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.
When stopping at a traffic light the engine auto stop/start engages, but then the engine will not power back on when I release the brake. I have to completely restart the engine, causing a safety concern with other vehicles behind me. This has been ongoing for the last 6 months or so, and it seems to be getting worse. Sometimes the car will turn off mid intersection and we will be stuck there for 10-30 seconds while I try to get the car back on and going again. It is a very dangerous hazard and Honda denies there being an issue. After reading online it seems that many people are having a similar problem.
When stopping at a traffic light the engine auto stop/start engages, but then the engine will not power back on when I release the brake. I have to completely restart the engine, causing a safety concern with other vehicles behind me. This just started in December 2022 and seems to occur daily.
Numerous restart issues when car in in idle mode stopped at a traffic light or stop sign. Car does not idle but completely powers off. I'm required to place car into "park", turn on power, shift to drive in order to accelerate
On at least three occasions after being stopped at a light the engine suddenly died (not simply auto idle stop). After putting in park and shutting off ignition (button start) and waiting some time the vehicle could be restarted. Battery is good. Fuel is good. Injectors already replaced. Dangerous as vehicle may be unexpectedly on powered while in traffic
Car does not turn on after stopping at a red light with auto start/off on. Turns on after being jump started. Also windows automatically come down without pressing any buttons after opening or turning off car. Dealer reports no issues. Battery has been changed with no solution. Car is inoperable with concern for pedestrian safety and personal safety.
- Corona, NY, USA
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I was stopped at a red light, the engine cycled down because of the environmentally friendly option. My foot was on the break. The transmission shifted to neutral and turned orange. I could not get it to shift back to Drive. I had to turn the car off and restart it. At that point I was able to put it in drive and move the car. This was very dangerous because I was on a busy highway and could have been rear ended by a driver not noticing the car was stopped and off.
Auto engine on/off option- when on and at a stop the whole vehicle shuts down I have to hold brakes down press engine on/off to correctly shut it down the start the vehicle
The vehicle routinely shuts off at intersections and is unable to restart. This often causes traffic to back up behind the vehicle and vehicles around us having to make sudden stops. This occurs during normal driving conditions about 3 times/month. It seems to be attributed to the automatic shut-off feature but does not restart as it should when operating properly.
On multiple occasions the idle stop feature will engage and upon re-engage it will stall my vehicle. When I place the vehicle in park, press the brake and press the ignition start, nothing happens. Upon multiple attempts to restart the car it will either do nothing or making a chug without restarting. Continuing my attempts to restart the vehicle it will finally restart. During these times I will be stalled at a stop sign or traffic light with impatient drivers going around me. All the dashboard lights come on. I have taken it to the dealership, they stated they couldn-??t duplicate the problem. This is unsafe for motorists or pedestrians. If this happens while I'm in an intersection or other location with moving traffic it could be very unsafe for myself, other motorists and/or pedestrians.
Was in the middle of an intersection and pressed the button to turn off Engine Idle Mode as I have had instances where it was very slow to go when this mode is on and it delays getting out of the way of other drivers. When I pressed the Idle Off button - the car -??shut down-?? and went into neutral. I could not get it out of neutral. Pressed D, R, P. Multiple times. Didn-??t work. Had to press the turn off car button twice to turn off car then it finally restarted. I was stranded in the intersection and almost got hit by several cars. Once it started I pulled into a gas station and the radio stopped working. I turned off the car and restarted. Then the engine wasn-??t shifting properly. Shut off the car again and went to the dealer. Dealer ran diagnostics and couldn-??t find a problem. Checked the battery and all other items - no issues. Somebody is going to get killed and now I-??m scared to drive my car.
The automatic engine stop-start feature of the car is having serious issues, the car engine shuts off automatically after stopping the car at stop signs/red lights etc and does not restart automatically after releasing the brake. This has been an intermittent issue and has happened noticeable number of times till now. When the system does not restart its asks to pull over without having engine turned on which is conflicting message. I have spoke to the dealership and they say there is no known issues with the system which says otherwise based on my research multiple customers are facing this issue. Though not a huge safety risk, unable to start a car in busy intersection induces some amount of safety hazard.
Multiple incidences of vehicle power shutting off unexpectedly including at a stop light in busy major downtown causing a dangerous situation and requiring police assistance. Start will fail unexpectedly requiring a period of time before another attempt or a jump start.
