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#1969253
firstly, sorry bout the vid, was just holding phone when driving empty country road from mine to dual carriagway. hoping you can hear the noise.. does it when pulling away and when you put power down a bit then when its doing the noise, jiggle the steering wheel to make it worse which is why i can assume it's steering related

the sound comes from the front, in the middle, sounds like right where the engine block is
it has got worse recently, had car serviced when i bought it, amongst other things, it needed a drop link stabaliser and it needed a new cv boot clip as it was loose and leaking grease aparently. was wondering if it was them but then drop link was sorted and noise remained.. the CV boot clips fault description was "loose and leaking grease, needs replacing"
The clip was a labour job (part = £13, labour = £90) so took it to a garage where the labour would be like £25ph, not whatever hondas rate is, and they ended up not fitting it, they said that they were able to fill it back up with grease and tightened it up nicely and it'd be fine..
...were they being slack bastards and didnt wana replace the clip and the noise it that now?


just thought id try you guys as maybe some have had it before and could tell me what it is

note, car was cat c damaged couple years ago, wheel and suspension damage.....


ta in advance




#1969995
pretty sure that is a creaky steering rack mate....if it is under warranty then it should be replaced by honda...sacrificial pawn and mugenseiki have both had this done recently iirc...

If your car is not under warranty then my advice is to leave it,put up with it, it will come and go...mine has been through 2 phases of creakiness in the last 12 months, both times it lasted 2 or 3 weeks but ever since I fitted my es energy engine mount inserts it has not done it. It may well pop up again in the future who knows....

symptons are exactly the same by the way, pulling away and steering at low speeds...also accelerating at low speeds.

there is one other possibility imo, the top mounts....but I reckon it is definitely the creaky steering rack problem.
#1970011
if it is still doing it tomorrow....wait until you are driving and it is making the noise each time you pull away etc....stop the car and flip the bonnet.

In the picture below the steering arms are roughly where the yellow lines are. You can see the drivers side one, the gold rod. Where they come out of the centre of the steering rack grab hold of each one nice and tight with your thumb underneath the arm and all four fingers touching the main body of the rack..now twist the arms front to back against their fixings inside the rack..push and pull and twist and roll...(sounds weird I know :lol: )...you should now be hearing the same noise.

Image
#1970136
legend mate ta, think this must be it. had bonnet up and found the arms and throught that must be it, squirted joints with wd40, no difference unsurprisingly tbh. can i not get it fixed bud? be a whole new steering rack or something would it and loads of labour getting it sorted?

really do want to get it sorted

dont think i can sell it how it is, shocking

definitely comes and goes though and the accelerating at low speeds thing
#1970580
MattyMcRae wrote:can i not get it fixed bud? be a whole new steering rack or something would it and loads of labour getting it sorted?

iirc the rack alone is 900quid...there are a couple of posts on here somewhere of members squirting some spray lube grease stuff inside the rubber sleeves. Don't bother snipping off the cable ties and peeling them back though, best bet is to make a small incision just big enough to fit the tube in, and spray a small amount towards the centre from each side...I've never tried it so I don't know wether it definitely works or not...worth a try though if it is bothering you that much. As I said last time mine did it was 4 or 5 months ago, just for a couple of weeks...hasn't done it since.

at a guess the labour must be 5hours+ I reckon...looking at 1500quid fitted at that.
#1971471
ok bud thanks alot for your help.

had it in local garage today and thye couldnt find any problems with steering systems. so guess it has got to be something hidden away in the rack

the black bit in the middle of the rods then in your pic, doesnt hatter if i make a hole then? dont mind taking the time undoing the jubilee clip and pulling sleeving back?

what should i try, wd40? or some sort of special grease spray you thinking? got a grease gun and oil, all sorts could put inside?
#1971608
hey guys just got back from a drive and when pulling out of the petrol station heard the noise that is discribed. I was getting really paranoid and stressed bout this. This has put my mind at rest. But does anyone think that it could be due to the weather? i mean i have only been driving my Civic for 2 weeks and its the 1st time it has been really wet.

Anyone got any ideas? i really dont wanna fall out of love with driving her.
#1971614
not sure mate...Alot of people have spoke of the cold weather starting it off...but my own experiences with it don't really show any other pattern other than it will come and go when it feels like it.. :lol: ..could be the cold and damp getting to whatever is inside the rack, and causing the creaking noise...

you could spend 1500quid fixing it for it to possibly start again in a year or 2 time...(alot of members have been through more than one steering rack under warranty)...could be the cold and damp getting to whatever is inside the rack, and causing the creaking noise...
#1971619
drivin an 02 so definitely not under warranty, My big concern is that im driving 500miles into the center of France in 5days and wanna kno that it wont do any damage and will get me there and back. Just got RAC cover for there just incase. :-D

Cheers for your reassurance bud much appreciated.
#1971638
have lubed mine up by making a small hole and putting my wd40 pipe inside and soaking
turn wheel fully to each side so i was able to get to each one (there are 2 that expand and compress when you turn the whel)

will post up soon if i still have the noise or not, but dunno if this has long term bad effects, making holes in those air tight cavities
#1971650
MattyMcRae wrote:have lubed mine up by making a small hole and putting my wd40 pipe inside and soaking
turn wheel fully to each side so i was able to get to each one (there are 2 that expand and compress when you turn the whel)

will post up soon if i still have the noise or not, but dunno if this has long term bad effects, making holes in those air tight cavities
won't do any harm mate...hope it works for you...
Just had a little search through some threads about this and some people say it worked, others say it didn't...best of luck. :thumbup:
#1972282
just a update i checked out twisting the steering bars nd no noise. So called Honda Aylesbury they had no idea and told me to come see them nd they would charge me for them to have a look. Soo i called Jtech in Reading and spoke to Jim who was more than helpful, offered to have a look and take it for a drive but as im going on hols offered some ideas based on what i had told him;

Suspension Bushes or Engine mounts. So will get him to have a look and let everyone kno.

Cheers.
#1972348
woop woop no more noise

seems to have worked and completely stopped the squeaking!!!

will keep running it and post results but very happt atm.

just hoping making those holes wont have any long term effects, will maybe try get some grease in there instead of just wd40 which will dry up in the heat
#2011867
Just to update your thread Matty, my creaking noise reared it's ugly head again a couple of weeks ago so I finally got off my arse and lubed up the inside of the rack. I made 3 small incisions on each rubber sleeve equal distances apart along the length of each sleeve. Sprayed a good dose of lube in each incision and then went out for a drive...noise has gone. Not sure how long before it returns but when it does I will just do the same. Also no fear of the this fix causing any harm, it is quite sturdy rubber and the rigidity of it seals up the incisions nicely once you have finished.

is yours still ok Matty..??..
#2011937
it's been ages.... maybe 5, 6 or 7 months ago since it did it last. This is the first time I have tried the fix though, I read about it when the rack was creaking last time but it stopped doing it so I didn't bother going through with it. I think spray lube or wd40 is fine as it's pretty harmless stuff and seems to do the trick.It would be nice to see the inside of the rack to get more of an idea of whats going on in there.
#2031540
I was starting to panic as my steering seems to creak on odd ocassions and after reading this it seems to be a common thing!
With mine it seems to be doing it when reverse parking and sometimes around islands,i ll prob have a go at lubing it up as it seems to have cured the problem for a few people :thumbup:
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