general problems of the 2019 Honda Passport - part 1

Every so often, while waiting at a light, once I try to press the gas, the car will stall and loses power. It takes me turning the car off and back on several times before getting the car to stay on and accelerate.

My vehicle has experienced multiple dangerous incidents where it shuts down or shifts into neutral while driving. This has happened on highways, tunnels, busy on-ramps and main streets. The car loses power and requires restarting, which takes about 30 seconds. On a busy highway or street, this is enough time for a serious accident to occur if other vehicles cannot switch lanes on time. This has happened multiple times with my child in the car, and me being currently pregnant. The vehicle has never given me a warning prior. The issue appears to be related to the auto start/stop system and/or electrical drivetrain controls. The vehicle is unsafe to operate because the driver can forget to disable auto start/stop and the car can suddenly lose power in traffic. There was also a separate incident (in between the multiple incidents above) where I was on the highway, my car accelerated, brakes wouldn't work, and my foot wasn't on the gas. The car then shifted to neutral and the only way I could stop was by shutting it off and moving to the breakdown lane. There have been two repair attempts. The first repair was done in 2024 after the initial loss-of-power incident related to the auto start/stop feature. In this repair, the battery was replaced and I was told a full diagnostic was run and the car was safe to drive. On 11/11/25 the serious incident with acceleration/ loss of brake function on the highway occurred. A full diagnostic was run and the transmission was replaced under warranty. However, a month after the transmission replacement, the loss of power issue returned. It has now been at least 4 incidents since the transmission was changed. I reported this to Honda corporate and received a case number, but despite multiple attempts to receive an update over the past 2 months, I have not been contacted by Honda, and no resolution has been provided. I do not feel safe driving this vehicle and no longer trust further repairs.

On 10/16/2025 at 1:30 am, I was driving home from work on the I-94 freeway in wisconsin from my work in franklin, WI to my home in union grove, WI. I was driving at the speed limit, which was 70 mph. I started to hear a ticking sound coming from the engine, and then the check engine light started to flash. The car then began a rapid speed decrease. I started to move from to the right-hand side of the road when the car stopped ticking and the check engine light went out and began to accelerate again. The sudden deceleration and acceleration on a major highway that had many other vehicles around me was very dangerous. I drove the car to my home since it seemed to be working again. I then had it towed to zeigler Honda in racine, WI, on the morning of 10/16/2025, to find out what the cause of the incident was. The authorized Honda dealership (zeigler) inspected the car and found that the crank bearing for the second cylinder had failed. They said the engine was not repairable. Before this incident, the car had no other problems. All required Honda maintenance was performed on the car, which I purchased new. The week before the incident, I had a routine oil change done at the zeigler dealership with a passing inspection on the car during the oil change on 10/10/2025.

The auto-start/stop function sometimes fails to restart the engine after coming to a complete stop. Vehicle is left stranded in a traveling lane.

[xxx] start/stop system failed when stopped in starbucks drive thru. Unable to restart, or move vehicle. Honda Passport had to be towed. Problem has not been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer. Honda dealership deep charged battery and battery tested good? I was charged a diagnostic fee for starting & charging systems & battery. Test name was gr8 diagnostic test by Honda. Vehicle was inspected by local Honda dealer. Diagnosed parasitic drain on battery? a new battery had been purchased 9/16/2024 @ a Honda dealership in va. New battery is just 6 months old. Never had a problem with the new battery or start/stop system until [xxx] when failure occurred. There was never a warning lamp, message, or other symptoms prior to the failure. Original start/stop recall repair done 5/2/2023 at Honda dealership. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Description: I have a concern that I will follow-up with a letter via usps. Imagine driving your 2019 Honda Passport on an interstate, speed limit is set at 70; your speed is 75; you're in the middle of the three lanes of travel; and your vehicle suddenly decelerates and every warning the vehicle is equipped with start giving alerts in rapid succession. This is what happened to me on [xxx] at approximately [xxx]. What is concerning is that this exact same thing happened April 2023 and I was told it was the idle control sensor. The dealership that sold me the vehicle was gracious enough to let me bring it to them for repair, without charging the full cost of the part but, labor cost I incurred. When a consumer purchases a vehicle, the second most expensive purchase in one's lifetime, it is implied that outside of normal and routine maintenance, the car has been assessed and inspected for drivability. Being that this is the second occurrence, I am questioning if this vehicle was thoroughly inspected for this issue? I had my vehicle towed to the greensboro Honda dealership, 3633 w. Wendover Ave. , greensboro nc 27407. Although my faith and loyalty to the Honda brand has diminished, the customer service provided by ms. Karen was comforting and reassuring. She understood my concerns and was phenomenal in letting me know what to expect. Surprising for a weekend as, most employees are not wanting to work. The reason for this email is two fold, notification of the issue and hoping that Honda will take accountability financially and resolve whatever "root" issue(s) that could be cause. Thank you and if my life has any significance to you, I hope to hear from you regarding this serious concern. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

