Honda’s latest hot hatch won a lot of early fans, but over in the States, faulty driver’s seats have lead to the FL5 Civic Type R being recalled.
The average Civic Type R driver will probably be familiar with having a few squeaks and rattles in the cabin, especially if they own an older, modified example. However, it’s not something you’d expect from a brand new car.
Unfortunately, while there’s a lot to love about the new FL5, one feature that didn’t please new owners was a common squeak emanating from the driver’s seat. In fact, the fault was commonplace enough for American Honda to take notice and dig a little deeper.
The prognosis wasn’t good. It turns out that those annoying noises appear to stem from the frame of the seat – y’know, the bit that connects the seat to the floor of the car. Further investigation found that some dodgy welding was the root cause of the problem, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that an incorrectly mounted driver’s seat could be a BIG problem.
To give you the full picture, American Honda’s report concluded that in the event of an accident those shoddy welds could give way, catapulting the seat off its mounting points. Obviously, that’s a pretty major flaw, especially in an ‘entry-level’ performance car like this which is likely to be driven hard.
FL5 Civic Type R Recall & Stop Sale
As such, American Honda alerted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in late March, resulting in a nationwide ‘stop sale’. On top of that, there are also safety recalls for early 2023 models, which aims to fix the problem for existing FL5 owners.
That isn’t the end of the story though. At the moment, Honda claims that the parts required to make the justified repairs are simply not in stock, leaving existing owners and those on the waiting list without their car for the foreseeable future. A quick fix, this is not.
Intriguingly, FL5s around the rest of the world don’t seem to have this problem – either that, or authorities just haven’t picked up on it yet. For now at least, there’s no word of any recalls or sale barriers on the other side of the pond.
If you’re an American FL5 owner though, it’s fair to say that the Honeymoon Period might already be over…
