Basically it boils down to my car not driving as smooth as I like. There's no shaking under the hood or anything, this is strictly steering. I've had my rack & pinion checked and everything seems fine, but when I drive it just seems to shakey. Are there any upgrades I can add to make my steering stronger?

 

You should get strut bars front and rear. You will notice a definite difference.

 

Get these things checked as well:
Alignment
Wheel balance

 

Does the steering fell "floaty"? Maybe new control arm bushings

 

I've had all of those repairs listed above done, control arm bushing, mount bushings of the rack & pinion. I even had to fix my passenger side axle because it was cracked badly, got the wheels aligned and balanced. I've done all this in the last 3 months.

I'm probably gonna get those struts bars, I saw the front bar for 80 bucks on ptuning, but I did see a rear. Anyone know a place where I can get both?

 

As far as I know RSTBs for our cars are strictly custom at this point.

 

Buy my SFC's...

Put on...

Be amazed

 

James that link doesn't work. The other ones do though.

Would I be in good shape getting the front strut bar from ptuning.com, and the rear anti sway bar from custommaxima?

Where did you guys buy your stuff from?

 

the sway bars and stuff will NOT fix a vibration you've got. that's a problem you need to take care of. the other mods add performance to the car. they do NOT fix problems.

check all of your tires for proper balance and roundness, rotors for warpage, wheels for roundness, and make sure they're bolted correctly to the hubs. if you've got aftermarket wheels and they don't fit exactly on the hub center ring, then you need to get hubcentric rings.

Also make sure you've got good condition springs and struts. if you're running factory struts still, they NEEED to be replaced. do that before you do anything else.

 

So if my steering is "floaty" then I should go ahead and replace these? Like, compared to my mom's 97, her steering so hard to turn

 

"floaty" steering can mean tons of things. overly booster power steering (GXEs are horribly over-boosted), bad bushings anywhere in he steering/suspension, bad tires, bad struts, etc etc.

 

I've balanced the tires and replaced the struts like 2 months ago.
I got 17s on it, but the lug holes are universal.

It just feels to weak down there, ya know? I was hoping the strut bars would make it strong down there.

 

I know it's not the tires or struts. I guess it might just be that it's insanely over boosted. I'll check the bushings next time I'm under there.

I got the fenders, hood, and bumper pulled off today. It's cool that you can take apart a car with only a socket and a screwdriver.

 

LOL yup!
I replaced the clutch with a small handfull of wrenches. 10,12,14,17mm is all you need, once you get the axle nut off.
10,12mm to remove the battery tray..
17 to unbolt the ball joint in removing the axle..
12 and 14 to remove the rest of the tranny and mounts.



Maximaguy... on those 17s.. is the center bore of the wheel touching the center part of the hub on your car? if not, then you need to get hubcentric rings. most good wheel shops will have them. mine are the same universal type bolt patterns and I had a horrible vibration until I put the rings on. made a huge difference.

also you must be VERY careful when bolting the wheels on to make sure they're flush and centered on the hub. the bolt holes in the universal wheels are often very large and are difficult to center. best way to do that is to put the wheel on and hand tighten one lug until it's snug.. then put another one in on the opposite side until it's snug.. rock the wheel back and forth a bit and snug those two down by hand.. then do a third the same way. once you've got three that are fairly snug, you can be certain the wheel is centered.. then put the other two down and torque to spec using proper sequence.
sounds long and complicated, but it only takes an extra 30 seconds or so and helps solve a LOT of vibration problems.

 

please pardon my ignorance, but what are hubcentric rings? and are they expensive

 

hubcentric rings are small rings that fit between the wheel and the center hub of the car. if you'll pull your wheel off, notice there's a small metal lip around the center of the hub? that part is where the weight SHOULD sit on your wheels. the wheels fit snugly over it, and the lugs only hold the wheel in place over the center hub. when you buy aftermarket wheels, the center of the wheel is often quite a bit larger, in order to fit more types of cars. the problem then is that the aftermarket wheels use the lugs themselves to support the weight of the car since the center hub isn't touching the wheel. (think trying to fit a 6" speaker into a cutout made for an 8". just won't work. it'll fall right through)....

so then the wheel doesn't get perfectly centered over the lugs like it should (since there's no contact with the hub to seat it perfectly center).. so then the car vibrates because the wheel doesn't turn perfectly around the center. it's offset a bit and is basically like driving with an egg-shaped wheel.

sooo, you need to buy some hubcentric rings. they fit in the clearance between the wheel and the hub and take up the slack so the wheel mounts perfectly centered- taking the weight OFF the wheel studs and putting them on the hub where it should be, thus greatly reducing vibrations because the wheel is centered on the hub.
(how's that for an explanation?!)


they're about $6 each for good (metal) ones. don't let them sucker you into buying cheap plastic ones. even aluminum are a maybe. buy good steel ones and be sure to coat them in anti-sieze or bearing grease before putting them on. otherwise they'll rust to the hub and you'll never get your brake discs off again.

 

Thanks so much man. I'll look into that tomorrow morning, they should sell these at like autozone, kragen, etc... right? And are they all universal or are they specific for each car?

Once again your help was greatly appreciated.

 

Can that be turned down? My '89n is nutz...