Civic - Honda :: 1992 - Power Steering Stuck When Cold
Jan 17, 2012
92 Civic DX hatchback, non-Calif. AT
Power steering suddenly not working when cold (~20 oF) in AM; nearly impossible to turn the wheel (for my wife). When I get home from work, and it's warmer (~30 oF), it works fine (for me). When it (mostly) behaves, it does drive fine (though I would say that the variable-assist PS is no longer as "tight" at high speeds as it once was, but the car's nearly 20 years old!
This just began a week ago (live just north of New York city), and has now happened enough times that I believe her So, since the PS fluid reservoir was just below lower line, I topped it up (Honda fluid!). No obvious leaks (I checked by putting some paper under the car, and watching for drips for a few days, including turning wheel from lock to lock over the paper).
Is it the pump? Or should I just flush the system (and how do you do that)?
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In recent months there is a new noise in my 97 Civic (75,000 miles). In any hard turn and particularly on U-turns there is a grumbling sound which seems to come from the front end. The noise doesn't happen on gentle turns. It grumbles a bit on 90 degree turns and wholeheartedly grumbles on U-turns. I checked the power steering resevoir and it is full so it is between the lines.
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We have a 99 Honda Civic that just started leaking power steering fluid. My mother was out with it when it suddenly ran dry so she bought some power steering fluid from autozone unaware that Hondas aren't supposed to use generic power steering fluid. Now the reservoir is dry again, the fluid leaked out in a matter of hours, so what kind of damage could the non Honda fluid have caused? Also, what could be causing a leak that fast?
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My wife was driving our 2003 Honda Civic hybrid (125,000 miles) and the electronic power steering went out. She managed to get it parked, called me, and when I arrived everything seemed to work fine. (She said the yellow EPS light came on, but she didn't know what that meant.) I drove it for a while and had no problems. A few days later my daughter was driving and the entire car shut down. I jump started it and everything worked OK, but I took it to the dealer for a diagnosis. They could find nothing wrong (no codes). However, the next day the car once again would not start I replaced the 'starter' battery (the lithium-ion man battery pack had actually been replaced at around 79,000 miles--right before the expiration of the warranty!).
Now it seems fine, but my wife and daughter refuse to drive it, and I'm not sure if the problem is fixed. Here are my questions:1. Since this is a hybrid, once the car is running a failure of the 'starter' batter should have no effect on the EPS, or anything else, right? It all runs off the main lithium-ion battery pack. However, replacing the 'starter' battery seems to have solved the problem--or at least a dead 'starter' batter is temporally (if not causally?) connected with the other failures. This might be just a coincidence, since seems odd to have the 'starter' battery part of the larger electrical set-up. The dealership had no clue and I can't figure it out.2.
The first time just the EPS went out, but the second time the entire car shut down. This doesn't make much sense--especially since the dealer couldn't pull any codes. The car's auto-stop shuts the engine off all the time at speeds below 10 mph (this is a semi-hybrid), so why the total shut down?3. Why didn't the dealership tell me the 'starter' battery needed replacement? I've checked my records, and it seems to be the one that came with the car in 2003 (actually fall 2002). Should I give up?
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So this problem started last winter. On occasion (only when it was cold outside), in the morning when I would start my car, it would start okay, but the power steering light would appear on my dashboard and I couldn't steer. Every time this happened, I was able to turn the car off and back on and it fixed the problem. Well, the problem is back this winter with a vengeance.
The other day, it was in the 40's overnight, and it took my two times of restarting my car before the power steering would come on. This morning, i had to turn my car off and on 5 times before it actually worked, and the second to last time I tried, I left it on for about 5 minutes.
I'm really worried that the problem is getting worse and it's going to be getting colder and colder. what could be wrong?
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I have a 1992 Civic sedan with a lot of coolant in the muffler. Let me put it this way: we messed up the head and coolant leaked into the exhaust pipe. Anymore detail than that and it's a long story. We have a new head now, but there's a lot of coolant in the muffler. My dad tried taking it off and tipping it on one end, but the fluid is stuck and only dribbles out when we slosh it around. How can we get this fluid out without damage to the muffler?
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I own a manual 1992 Honda Civic VX. Recently, the clutch has started to stick about halfway up when I take my foot off after shifting sometimes. I pull it up with my foot when it does this, but clearly it shouldn't be happening. What could be causing this?
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My car dash board will start up when i turn over the key but thats all it will do i dont even get the sound like its about to start it was just working yesterday what do i check...
Honda civic lx 1992
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92 Honda Civic, it has been steaming under the hood when i drive it and it's going into the overflow tank. When I pull the cap off after it's cooled down and then refill it. I watch to see if it's flowing and it's not. My initial thought was maybe a bad water pump, however I spoke with someone today that said it could very well be the head gasket. I am tending to lean this way now as well, as there is fluid on the ground after I park it. I put down some cardboard so the next time I drive it, I can see where it's coming from... Before I spend any money I want to exhaust the basics. I know I can get a combustion leak test kit to ultimately determine it.
