I bought the wife a 93 Civic CX hatch.

The car came with dinky 13 inch tires. I swapped them out for a set of 14 alums with 195-60-14 tires.
The car is now a hand full to drive. Difficult to steer at low speeds but very twichy (sp?) at higher speeds. Anything above 45mph and it's a 2 hander to drive.
The car does not have P/S.

How does "your" car handle after you put larger tires on?

This car is for the wife, so I have to fix this problem.
Could it be an alignment problem?
Should I add P/S?
The wheels are aftermarket, and were bought used, could they be wrong offset or something?

 

did you do an alignment after putting on the new wheels? that should help..

 

the dartiness at high speeds may be attributed to unbalanced tires. when i went from 13" -> 16" my steering feel and response went up 200%. the car was sooooo much easier to drive and handled infinitely better. i dont have p/s either, and the steering effort went down after getting the new rims.

btw dont forget to check the tire pressure: it may be that simple...

 

i say get an alignment. if that doesn't fix it get the tires rebalanced.

 

i have a 95 civic w/o power steering. i had the 13 on to when i bought it, when i got the 17's, they are also harder to turn than before at low speeds. high speeds it is fine, sometimes while slowing down, the bumps in the road wil jerk the steering wheel back and forth.

 

OK,

Alignment first, then I'll probably add P/S for her.

Thanks

 

I don't have P/S either and I started off with 14'' steelies and then to 15'' Slips and I never noticed much difference but I didn't get an alignment. And then yesterday I got an alignment and it is much easier to steer (and I never knocked my car out of alignment badly either before) so I suppose alignments fix a lot of things.