opboarding

Since I lowered my car, I noticed it was doing weird things at highway speeds. On my drive to Houston today I really noticed it since I was going 70+ and had some pretty big bumps. Not abrupt bumps, but ones where the whole car raises and lowers. It sounds like it is bump steer from what I am reading. Basically what bump steer is, is where the new geometry of your lowered suspension is causing your tires to toe in and out when the car raises and lowers. This causes the car to feel very unstable and pull left and right. Here is a picture of stock vs lowered control arms. Since the lowered car's control arms are tilted downward, they move in a new arc causing the tires to toe in and out. Below is a picture of stock vs lowered control arms. Since the lowered car's control arms are tilted downward, they move in a new arc causing the tires to toe in and out.

I feel like this started when I put on my J-power control arms, but if it really is bump steer then it should happen regardless of what control arms I have on. I've had to max out my megan ez damping and that has helped since the car doesn't move as much on bumps. I've also gotten 2 alignments since I've lowered and car has been tracking nice and straight.

Does anyone else who's lowered experience this?

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

I decided to be a cheap bastard and get the ebay camber kits too...same ones, "jpower" and let me tell you, the bushings are total garbage, when taking a turn, or slight curve the car felt SUPER unstable and no matter how many alignments I got I felt like the car would go wherever it wanted to go at any given time.

I drove like that for a year and wasted one set of tires due to weird toe wear.

I said goodbye to those and replaced with spc upper camber arms rear and upper adjustable balljoint for the front. Don't go cheap on this. Trust me.

tobwac

well im taking 4+ hour trip tmrw will see if i also gonna feel same thing

ed_423

i get that steer once in a while. i just thought it was torque steer haha

Username 0

I've dealt with this type of issues with all my lowered cars in the past. It's a pain to find the source of the problem. Even my Ctr has suspension issues. This is why I'm not going to lower my cu2.
I recommend going over your alignment and from there look and inspect your suspension parts to make sure nothing is loose properly seated. Good luck man, I feel your headache.

Italiano

Use quality parts and u will be ok:-)

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

^^^exactly. As soon as I read Jpower...I knew what the problem was. And if you look back you'll see my old posts stating that a metal part is a metal part and I wouldn't pay for name brand. BOY did I eat my words there...fk cheap suspension parts/bushings.

I have normal bump steer...trust me, I know what OP is living with.

HOLLYHOOD

i havent had any bump steer since ive put in my coils but in a previous car it was horrible 94 accord coupe . sounds like might be the same problem re check your bolts etc

opboarding

I've thought about it a lot, and I really cant remember if the problem started when I put on my control arms. I put the coils on one weekend and the next I put on the arms, and I dont really remember in between.

Rockstar you say it happened around turns for you, but for me its ONLY on big bumps/dips. Handling under 50mph I have no complaints. What is your "normal bump steer" like?

Ive checked all the bolts on the control arms to make sure nothing was loose after both alignments, and they all checked out as good. I am really considering buying the SPC arms and hoping that it fixes it. I haven't read anything in particular for us TSX guys about bump steer being bad, and others are much lower than I am. I am about 1.3" front and rear.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

Hey man...well, honestly, when I give advice or share my personal experiences I try and keep in mind that it might have been just my own experience before I go out and tell someone to spend a few hundred bucks so please take it with a grain of salt.

I rode on the jpower ones (specifically that same brand) for 1 year...when i did finally remove them, the bushings on all 4 of my arms were pressed through the hole half way and totally deformed. They are rubber bushings but not made of quality stuff. I was warned about it but was hard headed. I actually switched to NO camber arms for a bit and was very happy with how stable the car felt again. Then ended up springing for the upper single camber arm from SPC that doesn't bring the bottom of the tire in, but rather the top out (like a traditional camber correction).

About bumpsteer...well, I'm maxed on my teins and what I mean is that if I hit a bump in the road, it'll track straight but there's a particular section of road i drive on every day that has these long bumps in them (perpendicular to my car) and the car tends to go off center from straight when I hit these and I have to correct.

Other than that, the car is a pleasure to drive now. Having the jpowers made me a believer in putting quality suspension components in.

opboarding

I just spent some more time reading the accord forums, and no one has any complaints about the J-power. TSX's on here say they are quality too. Rockstar, our arms look a lot different than yours do. I feel like our bushings would be different than yours since its a completely different design. The bushings could still be the problem though. I'm afraid if I buy the SPC arms they will feel the exact same, and then I'll lose a lot of money selling the J-power. I guess I wont know for sure until I finally give in and buy them...

direct effect

buy the j-power arms. (im from the accord forums) everyone uses them over there and you can get the 3-arm kit for the price of one SPC arm. i have not heard any complaints about them

opboarding

I bought the SPC arms and installed/aligned the car and it drives the exact same as with J-power. That should help some of you guys out debating between SPC and J-power. I think my problem has to do with my front tires being misaligned. One tire is -.2° and the other is -.8°. I am planning on installing the front ball joints soon so we'll see if that takes care of my problem. I also am going to do check and make sure all the bolts and everything are tight since I haven't touched anything up front for a while.

There will be some J-power arms for sale very soon if anyone is interested. They only have about 1500 miles on them.

ttk5

I havent even read through this entire thread so this may not be relevant. But look at this gif?

http://throwdownperformance.com/inde...roducts_id=288

opboarding

I just installed my adjustable front ball joints. That was pretty terrible. But I think I know what my problem was now. The front upper control arm on one side I had messed with when I installed my J-power rear arms was not in the right position. Its kind of hard to explain, but when I loosened it a while back, I re-tightened with it not being parallel to the ground. So since there is some resistance to make it move up and down, over big bumps one side was dipping down way lower than the other side causing it to feel unstable and wobble. It feels more stable now on my 10 min test drive, I hope its not just in my head. My front is even more misaligned now that I installed the new ball joints, so we'll see after my alignment on Wednesday if things are good now.


Thanks for the gif ttk, not sure if that will help or not. I'll know wed if things are good after my alignment.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

^^^I'm sorry if you felt mislead and I do hope that this solves your problem, man!

Personally, after seeing what happened to the bushings on mine, I wouldn't put them back on my car.

opboarding

I don't mind that I paid for the SPC. Now I can rest easier and know I have good quality parts on my car. I just hope I can get some of my money back on the J-power arms.

rockstar143

iTrader: (6)

^^^I feel ya...sounds like you can sell them to the accord crew

J.

I actually sold mine, was just very honest about the bushings and priced it accordingly.