NHTSA Complaint #11568608 — 2022 HONDA RIDGELINE

The incident with my 2022 Honda Ridgeline Black Edition occurred while driving on the interstate from Minneapolis back to my home in Illinois (Chicago suburbs). While taking an exit ramp to a different interstate I slowed down before the turn and then, when accelerating to merge onto the other interstate, my Ridgeline "check engine" light began flashing and the vehicle began to limp along at a maximum speed of ~40MPH. I quickly pulled off to a parking lot and arranged for a tow truck for the next day, as it was very late in the evening and very cold. The next morning, I went to meet the tow truck at the parking lot, and I started up my Honda Ridgeline with no issues (and no check engine light). It was then that I found a message board conversation titled “Check engine light flashing after freeway driving” on the internet [XXX] ) and discovered this issue had been occurring with other Ridgelines in similar conditions - i.e., long drives in cold weather where the driver slows down and then accelerates. In all cases, it seems that simply turning off the vehicle and re-starting a few minutes later fixes the problem, but not before you encounter a potentially dangerous situation with a disabled car on the road. On [XXX] I took my Ridgeline in for service at my local Honda dealership (where I had purchased the vehicle in 2022) and they were unable to find any issues or error codes stored (no error codes being stored seems to be the common occurrence with other drivers who have had this issue). In my view, this issue, while somewhat uncommon due to the particular set of circumstances needed to produce the error, presents a major safety issue for the Honda Ridgeline as it can essentially disable your vehicle while driving on the interstate. I’m hopeful that the NHTSA can work with Honda to quickly diagnose and resolve this safety issue before it leads to tragic consequences. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)