Electrical Issue: Turning Steering Wheel causes Radio to Restart, and More

ez12a

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Hey All,

to preface, i have an appointment this Friday at the dealer to look at this issue. I am wondering if anyone has had this problem and what it took to resolve, so I can suggest it when I go in. 2018 Civic Type R with 16.5k miles.

This has happened on two separate occasions. The latter occasion I was able to record on my phone as evidence. No warning lights on the dash.

Incidents:
1. After driving 20 minutes with no problems, at the end of the drive I went to make a 3 point U turn on a side street. I noticed the radio shut off whenever I was turning the wheel. I went to park behind another car, and noticed the headlights and fog lights flickering whenever I turned the wheel, in addition to the radio dying every time. Also, an audible whine was emitted from the electric power steering. To me, it seemed like the battery was dying. Shut it off, and started it back up and there were no problems.

2. After driving approx 15 minutes and steering into my spot at work, again the radio died and the steering whine came back. Parked in my spot I turned the wheel and again the radio died, and I can hear the HVAC fan decreasing speed as well, as if there was not enough power to power the steering, infotainment, and HVAC.

Some side notes:
1. I left the key fob overnight in the car the night before the first incident. Incident #2 happened after several long 45+ min trips. Leading me to believe it's not a charging issue.
2. Car's completely stock electrically and mechanically.

Anyone have this issue before and what did it take to resolve? Right now I'm guessing battery.

Update TLDR Fix: Sanded off some paint under the main chassis ground that attaches to the neg terminal.
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ez12a

ez12a

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Update: Dealer didn't find anything wrong. Made a stretch saying it was my Nintendo branded USB C cable causing the issue with steering. I asked the service adviser over the phone if Android Auto was so deeply connected to the car that it would affect my steering, lights, and fans. Of course he said no.

I'll continue to document every occurrence. Here's the second time it happened (first time I forgot to grab video of):
 

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Dealers are shit , i went for a problem with tpms system light came on no matter what pressure it had starting with the one on the owners recommended psi , even they put in the recommended air in the tire's and send me on my way couple of miles pop again the tpms light the head tech took a look at it after i got pissed at the problem he took there honda scan tool and nothing came up , i asked him if the tires had to be on the the recommended psi he told me No because what detects tires being low is the traction system after all he sent me on my way and bamm the light again , so i took on myself to fix the problem i only had like 200 miles on the type r, bought a luanch x431 with 2 year update free i hooked it up started to scan the car nothing came up so i went in to the cars traction system only to find out that it has to be calibrated to winter or summer can you believe that and a head tech didn't now that so i calibrated it via my scan tool and no more tpms and i put my tires at 40front 38 rear because roads here suck a bit so for those that live in hot places were summer is all year look out for this .
 

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Not sure if this will help or not. I was driving in a parking lot. I made some quick sharp turns and my dash displayed some warnings (I think traction control error or brake system error), my radio lost power, and I think my car almost shut off. I freaked out. I pulled over and popped the hood to check for any visual irregularities. One of the battery terminals was loose (I think it was the positive terminal). The cable clamp was loose enough to rattle against the battery terminal, causing power to be interrupted. I was able to pull the terminal cable off the battery. I retightened the terminal. No problems since that day. So, check your battery terminals.
 
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ez12a

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Not sure if this will help or not. I was driving in a parking lot. I made some quick sharp turns and my dash displayed some warnings (I think traction control error or brake system error), my radio lost power, and I think my car almost shut off. I freaked out. I pulled over and popped the hood to check for any visual irregularities. One of the battery terminals was loose (I think it was the positive terminal). The cable clamp was loose enough to rattle against the battery terminal, causing power to be interrupted. I was able to pull the terminal cable off the battery. I retightened the terminal. No problems since that day. So, check your battery terminals.
Thanks I'll check. I'm leaning on the battery just being a dud.
 


CeaseR

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I had sort of the same issue not sure if it was when turning or not I was in the passenger seat and let my friend drive, car only has 400 miles on it and I noticed the radio going black and then going back on, I haven’t noticed it since but with only 400 miles it shouldn’t do that, also hearing a rattle almost as if a heat shield is loose, I’m kinda hesitant to bring in because I don’t want some tech beat the shit out of my R being it only has 400 miles on it
 
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ez12a

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Just wanted to follow up on this. It was getting to a point where when starting the car up it would complain that the power was removed and GPS had to recalibrate. On two instances, when i shut the car off it completely died--meaning i couldnt engage the ebrake, couldnt restart the car, etc. 30 seconds later it started working again. Bizarre. On the second time it died like this, i popped the hood and while i was checking out the fuses i heard my dash cam start back up by itself.

