Sudden braking. Car in front at a safe distance, car behind me and a car was in other lane (driving opposite direction) maybe 20-30 ft away. Car braked on its own with “brake” flashed on dash. Car fishtailed but I was able to gain control after a second or two. Occurred5:20pm on 6-18-26. Occurred one other time about 15-18 months earlier. Another incident occurred on 6-30-26 around 2:30 pm on clear day on divided highway with no one close in front of me. Flashed “brake” warning but did not brake.
2019 Honda CR-V: brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking)
33 of the 1,110 complaints about the 2019 Honda CR-V describe brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking).
- owner complaints
- 33
- of this car's complaints
- 3%
- typical mileage
- 19,200
- recalls
- 0
Is there a fix? 39 service bulletins cover this area of the car. See below
Brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking) by model year
What owners say
I have 2 issues with my car - the first one has been ongoing and I should have reported it sooner - when using cruise my car will sometimes brake for no reason, it's as if the car sees something that's not there. The second one just occurred and has only happened once. I was driving on the highway using cruise and I got a message on the dash that said something like cruise control disengaged - the cruise turned off and the gas pedal didn't work so I had to coast to the shoulder. Luckily, I didn't have to cross any lanes of traffic or it could have been extremely dangerous. I plan to contact the dealer as soon as I am done with this submission. I wanted to be able to tell them that I had notified the federal safety agency.
My car’s brakes fully engaged suddenly and without warning. There was no obstacle of any kind in front of my vehicle. I was traveling approximately 10 miles an hour when the phantom braking occurred.
CMBS braking malfunction. The car will brake on its own at highway speeds due to thinking you were going to crash when there are no other objects or vehicles in the roadway. Issue has become more frequent and I have found many forums and articles online of people with these issues, but my car Cannot be fixed, the dealer has no idea what to do. i’ve had this issue since my car only had 18,000 miles on it last year. It is going to cause a crash. At times it brakes to the point where I am almost stopped on the highway.
Driving in a 45 mph area and automatic braking system engaged for absolutely no reason and car came to a jerking halt. I was nearly rear-ended. Scared myself and 3 children in the car with me.
Car slams on brakes by itself. Once with large metal plate used for construction. Going about 40-45mph. Another time when someone turned completely and it slammed on the brakes nowhere near a vehicle.
Driving 35 mph in my 2019 CRV EX, and all of a sudden, the brake started braking on its own. There was no warning, and the brake warning light came on several times with the brake braking on and off several times. There were not any objects, cars, or obstructions around. We (friend as passenger) came to a sudden stop when the braking first started up. It felt like major whiplash with jerking like motions. This lasted about 5 seconds and was just shocking. Our chests hurt afterwards, and it felt like the life was taken out of us. I was not using the cruise control/CMBS on at the time, but it was on to use if needed. I called Stirling Honda the next day about the problem and scheduled an appt. to bring the SUV in 6/22/2023. The lady did not seem to be too worried in my opinion. I actually have not been using the cruise control and CMBS at all, and actually have disabled it (turned off). This is a big safety concern, and thank God there was not a car in front of me or in back of me. I cannot imagine being at a higher speed and this happening.
The contact owns a 2019 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving 40 MPH, the vehicle experienced phantom braking and the vehicle abruptly slowed down. The contact stated that there was no vehicle nearby during the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 16,400.
Vehicle has had phantom braking and accelerations, occurrences of "Christmas tree dashboard" with all system alerts going off - have been intermittent, far between and unsure how to go about presenting to dealership or auto repair due to this - however THIS OCCURRED TODAY AND CAUSED A COLLISION/ ACCIDENT! My looking into the issue online has shown that this is a problem that many others have also had and that the federal safety agency has opened an investigation into it with honda! AGAIN - MY VEHICLE IS NOW DAMAGED AND I AM INJURED DUE TO THIS SYSTEM MALFUNCTION/ERROR! Today while in slow moving traffic to turn onto interstate, car started having the phantom breaking and jolting forwards out of my control. All of the system failure alerts started going off (I've been able to clear in the past by turning off and turning on car multiple times in a row and on the 5-7th restart they go away) - while slowing moving forward across railroad tracks - the railroad lights and barriers then also started to decend (unexpectedly, as they had just been down shortly before - less than 2 minutes) - I attempted to accelerate forward to clear my vehicle from the tracks and my vehicle jolted forward - despite my own braking, the vehicle's forward collision mitigation also failed and the brakes did not/would not apply hard enough (or as hard as I was applying) in order to prevent collision with vehicle in front of me. I attempted to veer to the left at the last second to avoid any collision - which limited damage to truck in front of me to very minimal, but my car's front right is moderately damaged. ADDITIONALLY - driver airbag deployed despite speed being under 35mph and collision not at a level that warranted airbag deployment - thus ALSO INJURING ME AND CAUSING ADDITIONAL CAR DAMAGE. NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY DUE TO PERSON INJURIES AND VEHICLE IMPAIRMENT!
While driving 45 miles an hour my car braked on its own. Luckily there was no vehicle behind me, in front of me or pulling in from a side road. I was thrown forward and everything on my passenger seat was thrown on the floorboard (purse,etc.). I am taking it to the local dealership, where I purchased it in the morning.
The forward collision or automatic brake system engaged for no reason, Zero cars on the road. The car beeped and then came to a complete stop, luckily no vehicles were behind me or I would have been involved in a car accident. The LCD screen beeps, turns on and off, brightens appears and go and down. It won’t stop until you turn the car off. It’s happened numerous times. The backseat passenger window went down and wouldn’t go up either by backseat passenger door or driver door, heard clicking by shutting the car off it fixed it.
2019 CR-V EX suddenly braked for no reason on the highway.
Service bulletins that may apply
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the 2019 Honda CR-V phantom braking
Is brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking) a common problem on the 2019 Honda CR-V?
33 of 1,110 owner complaints about the 2019 Honda CR-V (3%) mention brakes engage by themselves (phantom braking). The model year with the most reports is 2018.
Is there a recall or service bulletin for this on the 2019 Honda CR-V?
There are 0 recalls and 39 service bulletins for the same area of the car. Check them below with your VIN.
Other symptoms on the 2019 Honda CR-V
Fuel pump 77Collision warning 69Stalling 59Warning lights 55Adaptive cruise 50Check engine light 42Lane assist 35Fuel smell 29Loss of power 28Jerking 26Battery drain 18Hesitation 18Won't start 18Misfire 15Sunroof shattered 15Won't shift 13Airbag light 12Steering noise 11Headlights 10No deployment 9Engine failure 9Fire or smoke 9ABS 7Backup camera 7Grinding brakes 7Fuel leak 7Key fob 7Windshield crack 7Screen failure 6Brake failure 5Overheating 5Shudder 5
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2019 Honda CR-V?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history