The idle-stop system engages as expected when the vehicle comes to a stop, but the engine fails to restart when I release the brake pedal. This leaves me stranded in traffic and vulnerable to collisions, especially in high-traffic areas like intersections. The car has completely stalled and remains frozen for at least 3 minutes. Instrument panel lights up and says to depress pedal fully and press the start button. Another message says something about being in neutral and then to put it in park. I'm doing what it says and I cannot get the car to start. I have a green light and I'm stuck in an intersection where opposing traffic has a green light as well. People are honking at me and nervous because of the unpredictibilty of my car. - frequency: this occurs at least 1x/month for the past 65 months (lifetime of the vehicle) - conditions: occurs during normal driving conditions, typically in stop-and-go traffic. - impact: this issue has resulted in significant delays and near-misses with other vehicles, posing a clear safety hazard. The vehicle has been evaluated by a Honda dealer regarding idle-stop system malfunction specifically on the following dates October 1st, 2020, February 2nd 2023, March 16th, 2023 may 11th 2023, November 7th 2024 and January 9th 2025. The vehicle was found to be in normal working order and multiple times I was told to disengage the auto idle stop (press the button) to prevent that from happening. There was a recall for idle-stop software update which failed to repair the issue. This has been a persistent problem and the above dates by no means reflects the only times that the engine fails to restart after auto-stopping.

This issue has happened three times. The first two times, I attempted to accelerate while driving on the highway and the engine momentarily lost power. I would say the events lasted 3 - 5 seconds. The third time, the engine lost power while I was driving on the highway and the vehicle never regained enough power to go over 26 miles an hour - with the accelerator depressed to its maximum limit. Fortunately, I was near my exit, so I exited the highway and drove the car 4 miles to my destination. This is the only time out of the 3 instances a flashing "check engine" light came on. I shut the car off, went to my appointment and then restarted the vehicle approximately 30 minutes later. No other issues were noted on the 3 hour return trip. This last event happened on [xxx]. I took the car into the service department at ken vance Honda, in eau claire, WI on January 29, 2025 and they were unable to find any stored codes in the computer related to the issue. The service advisor said he has heard of this issue several times. The estimate to fix the issue was roughly $850. 00 with parts accounting for $501. 74 I researched this issue online and found several references to it. The first is a post from a online group for Honda odyssey owners. One post in that thread leads to another thread for Honda ridgeline owners. The first website: [xxx] and the post on that site that has a link to the second and more damning site. Mtman 124 posts · joined 2017 #4 · Jun 22, 2024 been a nagging problem on the ridgeline since 2019 on cold winter days. [xxx] there are several other references to similar issues on the internet and Honda is obviously aware there is an issue. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

The 3. 5 engine is ticking (knocking hard from 1-2 rpm same engine that is in all the recall on pilots and other Honda cars! my car has 65k miles on it . Honda has it for a week they can’t figure it out and say it’s normal. I know my car and a loud tick is not normal! Honda knows these engine have issue and don’t want to fix it. I’m now out of warranty and they don’t want to do anything basically they want me to get stranded when it breaks down or I’m in an accident if my engine breaks.

Auto stop feature will engage when I stop the car at a light, and then the engine will fail to turn back on when I take my foot off the break. I then have to try and get the car to turn off so I can restart it. I’ve taken it to Honda and they did a system update and also had the battery replaced. It was better for a while, but has now happed again twice in the last couple months.

The contact owns a 2019 Honda Passport. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, there was an abnormal sound coming from under the hood, with the engine temperature gauge rising. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer and was left for further investigation into possible internal engine failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 49,092.