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I've been working with my son to get a 92 Honda civic LX running. When finished, it was running fine except for the temp gauge always showing Hot. My son replace the Thermo sensor for the gauge but over tightened an snapped it off. I had to drill out the remaining piece and clean the threads to install another sensor. When we started the car, white smoke was pouring out of the exhaust and when rev'd, coolant came out. I think I may have drilled in too far and created a leak. How can I repair this?
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I had an engine running problem recently with my 92 Honda Civic. I felt the car stalling last Sunday when it tried to shift beyond 25 mph. I had to step on the pedal harder to get it to move over 35 mph, then I felt the gear shift and then it ran all right after it reached 35 mph. However, it happened about 80% of time when it had to stop at a traffic light and go during the last couple days. When I pushed the gas pedal, I could hear the engine stall and it slowly moved (took about 40 seconds) from 25 to 35. The problem seems getting worse today. I checked the transmission fluid and it is low, about 1/3 on the dipstick. I checked the ignition wire and it seemed connected fine. I recall that I had the similar problem about 4 years ago. I was told the # 2 spark plug well was filling with oil causing the ignition wire to short out. They replaced the value cover gasket, spark plugs and ignition wires and charged me around three hundred bucks. Would this be the same issue again? Or it is something else?
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1992 Honda Civic Starts fine but kills as soon as you release the key. Hold the key in the position with the starter motor running and it keeps running. In the old days we would replace the resistor on the firewall. Today?
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My embattled 92 civic hatchback has developed an issue that makes it take forever to start. I put the key in the ignition, turn it to the start position, and then I have to wait for up to 10 to 15 minutes to hear the click-hum of the fuel pump priming (which turns off the check engine light) before I can start it. I've noticed that it's much worse on wet days, but generally starts right up if it's only been off for a few moments. I used to just give the Civic ample warning before I need to go somewhere by running out, turning the key to start, and then letting it sit there, but this is beginning to wear down the battery. I've replaced the main relay to no avail, and once the car is running it does just fine, which makes me think that the fuel pump is fine.
Full disclosure: this thing also has a bad oil problem. A diesel mechanic changed the head gasket several months ago (owing to yet another starting problem, and I'm starting to think it was the same starting problem, and that I blew the head gasket from trying to push-start the thing), and in our efforts, we seem to have messed up the valve cover gasket. There is oil in the plug wells, and there's some power loss as the engine is trying to cough up the oil. I haven't replaced it yet because it doesn't seem to be a critical issue as long as I keep feeding it more oil.
I've done some searching on the web, and the general consensus of the internet (and the internet HAS to be right, right?) is a bad ECU. When I look this up in my manual, getting to the ECU is just a matter of pulling the carpet in the passenger-side floorboard out of the way. Okay, great. Only problem: I can't find a place where I can buy a good ECU. I could probably find one at a junkyard, but there's no guarantee there. If I do manage to find one, I want to be able to return it if replacing it doesn't fix anything.
Fuel pump - checked before we changed the head gasket, came back okay
Starter - I changed it by myself before we changed the head gasket
Ignition Switch - The key is optional, but everything else electronic in the car responds properly when the switch is in the proper position.
Distributor/Rotor cap - Changed when we changed the head gasket
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The power steering on my 2001 Honda Civic intermittently cuts out and the wheel becomes really hard to turn. The belt is tight and the fluid level is correct.
The weird thing about it, is it only happens in cold weather. Everything was fine all summer, but now that the weather has turned colder the problem has reappeared. Same thing happened last year. . .
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I have a 92 Honda CX hatchback, 5pd with 140k on it. Since I bought the car used about a year ago it's had a low speed stumbling/bucking issue. For the most part, it's only when driving slow and steady but occasionally at highway speeds it'll do it as well. It's as though the whole engine just cuts out for a second. Giving it more gas always brings it back but it's incredibly annoying, especially in a parking lot with a cup of coffee or something in your hand.
For starters, the rotor, wires and cap are all very recent. I pulled the ECU codes and it indicated #7, Throttle Angle Sensor. Bought a new one, calibrated it, reset ECU and drove on. No change. Car still bucks and the CEL comes on occasionally. At first, I suspected the plug to the TPS since it was loose. I pulled new wire and soldered directly to the ECU and TPS. No change. Of interesting note, when the CEL would come on, it seems the TPS falls offline and the car runs great! I disconnected it for a tankful and noticed my 40mpg/hwy go down to 25mpg. Completely unacceptable for a car so painfully slow.