I went through and checked all the grounds using the service manual and measured the resistance between the terminal and main chassis ground, and also between the main chassis grounds to the other component grounds. EPS grounds specifically are on the passenger side and down towards the firewall. I didn't find anything obvious at least while the engine was off and no load.

However, i did find that between the terminal and main chassis ground (the short ground lead from the negative terminal to the chassis) there was an increase of resistance of 3.4 ohms. Seems high for such a thick ground wire. Anywho, i removed the ground on the chassis side and with some sand paper, sanded off a bit of the thin paint where the ground attaches. Nothing crazy, just the paint that is under the ground itself so you cant see it with the ground back in place.

I suspect the chassis ground was not clean enough, and when the EPS (Electric power steering) drew a lot of power (comfort mode and low speed = high current) the chassis ground was not enough to keep everything else powered. It would explain why turning the wheel would kill the electronics.

I did this last week and havent had the issue since, but time will tell. I'll update if it comes back. The other suspect in this is the 12v battery sensor, which connects the ground wire to the neg terminal. The ground wire is not directly connected to the terminal. It appears to be the source of the resistance between the terminal and the chassis. These apparently can fail, short and cause a fire (in a diff honda model)
 
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Just another update in case anyone is curious. Pretty sure the issue is resolved and it was indeed a grounding issue from the factory.

My car has been sitting so much the past 3 weeks the battery is actually getting low from my hardwired dash cam. Even with that going on the issue has not reoccurred when i take it out to drive.
 

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Just another update in case anyone is curious. Pretty sure the issue is resolved and it was indeed a grounding issue from the factory.

My car has been sitting so much the past 3 weeks the battery is actually getting low from my hardwired dash cam. Even with that going on the issue has not reoccurred when i take it out to drive.
That was some good debugging! I hope you found it, thanks for posting the fix :)
 
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ez12a

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I can happily report to this day the issue has not returned. Absolutely check your grounds if you have random electrical issues. Still running the original battery too.
 


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I can happily report to this day the issue has not returned. Absolutely check your grounds if you have random electrical issues. Still running the original battery too.
I came here looking for possible leads on mine. I went to pick up my '21 Boost Blue, and they go "Uhhh there's a little problem, come this way" So I follow him to service, where they tell me about how all the sensing lights popped up on the dash as they brought it in for PDI. They clear the codes, after it gives them some trouble, and then drive it a bit to see if they come back. No codes. Leave it overnight, drive it again, and no codes.

Fast forward to that next evening when I pick it up. Drive it for a good 20 to 30 minutes, all of a sudden all the sensing lights, tpms, wheel position, traction control turn on. Brought it back the next morning. It was driving perfectly fine, transmission like butter.

It has under 100 miles still, and as much as I trust my own electrical diagnostic skills I would rather leave this to them in case of a bigger issue.

I'm definitely going to reach out and have them check the battery terminal as well, as I did get a black screen restart a few times on the head unit. Would be quite funny if someone just didn't tighten down one of those....
 
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ez12a

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I'm definitely going to reach out and have them check the battery terminal as well, as I did get a black screen restart a few times on the head unit. Would be quite funny if someone just didn't tighten down one of those....
Good luck! the terminal was tight on mine, instead, it was the main ground that caused all of my issues. From what I found the grounds test fine with a simple multimeter when the car is off. The problem manifested only when the car was on and there was an electrical load. sucks when it's a brand new car though...

At 30k miles now btw, didn't quantify the amount of miles driven since the fix.
 

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Good luck! the terminal was tight on mine, instead, it was the main ground that caused all of my issues. From what I found the grounds test fine with a simple multimeter when the car is off. The problem manifested only when the car was on and there was an electrical load. sucks when it's a brand new car though...

At 30k miles now btw, didn't quantify the amount of miles driven since the fix.
Thank you for the follow up and keeping this updated man! Far too many problems where people ask everyone for help, then everyone offers advice and helps, and then OP never follows through with a solution once problem is fixed. We appreciate people like you!
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