Get the suspension checked out by either the dealer or an independent Honda specialist. The snow driving might have worn something out a little early but I’d be shocked if you needed much more than new bushings. I grew up on a gravel road where the only real snow removal was when one of the neighbors went out with a tractor to clear at least as far as the paved road and some years even the main road into town wasn’t plowed until late the next day. Otherwise we’d shovel as much as possible then go for it with our VW Rabbit and later the Mazda Protoge which probably had even less clearance than this Civic and we never found anything that we couldn’t call normal wear and tear.
These are not infrequent occurrences in small low slung cars driving in snow. Most of the time, not having problems with them is sheer luck if you have to do it often. You can get away with two wd but there is absolutely no substitute for ground clearance. As most have found out the painful way, good economy comes at a price. Eco cars with their pavement hugging chassis and ground effects front valances don’t do well. When you have responsibilities that require you drive in snow storms, the solutions are not cheap. You either own a vehicle that can deal with deep snow and suffer worse gas mileage the rest of the time, or buy a separate vehicle to use in those conditions… The last alternative is just to make due and pay the repair bills. That’s what most do who own these little road huggers with cookie cutter tires. Take it to the shop, get it fixed, pay the bill and hope the snow is softer next time…
Best of luck to you in your future snow travels. But next time, if you can make it through a drift driving slowly, that is best. The faster you go, the more damage you can incur. Speed is your friend for getting through but your enemy for causing damage.
@GeorgeSanJose
I don’t have enough body weight/strength to move the car’s bumpers, one at a time (but will ask a pro to do it). A turn to the right, which is what I made to get into the snow-filled driveway, always produces a groan. I’m not sure about a left turn. In any event, I’ll give your thoughts as well as the suggestions of other thoughtful posters to the suspension specialist I hope to see next week. And I’ll report back with the end result. Thanks to all.
Years ago I parked my VW Rabbit at the Denver airport mid-winter and flew out of town for a week. In the meantime there was a big storm and about 4 feet of snow fell at the airport. Upon my return to Denver I looked and looked and couldn’t find the car. I asked the parking lot staff, and they said there were a lot of people who had the same problem. A lot of missing cars. They explained in order to clean the snow from the lanes of the short term parking lot, they had to dump the snow somewhere, and they dumped it on top of cars parked in the long term parking lot. The staff told me to leave them my car’s license number, phone number, and find another way home. Two days later they called and said they happened upon my car. When I got there, they showed it to me, and handed me a shovel. It was in a snow bank, under 8 feet of snow. It took me three hours of shoveling snow before I could move the car out of the parking lot, but it wasn’t damaged.
@GeorgeSanJose when my older brother worked at the Mt. Baker Ski Resort many years ago on the ski patrol he would drive up very early in the morning to work and on Thanksgiving day he went back out to where the employees park and thought his car had been stolen, then he saw his ski rack on the ground(with the rest of the car still attached,he was standing on his sunroof) didn’t make it for dinner in Seattle that day, another time the Jetta was parked into the wind along with a few others and snow came all the way up the exhaust system and he jumped time trying to start it. Thankfully his AAA coverage covered what would have been a $300 tow (on a maybe $500 car)
By the way, unibodies are far stronger than they look, especially with today’s crash protection mandates. Damage to the unibody from crashing through a snow bank is extremely unlikely.
OP, your car may be an extremely low miles creampuff but it’s still 10 years old. Ten year old rubber can harden and dry on any car which in turn can lead to all kinds of odd noises.
Sway bar bushings, coil spring pads, control arm bushings, etc, etc are just a few possibilities.
Spraying things down with an aerosol lube may work for either the short or long term. It all depends on exactly what’s groanin’. I’ve often used motorcycle chain lube as that stuff can work its way into tight cubbyholes quite well.
I have to disagree with; “Damage from to the unibody from crashing through snow banks is extremely unlikely”
As it pretty much depends upon these the banks composition and how fast you travel any car or truck for that matter is extremely susceptible to damage. Dents and dings, torn boots and alignment problems are often not picked up right off and may be attributed to something else. I have seen cars crumple their front ends in an attempt to do this with the air bags set off. Snow banks, especially from plowed snow, can compact the snow like you would not believe. It’s no longer this white fluffy stuff from a wind blow drifted. You can damage a plow truck running into these things too fast. A compact can easily suffer severe damage. Always assume it is nice fluffy white stuff underneath and nothing will happen no matter what you do is a big mistake. Also, Today’s bumpers are not unibody, they are plastic with plastic ground effects which are always a problem no matter what you hit. At speed, even fluffy snow can be very impactful.
