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You find the steering of the Civic to be heavy :eek: ?

The steering feel of this car is one of the best things I like about this car (next of course only to the awesome engine).

It has the correct 'feel' at low parking speeds as well as very good high-way speeds.

Please check if all parameters are correct in your car. The steering shouldnt feel heavy at all, even at slow parking speeds.

It may be a difference of opinion. I have 2 civics. 1 is 8 years old manual and another 2 years old automatic.
Both have the same steering. And it's not exactly light. You may find the feel good. I too find it good but only on highways. It's a problem in the city and heavy.

I drive a friend's civic as well. It's the same.

Do tell if you have any suggestions on how to lighten.

If you are doubly sure you feel the same way in all Civics that you have driven then I feel its a personal thing and maybe you prefer an EPS over the HPS which is not an option in the Civic in India. I am not sure the HPS can be converted to EPS and if its plausible I am sure that would involve a huge cost impact.

My Civic is 3.3 years old and most of my driving is in the city and I do not have an issue at all with it.

Suffered a huge puncture yesterday and the puncture repair shop installed both a patch and a 14" tube inside the stock (for the Civic) Goodyear Eagle NCT5 195/65 15". The sharp stone was so huge that the tyre immediately lost air, unlike the typical tubeless tyre behaviour. When I mentioned that the tyre was 15", he said a 15" tube will fold inside the tyre and a 14" is ideal. Got an MRF tube for INR 650 (actual price INR 600, he requested for INR 50 extra since it was pretty late at night and he'd been working non-stop the entire day courtesy of heavy rain in Ggn leading to many cars with punctured tyres as the roads broke up).

I wonder if it is alright to convert a tubeless tyre into one with a tube. What kind of impact will it have on high-speed driving or even everyday driving?

The good part is that tyre is fairly worn out. The car has done 36k kms. The stepney is fully worn out. So I might go for a set of just 2 new tyres. This should be alright since I'm quite happy with the stock tyres.

One tip to everyone - please get your tyres aligned and balanced and rotated every 2.5k kms. Given our road conditions and the Civic's delicate alignment set-up, tyre wear - especially of the uneven kind - is pretty fast if not managed regularly and in time. I've heard of some folks extracting 60k kms out of stock tyres with frequent and regular care.

(I also wonder if this is the right sub-forum for this query.)

Regards,
spadix

The best way to lighten the steering is to reduce to a thinner profile tyre. This is definitely not recommended and would possibly pose a risk at highway speeds but inside city there is not much you can do.

Also try shifting to a harder compound tyre with 36 psi inflation in the front tyres.

Even all this might not help too much since you seem to have a fundamental problem with HPS.

I have driven my Corolla for almost 5k kms with a tube before I changed my tyres. Its fairly safe but you don't get the safety a tubeless tyre has to offer. Blow-out can be catastrophic something I realized later.

I don't know how stock tyres can last that long safely. I replaced my Civic tyres after 35k kms. I had max another 5k of life in them but I didn't want to push it.

@spadix; I think you change the tyres asap. also, remember the new ones go on the rear! Tubes can be put into tubeless types (was very common about 50-55 years ago when all cars came shod with tubeless and the puncture shops were unable to fix them. So the first puncture you put a tube inside a tubeless tyre. There is a dedicated thread on this somewhere.

I am not too happy with the 14"tube inside a 15" tyre. However, I think it should not do too much harm.

Hi Spadix,
Though i understand that this is not a good practice, but i haven't got my civic tyres aligned or balanced for the last 40K kms. Yes, 40K Kms. There is no uneven tread wear at all, no vibrations in the steering at all speeds, car tracks dead straight during driving and braking. In fact, i think that the civic's alignment is very robust.
Also, i have rarely had any punctures(fortunately). In my 60K kms currently on my stock tyres, i don't recall having more than 3 punctures. My spare tyre is totally unused till date.

I know that people do recommend regular wheel care, its that i keep checking them but feel that everything is in order. Even during service, the advisor looks at the tyres and feels that alignment is proper as there is no uneven tread wear.
So far so good, I will keep my fingers crossed.
BTW, i am also in Gurgaon.
Rgds
Vgarg

I witnessed a rather strange behaviour in my Civic today. My fuel indicator had 2 bars left when I started from home for office. I was quite apprehensive as I normally do not drive with such a low level and was contemplating if I should fill up the tank while going to office or when I returned in the evening.

As I kept looking at the display while driving, I noticed that the 2 bars became 3 and stayed that way till I reached office. I felt this to be a bit strange as the fuel level can only come down and not go up without refilling or topping up. Any thoughts please?

Its quite normal,happens to my car as well but not frequently.

The fuel bars also make an estimate depending on your driving style. I've seen bars going down when I drive with enthusiasm and bars going up when I've been hypermiling.

@spadix

2 of my stock tyres lasted for 60k while the other 2 for 69k although I wouldn't recommend people to push it so far. The older the tyre gets, it becomes harder and unsafe.

This is quite interesting. Are the bars not meant to indicate the amount of fuel left in the fuel tank ? I am not able to get the logic of the bars going up when hypermiled and going down when driven hard.

Thanks, Professor. Of course, new tyres go to the rear only.

Those are amazing stats, Vineet, especially without regular care as you said. In fact you are probably one of the few Civic owners who has said their tyres remained aligned (especially despite being in Gurgaon). Even HASS mechanics say that a big enough pothole can throw camber and toe out of gear. One of them said that it's near impossible to get it back to factory settings, and I see that whenever I get alignment done. There's always a delta difference from the ideal settings mentioned in the manual.

Hope your Civic's tyres always stay this way!

Incline. It's all about the incline. I've seen this happen lots of times. Besides, the fuel indicator refreshes once every 7 kms or something like that (what an HASS mechanic told me). I think it's more likely that the display refreshes once every few minutes, or maybe once a certain volume is consumed. So I've often found, for instance, that the reserve fuel indicator is off when parked for the night, but is on when I turn on the ignition the next day.

Like with Vineet, awesome stats! Yeah, I wouldn't push the car to such unreasonable limits. However, I think hardness is a function of time and not distance travelled. So it's possible that a heavily-used and well-maintained Civic can do 60k kms on stock in 2-3 years without the tyres going hard.

As for me, I've decided to get the tyres changed at 40k kms. Only 3.8k kms away now.

I never noticed this in my car. The only time I've seen the indicator go back up is when on an incline (with the hood higher than the trunk).

Regards,
spadix

Hi,

I bought a used Civic (S MT, 2006 make, 65000 KMs done) yesterday. I use a Manza diesel as my daily drive and have a Gypsy for off-roading; Civic will be used to satiate my need for speed :)

I have a few queries about Civic, please help me.

1. The HU has a button CD/Aux - does this mean that Civic has aux-in? I tried to find the socket, couldn't find anywhere.

2. The left ORVM behaves erratically. It'll fold out by the button, but would not retract. Can ORVMs be repaired or would I have to replace the whole unit?

3. The front passenger window-glass behaves erratically. a. It can be operated from passenger side switch, but not from driver-side. b. It's slow and sometimes get stuck and needs to be pushed up by hand. Can it be repaired?

4. The gear-knob is worn-out and hand-brakes plastic is coming off. Any idea how much these two cost if bought from Honda?

Thanks

Nitin

I think we have become too used to over assisted steering with near zero feedback. I find my Civic steering slightly on the heavier size, but then I transited from an Accent with a notoriously over-servoed steering. Now I am quite happy or rather delighted with it. You cannot have a very good feedback and a light steering at the same time. The razor sharp response of a Civic is to be savoured.

The 2006/2007 models do not have the aux-in factory fitted.

However I think that the HU supports it and you can have the wire and socket fitted easily.