Any help at all here guys will be appreciated. I've got a 1999 auto 'Fire with about 95,000 miles. Car has been well maintained since I've owned it.
Recently I've run into a bit of a drivability problem. Under moderate / hard braking sometimes the rear end comes loose. Sometimes it is just a little that is annoying. But sometimes it damn near sends the car sideways. I've noticed it mainly at a fairly low speed. In turns, or coming down exit ramps. Hit the brakes, and the rear end starts to slide. The car is just starting to feel more loose over all. Now as well I've noticed loss of traction on the front as well. A rainy night a few weeks back I was stopped at a light and when it changed the car didn't go forward, but to the right spinning hard the whole time. This is a 2.2L . I don't have enough power to be doing that.
The tires that are on it now are 195/70 R14 Toyo Proxes TPT tires. They may be getting old. If so, seems they wore awfully fast. The front brakes are Brembos with carbon metallic pads. I've not really had any trouble out of them. It's the rear under braking.
As you can see, this is something that needs to be addressed, but I've got to know where to start. What do you think is going on guys. Tires bad? Suspension old? Rear brakes locking up? What? Help a guy out here fellas. Any help is greatly appreciated in advance.
could be alot of things...something is definately messed up in the back though...maybe you need to change the rear brakes as one of the rears sounds like its hanging up..i would say pull the rear wheels off (duh) and pull the drums off and look in there to start and go from there... you may have to do a complete rear brake job on it ie: drums, shoes, hardware kit and wheel cylinders..i bet thats the culprit.. also,if you can, try to determine if one the rear wheels is locking up and which one....just my 2 cents, hope it helps..
HONDAS ARE LIKE TAMPONS…EVERY PU**Y NEEDS ONE!
It does sound like it could be your tires since your are expirencing "low traction".
On my first car, i knew it was time to change my tires when I was hydroplanning @ 20 MPH. You are on your way to the same thing.
Is the ABS light on?
Check all your tire pressures. If they're low or leaking and you haven't been checking them then it would cause this sort of thing as they get lower and lower.
And check your tread. They don't have to look like slicks to be useless.
Like everyone else says, check your tread depth and check your rear brakes. If you don't have time to pull the drums off right away try readjusting them by backing up and make a couple hard stops.
Thanks so far everyone. I'll check those out.
BUMPAGE.
Ok. Check number one complete. Took a gander at the tread yesterday and it is looking good. So I'm going to assume that one of the rear brakes was locking up / dragging when starting to engage. I gave the readjustment a try on the rear brakes and it looks like that helped for now, no more lockup as yet. Thanks all.
