OT: 2005 civic vibration issues

Hey all, thought I would post this here since I've always gotten got good info here. My 05 civic started having some vibration issues past 100 an hour, I'll post in sequence of events.

Started with vibrations in steering wheel and pulsations aswell during breaking from highway speeds. I concluded that it could potentially be warped rotors so I went ahead and replaced them with Wagner coated rotors and replaced the pads aswell since the old ones were near the end of their life. At the same time I took the opportunity to replace my summer tires with winters on steel rims. Pulsation during braking went away but I still had some vibration in the steering wheel past 100. I figured tires were out of balance, so I got them balanced and the guy said all 4 tires were really hard to balance and they might be warped/bent... There's no visible bends in any of the rims. I bought them used but the tread is basically new (12/32nds on each tire) and the rims look brand new too, the paint is fresh and zero rust on them so I was surprised to hear him say that... After the tires were balanced the vibration got worse on the highway and there seems to be some sort of pulsation coming from the front aswell, so I switched back to my summer tires to see what was going on... And surely I have vibration and pulsation from the front with the summers too but not anywhere near as pronounced as with the winters. I'm stumped, any ideas what it may be? I'll probably have a shop take a look but I just wanted to get some opinions

There are a number of possible causes - Tires out of round, Wheel out of round, Tire, Wheel, hub, rotor imbalance (static and dynamic), non hub-centric mounting (are they OE rims?), worn bushings (can cause an acceptable imbalance to vibrate exponentially), rust on mounting surfaces (hub-rotor, rotor-wheel), worn CV shafts etc.

If I were to diagnose, first would be a test drive to get a feel for the vibration and severity at what speeds, then I would check the front end for any looseness of play, and then take a dial indicator to the wheels to see any out of round and where.

Is the thing lowered? Aftermarket suspension at all in the front? I have two of these generation civics but 01/02, the sway bar links are not overly durable and the lower control arm bushings do go over time(had to replace on both of mine when I got them), but as mentioned above you really just need to see if its anything crazy obvious and go from there.

Windex said it well. At this point, it could be almost anything. Even the new parts could be defective adding to a preexisting problem (having more than one issue).

Just a little play on inner tie rod ends can cause similar issues.

If lowered or aftermarket in any way can cause a multitude of problems. Wrong size wheels or offset is disaster too.

The car is bone stock and the summer rims are oe civic rims. The winters appear to be Canadian tire China rims... As mentioned I'm currently back on the summer rims with all seasons and the vibration is most pronounced between 100-110 with the worst being around 105 it seems. At 120 the vibration is barely there... With the winter rims and tires and vibration seems worse. Since it appears it could be so many things I'm going to take it to the Honda dealer I used to work at it and have them take a look at both sets of rims and whatever else it may be. Thanks for the advice and info, I will update once I have it looks at

That description - comes on 100-110, goes away by 120 makes me think imbalance or bent rim.

Have you jacked up the front wheels and watch the rim (inside and outside edges) for wobble?

Even an egg can be balanced with weights...

I would think so too but both my summer and winter rims being bent? When I got the car I had vibration but that was because of bad tires, so I got a set of used all seasons from a reputable shop and my vibrations issues went away, this was prior to me changing the pads and rotors. Surely the guys changing the tires would've noticed if any of my summer rims were bent (i would hope/imagine they would...)

Another side note...when I did the rotor and pad change, neither front rotors had the rotor screws and the new rotors I bought didn't even have the holes for the rotor screws and I obviously bought the correct rotors. From what I read the rotor screws aren't a necessity and after I had new (used tires) put on the summer rims before the rotor change I had no issues as mentioned above

When something starts to wrong, always go back to the last thing you did. In this case the vibration started when you changed to rotors......so go back to that and check if the rotors are our of round, machined wrong, too much rust between the hub and the rotor, etc. Did you clean the hub with a wire brush before installing the rotors?

^ Hub and the back of the rims.

