old cruiser

Certainly does mate, I here you're up in Milton keynes at the moment setting up the new place and training etc. hope all is going well with it all. Cheers Pete

Just to say thanks to Pete for re-doing the wheel balancing and checking the front bushes along with joe checking one side ; the car seems to be behaving now having the wheels balanced using the 5 stud balance plate , quite surprised to see nearside rear wheel was 50 grams out!!, but anyway all's good now. Cheers Pete

Ah right , I may well pop in on Friday afternoon to get them re- balanced as I'm going to out your way that afternoon, while it's there would it be ok just to have a quick check that the front bushes in your opinion are ok? Cheers Pete

It's done 65,000 miles, strange thing is at say 70mph there is no vibration and turning the steering has no effect only seems to be aorund this 80mph speed, had 2 falken tyres put on, back in october last year (59,000 miles on the clock then) and balanced at WIM but the balancing was done using the centre of the wheel as I remember, so wonder if it's worth getting down to you and getting them balanced using the 5 stud adapter, which might sort it, as I think it did on my old Vectra C ? Cheers Pete

Driving home tonight and noticed that at about 80mph and the steering turned slightly off centre ( due to curvature of the road as it were) I could feel a shake/ wobble in the steering and first thought was a that maybe a worn bush somewhere, but the car had a thorough check over not so long ago and all was ok, but then noticed that also with the steering in straight ahead position there is also a slight vibration ( at the same speed) although not quite as noticeable as when angling the steering, sure I had this scenario before on another car and a pucker wheel balance sorted it, is it right though that a wobble from out of balance wheel/ wheels could be felt to be sightly exaggerated when turning the steering at these sort of speeds? Cheers Pete

Good , glad to hear that mate, take it easy. Cheers Pete

It does appear to be mate. Cheers Pete Should be fine then...... Any change in camber/ castor/ toe would change the steering position. Just been out in it this morning and the steering does still sit straight, so as you say Tony, should be fine, By the way how are you mate, as I didn't get to speak to you last time I was down. Cheers Pete

It does appear to be mate. Cheers Pete

Thought my car was a goner suspension wise on Xmas Eve, hit this damn pothole , it was basically a large drain cover with a chunk of tarmac that had come out ap about 10 inches or so from the edge of the cover, this was over near gerrards cross and the bang was horrendeous , luckily can't see any damage under side etc. and car still drives straight as before , so hopefully tracking hasn't been pushed out too far, but boy as said the bang was bad , I have noticed though with the Civic Type S you defo feel these damn potholes more being of firmer suspension than the standard. Bloody roads , we're turning into a third world country as far as our roads are concerned I think!! LOL , as said car feels as before from when Pete did the Geo and seems to still drive in a straight line with no noticeable pulling etc, so I'm guessing the geometry may not have shifted much and might have got lucky!! what do you reckon guys? Cheers Pete

I don't know what's happened with Honda's steering these days, but the steering on them is not as good as they used to be, I think a lot of it is down to being electric power steering. The 01 -05 Civic seems to suffer a similar issue to your Jazz (some Civics were improved by replacing the rack), but apparently Honda issued notices about the Jazz , not sure what model year though, that steering not self centering is a characteristic of the car and it's that way to help feel as it were!! I personally think the Racks are the problem, but would suggest a phone call to Honda UK and raise the question about this supposed notice issued about the steering and see what they have to say. HTH Cheers Pete

Ok i will try and get down there on saturday Have you also checked for play in the idler arm ? Cheers Pete

Thanks for that Tony, will be in touch after 500 miles for geo' check, incidently I did send you an email the other day about booking it in , so ignore that!! Cheers Pete

Guys, had the front shocks changed yesterday by the Honda dealer (looks like they also changed the springs at the same time!! unless they cleaned them up well!) but typically steering wheel is hanging slightly to the left now and no doubt the camber is wrong! question is , would it be wise to wait a couple of weeks or whatever to let them settle in before having the Geo' checked / adjusted? Cheers Pete

Probably a good question mate, all I can say is that last owner had issues with wear occuring on the inside of nearside tyre, so can only guess this was a camber issue? Cheers Pete

Well managed to convince the dealer; that as far as I'm concerned it's not good practice to change the the one shock absorber and they have finally agreed to change both. So as said earlier , I'll no doubt be back down at some point for camber recheck! Cheers Pete

Thanks for checking Tony, was beginning to think that maybe I'd got it wrong. In that case no doubt I'll be back down, as said, you just know the dealer won't set it right , if at all!! Cheers Pete

All I can say Tony is here is a snippit taken from a honda manual albeit from a 2002 copy , mine is a 2004/05 model would have thought it would be the same? ; as below: The suspension can be adjusted for front camber, front toe and rear toe. However, each of these adjustments are interrelated to each other. For example, when you adjust toe, the camber changes. Therefore, you must adjust the front wheel alignment whenever you adjust camber or toe. Cheers Pete

Thanks for the confirmation guys and Tony you say the camber is not adjustable on this car , but according to Honda manual it is and I thought Pete did actually adjust it? Cheers Pete

Got Pete at Wim to do a full Geo last saturday on my Civic Type-S and all was good with that, however had to take the car into dealer yesterday for faulty air-con and while they had it there asked them to investigate again!! this slight knock I've been getting for the last couple of weeks, anyway they tell me it's one of the front shocks and only want to replace that one, however, my feeling is that they should be replacing as a pair, as the difference in damping effect could upset the handling / characteristics of the car by only changing the one, especially as the car has done nearly 60,000 miles, the other one is probably passed it's sell by date anyway!! annoying thing is that if and when they replace them you just know they're not gonna set the camber back up as Pete set it , so will be another trip to Wim for that to be checked methinks!! What's your thoughts on this Guys am I right in thinking they should be changing both? Cheers Pete

Thanks Tony Cheers Pete

That's good to know cheers Cheers Pete

Soon to be taking possesion of a 54 plate (2005 model) Honda Civic Type-S, are there any known Geometry issues with these? Cheers Pete

True Cheers Pete

Thanks for that Tony, no bulges or cords exposed , so think the missus has been lucky there and saved herself £50!! Cheers Pete

That's a good point mate. Cheers Pete