Hi all,
My wife has a 2020 CR-V Hybrid.
A month ago, 5 minutes into her commute on the highway, she loses all acceleration and coasts over to the side of the road. Check engine light came on and the car was still idling. She shut off the car and called AAA, I met her before they arrived and her car started up and moved forward/reverse fine so the tow truck driver drove it up the ramp.
Towed it to nearest dealer, they spent a day with it and couldn't find any issues. They said there were no codes triggered.
We take it to our preferred Honda service shop, they can't find anything either.

Fast forward to 2 nights ago it happens again to her on the highway, loses acceleration, coasts over to the shoulder while idling. She decides to try and put it in gear and drive it to that 2nd Honda service shop, it gets about a mile down the road and does almost the same thing, this time it starts bucking/hesitating a little. I get there before AAA and the car is running but check engine light is on and there is hesitation while idling... not a ton, just enough to be noticeable. AAA guy rides it up the ramp and has it towed to our preferred Honda service shop.

They have it for 2 days and at one point they said that there was misfiring in 2 cylinders which was odd. They asked her where she gets her gas (usually Cumberland Farms 87 octane) and asked whether she was driving uphill/downhill (it was always flat), asked if she every used additives (nope), if it was at the beginning of her commute or farther into it (it was different both times) and whether it was cold/hot out (nothing crazy as far as outside temp goes). They were flummoxed so they called "Honda Tech" (not sure who/what that is or what was said).. They then give my wife her car back and told her to use 93 octane.

It sounds a little like this new recall https://www.nhtsa.gov/recalls?nhtsaI...000#recalls530

Any thoughts on this?

 

So, somewhat random drivability issue where loss of drive occurs at highway speeds but engine stays running... I would not immediately jump to the engine being the issue, especially with this being a hybrid.

fuel pump failure isn't likely in my opinion. that would not be intermittent. it would stop providing fuel pressure and the engine would stop running. Even if the issue was a poor electrical connection to the pump I would expect much more frequent trouble than once or twice a month.

I would find someone to give a third opinion like another dealer or highly rated import shop. unless you were given a lot more info on what was done to troubleshoot than what you have shared here, it doesn't sound like you were given a thorough diagnosis.

 

Hi Mark, thanks for the suggestion!

 

On that transmission the engine only speed starts at 62 mph. Anything below is accomplished by the electric motor. The car has either a transmission problem or controller problem.

 

Thanks chidog. It happened again this morning, about 2 miles onto the highway. Towed it back to the same dealer and they gave her a courtesy car. Hopefully the 3rd time is the charm.
That's interesting that it uses an electric motor for driving 62 mph or below. Just so I have this straight, if she is just driving around town (under 62 mph) the running engine is only used to charge the battery which runs the electric motor, then from 62 mph on the transmission engages?

 

The engine generator power will power the motor in mode 3. So it seems the issue could be the inverter/ controller or even the battery.
With all the service manuals and fancy tools it makes no sense they can't figure it out.
Probably a bad ground connection some place, keep us up on what they find. Make sure you find out the problem, especially if your paying for it.
And gee come on this is a battery powered car of sorts, even if the engine stops it should still not just stall out on the hiway.

I saw another video that mentions similar conditions to yours being cause by bad battery or the dc converter.

Here you can learn about the transmission.

 

How is this going? Is it fixed?

 

Hi, we are having the same issue with our 2021 crv hybrid and the dealership can’t figure it out after 3 week long stays at the dealer service department. We are at our wits end! Did you figure out the problem?

 

Same issues here. We have a 2022 Honda Accord Hybrid and we have had this happen to us several times. We have had the car services about 4 times regarding this issue. What I am thinking is that its early in the morning first start, when we start the car it starts on ev mode basically no gas on battery when we get on the road and at this point going about 50mph the gas engine finally kicks in. Talk about a cold start going 50mph. Oil is cold engine is cold but we are already traveling at about 50mph this is when it start having these issues. even though we started the car in the morning and had it powered on for like 5m it was only running on battery. Im not a mechanic/technician but I think hybrids should at least start on gas mode for a minute.