Hello all,

Yesterday I purchased a 2000 Honda Civic CX Hatchback for $400 with intentions of using it as a winter beater.

I test drove it, and decided that I want to reinstall power steering.

My question to you guys; What is needed to complete this? How difficult would it be?

Thanks in advance!

 

Depends on what's currently left. Re-installing, so it had it at one point?

You will need:
P/S Rack
P/S Pump w/ bracket
Crank pulley with accessory pulleys attached
Belt
High side line (pressure, has sensor in it, need that too)
Low side line (suction)
Reservoir
P/S cooler
P/S cooler hose

uhhh I think off the top of my head that's everything.

Me personally I don't think it's all that hard to do, but I am a Honda Technician and work on these cars every day. Hardest part would be if you needed to replace the current rack.

-Amp

 

It might not be worth going through all the trouble of installing power steering if it came with a manual rack

 

That is a good point. I'm not 100% sure if it had it before. Is there an easy way to check?

 

If you look at the steering rack in the engine bay and it has hoses going to it, it probably had power steering at one point.. but most likely it came with a manual rack.. i don't think the cx's came with power steering.. so yeah you would need all that stuff

 

I believe the automatic cx's came with P/S. From what I've seen though the 5-speed ones did not. Also, an easy way to tell is measure the steering wheel across. The manual rack cars came with a larger diameter steering wheel. My CRX steering wheel is huge! haha

-Amp

 

Well if it doesn't, I'll probably end up doing it anyway lol. I almost hit 2 cars trying to turn in that thing while test driving it. You don't really appreciate power steering until you don't have it lmao.

This one is a 5-Speed, I probably should have been more specific in my OP, sorry! And it came with an RSX steering wheel, so measuring that is out of the question.

 

If it's THAT stiff then maybe it did. My manual rack CRX is challenging at slow speeds but it's nothing I can't turn.

EDIT: Nevermind, with that RSX wheel it probably is ridiculously hard to turn...

-Amp

 

The CX with manual trans came from the factory with a manual rack. The stock steering wheels are all the same size in those cars.

If you want to add power steering you'll need a manual rack, the U-joint at the bottom of the steering column where it connects to the rack, all lines and associated brackets, reservoir, pump and steering pump bracket. You may also need a crank pulley, I know the '88 - '91s and '92 - '95s without PS don't have the 3rd pulley to run PS. I can't remember if '96 - '00 is the same or not. You will need to remove the subframe to get the rack out. It's not a horrible job, just somewhat time consuming and you'll need an alignment when you're done.

I'd suggest you get a stock '96 - '00 Civic steering wheel or '97 - '01 CR-V Steering wheel and leave the rest as is. Once the snow is on the ground you really wont notice the lack of PS at all.

 

you don't need to pull the subframe to replace the rack. you can slide the manual steering rack out with some maneuvering and then slide the power one in.
94EG8 listed all the parts you need. do not forgot that Unijoint that connect the steering rack to the wheel. The manual rack has smaller splines than the power one!
it's a really straight forward job. Just get the stuff, hook it up and you're good.
The hardest part for me was making sure i had the rack and steering wheel centered before i locked everything in place.
You don't need to worry about hooking up the pressure sensor on the high side of the PS lines. Just leave the sensor in the line and keep it disconnected.
Its just for a warning light as far as i know anyway. Mine's never been hooked up in almost 8 years of ownership.

 

Thank you for your response, sir! I will be hitting the local junk yard this weekend and getting all parts needed, then hopefully tackling this project. I'll keep you guys posted! :D

 

Need to confirm if you actually do have a manual rack or not, and go from there.

 

Yeah, not too sure how to tell. But from the research I've done & what everyone is telling me, the CX doesn't come with power steering, so I imagine it's a manual rack.

 

p/s rack and pinion, sub frame, lines, p/s bracket and p/s pump.