By Adriano Marchese

The U.S. automobile safety regulator has opened up an investigation into more than 2 million Honda vehicles over reports that the engine can fail to restart from an idle position.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, will investigate complaints that allege that the engine fails to turn on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection with the auto start-stop feature engaged.

In the document dated March 26, the regulator said that some of the complainants allege that a jump start was required for the vehicle to continue on the journey.

The NHTSA said this affects about 2.21 million vehicles which include popular models such as the Honda Odyssey as well as certain Acura models.

While the document noted that Honda has released service bulletins in January of 2023, the Office of Defects investigation continued to receive complaints that the auto start-stop function continued to fail, allegedly even after work had been done to remedy the problem.

The NHTSA said the engineering analysis is being opened to further consider the potential safety defect, including gathering additional data regarding Honda's service campaign efficacy.

Write to Adriano Marchese at adriano.marchese@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 28, 2025 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT)

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