If you recently took delivery of a Civic Type R, you know how lovely its seats are. They’re damn near perfect, except for the fact they don’t come with heaters. I suppose that’s what the Integra Type S is for. Anyway, some owners have discovered the driver-side thrones have another fault, which is that they tend to squeak and rattle under normal driving. This is because the frames are kind of falling apart a bit.
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No, really. Honda has issued a stop-sale and recall on its popular hot hatch, according to our friends at Autoblog, over faulty welds in the seat cushion frame. This causes the squeaking some owners have complained about over at the 11th-gen Civic forums, but it also compromises the driver’s safety in the event of an accident.
The notice hasn’t been posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website yet, but a separate thread on the aforementioned forum contains a screenshot of a service bulletin. According to the document, there are “no parts available for repairs” as of yet, and customers are due to be notified by the middle of May. Hopefully, fixes will be possible by then.
It’s unclear how many vehicles this recall impacts, but the going theory from the community seems to be that it’s limited to the first wave of cars manufactured. Jalopnik has reached out to Honda to confirm this. The reason the issue is exclusive to the Type R and doesn’t widely apply to all 11th-gen Civic models likely has to do with the Type R having bespoke bolsters with enhanced rigidity, because you need it in this thing.
It’s been some months since I drove the new Civic Type R, but I don’t recall a squeaking sound from under my butt. In fairness, even if there had been a noise I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. My attention was elsewhere. This car has a funny way of doing that to you.