Emission system problem, transmission system problem. Car frequently stops with these error messages and it stopped the acceleration during driving on a freeway. It could have caused a major accident if I had not pulled over safely.

- Mckinney, TX, USA

On March 18th, 2023 at 6:30 PM I parked my car and waited for the curbside pick up at a cafe with my 3 girls 6 (my niece) 7, (daughter), and 11 (daughter) years old. The car started blinking all the lights started accelerating by themselves and turned off immediately. while I tried to turn it on it never started instead it blinked and displayed many messages, including transmission system problem, emission system problem, etc. I thought the battery died and called my husband to jump-start the car and it took 30 minutes to get driving with all these scary movements. my kids were traumatized by the experience and I thought thank god they were safe and the problem is solved. After almost a week once again on March 27th at I'm driving the kids to Karate and driving back at 5:45 PM all of sudden it started blinking, shanking, grinding noise, loud noise, and many messages, transmission system problems, emission system problems, etc. "D" drive started blinking. smoke came and I was still on the road not sure what to do. I thought I will be hit by the other cars behind me. luckily I was almost close to our street and it made a loud noise and I parked the car. it still blinked and smoked heavily and I turned off and got out of the car. It was a very scary movement of my life. I have 2 kids and I drive them every day for their day-2 day school/activities. I cannot believe I bought a new car in 2017 trusting the brand and it is already failed, my family. The car has to be towed to the dealership the dealer gave me a code P-2652. I want Honda to take care of their mechanical issues. I cannot get over the trauma I went through and I'm still shaking while I'm writing this. My 7 year old do not want to talk about the car which made me very sad. My girls loved the family car and now I'm in tears thinking about their safety. I want NHTSA to safeguard the consumers who go through these issues. HONDA PLEASE WAKE UP. My girls are ready to draft a letter to HONDA and NHTSA.

- Piscataway, NJ, USA

The autostop feature on the car fails to restart the engine. The car completely shuts down and all electrical is dead. This has happened multiple times over the course of many years. Often is takes multiple attempts to restart the vehicle while sitting in dangerous traffic situations (e.g. highway, nighttime with no lights). This is a significant safety issue. Honda has failed to fix the problem despite a new ignition switch and new battery. They don't seem to know how to fix it.

- Downers Grove, IL, USA

Went out to garage and started noticing headlights and running board lights were on, so assumed another household member had opened door to put something in the car which is not common. After this started occurring more often, asked and no one fessed up so started paying closer attention and even opening garage door just to check. After that, started noticing clicking sounds under the hood. Googling, saw online that others had similar issues. One day went to start car to head out and the car was dead. Called dealer and they said I must have left the car in accessory mode, but I wasn't so sure. AAA jumped the car with much effort. Next morning, car would not start again. This time, I remembered I had one of those jumper boxes and was able to start it, maybe because it was just one day difference. I know I was careful to make sure I fully stepped on brake to not leave it in accessory mode like dealer had said I probably did prior. Drove it around to charge the battery and went to store. When I came out, my car alarm was going off. When I got home, I left car out to see if alarm would go off and sure enough it did. I had also noticed that dashboard lights would flicker Honda symbol. This time didn't lock car and the alarm did not go off. Googled some more and luckily found on piloteers a post about replacing the control module around the driver side dash and considered myself lucky that my alarm was only going off when locked as others were saying they had to disable battery because would go off even when unlocked. Made an appt with Honda. I had a video of the car acting up in the garage and hoped that it would start in the morning. It did and showed Honda the video but of course they could not duplicate the issue but I told them I wanted the part replaced and hoped it worked b/c no way I could have unreliability continue. Said found a service bulletin with similar issue where they replaced 38320-TG7-A52 control unit so $850 later my issues are good

- Overland Park, KS, USA

This appears to be a known problem with the Honda Pilot with the car auto start/stop feature. The power/engine cuts on and off when trying to start back up. The dealer replaced the battery but after around 6 months it has started again. Before the battery replacement, we had the issue happen on the freeway while driving. So, it wasn't just after the autostop but it happens more prevalently then. It happened at least 2 to 3 times on the freeway. After reading that some vehicles don't start back up, I am concerned that if this cuts out on the freeway and doesn't start back up, it could cause an accident on the freeway at high speeds. I urge you to push Honda to recall the vehicle to fix this issue before someone get hurt. The dealer tech doesn't know what to do to fix the problem. And, doesn't appear to be the battery as we had the new one checked again just to be sure.

- Thompsons Station, TN, USA

The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while driving approximately 15 MPH and decelerating, the fuel saving feature malfunctioned, causing the vehicle to hesitate and almost stall. The contact was able to drive the vehicle off the road to turn off and restart the vehicle. After restarting the vehicle, the transmission erroneously shifted to neutral and failed to drive. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 24,000.

- San Francisco, CA, USA

The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while making a stop, the vehicle stalled without warning. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The dealer was contacted, and the dealer confirmed being aware of the failure; however, there was no fix for the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 40,000.

- South Kingstown, RI, USA

Idlestop issues

- Fridley, MN, USA

Was stopped at a very busy intersection today (2/12) and the vehicle's auto start/stop turned the vehicle off. When the light turned green, I attempted to apply gas and the engine stalled out. Was unable to restart the car again after many retries. I was very concerned that another vehicle would hit me since we were at a very busy intersection. All the electronic warnings on the dash appeared to flicker on and off when trying to restart. Eventually had to have the vehicle towed to the Honda dealer since the vehicle could not be jump started or restart on it's own.

