Table 1 shows one common equipment related problems of the 2026 Honda Odyssey.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Equipment problems |
When the car is stopped at a light. The car will shut off and shift into park and kill and I cannot restart the car until several times of trying.
The van turns completely off very often when at a complete stop. I am not referring to the auto start/stop feature which is equipped standard on the vehicle. The van physically turns completely off, as if I turned off the car, requiring me to turn the car on completely. This has created very dangerous situations as im often traveling trying to merge into traffic etc and the vehicle is off on active roadways. There is no warning, just turns off completely.
I have a 2026 and for the past six months have had issues with the van restarting after the idle stop kicks in. The dealership was notified three different times about difficulty restarting. They were unable to “reproduce it” even though it happened when the service clerk went to move it out of the service check in area and he told the mechanics. Then in August, the car died at a light and I was not able to shut the van off or restart for ~ 4-5 minutes. It then occurred again in early October where it died on the interstate (294 in illinois) in traffic. The vehicle was brought to the dealership again where I was informed that they could not reproduce it, however, they checked the starter and said my 2026 had a discontinued starter and they ended up replacing my starter. I want to report this because when the car dies in the middle of traffic or at a light, it presents a large safety issue, especially when it is a brand new vehicle and you aren’t expecting any issues.
I was stopped at a red light. When the light turned green, I stepped on the gas pedal to proceed forward. The vehicle suddenly stopped and shifted into park on its own. The emergency brake light also came on, and the vehicle would not move. I attempted several times to shift the vehicle back into drive, but it would not move. I continued shifting between park and drive and attempting to release the brake until the vehicle eventually allowed me to move. Because the vehicle would not move when the light turned green, another vehicle struck my vehicle. This created a serious safety risk because I was unable to move the vehicle when traffic began proceeding through the intersection, resulting in a collision. There were no warning lights, messages, or other symptoms before the incident. The vehicle unexpectedly did this without warning. The emergency brake light came on when the failure occurred. The vehicle has not been inspected by a dealership or independent service center, and the problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or service center. The vehicle is currently available for inspection upon request.
The vehicle has now on two occasions failed to restart after the auto idle off feature has engaged. I now have to remember to turn it off every time I drive. It has left me stranded in the road waiting and hoping I can get it to restart. This has nearly happened on two other occasions as well.
At stop lights, the car engine will shut off. It is supposed to turn back on as you lift your foot from the break to accelerate. Three times now, most recently around 4pm yesterday, the car has not restarted. It shifts to park and an error message comes up on the dash. I’m not exactly sure what the message says but it’s something like car failed to restart, shift to park. I have had to power off my car and power it back on all 3 times to get it to work properly again.
While driving my 2026 Honda Odyssey, I stopped at a red light and the engine shut off through the auto idle stop system. I pressed the auto idle stop off button because I wanted the engine running again before proceeding. Instead of restarting the engine, the vehicle completely shut down and became inoperable in traffic. I repeatedly attempted to restart the vehicle, but it remained unresponsive for approximately 20 seconds before it finally restarted. This created a serious safety hazard because I was unable to move the vehicle while positioned in active traffic. This was not normal auto idle stop operation, as the engine should have restarted when I pressed the button. This has happened several times already, where the car will not restart the engine. Requesting that NHTSA investigate possible auto-idle stop/failure-to-restart problems affecting the 2026 Honda Odyssey.
My ais system kicked in causing the engine to shut off. Unfortunately, the engine did not restart. I was unable to start my car or even shift it to neutral for a helpful bystander to help me push my car off of the road. I was blocking traffic on a busy road and I am very fortunate that I was not rear ended. Eventually, after about half an hour, was able to get the car restarted (even then, lots of “clicking” and hesitation with starting). I then drove the vehicle home. I took it to Honda and they made me aware today that they were unable to get the car to repeat this problem, nothing was wrong, I could pick it up and let them know if it happened again.
While my 2026 Honda Odyssey was parked and stationary, I operated the driver-side power sliding door normally. The door began opening but became stuck. When I activated the power sliding door again, there was a sudden mechanical failure involving the sliding-door mechanism. The sliding-door rail was severely damaged/deformed, the mechanism appeared to disengage from its normal track/rail path, and the fixed rear quarter/third-row side window shattered. Exterior molding covering the rail was also dislodged and fell to the ground. There was no collision, accident, external impact, obstruction, or other outside force involved. The failure occurred during normal intended use of the power sliding door. Fortunately, my three children had already exited the vehicle. The shattered glass is directly adjacent to a passenger seating position normally occupied by my children, creating a serious risk of injury had a passenger been seated there. There were no warning lights, messages, or known prior symptoms before the door became stuck. The vehicle has not yet been inspected by Honda or a dealer. It is currently parked at my residence and is available for inspection. I have extensive photographs taken immediately after the incident documenting the damaged rail, shattered glass, displaced molding, and debris. After the incident, because I was approximately three hours from home with my three children, I was able to carefully reposition the door enough to close and secure it, temporarily cover the shattered window, and drive home. The affected sliding door has remained closed and locked since, and I am no longer operating the vehicle pending inspection.
