This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
The auto Start / Stop feature that shuts the engine off while stopped at stop lights has failed to restart the car dozens of times over the last year. While stopped at a light, the engine shuts off as expected. Then when going to release the brake pedal to pull away from the stop light, the car fails to restart. The method to restart requires putting the car into park, applying the brake, pushing the start/stop button, and then putting the car back in drive. All while traffic behind me is trying to move forward. This is a very scary situation in a busy intersection. After many instances, my wife and I are very fast at the restart procedure, but we get nervous anytime someone else drives the car. Replacing the battery seemed to help for a few months, but did not stop the issue. The issues seems to happen more frequently in hot weather situations where the air conditioning is pulling a large load on the electrical situation, although it also happened a few times over the winter when the heater was running. There are no warnings, lights, or messages that appear on the dashboard. This relates to Investigation # PE 22-005.
My 2017 Pilot has a "feature" where the engine will turn itself off when fully stopped and in drive. Sometimes the car won't restart when you remove your foot from the brake, and sometimes it struggles to restart. I have been stuck at an intersection before and had to restart it myself manually. When this happens, it also gives me a warning that one of the safety features has a problem (I'm not sure which one, maybe collision warning?) I've started to simply turn off this "feature" when I start the car, but sometimes I forget and then it happens again.
In January 2021 our 2017 Honda Pilot Battery was replaced by the dealer, Anderson Honda, in Hunt Valley. In February we started experiencing problems when Auto Idle is engaged (as it is when you start the car). We were sitting at a red light and the car shut off (as it is supposed to with auto idle). When the light turned green the car was off and wouldn't turn on for about 8 minutes we were stuck at the light with no abiltiy to turn the car off or move the car. This happened repeatly, the car does not start again for many minutes. We took the car to the dealership numerous times with no solution. It is very dangerous to be blocking traffic with an immobile car.
Vehicle will stall out at an intersection, or stop sign after the auto restart shuts the car off. When I lift my foot off the brake for the gas peddle, the entire car stalls and I get a series of warning lights and messages about shifting the car into gear before restarting. Despite attempts to restart the car, I'm generally stranded for 1-2 mins. I brought the issue up to the dealership last time I brought the car in. After 1 test drive they claimed to have found no issues, and that if it happened again I should "film it happening with my phone". This is now the 4th time this has happened within the last 6 months.
On several occasions, the automatic idle and restart system has failed. While setting at a red light with a breaking engaged the engine goes off. When releasing the break the engine does not restart automatically. Sometimes it restarts easily and sometimes not taking two to three attempts to do so while traffic is backed up behind me at a stoplight
The auto stop/start feature does not always restart the car when I release the brake after stopping. Mostly in town at stop signs and red lights but recently it happened while I was in stop and go traffic on an interstate. At all locations I was blocking traffic (flashers on of course) and hoping no one hit me while I sat for a few minutes trying to restart my car. From experience I have found that I have to release the brake and push my engine start button a couple times to completely turn off everything then push the brake and button to start the car. A few times it I had to do that cycle several times before it actually restarted. Meanwhile I am in the middle of the road completely blocking traffic. My dealer was -??unable to replicate-?? so my solution has been to turn off that feature. Unfortunately, auto stop/start is automatically on every time I start my car -?? so this happens when I forget to turn it off. There are times that it works and the car restarts but even then the electrical system shuts down. Radio turns off and back on as the car is restarting and dash lights turn off then on, which reminds me to once again turn the feature off. I have had a lot of electrical issues with this car due to a sunroof leak so I chalked it up to my ongoing electrical problems until I saw the article today about other complaints from people having the same issue. The date listed below was the most recent incident but it has occurred many times.
My 2017 Honda Pilot does not want to start after the auto idle comes on. For example. When my Pilot comes to a stop and the auto idle system shut the engine off. The vehicle does not want to start when I take my foot off the brake. I thought it may have been my battery, it the problem still happened after I got a new one.
When at a stoplight, auto idle causes car to completely stall and shut down and won-??t restart unless car turned completely off and try to restart again. This has caused me to be placed in some dangerous situations where I have almost been rear ended from behind. Dealership says that it-??s the battery but from hearing from multiple people, this has not fixed the problem. It seems like it-??s something electrical with auto idle stop feature.
Many times over the past few years, my car has stalled out at a light or stop sign when the auto start-stop has been engaged. I noticed this happens more in the summer than winter. I have to disengage this function when driving, however, with no permanent way to shut off this feature, I often forget to shut it off every time I start the car. As a result, I frequently have to deal with the stalling. I have always been able to restart the car after a minute or so, but it's obviously a safety issue with cars stuck behind me. No warning lights come on before this happens, and I have no taken the car to a dealer or repair shop.
Auto start stop - car turns off and will not restart via auto start/stop system at red lights and stop signs. This is extremely dangerous in a heavy traffic situation. The system, if doesn-??t completely shut down is very delayed in responding to turn back on. I-??ve had this issue since I purchased the car. Dealership had no idea how to fix. They replaced the fuel injectors, thinking it would solve issue, which didn-??t help. I still own this car. 75,000 miles and this still happens.
The car auto stop/start feature is failing to restart the engine when coming to a complete stop, sometimes while in a turn lane turning left with oncoming traffic.
Auto start/stop has caused the engine to shut off multiple times. One particular incident occurred at a stop light and only turned back on after several attempts using the ignition button.
Auto on/off issue. Vehicle did not restart after auto shut off. Luckily not in a place where it caused a traffic problem. After a minute or so of being off the vehicle being completely off it started up again. After it sputtered a few more occasions, I have been turning off the feature manually each time I start the car now. Honda doesn-??t allow you to permanently turn it off. It has to be done each time.
Problem: Malfunction of the auto engine idle feature. Multiple (five to ten) occurrences have been observed in this vehicle since 2021. When gas pedal was pressed to start the car moving forward after idling for traffic conditons, instead of driving forward, the car automatically engaged neutral gear. In order to place the car in drive gear, the driver had to power off the car and then power back on. This problem was observed while traveling in stop-and-go interstate traffic and also while stopped at stop signs. This is a safety issue because restarting the car immobilized it for about 20 seconds of time each incident, while in traffic that was trying to move at posted speeds. Because this has been an intermittent problem so far, it was unable to be replicated by the dealer-??s service technicians. There have been no indications of any problem prior to each stalling incident.
Multiple times the vehicle has shutoff when the it has reached a complete stop at a traffic light and has not restarted on its own. Took it to dealer but they could not recreate it supposedly. In addition fuel pump issues and the Honda dealer is not able to obtain parts to the fix the vehicle. Feels like a lemon vehicle.
The automatic start/stop sometimes fails to restart and car stalls. The car must be shut off and turned back on. At other times, the engine shuts down immediately upon stopping, such as at a 4 way stop or in traffic. I must pump the breaks to restart. These are intermittent problems that sometimes go away on their own and it has not been able to be replicated when in the shop. No warnings or engine lights appear as a result of this problem. Because it is intermittent and can happen in traffic, it is dangerous. This problem has been recurring for months.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- St Augustine, FL, USA