Survivability in a crash test is totally different then strength to withstand damage in a collision with any thing. Deformity while a aid in a crash test as it absorbs an impact, is a detriment to the structure itself in it’s ability to stave off damage. Cars with good crash test results could sustain more, not less damage in slamming into snow banks where unibody construction is concerned. This is the advantage of full frame trucks that can slam and bounce off impediments like snow with the stiffness of the ladder frame providing protection from damage combined with a unibody deforming cage protecting the passengers above in a rollover for example. That’s why plow trucks have full ladder frames; to survive from damage from collisions with snow. If unibodies were ment to survive crashes into snow banks, you would see more of them as plow trucks…it doesn’t happen.
So the old cars stood up to crashes better than the unibodies? Anybody who believes that might want to watch the attached videos.
http://www.bing.com/search?q=crash+between+old+fashion+car+and+new+car&form=HPCNTX&pc=HPDTDFJS&mkt=en-us&scope=&pq=crash+between+&sc=3-14&sp=1&qs=AS&sk=
I do NOT recommend it, because it CAN damage any vehicle beyond repair if you hit it at TOO high a speed, and it’s essential to know what’s under the snow, , but I’ve busted through my share of snowbanks over the years in both types of vehicles and haven’t done any major damage to one yet.
Read the OP’s description. He simply got hung up on a snowbank. Today’s rollover requirements combined with designers transferring impact energy up and over the passenger compartment rather than trying to absorb it all have manifested themselves as far stronger A, B, and C pillars and roof rails than we had in the old days, and this means cars can get hung up with less chance of damage than the cars of old. The fore and aft loads become tensile loads on the roof structure. As a matter of fact, fire departments all had to replace their “haws of life” with stronger ones some years back because the original ones would no longer cut through the reinforced pillars required to meet the rollover and crash standards.
Bottom line, I disagree. Based on his description of what happened, the OP can sleep comfortably tonight.
@same
How did old cars get into this discussion. That has nothing to do with dscussion of snow banks. I am just disagreeing with the general statement that damage from crashing through snow banks is extremely unlikely" based on crash test results. Please find where I said anything about old cars. Today’s trucks are actually composit unibody on top for good crash and roll over protection and full ladder frame for strength in towing, plowing and off road stresses, all of which unibodies of compact cars are totally unsuited for. As a matter of fact, cars that do well in crash tests have more and better designed airbags, and crush ability which has little to do with not sustaining damage by “crashing through snow banks”. The only thing I can figure is, the snow banks you are too referring to are 6 " high bumps and the ones I am referring to are those generated by a plow truck after a foot of snow, often two to three feet.
If you had said Obamacare was the bigger cause of unibody damage then crashing through snow banks as illustrated by crash tests, I would have agreed more. 
let me repeat my general assertion. Crash test results on small compacts has little if anything to do with how much damage they will sustain crashing through a snow bank.
Tester
You’re right, Dag, you mentioned full frame trucks rather than old cars with full frames.
But if you’ll go back to the original post you’ll find that the OP never crashed into a snowbank. He simply got hung up one turning into his driveway. After being pulled out, he then had to “barrel” through deep snow" to get up his driveway. A unibody is perfectly capable of those acts without serious damage.
I’ll grant you that I probably brought crashing through snowbanks (and plowbanks) into the discussion to illustrate that it’s highly unlikely the OP’s car suffered any serious damage, to allay his fears that he’d damaged the unibody. And I still believe that to be true. Again, it’s a risky behavior that I don’t recommend, but based on the OP’s description of his actions I don’t think he need worry about unibody damage.
Glad to be debating this then those darn Red Sox. I envy those of you who don’t live in a New England.
Well there’s plenty of room and water out in flyover land. We have electricity, running water, and even indoor plumbing too, so what are you waiting for?
Red Sox?? Sorry, I have far more respect for Little League than any of the pro players.
I do this year as well. A good LL game probably has better baseball.
Red Sox?? Sorry, I have far more respect for Little League than any of the pro players.
I prefer going to a Fisher Cats game in Manchester then a Red Sox game in Fenway. Tickets a Fenway for 10 rows behind first base - $175. Tickets at Fisher Cats 10 rows behind First base - $18. And it’s good double A baseball. Newer stadium…More family friendly…less drunks.
Solved! All I needed was a new left front stabilizer link. I took the car today to Bill Huble at Imported Car Service in Minneapolis, where I had a new clutch put in my 1979 Panther Turbo Lima back in the late 1980s (along with innumerable throttle cables, so many I eventually had a local motorcycle guy make them for me rather than send to England for Panther Westwind’s flimsy cables). Bill said it was just water over time rusting the link and had nothing to do with getting hung up in snow. The car now drives like I’d just taken it off the showroom floor. Thanks to all for your input.
Great news!
Especially great was the cost: a mere $147.95, including tax.