Another observation, the stumbling doesn't start until the car warms up. Also, if it's particularly humid/raining, sometimes it won't do it at all. A lot of people have suggested the O2 sensor, distributor, fuel pump/filter. I don't have money to just start throwing at this thing and of many similar issues I've read of others with the same car, nobody seems to have a solid fix.
I've replaced the TPS, completely cleaned the throttle body and IACV, checked for vacuum leaks and even opened up the ECU looking for cold solder joints. It looks newer than new inside. Like I said, with the TPS disconnected, car runs great but the mileage goes south.
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I have a 2003 Honda Accord that I bought used two years ago. Lately, when it rains heavily, the battery light on the dash turns on and the power steering shuts off. I've had to pull over a couple of times. The problem only happens when I drive over 20 mph, solves itself within a minute after I stop, and never happens when it's dry outside. I think the problem has to do with splash from water on the road. What's going on, and how I can fix it? It's pretty dangerous.
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A bit of a long story, but brought my 2005 automatic honda civic into a mechanic for timing belt changeout (im at 112k miles) but expressed my concern over a noise persisting for approx. a week, sounding like it was stuck in a lower gear... but RPMs were fine. The mechanic looked at it all day and came to the vague conclusion that a bearing in the final gear of the transmission was busted. Brought it in for the diagnostics and had to take their mechanic on a test drive so he would hear what noise I was talking about. OK, days later = new transmission. Within 24 hours I hear a noise mimicking what I heard prior to work. They tell me its a wheel bearing that they couldn't properly diagnose without first replacing the transmission. Why not replace the wheel bearing before the transmission? How can they prove to me what was the real problem if I am still hearing noises?!
48 hours after getting the car back I wake up and start the car to warm her up before driving to work. She sits in park, running, for approx. 10 minutes and when I hop in, step on the brakes and try to pop it into drive from park, she is locked up and will not shift anywhere. In a panic I call honda and they tell me about a little 'trap door' i can pop off next to my shifter and manually flip it out of park. Fine. It works and I get to work, then have no problems getting my car into drive until the next morning when the exact same thing happens. (It is suggested it is a brake switch, but once it got into drive the brake lights worked fine.) So, this next morning I can not manually pop it into drive. It is currently at that Honda dealership, and has been there for 5 days, where, of course, they have not had ONE problem getting the car into drive.
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My friend's older Honda Civic (automatic transmission)- year is 1995 - has been getting stuck in PARK off and on the past 10 days - she was shown how to "override it" by AAA by putting the car key in some slot near where the gear shifting handle is. She can shift it out of PARK and into 4th gear and then can start the car. but now sometimes she cannot get even get the car to start. It has happened about 8 times in the past 10 days. It first happened about 6 months ago -- but now it's happening almost daily. It has been very rainy here lately (in the Bay Area of Northern CA) - can this be an electrical thing that is happening? Wish I could give more details -- my friend needs her car for work - so she is a bit worried that her car may be on it's way out or headed for major repairs. Her financial reserves are not great so she'll have to find a good "used" vehicle again too.
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We have a 98 Honda Civic that recently developed a problem with the throttle getting stuck open. With the engine off, the throttle will return to the idle position. However, with the engine is running, when the accelerator pedal is pressed, the engine revs increase, but then do not decrease when the pedal is let off. The same thing happens when the throttle is manually opened (not using the cable) with the engine running. The valve for the air intake doe not seem particularly dirty. I cleaned the spring assembly which I initially thought was the problem. The car is sitting the the driveway with both of us moderately terrified of driving it?
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My 2007 Honda Accord has been having a noisy power steering pump for the last 8 months. I would have changed the power steering pump however the noise only occurs in the morning- especially when its cold. I live in Southern California so its really never that cold (mid 40’s). Once I drive the car for a few miles the noise completely goes away (especially after driving high speed). Lately, the pump is making the noise every morning.
Immediately after the noise started I had the power steering fluid flushed and system bleed for air pockets. 2 months ago the dealer changed the return line on the system because of a recall on the power steering system. Still the noise continues! I noticed the power steering fluid looks a little frothy when the car is running. Don’t know if this is normal. Car has about 150k miles.
Should I change the power steering pump? Or have the fluid flushed again. What might be causing the noise? The last time I flushed the system it only stop the noise for about a month.
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My 1996 honda civic cannot handle the heat. Every time the weather gets warm it freaks out when stuck in traffic for any extended period of time. It generally will start to rev while stopped, sometimes will jerk forward, and once continued to rev in park with my foot completely off the gas, checking the gas and the break pedals numerous times to make sure not stuck, etc., for about 2 minutes. Another time it locked the steering wheel and would not release. This really only happens when it's warm outside. The car does not have air conditioning, if that makes any difference. We've brought it to two mechanics and they both said car looks great. What could be going on?
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