Honda has been ignoring complaints about a defective engine starter, according to the plaintiff in a recent class action lawsuit.
Plaintiff Joel Merkin says the Honda engine starter in certain recent model years of Honda Accords and Crosstours is defective in a way that causes the starter and battery to fail. Once that happens, the vehicle’s engine will not start, potentially leaving drivers and passengers stranded, Merkin claims.
The engine starter is an electric motor that gets the car’s engine spinning when the driver turns the ignition key, until the engine starts and keeps running on its own.
Merkin claims the defendants have known about this Honda engine starter defect for at least four years. Owners have been filing complaints with Honda about the alleged defect, and the company itself has published internal technical bulletins addressing the problem, he claims.
According to this Honda engine starter class action lawsuit, Honda has been refusing owner requests to remedy the engine starter defect under the affected vehicles’ warranties. Merkin says Honda has dismissed warranty claims for this defect by attributing the problems to wear, owner misuse, improper maintenance or lack of maintenance.
When Honda has bothered to fix the defect, Merkin alleges, the company has only replaced the Honda engine starter with a similarly defective starter.
Despite Honda’s alleged knowledge of the defect and the asserted coverage under the manufacturer’s warranty, Merkin says the company has not “recalled the Class Vehicles to repair the Starter Defect, offered its customers a suitable repair or replacement free of charge, or offered to reimburse its customers who have incurred out of pocket expenses to repair the defect.”
Merkin himself is the owner of a pre-owned 2013 Honda Accord. He says that in May 2016, his Accord would fail to start about once a week. The problem got progressively worse, he says, until the vehicle would fail to start five to six times per day.
A local Honda dealer told Merkin the car was no longer under warranty. Merkin had the problem fixed at an out-of- pocket cost of about $200, he claims.
Merkin is proposing to represent a statewide plaintiff Class consisting of all persons in New Jersey who are current or former owners of one of the listed vehicles equipped with the allegedly defective Honda engine starter. He lists these vehicles as the Honda Accord from model years 2013 to 2015 and the Honda Crosstour from model years 2013 to 2015.
He is asking the court to certify his proposed Class and appoint him as Class representative. He seeks a court order requiring Honda to repair, recall or replace the Honda engine starter in affected vehicles. He also seeks an award of damages with pre- and post-judgment interest and reimbursement of court costs and attorneys’ fees.
Merkin’s attorneys are Matthew D. Schelkopf, Joseph G. Sauder and Joseph B. Kenney of McCune Wright Arevalo LLP.
The Honda Engine Starter Defect Class Action Lawsuit is Joel Merkin v. Honda North America Inc., et al., Case No. 3:17-cv-03625, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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454 thoughts onHonda Class Action Says Engine Starter Defect Merits Warranty Coverage
2016 honda fit== new starter motor needed at 21,000 miles (5 years though- not covered) 800$$, now starts beautifully.
2014 honda accord ex started experiencing this intermittent start issue a couple weeks ago. New battery same issue not looking forward to the cost to repair fixed-income senior
My wife and I took our 2015 Honda Accord in today and received a quite of $800.00 to replace the starter. They recommended a rebuilt starter instead of a new Honda starter. The recondition starter has a three year warranty where as the new starter comes with only a one year starter. Now I understand why. Good luck.
My 2013 Accord EXl having the same e issues , its sitting in my driveway waiting for toll truck
My 2015 Honda Accord sport has been having this same issue and I have replace the battery multiple times already. It’s even scary knowing that I could get stranded anywhere. Luckily, the times I notice this issue was starting to begin I would just replace the battery to prevent being stranded.This issue needs to be fixed and I would like to be part of this lawsuit.
Since day one I bought this car to thousand 14 new in one year started started acting up it would start sometimes but it wouldn’t allow it to thousand 21 is still doing the same thing and Honda dealers so there’s nothing wrong with my starter now they’re telling me it’s by starting to and the same thing so what the heck is going on with Honda I will never ever allow me to tell other people not to buy Honda’s anymore because if it’s ridiculous that they don’t want to honor this so I’m gonna file an action lawsuit because it cost too much to replace the starter and I have nobody
Issue just started showing up on my 2014 Accord with only 26K miles on it. It is costing me $790 to replace.
I’m at the mechanic right now getting my starter replaced on my 2015 Accord. My car has less than 40,000 miles and I have kept up on all required maintenance.
Started about 2 weeks ago on my 2014 Accord Coupe EX-L V6. It’s onluy going to get worse. I would like to be apart of this. as well.
Same issue with my 2015 Honda Accord EXL sedan. Awful noise from the starter when actuated. Happens every few times it’s started. Honda needs to step up on this issue. Please add me to this legal action.
Our 2014 Honda Accord has been experiencing starter issues, which have been progressing drastically, over the past week. We first noticed the issue in March 2018, when it took the vehicle 4 tries before it started. It didn’t happen again until the following October, when it happened twice, within a couple days. We bought a new battery, thinking it would solve the issue. Hadn’t had any starter issues, for quite some time, after replacing the battery. There may have been a time or two between October 2018 and now. On 07/26/21, the issue returned out of the blue, and with a vengeance! It started out taking 2 to 3 tries before starting, once a day. Now, it is just about everytime I go to start the car. It took me 9 attempts before finally starting this morning. At this point, it’s 50/50 chance that o may, or may not, make it to any of my destinations in the near future. I have made an appointment to take the car in for August 18, but who knows if I’ll be able to get there.