Troubled Steering Steering Wheel, Honda Recalls 2 Million Car Units In North America

Honda Civic. (Doc. Honda Global)

JAKARTA - Unpleasant news came from the Honda camp. This well-known Japanese automotive manufacturer announced that it would make a recall involving around 2 million vehicles in North America.

Launching from Reuters, Wednesday, October 9, the culprit of the recall was due to problems with the driver system so that it could potentially cause accidents.

This recall involved a number of models from 2022 to 2025, including Civic, Civic Type R, CR-V, HR-V, and two Acura models, namely Integra and Integra Type S. Now, this manufacturer with the H logo has received 10,328 guarantee claims since 2021 regarding this issue.

In detail, as many as 1.7 million in the United States (US) were affected by this problem, followed by 240,000 for Canada, and 58,000 other units from Mexico.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) safety regulator opened an investigation into this matter in March 2023 and raised it in November.

According to the agency, there is a gear box at the wheel that is incorrectly assembled which causes excessive internal friction so that it can cause drivers to experience difficulties in driving.

Symptoms of this problem are that there is abnormal steering noise or the driver finds it difficult to turn the steering wheel, so it requires more power to control it.

Honda said this problem stems from components that are produced inappropriately and can swell if exposed to heat and environmental moisture. Plus, the spring installed is not too high, thus increasing the strength of the inter-component sliding.

The dealer will replace the worn tooth spring with better spare parts. The manufacturer will contact the owner of the affected vehicle in November this year.

NHTSA also noted that it had received reports of 13 accidents related to this issue last year with 11 drivers saying they lost control because they were unable to overcome its control.