Loose steering...but it's intermittent

Bucket2000
Mon, 31 Aug 2015 17:13:14 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

2000 Honda Civic DX, green, four doors, 91,000 miles. A few weeks ago I noticed that the steering wheel was loose when driving but only about 30% of the time–didn’t seem to be related to whether the car was warmed up or time of day or speed, just that it happened when the car was moving. The steering wheel would have play when the wheels were pointed/driving straight and the looseness went away when turning. I brought it in to the mechanic and of course he couldn’t get it to happen when he drove it. Replaced worn inner tie rods, did a power steering flush/replaced the power steering fluid and did a front end alignment. Drove fine for two weeks but then it started occurring again, this time even more loose/more play in the steering, still only when driving straight. Oh, just one time (so far) a few days ago it was loose when I was standing still at a stop light.

Any ideas? Seems like a safety issue but we can’t find what’s causing this…and I don’t want to just throw money at it.

11 posts - 7 participants