Civic EG

Hello. I would like some advice on a problem that I'm having. Long story short, I replaced my inner and outer tie rods on both sides of my car over the weekend (Thanks Teal DX for that DIY. Very helpful). and had it aligned today, however I still have some wheel play in my driver side wheel when I shake it side to side. Only in that direction as well. Taking the wheel off and pulling/pushing the tie rod I can feel quite a bit of play in it. The other side feels great with no play at all.

Also, I didn't check for wheel play until after I got it home after the alignment, and the only reason I did then was because I was hearing some noise from the front driver side suspension. (that I heard previously before the install that I thought was the tie rod ball joint and thought fixed. It is a lot quieter than before tho.)

So whats the deal? Are the tie rods that I got no good? The outer tie rods are brand new Beck and Arney tie rods that I bought off of Amazon, and the inner tie rods I got at AdvanceAutoParts. (Cant remember the name brand, but they were cheap at $18 each. It was that or $81 each for the next one up.) I do remember that the driver side inner tie rod ball joint felt looser than the passenger side, but I didn't believe it felt so loose as to have play in it.

The car is a 95 civic coupe. The only mods are engine swap with exhaust and 17" wheels.


Thanks for the help in advance.

take it back up there and ask them to look at since they are the ones that put it on.

my only other guess would be bad wheel bearing or lower bad ball joint. but the wheel bearing you can hear it or you can move the wheel the opposite of the way you do the ball joint.

Any road noise like something similar to wheel bearing? I'm very suprised they would even align it with the play being like that we wont do alignments unless everything is pretty much 100%

No road noise at all that I can tell. Before I installed the tie rods I had a very bad clunking/popping noise from the front driver's side (sounded like it was under my feet) that I believed to be the tie rod ball joint. I didnt hear it after I installed the tie rods (two short test drives and the drive to the alignment shop), but started to hear it again after I got it aligned. Its not nearly as bad but its there.

But it doesnt sound like a bearing. Its more like a popping noise that I hear when I go over bumps or the weight of the car shifts foward/backward. The sound might be coming from the sway bar or a bushing and might be completely unrelated to the tie rods.

Maybe the play is normal, and I'm overreacting, but compared to the other wheel, it is definitely looser. How much play in the wheel is normal? I was led to believe that it shouldn't move at all when you work it back and forth and should feel solid.

Ive driven my car for approximately 160 miles now and I was wrong about the noise. It is pretty much the same as before. Both in the number of times that I hear it and in how loud it is. It curious that I didn't hear it at all before the alignment.

Anyone have any ideas? Im going to work on it more this weekend and try to find something out.

Have you looked at the possibility of the hole for the tie rod in the spindle being elongated? May have to replace spindle

I'll check it out tomorrow (weather and girlfriend permitting). Thanks for the suggestion!