Yesterday my 6 year old got a hold of the car keys and went into the garage to get a toy out of our 2011 Pilot. Next thing we know, she’s running into the house yelling “Run for your life!!” and we can hear the car’s engine cranking in the garage. She said she was trying to manually unlock the driver’s door with the key when the car starting cranking.
Of course I didn’t believe her, but after everyone was in bed last night I was messing around with the key in the driver’s door and discovered that if I turn the key counter clockwise and then back to the upright position 3 or 4 times rapidly, the lights all come on and the engine starts cranking. The engine doesn’t actually start, but will crank for 2 or 3 seconds and then stop, and then crank again and stop, over and over. The only way I can make it stop is to then get into the car and put the key in the ignition.
I looked through the owner’s manual and couldn’t find anything about this. Is the car supposed to do this? Is it supposed to actually start the engine if you do this? It’s odd to me that there would be a “feature” that would just crank a cold engine repeatedly. Thoughts?
No, it’s not supposed to do that. There is a function related to turning the key in the driver door lock to the unlock position and holding it there - but that just rolls the windows up if they’re down.
Does your vehicle have a remote start function installed? If so, it could just be a bad transmitter that registers a button press just from the pressure of turning it in the lock.
No, the car does not have a remote start installed. I did notice that if I turned the key the other way (clockwise) it opens all the windows and sunroof.
Take your car to your Honda dealer ASAP. Could be an electrical issue and those are difficult to diagnose without the proper knowledge and tools.
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Clockwise is unlock on your vehicle? That’s expected behavior. It will do the same thing if you double-tap the unlock button on the transmitter and hold it on the second tap.
I do not agree that a trip to the dealership is necessary. A good independent mechanic should be fine, and may be less expensive.
The first thing I’d do is take that transmitter far away from the car and then do the same unlocking-wiggle test you did, but with the other transmitter or the valet key. If it starts again then I’d suspect that the ignition switch has a short in it and is sending the “start” signal intermittently, and when you get the key close enough to put it in the lock, the car sees its RFID signature and assumes a key is in the vehicle and it should start.
I believe that’s correct, yes.
If you have access to the wiring that runs from the body into the door, check if any of the wires are cracked or exposed.
Update: Just got off the phone with a local Honda dealer. Basically they’re saying that this is impossible and that it’s probably just the window motor that I’m hearing 
. It’s truly no wonder dealerships get such a bad rap. Either way, it’s confirmed that the car should not be doing this and something is amiss.
This is something that needs to be demonstrated at the dealer because most people are going to think that this is impossible . Who ever you talked to might have thought it was a prank call .
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You know, I didn’t even think about that but you have a good point - it does sound crazy - I didn’t believe my kid when she said what happened.
It probably also didn’t help that I ended the call by asking if their refrigerator was running…
As long as you left Prince Albert out of the conversation…
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I’d recommend that you also report this to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA). If this problem ends up being inherent in the design, it’s a serious safety issue. If upon investigation NHTSA determines that to be the case, they’ll require Honda to issue a safety recall. You could save a life.
The person who answers the phone at the dealer is either the phone operator, a secretary, or a service writer, and none of these are mechanics. Take it in, you never can resolve anything like this over the phone.
And while you are at the dealer, try the same thing on one of their cars. It may be a design problem, instead of a (very weird) wiring problem in your car.
My guess is a software problem, and in all similar cars.
I haven’t had time to take it anywhere to have it looked at yet, but here’s video proof for the doubters among you: