2016 Honda Civic

Car abruptly pulls to the passenger side and requires significant force to keep car centered on the road. The system then lets go and car overcorrects into incoming lane requiring quick reaction to prevent car from hitting oncoming vehicles. This issue occurs on nearly every use of the vehicle especially if driven more than 30 min. The design of this car is drive by wire and there is no mechanical link between steering wheel and rack and pinion. This problem seems unrelated to the avoidance system as it happens when it is both on and off. Honda dealership seems unconcerned with the issue even though there is a recall for that same issue for both the 2017 and 2018 model years. The issue was related to a magnet for a sensor within the rack.

At highway speeds when it is warm and the vehicle has been driven for 20-30 minutes the steering becomes sticky. It is most noticeable at freeway speed when attempting minor corrections to maintain good lane position. The steering wheel resists minor effort to turn and then breaks loose causing an over correction, potentially as far as into another lane.

I am not an alarmist. I am a retired Porsche mechanic (42 years) so I have a decent grasp of how a vehicle should perform. The steering on my Civic is very notchy. When I am making a sweeping curve at highway speeds (especially to the right) and I try to straighten the steering wheel as the curve ends, it wants to stick to the right then breaks loose and often jerks the car to the left. It is even difficult to maintain the vehicle smoothly in the center of the lane when traveling straight due to this stickiness in the steering. This is not a one time occurrence. It happens very consistently and maybe worst in warm weather. I know this is a fairly common problem with the Civic as I see many people complaining about it on Civic forums on line. I thought it may be something Honda would be interested in recalling.

At high speeds, sometimes my steering wheel has a tendency to “catch” at the center line when I attempt to keep the car straight. To overcome this resistance, I have to apply extra pressure, which often leads to over-steering. This feels very dangerous, and I do not let anyone drive my car for fear that they will overcompensate and swerve into other lanes or oncoming traffic. There are over a hundred complains with this exact issue, and needs to be addressed.

At highway speeds the steering on the vehicle stiffens and requires the driver to steer right or left to break the resistance on the steering wheel. Steering continues to stiffen and the wheel does not loosen to maintain straight driving conditions unless driver breaks resistance continuously while driving. The force needed to break the resistance on the steering wheel could cause an accident from the car steering left or right out of the lane. Honda does not acknowledge this issue but will charge thousands to diagnose and replace parts that may or may not fix the issue. The steering wheel resistance is a safety hazard due to it feeling stiff and locking in place requiring the driver to move the wheel in the opposite direction to loosen the steering to give the driver control while at speed.