The automatic Stop-Start feature has had multiple issues in the last two years on my 2018 Honda Pilot Elite. The lesser issue has resulted in ALL systems turning off when the brake pedal is pushed all the way down. While the usual, expected result is just the engine cutting off, many times the entire electrical system shuts down. On two (seemingly random) cases, however, the car did NOT restart for quite some time. Once was at an interaction, the other was in stop/go traffic in the rain on the highway. Here is where it could have been catastrophic as I could not even turn on my flashers to warn (in low visibility) that I was stopped while all other traffic was flowing. In neither case did I require a jump start and I have never had any reason to blame the battery. Even in the winter, the car starts right up (here in Virginia). My local Honda dealership is claiming that I need a new battery and a software update. I have a claim in to Honda CustomerCare (even have a Case Manager assigned), but I have not heard from them in the last 3 days.
On multiple occasions / almost daily the engine auto shut off kills the engine completely. The vehicle needs to be restarted to get moving. This poses as a significant safety hazard. This delay is going to get someone killed. The engine dies at stop lights, stops signs, off ramps and sitting in traffic. A complaint was made to the Honda dealer on 4 or more occasions with them informing us they can not replicate the issue and there isn-??t a safety recall on it yet. This issue has gotten so bad that I am thinking about selling this car do to a safety issue. Honda is usually a trustable brand and stand by their brand, but some reason they will not admit to this reoccurring problem in the Honda Pilots.
The automatic stop/start for the engine is failing. It stops at inopportune times, and it is very slow to restart. Sometimes i have to put it in park and push the start button. This has been problematic at intersections and it has been happening more and more frequently. The SUV only has 24,000 miles on it.
The engine stop start function fails to "start" the truck in traffic when the failure happens 60% of the time you can follow on dash instructions and restart the truck - the remaining 40% it will ONLY restart after you JUMP Start the vehicle with another car. This has left my Wife Stranded 2 times in a busy intersection and we had to get jump started in the busy intersection While in this state we also could NOT put the vehicle in neutral to move it from the intersection trapping it where it was until it was jump started.
As I was coming to a stop light and started to slow down the automatic start/stop system engaged, but the light turned green and when I tried to accelerate the car was not running anymore lights I the dashboard where flashing that I needed to put vehicle in park to start back up. Our vehicle was almost impacted by the truck behind us because he assumed I would be able to speed up instead of having to come to a complete stop. This has happened at least 20 more times since then when I forget to turn off the automatic start/stop feature. It's always when I'm coming to a stop, the suv will not turn back on mostly its inconvenient to drivers behind me that feel I just didn't see the light turn green but a couple of times it has happened when approaching metering lights in the freeway where the cars behind me or in the lane next to me are ready to accelerate not knowing that my car will have to come to a complete stop because of this issue before I car start the car again.
Auto start stop function is activated at stop light. Upon releasing the brake to accelerate, the car shuts off completely and am unable to restart vehicle immediately. Requires me to push on/off button a few times to get vehicle back on and running.
After the car was stoped at a red light with the auto-idle feature on, the car stalled out when I pressed the gas petal to drive. The radio and A/C shut off and a PARK warning displayed. It took several attempts to turn the car back on. After the car started it took several minutes for the radio to start working again. None of the touch buttons for radio, phone or navigation would respond. This happened when I was at a light after getting off the highway. It almost caused a car accident with the drivers around me who were coming off the highway. Since this happened, every time I turn on the car, the radio stations can not be found. I have to turn the radio off/on once or twice for the car to find the stations. Frequently, when I go from stop to drive at lights or stop signs, the radio and AC will turn off for a second. This seems to only happen when the auto idle feature is on. The car transmission is also having lurching when going from 1st to 2nd gear.
Auto idle system failed and the car stalled at a streetlight. The auto-idle kicks in when car comes to a stop like it-??s supposed to but when I release my foot off the break and the car is supposed to start back up it stalls. It can take anywhere from 45 seconds to 1 minute to get it into park and get the car to restart. During which time I-??ve been honked at by other cars but thankfully haven-??t been hit yet. I worry about it happening and I get hit because I-??ve been in the way of traffic and unable to move. Very scary situation to be in. This has happened on 4 separate occasions over the last couple months, the most recent one was June 19th. I now try to remember to turn the system off every time I get into the car to drive. Dealership tested battery and it came back fine.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Wellesley Hills, MA, USA