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Honda Motors recalled around two million vehicles in North America on Wednesday due to a steering bug that increases the risk of a crash.
The recall affects around 1.7 million cars and SUVs in the U.S. and an additional 300,000 in Canada and Mexico that were made between 2021 and 2024. The recall includes 2022-2025 models of the popular Civic sedan, the CR-V and HR-V, and the Acura (HMC-0.02%) Integra.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said the problem is “due to an improperly produced steering gearbox worm wheel,” which can cause the wheel to swell and reduce “the grease film thickness between the worm wheel and worm gear.”
“The worm gear spring preload was set improperly high, increasing the sliding force between the components,” federal safety officials said in the recall notice. “As a result of the reduced grease film thickness and increased sliding force, friction between the worm wheel and worm gear increases.”
These issues “can increase steering effort and difficulty, increasing the risk of a crash or injury.”
The NHTSA said Honda received the first report of the problem back in 2021 and received multiple market quality reports in the past three years. In late September, the company “determined that a defect related to motor vehicle safety existed and decided to conduct a safety recall,” federal safety officials said.
Registered owners of all the affected vehicles will be contacted and will be instructed to bring their cars to an authorized Honda dealer which will “replace the worm gear spring with an improved part and redistribute or add grease,” according to the NHTSA.
Honda did not immediately return a request for comment.