Hey folks,

I have a 2005 Honda S2k that I picked up a couple months ago - I'm up to 6k miles on it so far.

Over the past 2 days I've felt a strange vibration from the back right of the car.

Checking it out I thought it was a tire that had lost a considerable amount of air.
I stopped by a local gas station and put air in it to the point where visually it looked ok (no tire pressure guage with me at the time).

I drove it for a day and the vibration/thumping was still there - getting worse at higher speeds.

-Could it be a bent rim? lol I don't have any doubt the possibility of a bent rim but who could check out my rims to make sure they aren't bent - I assume a dealership would jump at the chance to say yes and charge me accordingly..

-Could it be something with my rear right brake?

-Is there such a thing as rear alignment that I should be worried about? I never thought about it lol.

-It almost feels like a flat spot or something on my tire but I've never locked the tires up breaking nor has the car ever sat for any extended period of time.

I'm trying to get a gearing of what the problem is or if there's anything noticeably wrong with the car, but everything I'm looking at looks normal to me. I do notice the back rear tire is emitting a lot of heat.. more so than the other tires after I park on my way to and from work.

In all honesty I suppose it would be impossible for a forum to tell me what's wrong with my car but I was hoping someone might have had a similar experience.

Has anyone had an experience like this? or information they could share?

Thanks!

 

I had a strange sound coming from my rear left wheel, but no strange vibration. Turned out it was my lug nuts. They were loose from the factory or dealership!!

On another car I had I experienced a major thumping sound especially over bumps. It sounded like it was something loose inside the car coming from the rear wheel area. I remember the handling was also squirly. That turned out to be a defective shock absorber. The fluid/gas completely leaked out. It was replaced under warranty.

Or you need to get your tires balanced.

 

Handling definetely is squirrely.

I was wondering if I could be mistaken and it was coming from the front - maybe an alignment issue.. but I think it really is the rear.

I checked the lugnuts and they seemed to be tight. Feels like I'm about to blow a tire or something - strange.

I also get the feeling like I'm driving on a rough grainy road.. if that makes any sense.

Oh and the car pulls to the right noticeably when heavily accelerating. It's a very noticeably pull to the left. I found I was compensating as I realized I had a problem.

Tires, rims, brakes, possible alignment.. I had in mind.

Shocks I didn't think about - thanks for the suggestion!

 

OK, this seems rather simple but if you are on concrete roadways, the expansion joints are quite loud and bumpy in the S2K. Also have you made sure that the coil spring spacers have been removed. If left in, your handling will be very skittish, dangerous and may contribute to the noise and roughness on pavement joints.

 

I find it curious that you would mention this. Why? Did you run into or drive over something odd? That's about the only way you could have a bent rim.

 

sounds like symptoms of a unbalanced tire. check around the wheels and look for any evidince of balance wieght missing (check inside of rim too). If the wheel or wheels are bent, you can jack up the wheel off the ground, put the car in neutral, release ebrake (make sure u block the other wheels) and spin the wheel. see if it looks lopsided while its spinning.

 

a better way to see if the wheel is bent is to hold a stationary point against the wheel while its spinning freely. Here, i drew a picture for you. yes im bored at work:



Here i have a pencil on a jackstand. the wheel is off the ground and spinning.

 

Well I looked into it a bit further.

I was going to jack up the right rear of the car and use a pencil to attempt to determine any deformities in the rim but discovered the wheel doesn't turn freely. (I was super careful to take the e-brake off and out of gear otherwise the wheel wouldn't turn at all.)

I looked a little closer and found the brake pad appears to be on the disc (or damn near close to lead me to believe it's the thing that's stopping the wheel from turning freely). I could turn the wheel but there was friction there and it wouldn't go unless I was pushing/rotating it. I let down the right rear of the car and jacked up the left rear of the car to compare to see if there was any difference. They appeared to be the same - brake pad is pretty damn close if not on the brake pad and stopping the wheel from freely spinning. I did not check the front tires/brakes.

Is this normal? I'm guessing not - but I don't want to guess. Who knows for sure? Comments?

In addition, I checked for a spacer on the coil of the shock absorber. I found it and removed it. I checked all the other shocks on the vehicle and found that they are not there. Could they have fallen out? Half ass'd job of removing them where someone forgot the right rear? I'm not sure. opinions?

Oh also, could having the 1 spacer in there damaged anything? Could it have caused this problem with the brakes? or eventually the slow tire leak?

In the end I think the major issue is:

A slow air leak in the right rear tire. Checking with a tire guage all my tires were 32psi (just as the manual says) except for the right rear. It was at 10psi. Looking at the tire I'm not surprised because it was slightly bowed where the tire meets the pavement but not flat. I blew it up once again to 32psi to match the other tires but I'm thinking I have to take it to a service station to get it worked on.

So in short:

1. Shock coil spacer was removed
2. Are brake pads supposed to be on the disc? or stop the wheel from freely spinning?

and

3. I have a slow air leak.

damn I love this forum. haha.
It's already given me ideas and knowledge beyond expectation

Thanks!

 

good work. the spring spacer would definatly cause some vibration and harshness. Also, the low tire pressure would contribute. The spacer wouldnt cause any damage i dont think...

How does it drive now? are the issues resolved?

 

I only drove it to the service station around the corner for air in the tire and back.. I haven't fully tested to see if the feeling is gone. I'm hoping that I don't feel the problem with the tire being pumped up.. which would make sense. That would tell me that it's just the air in the tire and it's a definite fix.

Anyone have any input on the brake pads being so close or on the disc itself? Is that normal?

Thanks