Sounded like it could just be a battery thing although I'm sure the hill start assist thing plays an issue with the whole starting thing too. Most of the time when it comes to engine starting, it's a matter of having the car engaged in the right "space" I suppose?

 

What do you mean? It was a starter issue which is not related to the battery. Did I miss understanding the resolve?

 

It was the starter and so far everything is working well. Idle stop does seem to have an easier time starting the engine, so seems like starter was the culprit.


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I am having the same intermittent idle stop problem with my 2015 TLX SH-AWD Tech. The car electronics appear to freeze up once the engine shuts down and then it takes numerous presses of the start button to get the car to fully shutdown and then restart. The dealer replaced the battery, which failed the diagnostic, about a month ago. However the exact same problem reoccurred last Sunday. I have contacted the dealer again and now Acura Canada regarding this problem. I am awaiting a plan of action from them to address this problem once and for all. Perhaps replacing both the battery and the starter is the solution.......??

 

I am having same issue with my Acura MDX

 

That's a weird one. Mine was doing exactly as you described but the battery replacement fixed the issue. Let us know what they find. It may be the starter as well.

 

I had the Auto Idle restart problem in my 2015 TLX Tech, and ACURA put in a new battery in March. The problem went away for 3-4 months but has now returned. Failed to restart twice in the past 7 days.

I guess maybe the starter is the next thing to check.

 

I also had this, but the symptoms clearly pointed to a battery issue--some "almost" failed incidents prior the the failure. Failed after entering a parking space, so I just finished the business I was there for. That seemed to allow enough time for the battery to recover. Drove to the dealer with Auto Idle Stop turned off. They tested the battery and deemed it had failed. Replaced at no cost (Car is 2 1/2 years old.)

 

Same problem same quick fix (New Battery).

I did some testing with a vehicle monitor (VEEPEAK Mini OBD II Diagnostic Scanner) Plus the TORQUE app and another Android app called Realtime Charts.

What I noticed was that the Old Battery (2.5 yrs old) would drop voltage from near 14V when running to less than 12 when the Auto Idle Stop killed the engine. This was because the electrical draw on the battery was heavy - so heavy that when the starter load was added the car might not restart.

I took it to a dealer and got a "It just might be the battery..." response (after I had just paid $40 for a jump start from a tow truck) so I took the 'analysis' under advisement and bought a new battery (same size Interstate Battery) and installed it. This seems to have cleared up the problem for the time being but the battery voltage after engine kill gets down pretty close to 12V so I'm thinking that a different battery that isn't so sensitive to drain might be the answer.

Now sometimes (predictably at a long red light) I get a 'Restarting soon' message about 40 seconds after engine stop folowed by a restart.

My guess is that the battery voltage is drawn down sufficiently that the Auto Idle Stop 'computer' gets 'concerned' and, initiates a restart to preempt a voltage drop that might take voltage too low to start at my command when the light turns.

 

...What I noticed was that the Old Battery (2.5 yrs old) would drop voltage from near 14V when running to less than 12 when the Auto Idle Stop killed the engine. This was because the electrical draw on the battery was heavy - so heavy that when the starter load was added the car might not restart.....

Someone can correct me but when running the engine the voltage is 14V, its not from the battery but becauase the system is charging the battery at 14V. When the engine is off, voltage drops to 12V as that is the voltage of the battery without being charged.

The better test is to see the voltage coming off the battery as the car is being started.

 

Well it’s been almost 2 years since my issue with idle stop in which they replaced my starter motor and now it is acting up once again. 3 times this last week it has failed to start after engaging. I am taking it in Tuesday for them to look at it. Strange thing again is that the car has no problem starting when it is cold, only during idle stop situations. I really wish we could permanently disable this problematic function.


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Well took it in and they said my battery had a bad cell and they replaced it. Idle stop is working fine again. They had replaced the battery 2 years ago along with the starter motor. I hope this is just a case of faulty battery, but if I was a betting man I would bet this will fail again within the next 2 years.


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I still have issues every 25 or so starts where it does start but just barley turns over... yet like you the "normal" engine start turns over fine. Would love to know if your dealer finds any issues.

I wonder, is there more strain on a restart from auto-idle perhaps since the car is in Drive.... perhaps the torque converter or something like that puts more resistance against a restart with idle-auto activated... #Crashmaster any thoughts?

 

Has anyone tried putting in a deep cycle AGM battery like an Optima yellow top to see if it would help with this for longer than a couple of years?

 

For whats it worth I still have my original battery (act I was replaced but early on under warranty)

 

Having issues with mine... like its not working anymore.. always "not available" when in situations where it would work. I had the car in recently for the fuel pump recall and they tested the battery and it was OK... I might be going back again as on the last time it did work on the restart the headlights turned off briefly during the restart. Some isn't right with this restart system.

 

I have a 2015 TLX AWD. The engine autostop feature leaves me stranded almost every time it is used. I have brought it to the dealership and they can never find anything since they do not store any error codes so they just think it is all in my head. I have replaced the battery and have gotten software updates to no avail. The fact that this has been an issue for almost 5 years now and Honda/Acura will not do anything about it or have an update that will allow its permanent disablement tells me that Honda wants its customers to die in their vehicles because of this "feature". I have called Honda and get the same crappy answer - take it to the dealership so they can do nothing about it. I will never own another Acura because of this. It is my damned car, I should be able to configure it any way I like. I have tried pulling fuses, jumpering wires so that it should think it is off to no avail. The best use of this car would be to set it on fire.