There is a very strong exhaust smell in the cabin. This occurs under the flow and recirculate hvac options and is not improved by changing the engine and cabin air filters.
I was stopped at the light on maple and naper in naperville. My car engine had turned off as part of the auto idle feature. When I took my foot off the brake, my car did not restart. A message came up telling me to put the car in park. It had already automatically shifted to park and I had to turn the car off and back on to get it to work again. This is a busy intersection and people behind me were honking.
Auto start/stop is not working properly. Traffic had came to a hault on an exit ramp which caused the auto stop to activate. Once traffic started moving, foot was taken off the brake and gas pedal was pressed. Van would not go. Confused on what was happening, panic mode was setting in. Other cars were blowing their horns. We felt stuck. Husband looked down and realized it had went into p (park) mode on its own. So, he pressed the brake and tried to put it in drive but it would not switch over. So, he had to turn it off completely and restart it. It has done this 2 other times. Probably would be even more often if I didn't turn the auto start/stop off. We had less than 12000 miles on our van at the time of last incident. We have made an appointment with the dealership which admitted that they have had a lot of complaints regarding this same issue. I love everything about this vehicle except for the number 1 thing I should love, safety. I do not feel safe at all times in this vehicle.
When I stopped at a stoplight at a busy intersection during rush hour traffic my auto shut off engaged like it was supposed to. When I released my foot off the brake for the car to restart so I could drive the car's dash started flashing and displaying instructions to engage the brake and put the car into drive, except I was in drive. It would not restart and no matter how many times I pressed the brake and the drive button nothing changed and it kept flashing the same message at me. I attempted to the the car off and when I tried to restart it, it flashed the battery light and would not restart. All electrical systems would turn on, but the car would not restart. It took a solid 5 minutes and turning the car off and on for it to finally restart. Then subsequent times at following lights before I turn the auto shut off off it would restart but struggled to. I have taken it to the dealership and called Honda corporate and both tell me it is not throwing a code and therefore nothing is wrong with it.
Rear windshield with possible spontaneous shatter first noticed at noon today. No signs of impact or vandalism. Car last driven 2 days prior and appeared normal last night. Vertical line fractures at the very edge of the glass on both sides concerning for manufacturing defect. Police report filed, no repairs made yet.
Intermittent auto start/stop failure: when stopped at a red light or stop sign, the car sometimes completely dies. Fails to restart: releasing the brake pedal does not automatically restart the engine. Manual restart required: I have to manually restart the vehicle and shift back into drive to proceed. Traffic concern: this process takes 10 to 15 seconds, holding up the traffic behind me.
I own a 2026 Honda Odyssey elite. On multiple occasions, the auto idle stop system shut the engine off while stopped at a traffic light. When I released the brake pedal to proceed, the engine failed to restart, leaving the vehicle disabled in traffic. I was forced to shift the vehicle into park and manually restart the engine using the start/stop button. This defect has occurred multiple times. I first reported the issue to my Honda dealership on June 2, 2026. After two visits where the dealer was unable to duplicate the concern, I captured the failure on video. During my third repair visit, the dealership's engineer personally experienced the failure twice while testing the vehicle. Honda customer relations opened a case and worked with the dealership. The dealership ultimately replaced the battery but advised me that this was only the next diagnostic step and not a confirmed root cause of the failure. This defect creates a significant safety hazard because the vehicle can become immobilized in an active traffic lane after the light turns green, exposing occupants to the risk of being struck by other vehicles.
I own a 2026 Honda Odyssey elite equipped with the factory rear entertainment system and apple carplay. When using apple carplay navigation (apple maps, google maps, or waze) while passengers are watching a movie on the factory rear entertainment system, every navigation voice prompt causes the movie playback to stop. After playback stops, the movie cannot be restarted from the vehicle controls. The only way to restore normal operation is to stop the vehicle, turn the vehicle completely off, restart it, reconnect apple carplay, and restart the movie. However, the problem repeats the next time a navigation instruction is given. This creates a driver distraction because passengers immediately ask for the movie to be restarted, and the driver is presented with an infotainment system that does not respond as expected while the vehicle is moving. Drivers may attempt to troubleshoot or repeatedly interact with the infotainment controls instead of focusing on driving. My Honda dealership advised me they were able to reproduce this issue on multiple new 2026 Honda Odyssey vehicles on their lot, indicating that this is not unique to my vehicle. Honda customer relations has also been notified.
Moonroof exploded while driving 55 mph. I took pictures. It was completely distracting while driving and a very scary incident. Searching online provided a class action lawsuit against Honda for this issue. We have not been able to get it looked at due to it being the weekend and the service department is not open. No police were called. Insurance claim started. No warning before it happened.
Sunroof spontaneously exploded while driving. No object hit the sunroof.
My husband and I are driving down the road to go to the store and the sunroof exploaded there was no car in front or behind us for something to of had hit it. It just burst into pieces.