Small (but potentially vibration causing) bends in rims are not easy to spot when installing rims/tires. Much easier to see when the wheel is spinning on the hub.

This Vid explains how to check rims: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzcc-9DXRN4

The only thing I do different is to use a dial indicator instead of a screwdriver, but other than that, if you do the same as in the video, you will know if you have a bent rim, or any gross mismounting issue.

Well Windex you were right, it appears I have great luck with rims... When I put my summer rims back on, i put one of the fronts on the rear and the rear on the front. I went to a shop, they took a peak at the tires and said the same thing that it's a combination of rim and tire probably. I swapped the rear back to the front and vice versa, so essentially the rims were now in exactly the same spot as when I had the all seasons installed from the tire shop and surprise surprise, vibration is barely existent... It's still there but very minimal that I never gave it much attention. So at this point I'm pretty pissed thinking how the hell do I end up with 8 crappy tires/rim combo? There's no way, there must be something wrong...so luckily since my entire family drives Honda's, I have my sisters set of winters in the garage since she hasnt put them on yet... I go grab two and toss them on the front to see what would happen...and once again surprise, no vibration, none...

So... My questions are, did the used tire shop even balance them properly? Are the summer rims even bent? If they are how come the used tire shop didn't catch it when balancing/removing the old tires? Are the tires they sold me the problem?

As for the winters, well don't buy good year nordics with crappy tire steelies... I went for the good year nordics because I had them on the golf before and had zero issues with them... These good year nordics are the 2nd gen style. At this point, the winters can also be a combination of tire/rim... I'm betting mostly rim here

I've got goodyear Nordics on OE Honda rims on the wife's CRV. her rims have a couple small bends and start to vibrate around 110kph, but not too bad, plus she stays in town mostly so she doesn't care.

As for balance - it's a matter of equipment quality, and skill in using it.

When I was on the floor mechanic'ing full time, I would calibrate the balancer every time I used it, and made sure that the Service Manager had it factory calibrated a couple times a year.

If I got a rim and tire that took a lot of weights, I would look for a bent rim (every rim has a little runout) and then rotate the tire 180deg on the rim and try a rebalance to see if the tire and rim both had heavy spots. Used tires are going to be a gamble no matter how good they look or how good the price...


I hate steering wheel wobble with a passion. I get my own Passat tires road force balanced to make sure they are smooth at all speeds, given how much I drive.

My Mom drives an EOS with 18" snows on Reps, and she hits the occasional pothole to the point where they will vibrate at highway speeds. I get the same place (Union Rim, North York) to straighten and rebalance them to keep her from complaining to me about how much the car shakes.

Thanks for the info/help Adam, it is true that used tires (or anything used on a car I guess) can be hit or miss... I just seem to have special luck with tires. I hate the wobble too, hence why I'm so picky on getting it right, but for now I'll probably just buy a new set of winters to put on the civic since i don't wanna deal with the head ache of looking for used. Come summer time I'll have my alloys road force balanced to see which/how many rims are bent and to what degree, or maybe it'll be the tire but I'll find out next summer since there's no point now since it's almost winter

P. S if anyone has good winters on civic 4x100 I'll take them

So it appears it's probably not my tires/rims... I noticed when getting on the highway the vibration isn't present right away, but after a few kms of driving. I also noticed if I take my foot off the accelerator, the vibration is at its worst, and then when I press it and go WOT it appears to go away and become a lot less noticeable... At 120 crusing the vibration is there but it's not that bad... Driveshaft maybe? I still didn't have it looked at but hopefully next week...

CV joints, worn suspension parts. Sounds like you have more than one problem.

Seems like it... I'll update when I get it in the shop..

So looks like it was a bad left ball joint... Haven't gotten the car back yet but that's what they told me it is

Ask for the old part back and then make sure thst part is for your Civic.

I took the car to Honda where I used to work so it's the right part... My winters were also terribly out of balance, clearly the other guy had no idea how to balance tires, good thing the first balance didn't cost a lot... All vibrations are now gone and car is good. Thanks to everyone for your input