There are 12 owner-reported engine complaints for the 2021 Honda CR-V Hybridin NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Traveling on 4 lane highway at 65 mph on slight upgrade-check engine light started flashing and vehicle started to shudder slightly and went into "limp" mode I think. Started to slow down with NO power. Turned on emergency flashers and was able to pull over without incident, although it was close to causing an accident with a tractor trailer. I shut the vehicle down and after 10 minutes, started it again> I was able to drive home another 45 miles without incident. This happened a week ago and so far it hasn't happened again.
When I accelerate up a hill at speed I lose power of the car. Once I pull over and turn the car off and wait a few minutes, the car starts up and drives fine. I have taken it in to be fixed and one time they changed spark plugs and a head gasket and then about 8 months later it did the same thing. I took it in to be checked out and they cannot find anything wrong with it. I have searched online and have found out there are other people having the same issue with this model (2021 CRV hybrid). I've only owned the car for 4 years and love Honda's and have owned one most of my life so this is disappointing.
Engine overheating in short trips with full coolant and oil. My car is 4 years old and after years of mysteriously going into limp mode and no help from the dealer, I believe it has a bad head gasket. this started when the car was 3 years old.
My 2021 Honda CR-V Hybrid has experienced three identical and dangerous incidents over a one month period beginning around 60,000 miles. Each time, while driving at highway speeds (60-70 mph) climbing hills or grades, the vehicle suddenly loses all acceleration power accompanied by a rapidly flashing check engine light. This creates an extremely hazardous situation as the vehicle cannot maintain highway speeds with fast-moving traffic approaching from behind, forcing emergency stops on busy highway shoulders where rear-end collisions become a serious risk. After each incident, turning off the vehicle and waiting 10+ minutes allows normal operation to resume, with the flashing check engine light disappearing. The malfunction involves the engine ignition system, specifically cylinder 4 misfiring as confirmed by diagnostic trouble code P0304 that I captured during the most recent incident. The suspected failing components include the ignition coil, spark plug, or fuel injector for cylinder 4. What makes this particularly dangerous is the complete unpredictability - no warning symptoms appear before each incident, and the failure occurs suddenly under specific conditions that are common in highway driving. Despite three documented occurrences, two separate Honda dealerships have been unable to reproduce the issue or confirm the problem. Both claim they find "no stored codes" even though I have evidence of the P0304 code. The codes appear to be cleared after turning the vehicle off and on. The intermittent nature and specific conditions required (sustained highway speeds while climbing grades) prevent typical shop diagnosis, yet this appears to be a widespread pattern affecting multiple 2021 CR-V Hybrids based on similar owner reports online. The recurring nature combined with the inability of dealers to address the root cause, creates an ongoing safety hazard. The vehicle remains available for inspection.
On the FREEWAY. The engine-icon lit up on the dash screen. Shortly after, I realized that the car was slowing down. Pushed on gas pedal and nothing happened. Started going slower and slower. Put on the emergency flashers, changed lanes to the far right and managed to coast it to a spot with a shoulder large enough to get me 100% on the shoulder. Turned off the power button and sat there for about 3-5 minutes. Turned the car back on and it was fine the rest of the way to my destination. Has not happened since. It was VERY scary! Called the dealership the next morning. Took it in at their request. There were no "codes" that came up and they had no idea why it happened. No resolution.
On January 15th while driving home with my son I attempted to accelerate around a truck when I hit approximately 60 mph the vehicle stopped accelerating and began to slow down. I did notice that the "charge bar" for the hybrid battery was indicating that it was charging. The car continued to decelerate and I pulled to the side of the road. The check engine light was flashing. I turned the vehicle off for a minute and started it back up. The car drove fine and I was able to make it home. The dealership said there were no codes saved and they had no explanation. This was a the third time in the past year this has occurred and no one can tell me what the codes are or how to fix it.
