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Honda: loose steering/ wobbly cr-v, Honda, sway


Question
My 2005 cr-v is steering seems more loose lately. I took a corner at a reasonable speed and it tilted too much to one side where it appears the tires on the other side lost some control. Since then I have had my car aligned, brakes done, rotors resurfaced and all tires are at proper psi and rotated, suspension was fully inspected twice with no issues. Problem is my steering is still loose around corners, I am using more of the steering wheel to keep the car in control, but I find my hand placement and cornering  ends up different than it used to.I do feel like the car wobbles back and forth too much, like it just doesn't transition well from a right hand corner to then left hand corner. At freeway speeds it feels like high winds are blowing at it and just seems more wobbly, or leans into the grade too much. I had my tires which are high tread (aqua tread)placed summer '09 so I get when it pulls into cracks too much but not the wobbly feel or bad cornering. Could I get the steering tightened up like it used to be or what would you suggest. Much Appreciated!!!

Answer
If I understand you correctly, you say you are aware that the "rutted road wander" is more noticeable with the new tires, right? And the problem occurs on right or left turns equally, right? The tire pressure spec is 26psi or 29psi on your car. That spec will be on the label in the driver's door pillar area.

Now lets address the other handling complaint. It sounds like you are describing body roll. Honda vehicles, as with many other car lines, are engineered and designed to run a specific size, compound, load, and speed rating tire. Many times the tire manufacturer will produce an OE tire specifically for the car it will be installed on. If you change your tires to a directional Hydro edge or aqua tread tire, it is quite common that those are taller. The tire height and width will vary on different tread patterns, even if they are the same size stamped on the tire's sidewall. Basically, there will be some height or width differences between different tread patterns. A simple way to measure the overall height difference would be to mark the sidewall of each tire, then roll it one complete revolution. The distance traveled correlates to the tire height. Taller tires = more body roll