2018 Honda Civic

Two components failed safety inspection: 1. replace steering wheel assembly. Steering gear is faulty. 2. Alignment- 4 wheel alignment- required with steering gear replacement. Yes, available for inspection upon request. Diagnostics ran 12/9/2024. This is a repeat problem as this occurred in 1/2023, as well. Safety concern: I am a single mom and three instances while my child was in the vehicle the car has self corrected it’s steering towards other vehicles in traffic. Yes, problem has been reproduced. Both codes received from service center 12/2/2024 and diagnostics ran by dealer 12/9/2024 (first available appointment.) Honda dealership has diagnosed (can provide documentation) and Honda Corp has been made aware of this 12/3/2024 initial contact to NHTSA & Honda Corp with suspected issue and called both 12/9/2024 with confirmation upon receipt of diagnostics. This occurred in January 2023 and the entire steering system was replaced. Upon replacement the issue has not acted up again until around 11/29/24. The replacement did not make a full two years before reoccurring failure.

The contact owns a 2018 Honda Civic. The contact stated that when purchasing the vehicle, while test-driving the vehicle, the contact became aware of an issue with the steering wheel. The contact stated that the steering wheel was shaking and jerking abnormally, and the steering wheel would self-correct. The contact reached out to the Hyundai of Wesley Chapel where the vehicle was purchased, and the contact was referred to Honda of Bay County where the entire steering system was replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, after two years the failure recurred. No warning lights were illuminated. The local dealer was not contacted after the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact referenced NHTSA Campaign Number: 18V663000 (STEERING) as a possible remedy for the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the recent failure. The approximate failure mileage was 78,000.

I filled complaint few days ago and want to update findings. I brought car to Honda dealership due to sticking steering wheel. They right away were aware of the problem and asked the service manager to come speak to me. He said he would take the car for a quick drive around parking lot to verify problem. Upon return he said the steering rack was definitely the problem and had to be replaced. I asked how he was so sure of this, was this a common problem? He said yes, it’s a growing issue and had already replaced 5-6 in the last month on the year Civics and CRVs. They worked up a quote for replacing the rack. $6,971.60! The car only has 57,291 miles on it, it is out of warranty by 13 months. He said if had only been 6 months out of warranty he could have covered it. He said it was out of his hands. Cost of this repair is 30% of the cars value! I asked if the car was safe to drive as this is my daughter’s car. He said in his opinion it was, and he didn’t think it would get worse. My daughter said problem gets worse after about 40 minutes of driving, so I just took it on a long drive. Not only does it get worse but it’s almost uncontrollable. I gave her my car to drive until we figure out what to do. We certainly do not have the money to repair this as I’m sure 1,000’s of other owners who have the same problem. This is going to start causing accidents on our roadways. This is a very serious issue that Honda is very aware of.

I got the car with Honda Sensing to include adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, and forward collision warning. All these systems stopped working within 36 month and under 36000 miles. Honda dealership wants more than $2500 for a fix that I read on the internet does not seems to solve the problem. Many people report that the problem is either not solved or it recurs within 6 months.