 

First off, sorry you are going through these issues.
Second, I believe you can turn this feature off, but have to do so every time you start the car.

I don't believe Honda can legally permanently disable this feature as I'm sure it was something used for the EPA rating.

Also, how old is the current battery in your car?
Is it an AGM battery?

Also, I found on Honda Pilot forum where someone figured out a way to permanently disable this.
Search for Honda pilot Permanently disable Auto Stop Start!

 

Thanks for the response. I for one do not give a damn what the EPA and those corrupt bastards think. This feature is a safety hazard, pain and simple. It needs to be ended just like Trump did with the onerous CAFE standards. The battery is two years old and a battery specified for the car, which I replaced because of this issue. It had no effect, the feature does not work. A feature of this type needs to work 100% of the time or it does not work at all. Again it is a safety hazard.

What amazes me is that the design is so bad as to be this faulty that one would think there world be an official work around. I am well aware of how to turn it off but, every time I forget to do so, it strands me.

I stand by my statement that Acura hates their customers and wants them to die in their vehicles as the SOLE reason that they will not offer a workaround to this horrible function. The way I have been treated by Acura on this is at best condescending. Everything bur the curt "FY".

 

My issues was resolved with a battery replacement. I would try that. Yes it is a AGM battery.

 

replace battery

 

The battery drain on these cars is rather intense (everything is electronic). If you have a 2+ year-old battery and the weather is cold, that could be an issue.

 

I have a 2015. After about 3 years, it started happening to me. I had the battery and starting system checked and no problems were found. Yet it kept happening erratically. I finally decided to change the battery and no more problems. I got one at my local tire store ($180). It has 730 CCA which is more than the OEM battery. Make sure it's a glass-mat battery. Good luck.

 

I have a 2016 Pilot Touring which has the same 3.5L engine and 9-sp ZF transmission. The battery lasted about 2.5 years before it started stalling on traffic light. The battery is replaced under factory warranty and I have since disabled Idle stop permanently.

 

I have a 2015 and mine started failing to restart after the car was about 2 years old. It would almost always fail to start when I came off the highway and hit a red light at the exit ramp. After failing to restart, I would turn the car off, it would always restart. When it did that with my wife in the car, she had a heart attack and from then on with her in the car I always turned it off before taking her anywhere. Like everyone above, I took it to the dealer to check the battery, starter, computer, and everything else and it always came back with no issues found. After not using it for a year or so, I tried it again and it failed to restart, after exiting the highway and at red lights after driving for a while. Even though the car always started in the morning through the winter, I decided it could be a weak battery and decided to replace it, since the car was 4 years old at that point. I put in an Interstate MTX 48/H6 760CCA battery in and haven't had a problem since. The OEM battery is only 640CCA so this should be better. It cost me $225 which was $100 cheaper than the OEM Acura battery from the dealer. My recommendation to everyone - get rid of the weak OEM battery and put in a good one!

 

I think a big issue is the charging strategy these cars have. Cars used to constantly charge the battery. Now they try to only charge the battery during low loads, such as coasting to a stop. They do this to improve fuel economy.

 

Different vehicle, but our 2016 Jeep will disable the auto-engine-stop feature if/when the battery starts to fail. I noticed it wasn't working, but had no other indications that the battery was starting to go south until attempting to start the vehicle more than twice in a row, after which it would either slow crank and start or fail to do so. A new Interstate battery last year, and all has been well.

 

I’ve seen at least a handful of these at my dealership and we have not been able to figure out the exact cause of the problem. The engineers have been out from Honda looking at it and still have come to know conclusion. We replaced batteries, starters, alternators, battery cables and battery sensors all with no luck. When the car fails to restart it saves a data list snapshot and on all of these cars the battery voltage drops to around 6V at the time it fails to restart which causes the car not to restart even though it passed the original test to auto idle stop in the first place. It seems likely that it may be a software issue within the PCM battery voltage sensing circuit because all parts we have replaced have not Corrected the issue. There’s really not much parts left to replace in the electrical battery sensing system really the PCM is the only thing left which points to software

 

This happened several times - leaving me stranded in traffic. Finally, the battery tested bad and acura replaced it. Now, I try to disable it every time I start the car. Had company in the car the other day - and missed disabling it. To my dismay - when I went to start up at a stop light the car failed to restart. I put it in park - and it still took a number of times hitting the start button before it started up again. Good grief. There needs to be a fix for this issue.

 

There needs to be a fix for this issue.

I would think the issue would have to be solved at some point as it can create dangerous situations when it leaves you stuck at intersections. Honda is going to have to do something....It just plain isn’t safe to be stuck at a stoplight in any amount of traffic. For now, until Honda figures out the issue, you just have to disable the idle stop system or remember to make turning it off as part of your startup routine.

 

In my view, the faulty start/stop design is a safety issue. This is a problem I've had with both my 2015 and 2017 TLX (V6 SH-AWD Tech). I've been to three dealers and each of them stared blankly at me and said "well we test drove it and it's working fine now". When I reported that my 2017 was experiencing a significant delay between gears when shifting from drive to reverse, they said "that's just the way the car is". Everything in this car is electronically controlled, so I'm reasonably certain that all of this is the result of Acura's incredibly glitchy software. Acura's refusal to deal with this (and other problems) means that I will deal with it - by switching to a Genesis G70 when my lease is up in a month. Au revoir Acura.