Honda Civic Steering Under NHTSA Spotlight

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is taking a look at 2022 and 2023 Honda Civics over steering issues.

Specifically, so-called "sticky steering".


There have been 145 consumer complaints about "sticky steering" over the last 11 months, as well as a few reports from Honda itself.

What "sticky" means is a temporary loss of power-steering assistance. No crashes, fatalities, or injuries have been reported, even though a loss of power steering could make it harder to control the car.

Sedans, hatchbacks, and Si models all seem affected, so if there is a recall, it could affect almost 240,000 units.

No recall has been issued yet, it's just an investigation for now, and it was opened very recently -- on Friday. So it might be some time before a recall is issued.

[Image: Honda]

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Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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4 of 9 comments
  • Slavuta Slavuta on Mar 22, 2023

    Civic EX - very competent car. I hate the fact of CVT and small turbo+DI. But it is a good car. Good rear seat. Fix the steering and keep going

    But WRX is just a different planet.

  • Dukeisduke Dukeisduke on Mar 22, 2023

    Electric power steering, I assume. First-gen Chevy Cruzes can suffer from similar issues, usually traceable to a flaky battery negative cable, a $10 OEM part. Weird, huh?

  • Bullnuke Bullnuke on Mar 22, 2023

    Having dealt with American Honda Motor Co. over a failed automatic transmission on a 6 month old Civic under factory warranty (which was rejected by Honda because, "Our vehicles are engineered and manufactured perfectly. Your problem was obviously owner abuse and neglect."), these steering issues are caused, no doubt, by owner abuse and neglect. Any attempts to pursue this steering issue legally will no doubt result in a Honda representative stating to the injured party that, "We have more lawyers than you have resources to fight us.", as I was told in my previous transmission issue. Due to my previous experience I am now a true believer in the excellence of Honda motor vehicles (and all things Honda) and thus believe that this "steering issue" is a red herring intended to stain the immaculate reputation of Honda products. Amen.


  • Tanzeel Tanzeel on Sep 15, 2023

    The primary cause of the issue is allegedly the electric power steering Unlike cars of old that used hydraulic power steering, most modern vehicles utilize an electric motor for your steering assist. In the 2022-2023 Honda Civic, this has resulted in occasional difficulty when turning the wheel.

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