Anyone else experience sudden unintended acceleration while driving a Honda 2018 hr-v? This happened to me 2 times in 1 hour last week. Dealer technician and Honda corporate field tech insist that it is user error. They are dismissing my claim that it is a serious malfunction in the car.
I donāt know much about the legal schmegal stuff, but when it happens again, record where your temperature gage is, how fast you were going, how long you drove from cold start up, if you can notice the RPMs and anything else you can think of. Then try to get it to duplicate the issue. This will at least give them some sort of idea of what type of conditions that the fault takes place. If itās specific enough, you can take it in when these conditions are met, and they can experience them. Or maybe another dealer would be more diligent.
The corporate folks will be much more likely to want to avoid a defect-related accident than the people at the dealership, so this is a problem that screams-out for a phone call to Honda of Americaās customer service staff. Be polite, yet firm, ask for their assistance with a resolution of this problem, and I am reasonably sure that they will make an appointment for you to meet with their regional service supervisor when he/she is next at the dealership.
I would follow-up the phone call with a letterāsent via Certified Mail with Return Receiptādocumenting your problem. Telephone and mail contact info can be found in your Ownerās Manual.
Well, 99.9% of all āunintended accelerationā cases are either caused by something like a floor mat interfering with the gas pedal, or by driver error. So you can understand the dealerās position. Think very carefully about what happened, and review how your foot may have inadvertently pushed the gas pedal.
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While mechanical/electronic issues can cause sudden uncontrolled acceleration, most incidents are the result of driver error.
In 2008, I was a passenger in my friendās Accord when we were T-boned by a woman driving a Lexus RX-350. I overheard the responding copās questioning of her, and she told the officer, āThe harder that I pressed on the brake, the faster it wentā. The cop muttered, āYeah, thatās what happens when you mistake the gas pedal for the brakeā.
I was actually stopped with my foot on the brake when this happened 2 times in one hour. I was going to make right turns both times. The first time, I felt the car lurch and attempt to move. The engine revved and it felt like the accelerator was being pushed. Thank goodness I had my foot firmly on the brake. I put the car in neutral and then park. It stopped revving. My foot stayed on the brake the entire time. Within an hour, it happened again, this time with much more force. Again, my foot was on the brake so the car didnāt move forward but the noise was very loud and the revving was severe. I put the car in neutral, then park and I turned off the engine.
I drove the car to the dealer. The are insisting that it is my error. They were unable to replicate the problem.
If you havenāt already done so, remove the driverās floor mat to rule it out as the cause. I suggest you do this ASAP.
The OP REALLY needs to ākick things up a notchā, by contacting Honda of America.
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I am going to be driving the car this morning with the service manager. I talked to him at length yesterday and he insists that it is user error. In all the years he has worked at Toyota and Honda, they have never been successful at duplicating the problem and have always ended up faulting the driver. Wish me luck in holding my ground.
I donāt know about that. If the dealership checked the car thoroughly and found nothing wrong, but the driverās floor mat hasnāt been removed, Iād start with that first. If the OP removes the floor mat (and anything that might be under the driverās seat) and it never happens again, then buona fortuna!
In cases of unintended acceleration the dealer notifies corporate and a field technician is sent to inspect the vehicle and document the case, it sounds like that was already done.
Since itās Winter and in many parts of the country people wear big waterproof shoes and boots often, Iād consider that possibility. It would be possible to nudge the accelerator pedal with the side of a boot while stepping on the brake.
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Weāve had this discussion before and sure could be heavy boots, or floor mats and so on, but with fly by wire now, engine speed is determined by sensors and computers. Sensors and computers do have hick-ups once in a while and if itās intermittent, of course they canāt duplicate it. I still think about that California highway patrolman that went over the cliff about 90 miles an hour. I doubt whether he was just hitting the wrong pedal. Years ago the talk radio host, Bruce Williams sued Chrysler because his wifeās car had unintended acceleration. He also got nowhere even with his high priced lawyers. Finally he just junked the new car (junked as in scrapped, shredded, melted down, and not to be re-sold) so that no one else would be at risk with it.
Is it possible that while you where sitting at the red light with the defrosters turned on that the air conditioner cycled on thus raising the idle.
That was a dealer loan car, it had floor mats in it that were for an SUV. That had to be a billion dollar mistake. Soon after there were several recalls issued and a class action law suit settlement.
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Ask them if thereās a way to attach an electronic recording device to the car so it monitors and stores the positions of the throttle valve vs the accelerator pedal. If so, and it happened again, thereād be a way to tell whatās going on, driver error vs mechanical error.
Not saying this is the case , but if you listen to the show, one story Ray tells is heās helping somebody bleed the brakes. Heās sitting in the driverās seat, and the guy under the car is telling him to press on the brake pedal. The guy says āare you pushing, b/c no fluid is coming out!ā. Ray says yeah, Iām pushing the guy under the car comes out and watches Rayās foot. Ray is pressing on the gas pedal, not the brake pedal ā¦ 
Might be more of an issue for those that donāt brake with their left foot. Oh oh, I shouldnāt have said that.
Every modern car comes with a government-mandated āblack-boxā in ECU, cycle-recording last few minutes of all events.
It is intended to allow pulling that kind of data if it is indeed needed.
Iām not sure what events qualify, and I assume it is make-specific procedure is used, but this data should be accessible to Honda, if Honda is WILLING to access it.
Real trouble can be that data is rewritten, probably quite fas, so unless vehicle is immediately stopped and towed to the Honda shop, this data is almost certainly lost.
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Every vehicle has neutral in the transmission, and if the engine seems to be going wild, just put it in neutral and brake safely to a stop.
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My mother in law recently experienced sudden acceleration in here new Honda HR-V 2019 Sport AWD. She was slowly pulling into a parking spot and the car accelerate up and over the curb into a fence with significant damage the front end. She stated that the dashboard warning lights all lit up just before it happened, that leads me to believe this wasnāt user error.
Were you able to make any progress with Honda? Do you have any suggestions on where to report this issue?