The contact owns a 2019 Honda Passport. The contact stated that while stopping at a red light, the vehicle inadvertently lost all motive power, after which the vehicle was able to restart. After restarting the vehicle, the vehicle returned to normal functionality, but the failure became a regular occurrence. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was unable to diagnose a failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 60,000.

The vehicle does not restart after entering 'auto idle stop' even with latest software update by Honda. About 2 month ago, my car started to act weird and stopped restarting during traffic stops, causing dangerous situations. (I was waiting in the intersection to make left turn and the vehicle was stopped in the middle) I went to Honda dealership for repair, and they explained that its known issue and can be solved by software update. They promised that it won't happen again, but starting few days ago, it is doing it again. I went to the dealership again, and they are now saying that they have to replace the starter. I don't think it is a safe approach to let customer "test" the software and replace problematic part depending on the test outcome. I feel like Honda should update the software and replace starter.

This happens intermittently since I have owned vehicle. When car is stopped for a light or stop sign the engine idle stop engages. Then the car will not start up again when foot is taken off brake. In fact car automatically switches into neutral and care will not start. I been stranded on busy roads and almost hit twice because of this issue. I also had to purchase a new battery as I was told this is what was the issue by dealership and my battery was out of warranty.

Since I purchased this car in 2020, I have regularly experienced my car stalling out because of the auto idle function. The car shuts off when I brake and then does not turn back on, leaving me stranded in traffic until I can manually shut off my car and turn it back on. This is a major safety hazard that Honda has yet to properly address. Honda had a recall to "fix" this, which was just a software update. This was conducted 5/12/2023 on my car. Unfortunately, today (5/20/2023) my car stalled out again at a traffic light due to the auto idle function. Honda needs to address this issue, and if they cannot, then they need to provide those with defective models a path to upgrade their car.

With auto stop/start disabled as this feature regularly fails, stopped to turn left and car shifted itself into neutral, could not be shifted into drive or restarted for a few minutes despite multiple attempts. If car had auto stop start feature engaged, this often happens, which has been reported, but this time it happened without that feature on. Luckily we were turning from a parking lot so did not hold up traffic or have risk of being hit.

On 01/24/2023 with idlestop engaged car stalled on busy intersection during rush hour and couldn't be restarted. Since Honda vehicles don't have a shift interlock anymore we couldn't move vehicle since it automatically went into "park". Car is currently at the dealer who is unable to do repairs due to lack of ecu modules.

At a stop light, the auto engine idle kicked in. When the light turned green, and I took my foot off the brake pedal, the engine did not stop. I put the car in park and tried to restart. It would not restart at all. I was there for at least 15 minutes trying to turn the car back on and off. It finally did start but caused lots of traffic and was dangerous for everyone. This should not be happening to a new car.

On several occasions 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. Car shifts itself into neutral and cannot be restarted by pressing start button. It required jump was required for the vehicle to restart once. Usual work around posted by Honda is to put car in park and then attempt to press start button. Crash was avoided once in heavy traffic.

When the auto engine idle is engaged (which is the default setting), when you stop, the engine idle works as advertised, then after a few moments the car will totally shut off and place itself in neutral. After several failed attempts, the only way to restart it, is to press and hold the start button and holding the brake pedal. This cars maintenance has been completed on time and solely by the dealership. This is a very scary issue because it can cause serious harm to the passengers in the vehicle as well as other vehicles on the road. This will most definitely cause an accident. We were in stop and go traffic on the highway in the fast lane and the whole car shut off and as traffic began to move, my car wouldn't go there was a moment of panic as I quickly tried to get the car to start back up it took a while to get it to restart. We were fortunate there was no collision for us with this incident but my young children are now very afraid to ride in the car because it might shut off again and we could get hurt.

I was in a stop and go situation at a stop light when I decided to turn the auto stop/start off. The car froze up on me in the middle of traffic. It turned off, could not turn it back on, the brakes locked up and a lot of lights turned on my dash. After a couple of minutes I was able to turn the car back on.

Several times, the car shuts off at stop lights or stop signs. It has a feature that is supposed to save gas and put it into low power mode. But sometimes, especially if I take my foot off the break and press on the gas too quickly, the car completely shuts off and goes into neutral. This is very dangerous. Once I was on a hill when this happened and the car began rolling down and I nearly hit another vehicle. I have seen hundreds of other such complaints on the Honda pilot. This is it's cousin, the Honda Passport and likely has the same power failure. Honda needs to recall these immediately before someone gets hurt. (it may also be related to the distance calculator being incorrect on my car. It often says I have over 1,000 miles left on my single tank. ) there is for sure something wrong.

The auto engine idle stop malfunctions on this vehicle. Instead of restarting when I move my foot to the accelerator at a stoplight, the engine shuts off and I have to shift to park and use the push button to start the car. More than five times this has occurred. A couple of times while in the middle of an intersection yielding to oncoming traffic before turning, this has occurred.

Sometimes the engine stops and the engine does not turn back on when you let go of the break to continue driving. Most of the time you don't realize the engine has completely shut off until the street light turns green and the driver lets go of the break and you don't hear the engine turn back on. The safety of the driver, passengers, and those in other vehicles are at risk because when the street light turns green the driver of the vehicle and other vehicles are expecting the car to go, therefore the other vehicles could press the gas on their vehicle and crash into our car. The car has not been inspected by Honda. I have an appointment in a week to get it looked at. We only receive a quick message right after the engine turns off and does not turn back on after letting go of the break. The message we get on the dash says put the car in "n", hold break, and press start engine. Sometimes following those steps turns the engine back on but sometimes we have to open the driverside door and then follow those steps before the engine turns back on. This is very dangerous since we are usually in traffic when this happens.

The vehicle has auto idle stop and we have had several incidents where the engine would not start again after the idle stop and it required putting the vehicle in park, shutting off the ignition and then restarting the car. We have had a close call with a vehicle having to swerve around us after the red light turned green and we were needing to totally restart the car.

Auto engine idle stop function doesn’t work right sometimes. Sometimes when it tried to start the engine again from stop, engine had hard time start again and sometimes it is almost die. One time engine died in the traffic stop and go situation and Honda dealer said the battery was bad and they replaced it but it didn’t solve the problem. When I took my car ti the dealer again, they said ‘when the temp setting was set to lo, idle start/stop function will not work. ’ but even though temp setting was not low, idle start/stop function doesn’t work well.

This problem has occurred 4 times since purchased. The first withing the first 8 months, the last yesterday (7/29/2022). What happens is once stopped at light, when the car stops running to save gas and is supposed to start up when the brake is released, the car does not restart leaving you dead stopped in the road. The indicator shows you are in neutral gear, engine not restarting from the releasing break. Hitting the start button does nothing. Only once did I get a message on dash that said put in park, than put in drive. Out of the 4 times this happened, all but one happened at a stop where the engine went off waiting for foot to come off break. Once it happened when I made a u turn and coming out of the turn, the engine was in n. It happens so unexpected that it is difficult to stay composed and work through a routine to get it started again, especially when there is a line of cars behind waiting to go. I have not been able to duplicate the problem. I have reported it to my Honda service center and they say there is nothing in the computer to help them find and fix the problem. The concern is a safety issue when this occurs and a car comes up behind me seeing a green light, expecting me to go and they not slowing down. This problem has been reported on the Honda Passport blog by a couple others.

Problem with the auto start/stop. Auto start/stop caused the car to completely shut off at a stoplight and the car would not restart. I tried applying the break and re-starting the car using the start button, but the car did not respond. The car was completely inoperable for at least 15 minutes and left us stranded at a busy intersection. The auto start/stop will often shut down the car completely at stops and it will not restart automatically. There were no warnings prior to shut down. I've only had this car a few months and it has happened twice in two months. I am forced to turn the auto start/stop feature off every time I get in the car now.

When stopped and the idle off feature shuts the engine off, the vehicle does not restart when foot is removed from brake. Vehicle shifts itself into neutral and the dash reads something to the effect of "shift to park to start vehicle". Amazed I have not been rear ended yet. . . . This happens randomly and not every time at idle off. Dealership could not reproduce in the 5 minutes they took to look at it. Additionally, there is a similar issue when I use remote start. After entering the vehicle with the engine running from remote start, the start button is pushed and the d/s button pushed, the gas pedal is pressed and the vehicle goes into neutral and a message appears on the dash "transmission system problem". The message remains for a few seconds and disappears. Then the d/s button is pushed and the vehicle operates normally.

The vehicle stalls after the auto-shutoff/idle is engaged. As I lift my foot off the break pedal to disengage it, the car shuts off and indicates that it has been placed in park mode. I then have to turn the vehicle back on. It can take up to 25-30 seconds. I only ever have issues restarting the vehicle after it stalls as a result of the auto-shutoff being engaged.

The auto start/stop was the component that malfunctioned. I was at a stop light, and when I went to accelerate the car would not go. It automatically shifted into neutral. I then could not shift to park or drive. It would not let me shut the car down. I was in the middle of traffic when this happened. It caused a safety issue for me and others who had to go around me. I had to put my flashers on and continuously kept trying to shut the car down. I'm not sure what caused my car to restart or allow me to shift into drive, but eventually I was able to do so.

When the automatic idle start/stop feature is enabled, the engine would properly shut off when stopped at a traffic light. However, the engine would not re-start when the brake was released leaving the car stranded at the intersection. After pressing the auto idle start/stop enable/disable button several times and the engine start stop button several times, the engine would eventually start again. This has happened numerous times. Upon taking the car to the Honda dealership for evaluation, we were told the battery was bad and needed replacing. Since a new battery is $400, we decided to have the battery tested independently and the battery, which is rated at 650 cca, tested to have 651 cca. Additionally, the battery was tested for holding a charge and passed that test too. Upon returning to the Honda dealership with this information, the service advisor then stated the starter was bad and needed to be replaced for near $900. As we have had no problems with the battery or the starter up to this point, other than when the auto idle stop engages at a traffic light, we did not replace the starter. Since leaving the dealership, approximately 2 months ago, the car has continued to start as expected when manually starting. However, the auto idle start/stop feature contiues to fail intermittently. We urge you to hold Honda accountable for recalling and repairing this defect that creates a serious safety hazard for Honda owners as well as other drivers on the road. Honda's current public response that the auto idle start/stop feature can be disabled by pressing the off button is not acceptable as the feature is automatically enabled each time we start the car. Forgetting to disable this feature is a safety hazard. Thank you!.

I stopped at red-light and the auto stop idle was engaged. Once the light changed, and I removed my foot from the brake to disengage the auto idle, unexpectedly the gear just shifted to neutral . I then had put it in park , and press the ignition start button . It took a couple times before restarting. I had to endure other drivers honking and yelling at me, because I was the 1st car at the stop light. This has happened at least 8-10 times in the past 4 months. After having my vehicle for 3 days, the dealer said they couldn't find the problem . Wih road rage what it is in these times, something like that could spark alot of frustration in other drivers. I have read blogs about other Honda Passport owners having the same issue. Honda really needs to find out what the issue is before someone gets into an accident because of this issue!.

The contact owns a 2019 Honda Passport. The contact stated while the vehicle was stationary in a parking lot, her husband stated that the vehicle lost motive and electrical power. The driver stated no warning light was illuminated. The driver was able to restart the vehicle within 30 minutes. The contact stated she also experienced the failure the following day while driving. The contact took the vehicle to the local dealer however, the mechanic was unable to diagnose the failure. The contact continued to experience the failure. The vehicle was not drivable. The contact called the local dealer and was referred to a second local dealer. The contact towed the vehicle to jim riehl's friendly Honda (18900 hall rd, clinton twp, mi 48038, (586) 412-9600) where it was diagnosed with needing the battery to be replaced. The contact replaced the battery. The manufacturer had been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 49,029.

After exiting interstate and sitting at traffic light on off ramp, car cut off due to auto stop/start system. We normally push the button to turn this off as we do not like the feature, however, we had forgotten to do this when we first started driving. While sitting at the light and after car engine cut off, I pushed the auto stop/start button to start the engine and cut off the function for the rest of our trip. As soon as I pressed the button, the car made a noise, the brake locked up, and a notification came up on the dash that had an exclamation point said something about system. I could not restart the car because the brake was frozen. After about 5 minutes, the brake release and I was able to start the car. We were in a panic because of the backed up traffic we were causing. Plus we were about 6 hours from home. I took it to the dealer and he could find nothing wrong.