My old Honda CRV’s steering has been a bit vague lately and with over 150,000 miles on the clock I replaced a few of the ‘starting-to-show-wear’ ball joints to start off with, but even then, it still tended to ‘tram-line’ when the wheels went over the centre line on the road, grabbing at them quite alarmingly if going at higher speeds. Obviously, this is a serious safety issue.
There has also been a rattle when driving off-road that I’d never been able to trace. Turns out the rattle was the steering rack moving around inside the steering unit. And guess what? There is a little adjustment you can do to tighten up a little ‘slipper’ or ‘yoke’ onto the steering rack itself inside the unit. Unfortunately, it’s buried too deep to take photos of on my car, but here is something similar on a rack which is off the car, courtesy of honda-tech.com…
Usually found on the backside of the rack where the steering column meets the rack body itself, usually near where the power steering pipes go into the valve body. It’s a big lock nut with a smaller nut in the middle.
You’ll need a special tool though. On the Honda CRV it is a 40mm lock nut, but thankfully the adjustment nut in the middle is a regular 14mm nut. I actually made my own 40mm spanner as I struggled to find one at a reasonable price (had I known how effective this fix was going to be, I’d have paid the shipping in a heartbeat!), you can see how I made one here… homemade 40mm wrench on ‘homemadetools.net’ and here are a few pics…
And here is the official tool from HONDA courtesy of honda-tech.com again.
Oh, and it’s a pain in the backside to get to on the Honda CRV. Admittedly I did remove the support bracket at the left end of the rack and slackened the other strap to allow a little more wiggle room for my ‘not-quite-100%-great-fit’ homemade wrench.
Once you’ve got access to the locknut, spray everything with WD40 first and leave it to soak awhile. Then, using the special tool, back off the lock nut a little (mine wasn’t super tight). Then I’d spray everything with WD40 again. Next up is to tighten and back off the central slipper/ yoke adjustment nut a few times to get it nice and free running.
Once you’re happy the adjustment bolt is running free, run it all the way in until it’s just nipped up (specs for the Honda say 4nm, which isn’t much at all, barely more than hand tight) and then back it off 20 degrees. I folded a piece of paper over and over (into a slice of pizza shape) until it was 20 degrees on my kid’s protractor. Wiggle your spanner onto the adjustment one more time and holding up the paper ‘pizza’ gauge behind your wrench with the point on the bolt head, (line the right-hand side of the guide up to the spanner), back the adjustment nut off 20 degrees by holding the paper guide still and moving the spanner over to the left-hand side of the paper guide.
Then comes the tricky part where you need to tighten up the 40mm lock nut WITHOUT moving the 14mm adjustment nut. Oh, where’s that extra pair of hands when you need them? Not that there is room for extra hands in there! It wasn’t too tricky actually, in the end, the lock nut pulled up tight and the spanner on the adjustment nut didn’t move. There is a square on the official HONDA tool to allow you to fit a torque wrench in there if you’re super keen.
The result? Oh, man, the rattle has gone and it steers like a new car (I know because I have the mother in laws new motor on loan for comparison!). Definitely worth finding or making this tool if you’ve got an ageing Honda and the steering is a little vague at motorway speeds.
You can read more at these forums…
honda-tech.com/forums/ and crvownersclub.com/forums/
Hope that helps point you in the right direction and remember, get everything nice and free first and don’t over tighten that centre nut, your steering needs to be firm and free of play, but not tight! If it feels tight, slacken off the nut a little more. If in doubt, of course, seek advice from a local professional, this is your cars steering after all!
Stay well
Ian
p.s. IMPORTANT NOTE: it goes without saying that all the other components which make up your steering system MUST be in tip-top condition. Check your inner and outer track rod ends (outers are a common wear point), any upper and lower ball joints on the suspension and even check your wheel bearings for play. Any of these will affect your steering and must be corrected first.
p.p.s. I wonder how many HONDA steering racks have been consigned to the scrap bin when they only needed this adjustment? Just sayin…
