NHTSA opens probe into more than 2 million Honda vehicles over engine restarting concerns

(Reuters) -The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Friday it was opening an engineering analysis into 2.2 million Honda ( HMC ) vehicles over concerns related to its engine restarting.

Complainants allege the engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection when the Auto Idle Stop function is engaged. Some added a 'jump start' was required for the vehicle.

In January 2023, Honda ( HMC ) released a service bulletin addressing the 'failure to restart' issue in some vehicles and offered a two-stage countermeasure.

However, the NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation has received complaints of AIS failure from consumers who have already implemented the countermeasures.

The engineering analysis will consider potential safety defects along with collecting additional data regarding Honda's ( HMC ) countermeasure service campaign.

There have been 1,384 incidents reported to the ODI, of which four resulted in crashes or fires and two in injury incidents.

The probe covers various Honda ( HMC ) vehicles such as its popular Pilot SUV (model years 2016 to 2025) and Ridgeline pickup trucks (model years 2020 to 2025), among others.

(Reporting by Nathan Gomes and Aishwarya Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Krishna Chandra Eluri)