CONSUMER COMPLAINT: ODI Case Number: 10317976

Component: STEERING

Details: WHILE DRIVING MY 2009 ACURA TL WITH 10,000 MILES ON IT THE STEERING WHEEL LOCKED UP. BFORE I COULD STOP THE CAR I SIDESWIPED A GUARDRAIL CAUSING MINOR COSMETIC DAMAGE. THE CAR WAS TOWED TO DEVAN ACURA IN NORWALK CT. THEY COULD NOT FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS WRONG SO THE ENGINEERS FROM HONDA WERE CALLED. THEY DISASSEMBLED THE STEERING STYTEM PART BY PART. THE PARTS WERE SENT OUT TO CALIFORNIA TO THE HONDA ENGINEERS. AFTER "CAREFUL INSPECTION" THEY COULD NOT FIND ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE PARTS. THEY ARE SAYING THE STEERING WAS DMAGED AS A RESULT OF THE ACCIDENT. THAT IS EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!! THEY ARE TRYING TO COVER UP A SERIOUS SAFETY ISSUE! I ASKED THEM TO REPLACE THE PARTS AND TO PAY FOR THE DAMAGE TO THE CAR BUT THEY REFUSED. INSTEAD THEY GAVE ME A BILL FOR $3500.00 AMERICAN HONDA CORPORATION IS NOT STANDING BEHIND THEIR PRODUCT AND LETTING THE CUSTOMERS DOWN. I SUGGEST THINKING TWICE ABOUT BUYING A HONDA OR ACURA BECAUSE THIS IS THE WAY YOU WILL BE TREATED IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM! SO MUCH FOR THE SAFETY OF THEIR CUSTOMERS.

 

Holy Crap. I'm going to keep my ears & eyes open on this one!

 

 

heh heh, I also found this one too

 

I sympathize, as you're in a tough spot. I've never heard of this before.....anywhere....with any car. Not to say it didn't happen to you.
But, if the steering wheel locked up, the first thought I'd have was the car turned off while moving? That would cause it.

Or, did something get lodged under the front wheels that caused the steering wheel to feel like it was locked?

It just seems unusual that the steering wheel just locked up with no apparent reason.

I know that I'd contact the NHTSA (which it sounds like you already have). And, I'm assuming that since the dealer had to remove the parts, send them to Honda CA for inspection, that it would have taken about a month for them to do all of that. Which means that your car was out of service for 30 days. That could trigger lemon laws (not sure about your states requirements, though).

In that case, you'd be offered to go to your BBB for "buy back" arbitration. But, you'd have to prove Acura was somehow at fault. If they're saying that they can find no problem, you'd have to get an independent mechanic to confirm a problem.

Good luck with whatever path you choose.

 

This was NOT my experience. I cut and paste this reported to the Feds. That's why there are caps. That was not the only case. There are two experiences of this reported.

 

Frightening, yes, but only two cases? Sound like lemons to me, or maybe something got stuck in the steering mechanism, like someone else said. I wouldn't be too worried.

 

I'm not worried. This is was only a FYI. Something to keep an eye out for. No one knows if more instances of this might be coming.

 

I think that was a copy and paste from the NHTSA site, not the OP typing it out in CAPS to annoy you.

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...pt_id=1&type=1

http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/

 

Looking at the complaints, I think the same person issued both. The writing is similar - the same date of failure, both referring to the state of CT.

Could have been a total fluke occurrence, but I would hope that Honda/Acura would step up and fix the damage.

 

I kid I kid

I just wanted to use that one picture I've been saving for a while...

Oh, and that sh*t ever happened to me in my Acura, there'd be hell to pay!

 

:detective Hmmm....both cases are on the same date, in CT, and use a dealer in the same city...

 

Maybe he/she is trying to start an "unintended steering" problem for Honda. The story might be more compelling if this occurred on a California highway and the cops were called. That being said, I hope this is a fluke but the I guess if the EPS fails all of a sudden then the driver may feel like the wheel is "stuck"??

 

Isn't there something built into the car that won't allow the steering wheel to lock if the car is moving but turned off? When I had old cars and the alternator died, the car totally turned off, but I was still able to steer the car off the road safely.

Sounds like a total fluke, or user error.... we'll never know.

 

There is two sides to every story.

IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU GOT INTO AN ACCIDENT (HOPEFULLY NOT WHILE DUI) AND YOU WANT SOMEBODY ELSE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR ACTIONS. IT HAPPENS.

STOP BLAMING ACURA/HONDA AND JUMPING ON THE MEDIA BAND WAGON FOR CARS ACCELERATING AND CRASHING ON THEIR OWN.

It is super rare that cars will act upon them selves. Specially if the engineers did not find anything wrong.

 

^either way it sucks for him or her

 

I also agree that there are two sides to every story. After being in the army this long, I know that reacting initially off of one persons side will always burn you.

A steering wheel locking up or doing its own thing does not seem possible if driving normally. The electric power steering pump also couldn't be at play in this because if it shut off, and the car was still moving, you'd still have complete control of the car, just might have to tug the steering wheel more.

And if something internal to the steering rack sheered off, you would see signs of that immediately upon taking it off.

The only plausible explanation is if you were turning the car, a short in the whole electrical system shut the car off, then steering wheel simply locked into place as it would if the car was off in your driveway and you go to turn the steering wheel, and when it locked, it crashed and that's why nobody can find proof of it in the steering column.

 

In many cars, turning the steering wheel without power assist is VERY difficult. It can be done, but takes a good bit of strength.

When I read about manufacturers saying stuff like "the car's brakes and steering are completley operational when the power assist fails", I know it is technically true. I also know that if you can't man-handle the wheel or allow for EXTRA long stopping distance with 5 or 6 times normal brake force (*), it's an accident waiting to happen.


(*) - in the Camry investigations, NHTSA found that normal brake pedal force for full engagement was ~30 lb.ft; without power assist the brake pedal force was something like (iirc) 200 lb/ft. In addition they determined the required stopping distance to be significantly greater. I assume this finding applies generally to any power assist car.

 

Remember, this is ELECTRONIC power steering.

It is entirely possible that some kind of electrical failure would cause the steering wheel to stop functioning. I would assume that the wheel is still operational but difficult to maneuver. Unless of course some catastrophic failure occurred across the entire power steering circuit thus resulting in a complete lack of steering.

If the person who filed the complaint is telling the truth, Honda should have taken the entire car and looked at all of the electronics and not just the steering column. But I'm leaning towards a user error in this case, because I cannot see how an electronic power steering system would LOCK UP the steering wheel. This seems almost impossible.

 

I was about to agree with you, and then I saw that you wrote "lemons" and not "lemmings".

Seriously, this is going to start happening all over the place for every manufacturer. I can see a situation where new legislation will be added, the cars will become more heavy and complex, and yet not any bit safer. Ironically, the added layers of complexity will only fuel the fire that "something went wrong with my machine" but nobody can find anything wrong.

Toyota is recalling a gazillion cars over a (statistically) small number of incidents. If the media got wind of this "problem" I bet you would suddenly see an explosion of "Honda steering lock up" issues. In my opinion, it's a lot like UFO sightings, i.e. A lot of hype but no proof. This whole Toyota problem will die down as soon as the media moves on to "the next big story".