2018 Honda Accord Hybrid: check engine light

Filed Jun 25, 2026 · Acceleration, Engine · CA

On 2-252026 my wife and I were driving on highway I-15 in California when the car started to accelerate, decelerate and jerk and the engine light came on. It was very scary because we were on a major highway driving around 60 MPH and cars were behind us when the deceleration happened. We could have been hit by cars traveling behind us or either we could have caused a major accident. We had to get off the highway and have the car towed to Honda for assessment. There was no engine light warning or service warning from Honda prior to this happening, it just randomly happened. The car was repaired at a Honda dealership and they said there was a leaking head gasket on cylinder number 4. When we looked up information regarding this head gasket failure we saw that other Honda cars have had the same problem and Honda is currently involved in lawsuits regarding this leaking head gasket on cylinder number 4.

Filed Jun 24, 2026 · Engine · CA

While driving on the highway at approximately 65 mph with my child in the vehicle during rush-hour on May 21, 2026, my 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid Touring (105,746 miles) suddenly dropped speed, and began backfiring and stopped responding to the gas pedal. The check engine light flashed and the vehicle ran rough. I activated emergency flashers and drove slowly to the shoulder. Sunnyvale Honda (Sunnyvale, CA) diagnosed coolant intrusion into one of the cylinders and head gasket failure. The vehicle had never overheated and showed no prior warning signs. All maintenance was performed at Honda dealerships per the maintenance minder schedule. The dealership performed a head gasket repair costing $7,500+ out of pocket. On the first highway drive after pickup, again with my children in the vehicle, the identical failure occurred: backfiring, complete loss of throttle response, vehicle unable to exceed 48 mph with the accelerator fully depressed. The repair did not resolve the defect. The vehicle is currently back at the dealership for further investigation. This failure created an immediate safety hazard on both occasions: sudden loss of speed on highway with no warning. Honda Customer Service denied goodwill assistance. I am aware of numerous similar complaints involving coolant leak and head gasket failure on 2018-2022 Accord including complaints documenting the same failure on the Accord Hybrid 2.0L engine. the federal safety agency should investigate this as a potential safety-related defect affecting multiple Honda engine variants.

Filed Feb 4, 2026 · Acceleration, Electrical · OH

Over the past several years, there have been multiple instances where I or my wife are driving on the highway and the engine light comes on or starts flashing, and I am unable to go faster than 50 miles an hour, and the engine itself feels to be underpowered. We have taken it to the dealership for repair at least five times over the past five years and in each case they have attempted to do a repair and said the issue has been resolved, but the issue continue. At at least one of those visits, they have diagnosed the issue as an engine misfire issue. The issue has intensified from the initial symptoms, (which were as I described, but resolved by turning the car off, waiting 30 seconds to a minute and then turning the car on again) to how it is now: in addition to the check engine light, every other light and warning system has gone off when driving on the highway and the engine was unable to go faster than 40 miles an hour, and it does not resolve by restarting the car. The dealership and Honda America’s main phone line have as of yet been unable to give me a clear answer as to why this is happening or whether it can be fixed. A sudden drop in speed and power on the highway as we have experienced many times over the last five years is inherently extremely dangerous.

Filed Aug 11, 2025 · Electrical, Engine · CA

At approximately [XXX]. Pacific, I was traveling southbound in the fastrak lane of the [XXX] departing from Pleasant Hill, California headed to Pleasanton, California. As I began to accelerate, the engine began to sputter. Immediately, the check engine light flashed on, then the dashboard reported a number of issues ranging from brake failure, TPMS failure, power assisted steering failure, vehicle stability assist failure and a number of other issues that I have never encountered since purchasing the vehicle. The sudden deceleration almost resulted in other cars impacting my car as this occurred during the morning commute. I was able to safely navigate off of the freeway. I was on speakerphone with Honda when this occurred. Had I not acted swiftly, a potential high speed rear end collision was likely to have occurred. I immediately took the car to Concord Honda. The team at Concord Honda performed a diagnosis and advised me that my head gasket was leaking water into the combustion chamber which resulted in the sudden loss of power. I was and continue to be dissatisfied with the handling of this issue by Honda as my car has never been handled by another mechanic. My car has a perfect or near perfect maintenance record and should not have a blown head gasket at 80k miles especially since my car is meticulously maintained and serviced by Concord Honda. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Feb 16, 2025 · Engine · 99,169 miles · NY

