I dont know if the Accord suspension is similar to the Civic, but the
Civics EAT upper ball joints for breakfast. I thought my problem was
warped rotors until I found the ball joints were wasted. Wiggle the top
of the tire in and out and watch the spindle where it attaches to the
upper a-arm.

-Pete

Slipnfall wrote:

> Hi everyone,
> I posted a couple days ago about my experiance installing brakes,
> rotors, P/S 1/2 shaft, and new struts/springs. I noticed a steering
> wheel vibration at medium-hard braking. I attributed this to my
> rotors, which were orig. at 185k. Also the steering wheel would
> vibrate pretty bad at highway(70mph) speeds. After installing all the
> above, my vibration durring braking is gone.
>
> However, my steering wheel and general handling is *WAY* worse than
> before. Granted the front end sits a little higher, but it was much
> more predictable and stable before. I was told that an alignment was
> not necessary because I did not disturb any adjustment bolts(unlike
> some GM cars that need to be aligned after a strut install)
> Generally the car seems 'floaty', esp in corners. When
> accelerating at low speeds, the wheel oscillated back and forth, and
> pulls somewhat to the right(always has). As odd as it sounds,
> sometimes if I hold the wheel steady, the oscillation goes away, until
> I change speed or corner.
> My question is this - will it make a difference if I get an
> alignment before I get new tires(I need both)? Also will a tire shop
> be able to tell me if there is something wrong with my wheels?(cheapie
> painted American Racing wheels). I have read that a bent wheel will
> give similar trouble. It was never this bad though. Maybe my problems
> were simply magnified with new shocks/springs?
>
> What do you folks think may be my problem? Like I said, the car
> handling like it was on rails before I installed the above parts(even
> with a broken D/S spring and bad P/S 1/2 shaft!). So I feel the
> problem might be with how I installed the parts, or something like
> that. I paid mention to all torque spec's.
>
> Oh, FWIW, when I installed the D/S strut/spring, I could not get the
> strut alignment 'notch' to line up with the split in the 'tension
> fork'(the fork that attaches to the bottom of the strut). I couldn't
> get it to line up because the bottom forks were twisted and wouldn't
> allow me to pass the bolt through it. So in short the notches aren't
> lines up on that side. The car has never been in an accident.
>
> Thanks for reading - any insite is greatly appreciated!!!
> -Jamie