- Powell, OH, USA

Car turns off at stop after auto shutoff will not restart

- Monroe, WA, USA

The engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// This is an extremely dangerous vehicle malfunction and needs to be addressed as soon as possible before someone is killed. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// While driving on the freeway or highway, traffic comes to a complete stop, the engine idle feature stops the engine, and upon restart, the vehicle stalls. This leaves my wife and kids stalled, sometimes on the freeway for up to a minute until my wife can get the car restarted. During that minute, she's at risk of being hit by other motorists traveling at freeway speeds. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// I brought our Honda Pilot to the dealership, and they could not diagnose and fix the issue. The Dealshp also claimed they were unaware of any issues with the Auto Start/Stop feature. /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Scott Robinson Honda 20340 Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance, CA 90503 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// I recently purchased a new battery to resolve the issue myself, and the issues continue with the new battery. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

- Redondo Beach, CA, USA

Engine Idle Shutoff engaged while at stoplight, however, upon removing foot from brake and attempting to move along with the greenlight signal the vehicle failed to restart. This is the second occurrence with this vehicle since 2018. Engine failed to restart for several minutes while dangerously blocking moving traffic on a busy city street.

- Lincoln, CA, USA

For the past couple of weeks, I have seen an quick error message (flashes and then disappears) and my Pilot has hesitated upon restarting after the auto engine idle stop has engaged at a stop sign. This was a longer hesitation (almost a failure to start) than the typical hesitation I feel when this feature engages. Yesterday, an error message stayed on the information screen, warning me that the auto idle stop feature was not working. This morning the error message was not there on startup. When I was at an intersection, my Pilot failed to restart after the auto idle stop feature engaged. It took a couple of attempts (pushing the start button) before the vehicle restarted and I could resume driving. This is a safety hazard for both me and other drivers. I have not yet taken the vehicle to the dealer for inspection.

- Cumberland, ME, USA

The alarm has gone off 30 times from 7am this morning to 2pm. I also have a picture of the dashboard lights. About a month ago I took it to the Honda Dealership and they charged me for a bunch of other things and gave it back for it to do it again the same day. Honda said it's a control unit they need to replace but I have to pay?

- St. Paul, MN, USA

My 2017 Pilot Elite has been suffering repeated issues with stalling out / engine not turning back on due to some sort of issue with the stop/start function (which will automatically turn the vehicle off when the break has been suppressed for more than 3 seconds). This is extremely dangerous and has put myself, my family, and others on the road in harm's way on multiple occasions. It appears that both NHTSA and Honda are both well aware of this issue, but for some reason are not moving forward with formal resolution despite the severity.

- Orange, VA, USA

Several times while at a full stop, the idle stop feature has failed when I have taken my foot off the brake and tried to accelerate. The error message tells me to put vehicle in park then press start. That does not immediately work. So far, I have gotten the vehicle to start within 1-2 minutes but this is a safety problem for me and other drivers on the road. I have not taken this to Honda but will be doing that in the next few days.

- Stafford, VA, USA

Keyless Start System Problem indicator illuminated in driver information display. Error notification is displayed intermittently. Stays on for several drive cycles and then goes off for a bit only to come back on again. So far the car seems to start ok, not sure if this issue may eventually cause car to no longer start. This issues has been going on for a few months and will stay illuminated for weeks then suddenly turn off. Scheduled an appointment with local Honda dealership but the indicator was not showing the day of the appointment so we cancelled as do not want to pay for the repair. This is a Honda issue and they should repair regardless of the indicator being illuminated or not.

- Uxbridge, MA, USA

My Pilot is suffering the auto stop/start fault that many others have reported online. The vehicle will sometimes fail to restart from the stopped state, forcing us to manually turn off, and restart the engine. As of this morning, the vehicle permanently reports an "Auto Engine Idle Stop System Problem" error.

- Campbell, CA, USA

I am reporting 2 safety issues in this report, both involving the AUTO STOP/START function in my car. SAFETY ISSUE #1: MALFUNCTIONING AUTO STOP/START (ASS) FUNCTION: At least 4 times during the past 2 months, I have had a serious safety issue with my 2017 Honda Pilot wherein it stalls and is completely inoperable for a short time, while I-€™m stopped at an intersection. This has caused me undue stress and jeopardized the safety of myself and my passengers, and disrupted traffic. According to my best recollection, the situation occurs when the ASS function stalls the engine (when stopped), and I manually press the -€˜Disable ASS-€™ button to restart the engine. But instead of the engine turning back, all systems completely -€˜black out-€™ as I frantically try to re-start the engine, to no effect. After several scary seconds, somehow it re-starts. SAFETY ISSUE #2: CORRECTLY FUNCTIONING ASS FUNCTION: Even when functioning correctly, the ASS function has caused a safety issue for me at least twice. When the ASS function was automatically engaged, I was unable to immediately accelerate to avoid a potential collision. Although no collision resulted, these few scares -€˜trained me-€™ to manually disengage the ASS function whenever I remember to do so. Based on my experiences, It would be safest to have no ASS function at all.

- Rochester, NY, USA

Keyless Start System Problem indicator illuminated in driver information display. Error notification is displayed intermittently. Stays on for several drive cycles and then goes off for a bit only to come back on again. So far the car seems to start ok, not sure if this issue may eventually cause car to no longer start.

- Chicago, IL, USA