Dive Brief:
- American Honda Motor Co. has recalled up to 1.69 million vehicles for a steering gear manufacturing defect that could lead to excess internal friction and difficulty turning the steering wheel, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
- The recalled models include the 2023-2025 Acura Integra, Civic Type R, CR-V hybrid, CR-V and HR-V; 2022-2025 Civic and Civic hatchback; 2024-2025 Acura Integra Type S; and 2025 CR-V Fuel Cell EV, Civic hybrid and hatchback hybrid.
- Dealers will replace the worm gear spring and redistribute or add lubricant as necessary on the recalled vehicles. Owner notification letters are expected to be mailed Nov. 18.
Dive Insight:
Although the recall potentially includes almost 1.7 million vehicles, the estimated percentage with the defect is just 1%.
The steering gear was supplied by Hitachi Astemo Americas. Production dates of the Honda and Acura vehicles with the suspected steering gearbox range from Feb. 16, 2021, through Sept. 17, 2024.
Honda was first made aware of the problem on Sept. 9, 2021, after receiving a complaint of a steering issue on a vehicle. Over a year later on Nov. 23, 2022, the automaker received a market quality report on the issue and launched its own investigation.
On March 17, 2023, the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation also opened a preliminary evaluation defect investigation after receiving reports of “sticky steering” in Honda vehicles.
As the investigation unfolded, Honda received another market quality report on July 19, 2023. Its engineers found deformation of the worm wheel teeth in the steering gear on a vehicle, according to the NHTSA report.
According to Honda, the steering problem was caused by improperly set springs and insufficient layer of grease between the steering gearbox’s worm wheel and worm gear. Based on these findings, the worm wheel mold process was revised.
The NHTSA ODI upgraded its preliminary investigation from March 2023 to an engineering analysis in November 2023 to further investigate the reports of steering problems in the Honda and Acura vehicles.
On Jan. 26, 2024, Honda received a follow-up market quality report after its supplier revised the worm wheel mold process.
On Feb. 14, 2024 Honda communicated its initial findings to the NHTSA in response to the agency’s engineering analysis from November 2023. However, Honda continued to investigate the issue on its own and received additional market quality reports on March 9, 2024, and another on Aug. 30.
Honda’s ongoing investigation of returned parts discovered that the number of vehicles with the steering gear condition was increasing. Based on these reports, Honda deemed it a potential safety concern and issued a voluntary recall on Sept. 26 for the nearly 1.7 million vehicles.
As of Sept. 26, Honda received 10,328 warranty claims related to the issue. However, it received no reports of injuries or deaths related to the issue.
Supplier Hitachi Astemo Americas has since made revisions to the steering gearbox to reduce friction and prevent steering wheel binding. The updated unit was introduced into series production on Aug. 30, 2024.