngcreese

Well, there is a happy ending to this wobbling problem folks...

I stopped by the dealership at 4:30pm on a friday, without an appointment (I had an appointment for the following tuesday but sometimes there is no time like the present), to show the service manager what was up with my car. We went for a test drive and the problem showed up so bad that this time it wouldn't go away (ie.: I couldn't drive it home.) This is actually a good thing because he immediately took my car and put it on a lift.

All to find, it was indeed the driver's side inner CV joint! One of the balls inside the joint must have popped out and gotten stuck...

So, on a moment's notice, he jumped on the phone to express order another CV joint, due in moday or tuesday, pulled out another 2002 TL (no type S available) and handed me the keys as a loaner for as long as it takes to fix my baby.

Now that's customer service. Good going Heart Acura!