kkcarlton

I bought a Honda Civic Hatchback 2017 end of 2016. Up until then I had driven a standard for 30+ years. So there were a few times I forgot to shift the car to Park before turning it off, and it just turned off without giving a warning. It is supposed to say "Shift to Park" or something on the console and give warning beeps. This only works intermittently. I was able to reproduce the problem, video it, and took my car in to the service department. The guy at the service desk first questioned why this is a problem? Really? An automatic in drive turned off will roll if parked on a hill. There was also a recall on the 2004 Honda Pilots. Those are not keyless start but you are not supposed to be able to remove the key when you turn it off unless the car is in park, but that wasn't working.

Anyway, they had my car roughly 10 days, put a ton of miles on it to reproduce the problem, then put a ton of miles on it when they "thought" they fixed it, and then said it was fine. It's not...it's still doing the same thing. I called the service department and left a message. Nobody called me back. So I called the guy we bought the car from and he said he was willing to get in some cars on the lot, turn them on, and see if he can reproduce the problem. When I told him that I had only been able to reproduce the problem after driving 15 to 20 minutes minimum he said, "yeah, I can't go and put a bunch of miles on my new cars." My point is, I don't want them to put a bunch of miles on my car and still not know if they fixed the problem or not. Seems to me they should start looking into other Honda Civic Hatchbacks and see if any of them are doing it. Of course he disagrees.

All that to say, I was wondering if anybody here has encountered the same problem with their Honda.

mcnoople

You drove a manual transmission for 30+ years? Shouldn't you be used to applying a parking brake?

Honestly you should consider yourself lucky to just have your car roll away. At least you are alive There are dozens of cases of permanent brain damage and deaths related to inattentive smart key owners. They are many reported cases of drivers parking their cars in an attached garage and walking away leaving the car running which slowly fills their homes with carbon monoxide. You are still alive so you still have a chance to adjust your behavior in response to your new situation/car.

Having said that I am standing next to a civic hatch with 30 miles and it gives a feeble series of beeps when turning the car off in gear. It really isn't a very pronounced attention getter. Much more telling is that when you get out of the car with the key in your pocket and the car in drive the car will beep 5 or 6 times to warn you that you have done something you shouldn't do. It is the same beep used when you leave the car running and shut the doors without a key in the car.

Does the fact that your radio stays powered up and bright as a Christmas tree not give you enough warning that something is amiss.

If you had a new accord, crv, or odyssey I would be able to tell you the button press/dance to enable a completely undocumented assembly line feature that engages the parking brake when the ignition is turned off. If Civics have this feature I can't figure out how to enable it.

So I would suggest you should find some style of reminder to either always set the P brake or always put the vehicle back into park. Maybe something as simple as a little lanyard going from your seatbelt buckle up to the area of the shifter. You do wear your seatbelt don't you?

mcnoople

Also forgot to include in the original response. The main issue with 2004 pilots is the fact that when you take the key out the column locks which makes the vehicle uncontrollable which will cause a wreck since the column lock positions are never straight ahead. The interlock recall was a direct response to someone finding out that a safety wasn't working as intended. This is just like hairdryers with the warning label to not use while showering. We have safety features to try to slow down peoples abilities to hurt themselves. The world used to be much safer when it was more dangerous.