Hey everyone...on my 93 Civic EX, I dont know if something is up with the steering itself or the power steering pump. Basically when the car sits for a few hours and gets cold and I start it up and go to drive it, the steering is way stiffer than normal and I also noticed when I go to make really sharp turns, when I turn to the left and right all the way to the stops, the last inch or so of turn is a lot harder to do...kinda like there is something that is dry in the steering mechanism. Also, making a left turn, the steering wheel doesnt want to return to center like it will on a right hand turn, plus the car wants to pull towards the left as well. The tire pressure and alignment all have check out alright. Any insight into this? Thanks!!

 

maybe ur powersteering fluid needs to be changed... mine has that problem also in a 92 civic lx....... it pulls to the left im not sure if i need an alignment tho.......it might be due to the cold thooo

 

I was thinking maybe this arctic blast weve been getting here in NW Ohio had something to do with it. Im thinking of maybe taking it to Sears so they can rotate the tires and while they do that have them look over the whole front suspension as well just to be sure. I have had the car over a year now and never changed the fluid...plus it does have almost 249,000 mi on it now...lol.

 

is your idling speed set to specs

 

I looked and the car idles at around 500 rpms...sometimes it idles just above that first realy thin white line above the zero on the tach and during the summer it idles so low that the tach is on that same white line and it almost looks like its pointing to zero. Even when I am going down the road it seems as if the steering will return to the center whenever I make a right-hand turn but when I make that left-hand turn i have to move the steering wheel a little to get it to come back to center. Also, the wheel is tilted a little to the left when I am going down the road and also the car pulls to the left a little...Sears says the alignment is fine and that the camber cant be adjusted on this car for some reason???

 

bump

 

Man, looks like you have a bunch of problems with this car. If this thing happens ONLY when it is freezing cold and does not happen when car is warmed up or when the weather is warmer, I would suspect water in the system - means you need to flush and refill ASAP, until you break something.

On a side note, combining all your threads, I see that you have idling problem, too. Try to clean and check or EACV valve, this may solve some of your puzzlesgiving youhigher idle, that you are supposed to have..

 

I do see where u are coming from when u say that I have a lot of probs with this car. The thing is this is now my only car since I had to let my 2003 civic lx go back because I got laid off and now only make like 7.00 an hour and i also live by myself. The point I am trying to make is that I just dont have the money that often to get everything fixed at once on this car but the way I see it is it has never ever left me stranded in the year I have owned it and plus its completely mine...hehe. I wish I could save for a newer honda but this car will have to do and I honestly do appreciate all you guys' help and advice on here...especially since I dont know how to do much myself except for the basics.

BTW, whats EACV stand for? If cleaning that thing doesnt help, is there another way to correct the idle on this or maybe im thinking my tach could be wrong...lol.

 

Based on what you are saying in all your threads your tach is right. EACV stands for Electronic Air Control Valve, it is controlled by computer, and it controls your engine idle speed. It is located behind your intake manifold.

If you are going to do some work yourself, it is a good idea to have service manual. You can download it from here. This is an interesting reading and it has pictures, too

 

thanks misha....i did discover that from your reply in a diff thread and i already have a jumpstart on downloading...I have a feeling this is usually something that costs money since it sounds like this is something that only honda techs have access to?