Ok so I wasn't dreaming. I'm in Hamilton, not quite the tropics you're in but not the wildest winters either. Let us know if it comes back once your usual spring-like conditions are restored.
How's this for an odd data point. On my first drive in the car at about -10° (or whatever in fakenheit) it feels like it's completely disappeared. It took a while for winter weather to finally arrive here, and if this keeps up I'll have to wait for spring before I can get it looked at. Maybe...
We'll yeah it's a different tune for more power. It's also one less resonator and an open exhaust at all rpms. This ain't the rocket surgery you're all making it out to be.
They're not that dissimilar, still just four-pot turbos. The pops are louder in S+ because the valve is open. Every small turbo out there would be popping off if it had the same treatment. Pops only happen when it's warm for me too, no ecu magic needed for that.
I was wrong about the mapping...
My little 1.5 pops and burbles in all drive modes and all I changed was the exhaust. No engine mods whatsoever. No tune no downpipe. Therefore I'm convinced the drive modes do nothing to the engine map and you're getting the soundtrack simply by bypassing a resonator.
“Universal Modern Car Repair Procedure” hah. I had a buddy who used to drive a Saturn Ion that would randomly lose power steering, and his fix was to restart the car while driving. He'd clutch in, turn the key off, then restart the engine all while rolling at highway speeds. Freaked everyone...
Try a reboot...
I have a 128GB key in there all the time loaded with my FLAC library, including some hi-res (stereo only though.) It's one of my favourite features.
Well there is a recall on some of the replacement racks, believe it or not, which could result in a new part revision number. https://hondanews.com/en-US/releases/release-7b0d03d783f6d642dbbefc6b2a139241-2022-2024-honda-civic-steering-rack-recall