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I have just bought a 2004 Honda Civic VI 5 Door Hatchback and when I test drove the car everything seemed fine with it. After bringing it home I checked the tyre pressures and they were all low, around 20psi so I put air in them and all are now running 36psi (recommended here).
After driving the vehicle with the new air pressures I noticed that the steering seems a little ‘notchy’ as though a bearing is under too much preload and the car is very directional when making small movements of the wheel and it does not seem to recenter the wheel again when making small lane corrections.
Is this because this car is fitted with Electrical Power Steering and I am used to hydraulic power steering or could there be an issue in the steering somewhere?
Note: This is an Australian RHD model.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
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Is there any abnormal tire wear? you may want to check
the recommended cold tire pressure sticker. 36 psi sounds
a little over inflated which can affect handling. Try the
recommended cold pressure and see if there is an improvement.No, the tyre wear is normal as far as I can tell. The wear is even across the width of the tyres and all tyres seem to be worn equally, but I have no way of knowing how long these tyres have been fitted to the car.
According to the tyre placard, on the inside of the drivers door sill, the recommended pressure is 210kPa or 30 psi, but the tyre shops here all recommended 36 psi for constant high speed driving and/or loads.
I will try dropping the pressures back to the factory recommendation and see if that makes any difference.
Thanks, I appreciate the input 🙂
I had the occasion to drive a 2004 Civic half way across the US back when it was brand new and I found that it drove as you describe – it wanted to leave the road surface it any opportunity. This is my mother’s car and I was thinking (and still think) that it wasn’t a good car for an old person. I don’t know if they are the same in Australia but if so then normal.
Oddly enough, this is MY mothers car also 😆 and assuming they are the same on each side of the Pacific then it doesn’t sound as though there is any real issue and that is good to know.
As far as it wanting to leave the road, we often have to dodge ‘roos and other wildlife here so that may not be a bad thing … 😆
I guess I am just used to driving my ’05 Falcon XR6 with hydraulic power steering and that’s probably why I noticed the difference. The low tyre pressures probably didn’t help either.
Thanks for your input, I’ll rest a little easier now 😉
Yeah, maybe the perfect ride if you have critters hopping on the road. On the above trip I got stopped in Colorado by the Highway Patrol. The officer said I made an unusually rapid lane change! He should have seen the other 300 I did on the trip.
Struth! I hope you didn’t get a ticket. The cops here would have hauled you away if that happened here … 😆
I don’t think this Honda is all that bad, it simply feels strange. Time will tell though. :unsure:
What you describe sounds like it might be an alignment problem or a problem with the EPS as you suggested. An easy test would be to rotate the tires. If the problem goes away or changes, it may be the tires. In fact, that’s the most common cause of an issue like this. If the problem doesn’t change or go away, I’d get the vehicle aligned to eliminate that possibility. If it’s still there after that, I would look to the EPS.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Thanks Eric! for everything 😉
That is a very good suggestion and I may well do just that. In my observation though, there doesn’t appear to be an alignment issue, I have been known to be wrong though … 😆
I would like to put a new set of tyres on the car so that I have some sort of benchmark to work from but the kitty says otherwise … 😆
When I can, I will have the car aligned and in the meantime I will rotate the tyres to see if there is any difference.
Thanks again!
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