About two weeks ago, I could have been killed on the New York State Thruway when my 2018 Honda Accord suddenly lost all power. One moment, I was driving normally—then, without warning, my check engine light came on, I had zero ability to accelerate and was forced to pull over as my car rapidly lost speed. II had my vehicle towed to Morehead Honda where they ran diagnostics and told me my car needed nearly $6,000 in repairs due to coolant leaking into the engine, which caused cylinder misfires and valve damage. But here’s the kicker—this same issue has happened to other Honda Accords of the same model year, yet Honda refuses to recognize it as a widespread problem. Morehead Honda admitted to me that they’ve seen this issue before in other 2018-2020 Honda Accords and 2017-2018 CR-Vs. In fact, they said Honda quietly fixed the problem in newer models (2021+)—but they still won’t acknowledge it as a defect in mine. That means my engine failure is not some one-in-a-million fluke—it’s something that has happened to multiple owners of the same model and year. But Honda refuses to take responsibility, leaving me on the hook for an absurdly expensive repair. Many others have had the same or similar issues. Below are some: 2017-2020 Honda Accord owners who have reported coolant leaks, cylinder head cracks, head gasket failures, or related issues: 2018 Accord 2.0T owner blew a head gasket, with a potential cracked engine block. The dealership diagnosed the issue on cylinder #3, with coolant mixing into the engine oil. A 2018 Accord EX-L 2.0T owner experienced a coolant loss leading to a blown head gasket and coolant leaking into cylinders 2 and 3. A 2018 Accord 1.5T owner had dashboard warnings and the car failed to accelerate. The dealership diagnosed a blown head gasket, with coolant leaking into cylinders 3 and 4. A 2020 Honda Accord owner suffered a blown head gasket at 58,000 miles. The dealership confirmed it was the fourth such case they had seen.

Filed Nov 5, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · CA

Car has been throwing check engine light codes for different things for the past three years. First, the spark plugs needed to be replaced, then the electric coolant pump. After each repair, the check engine light came back on as soon as 4 days after but as late as a month after. Most recently, while driving on the highway the car check engine light came on and began flashing and the vehicle would not accelerate past 20mph. I took the closest exit and parked the car and had it towed to the closest Honda dealer where they informed me that there is an active recall and they are waiting for a call to see what they can do to help but that there is a head gasket issue as well as a fuel pump code. Previously when the check engine light came on and it took it to get checked I was told there was no code holding in the system.

Filed Sep 16, 2024 · Engine · OR

Malfunction Indicator Light (MIL) on with the DTC P030X (Cylinder Misfire Detected) stored. Experience engine running rough. - There are multiple misfiring cylinders. available for inspection upon request. - My safety and the safety of others was put in immediate risk when the engine started to jerk violently back and forth on the freeway. - The problem been reproduced and confirmed by a certified local Honda dealership. - There were no warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure.

Filed Apr 22, 2023 · Fuel system, Transmission · CA

Car has approximately 51k miles, beginning to shake, not accelerating as it jerks while attempting to accelerate. Check engine displays but no warnings are available. Comes on and off.

Filed Dec 17, 2021 · Engine · TX

This has occurred on two separate dates. While using ECON mode and driving on the highway I went to accelerate to pass another vehicle and the car started shaking and the check engine light started flashing. I could no longer accelerate with traffic traveling at speeds of 70 behind me. I was able to safely maneuver my car to the should of the highway. I turned it off for a few minutes and turned it back on and it operated perfectly fine with no engine light on anymore. The second time it happened the car forced the ECON mode off while flashing the check engine light, but kept shaking until I pulled over and turned off the car for a few minutes. I will be taking it to the dealer. Had there not been a highway shoulder I would’ve had to force my way across 4 lanes on a 70mph highway while being unable to accelerate or come to a complete stop in the fast lane which is a major safety issue.

Filed Sep 23, 2021 · Engine, Transmission · SD

My vehicle is a 2018 Honda Accord Hybrid with 12,075 miles on the odometer. I was driving to work in the morning of 09/22/2021. The condition was dry and the outside temperature was around 60 degrees. I was merging onto the interstate in sport mode when all-of-the-sudden my car went into a limp mode. The check engine light began flashing and car lost 90% of its power. The engine made a knocking noise and began to shudder violently. I tried to switch it out of sport mode to get it back into Eco but the message displayed on the dash said something like "Unavailable at this time." I was about a mile and a half away from work and was able to creep along the road to make it there as it was losing more and more power. When I got to work (with the engine still running) I lifted the hood and the engine was still shaking hard. I scheduled an appointment with the local dealership to have it looked at that afternoon at 2:00 pm. When I drove it to the dealership 3 miles away, the check engine light was no longer flashing and the engine seemed to run fine. When I called the service advisor later that afternoon to check the status of my car he told me, "The technician drove the car around with the scan tool plugged into it and it drove fine. He wasn't able to pull any codes from the PCM." I find it to be odd. In my experience, whenever the CEL illuminates, a malfunction code will be stored in the PCM until it is cleared. Why would Honda program the PCM to reset and hide the malfunction code so that we're not able to diagnose the issue? I did take the car into the dealership earlier this year to get a warranty battery replacement and to perform 2 recalls (one was an emission recall and the other was for the BCM).

Filed Mar 7, 2021 · Electrical, Engine · 66,752 miles · CA

Driving southbound on 101 south on sunny clear day 65 degrees with almost full fuel tank and 2 battery bars (almost empty) and climbing up incline on 7 degree grade and check engine light went on and lost all power and car completely slowed down to a stop (luckily was able to pull over with no problem).