I just bought a 90 civic hatch last week under the understanding that it needed a new front wheel bearing. I replaced the wheel bearing not thinking that was the problem and like I thought it did not help. Here is what is going on:

At about 30mph there is a severe front vibration and it does not go away at higher speeds. If you go about 30-40mph and tap the brakes the vibration will go away until you apply the gas petal. I put the car on jack stand and ran it up to 40mph and there is no vibration. Help!

The car has coil overs all the way around and aftermarket traction bars. D16A6 motor. whoever had the car before me spent a lot of time and everything looks great and seems to be done right however this is something that I cant figure out.

Any ideas on what the issue could be. I am running out of ideas.

 

Front tires may be out of balance or have internal fault. I would rotate/swap tires front and back to see if it makes any difference.

 

+1. Or put spare tires on if you have any. Also check the pressure in all 4 tires-- they should be reasonably the same, and since they are not stock tires ignore the stickers on the car -- it only applies to stock tires.

 

I have rotated all the tires and the vibration is so bad I am sure that it is not coming from the tires. I thought it may be a half shaft or someone told me that the after market cross member and traction bar may cause that?

 

the traction bar and cross member shouldn't cause that, unless maybe they are bent.
this chassis doesn't have a half shaft.
post some pictures of the car suspension. if it has been hit, or the previous owner hit a curb or something, that could cause the vibration.

 

Everything on the front end is new. No damaged or bent parts. The engines looks like it has been pulled and rebuilt however it is the stock engine , I think, so I do think that would cause any of the problems. Could one of the drive axles be binding to cause the vibration. It feel like it is coming from the short shaft side and pulls to that side when it starts the vibration at about 30mph. I messed with the adjustment on the traction bars and it felt like the pulls to one side quit but the vibration did not get any better. Also I have put new wheel bearings in as well. PS the vibration is so bad I dont feel comfortable going over 45mph.

 

My next guess would be the struts and bushings but you say everything is new. So I am kind of lost. I am not familiar with coil-over thing but I am assuming it has very short springs. May be that spring is not held well within the assembly. If you still have OEM springs, put them on and see if it goes away.

 

I hate to be captain obvious... but alignment?

 

All suspension component are Skunk and are brand new. I have not taken it to get an alignment yet as I fell like the vibration is something other than that. Do you really think that it not being aligned correctly could cause that severe of a vibration?

 

Check the CV joints for looseness. Any play at all fails. I still think it is the tires though. Find a really smooth level surface and drive very slowly on it. Hold the steering wheel loosely. If there's a "once around" shimmy back and forth you have a tire that is not round.