2021 Hybrid-CR began loosing power while driving and the check engine light turned on. Pulling over to the side of the road, turning it off, and then restarting the car turned off the check engine light. After several occurrences took the car to dealership where they were not able to pinpoint the problem as the check engine light was not on at that time and warnings are not stored in the diagnostic module of the car. Driving 75 mph ALL dashboard warning lights turned on. Was able to pull over to the side of the road and had car towed to dealership. The cylinder head is bad. New cylinder heads are currently on back order and there is no date of when a new one would become available. The head can be sent to a shop for repair for $8,000 cost. Honda is aware of the issue and has offered a 75-25% split on this cost: they pay 75% and we pay the remaining 25%. In the meantime we are without a vehicle for an obvious faulty cylinder head manufactured for the engine and unsuspecting drivers are put into hazardous safety situation.
Driving on highway, engine light began flashing, then deceleration occurred. No response in pushing the gas pedal at all. Pulled to side of road. Stopped car. Had it towed to Honda dealer. At the dealership, the car ran fine, the problem could not be replicated and there was no record that it had occurred. Approximately five weeks later, the same problem occurred on the highway, but I immediately got to the side of the road when the engine light came on and was able to pull off as deceleration was occuring. Waited a few minutes and the car then ran fine.
1 weeks ago the crv over heated once, shut the car off gave it 5min turned it back on and got it home no further issue, never over heated again Then on Monday the check engine light started flashing took to a shop they said it was due to spark plugs and ignition coils. The very next day flashed again, took back to shop they said it was my head gasket, took to a second shop and they confirmed that it was a head gasket but most likely needed the entire engine replaced at over $17,0000 The car is only 3 years old with 145k miles and already needs a new engine.
Been dealing with an intermittent flashing engine light issue for the past 1.5 to 2 years. We bought this car brand new in 2021 and the first time this happened the car was barely 3 years old. Whenever this issue occurs, the check engine light would flash and the car would lose engine power (pressing down on the accelerator does nothing). Once stopped, we can hear loud knocking noises from the engine. Usually turning the car off and then back on resets the behavior and the car operates normally. However, this is a very dangerous issue as it sometimes happen on the highway. It took us almost 2 years to successfully pull the error codes because, for reasons we can't understand, Honda designed this error code to clear itself after 3 uneventful drive cycles (as told to us by two separate dealers). We took the car to the various shops multiple time and they were never able to reproduce or diagnose the issue. Finally we were able to get the codes pulled at an O'Reilly's right after it happened, and the codes they found were: - Cylinder 1 misfire - Cylinder 2 misfire - Random misfires We took it to a dealer afterward and they ran a fuel/air ratio test and said everything looked fine; then they examined the fuel valves and noticed they were all overly tight. They believed that was the root cause and adjusted them to spec; we had to pay $1000 for the adjustment because for some reason this was considered a "maintenance item" even though we have never touched the fuel valves and the car was not due for this particular maintenance item until 100K miles, so I don't understand why this shouldn't be covered under warranty. In any case, it turned out the fuel valve adjustments didn't fix the issue and it happened again, so the car's back in the dealership now. I found a bunch of similar complaints pertaining to this vehicle model, and it really deserves more. attention.
I was going up foothills. The battery had 2 bars and a warning light came on next to the battery indicator. My car began having trouble accelerating and could not keep up with 55mph traffic. The diagnosis is that one of the cylinders misfired and I needed to replace the ignition coil. The car is in the dealer’s shop awaiting parts for repair. I am delivering the part tomorrow. I was 6mi outside town, 911 had some trouble locating me, my cell phone reception was unreliable, I could have been involved in a high speed accident.
Vehicle is advertised at "36-40mpg" (36 highway, 40mpg city). I am averaging (AT BEST) 25mpg. I reported the issue to Honda Corporate and they advised I take it in to a dealer. I took the vehicle into the dealer I purchased the car from and was told "we drove it around for a few minutes and everything is fine with it." The dealer advised there was "no problem" and "nothing they could do.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 25, 2026