I guess you have a real Snafu. LOL
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Unlikely, but have you checked the tire pressure? Maybe someone bumped it up too high.
are your shocks adjustable?
Tire pressure is at 31 all around which is within spec.
Shocks are also non adjustable
Are you sure of that ? What does the door plaque read , I think it is 35 PSI .
When I switched from a VW Rabbit to a Corolla, I definitely noticed the VW had a firmer, harsher ride, but held corners well, and the Corolla had a smoother, softer ride, but leaned a little too much in corners. Saying the VW had a more “bouncy” ride is another way to put it.
My guess is that this is a fundamental compromise, and won’t be improved to any significant extent by the OP next modifying the sway bar.
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Front right caster needs attention.
Not officially adjustable, but an experienced suspension tech might know some trick.
Also, rear camber might be addressed with shims.
Having so much toe-in before the strut replacement and now Zero toe. I would think the car would wander more now than before. Tire wear will improve but straight line will wander, maybe add a little toe-in.
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I’ve seen many good aftermarket products that really helped improve the ride of a vehicle. But @Mustangman is correct. The engineers who designed the vehicle know a lot more about it then most of the on-sellers.
I think you can make improvements, but not too drastic. Trying to turn a good computer vehicle into a race car is going to be difficult and expensive. There’s a lot more to it then adding new shocks and springs and tires. If you wanted a race car it would be cheaper to buy one.
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Yeah, I think it’s important to take a balanced approach when we talk about this stuff. Yes, the OEM engineers know more about the car’s setup than anyone else, but you have to consider their intended mission for the car, too. A Honda Civic’s mission is to be a daily driver/commuter car. If the end user wants it to be an autocross demon, they’re gonna have to make some changes away from what the OEM engineers did.
The trick then becomes wading through all the marketing BS and the, often deeper, BS that you find on enthusiast forums, to figure out which hardware you should buy to accomplish your mission.
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Very good comments…
While you CAN improve handling performance, you WILL pay a price in terms of ride quality. Compromises must be made.
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One fact I’ve realized, after reading about all the various “performance upgrades” that people make on their otherwise perfectly adequate cars:
At the end of the day, the only thing you know for sure is your bank account is that much “lighter”. And somebody else has that money.
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Hi guys, just wanted to post an update.
To summarize, I installed new front and rear shocks + brand new tires but was experiencing a bouncy / floaty / unsafe ride. All the mechanics I went to did not notice anything unusual with the car.
Half a year later, I decided to do an alignment at another shop and low and behold, all my problems are gone. Car drives great now.
Please see screenshot below. The first picture was an alignment I got back in March (old shop) and the one next to it is the alignment I got today (new shop). Unfortunately, the new shop said they didnt have a before photo, only after but mentioned one toe was sticking out and the other was sticking in. I finally feel like the car is planted to the ground now.
The first shop was highly reputable with 500+ reviews on yelp, alignment chart looked good so no idea why doing a second alignment at another shop fixed all my issues.
I feel like a total idiot but glad its finally over.
yes, indeed, you had some asymmetry on caster/camber, but the worst was on the negative toe, making your car to behave like a young stallion
alignment chart did not look good before and does not look good now - you still have caster on the front and camber on the rear sticking out of the factory spec, so you might still have some worn components which are causing this. your tires may wear unevenly as a result
Unless I’m missing something (no coffee yet) I don’t see enough of an issue with the toe in both printouts to amount to a hill of beans.
I don’t like the camber front or back.
Our tire engineer @CapriRacer can elaborate on the merits of reducing negative camber.
Good to see front caster is now more symmetrical, but that might be an artifact of the first alignment machine.
How many Yelp reviewers would notice their car was aligned on a machine out of calibration?
To me, this result points out a significant disconnect in what the OP describes as a “bouncy ride” and what most everyone else here would say is a bouncy ride.
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yeh… the definition of “bouncy” may be blurry…
my daughter’s 16-years-old Prius was riding OK, but when replacing tires I took it for alignment, just to be sure…
toe reading before: something like 0.1-0.2 positive
toe reading after: 0.0
the rest of angles: almost ideal, before and after
car immediately started to behave exactly like a young stallion: the smallest shake on the steering wheel would make it eagerly change direction
oh well, u-turn and go talk to the ingenious mechanic who wanted to set “0.0”… 15 minutes wait… back on the road… good ride again and $100 lighter wallet
Spec shows toe at 0 +/- 0.08.
Toe before was 0. Toe is now 0.05. No problem with either one. Five hundreths is nothing.
They claimed to have tweaked the toe and this made all the difference in the world. That difference can easily be explained by the slightest bit of wear in suspension/steering components and/or whether or not the tech compressed the front end after pulling the car onto the rack. That difference is not enough to cause a noticeable effect at all.
Specs show camber at 0 to 45 minutes. Varies by SI and 18" wheels. Since 45’ is half a degree I don’t see an issue there.
That gets into the caster. Spec shows 5 degrees 15’ to 30’. Varies by SI and 18" wheels. So LF is fine and RF close. Now both are off by half a degree or more using the 30 minute figure. More than a degree using the 0 figure.
How did the caster change that much? Unless there is something loose in the strut mounts, control arm bushings, etc and something is squirming around. A toe adjustment did not cause that. Or someone’s rack is not calibrated.
Wonder what would have happened if the car had been nudged back and forth a bit while on the rack. One would think there would have been an explanation other than “adjust the toe”.
Cranking one tie rod half a turn in and the other half a turn out is not going to make any difference in planting the car as described.
I’m thinking there’s some worn part(s), like tie rod ends, and the latest changes nudged things enough to get back into some sort of stable situation.