By Jordan Grim • November 07, 2025 • 10:23 AM (PDT)
By Jordan Grim • November 07, 2025 • 10:23 AM (PDT)
Honda is recalling over 400,000 Civic cars because their alloy wheels could fall off.
If there’s one downside to buying fancy alloy wheels for your car, it’s that you don’t get to see them while you’re driving. Well, usually not, but Honda is recalling over 400,000 cars because their wheels could fall off at speed, giving owners a rare opportunity to see them in motion.
This US recall applies to 2016-21 Civic cars fitted with a specific type of 18-inch alloy wheel manufactured by a supplier in Italy. These wheels are quite distinctive, featuring a red stripe around the outer edge of each wheel and 15 thin spokes in a mix of dark and silver finishes.
Many of these wheels are apparently missing a crucial component: five steel inserts in the lug holes. Wheels without this simple bushing can have loose lug nuts, and in the worst-case scenario, the wheel – or wheels – could detach, potentially causing a crash.
Honda’s investigation revealed that the error occurred at the wheel manufacturer’s plant, where a barrier separating finished and unfinished wheels was removed while some new equipment was being installed.
As a result, many wheels were mistakenly shipped before employees could install the bushings and perform final inspections. The supplier went out of business in 2023, which is probably for the best. Although the recall involves 10th-generation Civic cars from 2016-2021, the wheels themselves were manufactured only during a 12-month period between December 2018 and 2019.
Honda will mail owners it knows have purchased these wheels and ask them to bring their cars in for inspection.
Dealer technicians will remove all four wheels to check for the presence of the sleeves and will replace both the rim and suspension hub if necessary. They have also been instructed to drill two holes in any defective wheels to ensure they are taken out of service.
The problem is that people buy and sell wheels all the time, and this is especially common with cars that are a few years old, meaning it may be difficult for Honda to reach all 2016-2021 Civic owners who are currently using these rims.
And many of these cars will not be serviced at a franchised dealer, meaning there are fewer opportunities to inspect them going forward.