2018 Honda HR-V Electrical System
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
In a freezing cold parking lot car would not start. Had car towed to service center. Problem was gas gauge showing almost half a tank but car was out of gas. It is a bad sending unit. This is hazardous. There were no warnings or lights notifying me of a problem with the sending unit. I drive on highways at night. Potentially running out of gas on a busy highway with no warning is hazardous. Mechanic informed me this is a common problem with Honda. Over 500 dollars for a tow and diagnosis. Will cost $2200 to repair. If parts of the fuel pump were recalled why not the sending unit?????
The contact owns a 2018 Honda HR-V. The contact stated that the fuel gauge reading was intermittently inoperable. The contact stated that the failure mostly occurred while starting the vehicle, with the fuel gauge reading being displayed after driving for an extended period. The dealer was contacted and informed the contact that it was an instrument cluster failure, and there would be a charge for the repair. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.
the fuel gauge, mileage don't show until the car is warmed up. this happens on a cold weather.
The dashboard light don't turn on on a cold weather day until the car is warm. The dealer charged me $215.97 in late October but it started again. Dealer says right software cluster must be replaced now.
Odometer and fuel gauge cluster on dashboard only working intermittently. Started in November 2025 in the cold weather the display would get blurry, then not work. Honda dealership confirmed problem but did not offer a recall or TSB. Only offered to replace that gauge cluster for $2,365. Safety concern as driver cannot know the amount of fuel left in the vehicle. If vehicle runs out of fuel, can cause crash.
The instrument panel with the odometer and gas gauge goes out completely at random times. Before the panel goes dark, the display flickers chaotically. I always note the issue to the dealership when I service my car. On the 2nd occasion, I was told the entire panel would have to be replaced at a cost of $1800. I told the service tech that I could not afford that expense. His recommendation was to bang on an area close to the display with my fist to get it to reappear. He actually demonstrated how to do it. The Honda Dealerships are aware of the problem and admit it’s a manufacturing design flaw. I have tolerated this for several years thinking Honda would offer compensation for the problem. However, yesterday when it was working, an alert appeared in the middle of the display about an issue with my fuel cap. I’m aware that the fuel cap issue is related to a recall, but if the display had not been working I wouldn’t have seen the alert because I wasn’t aware that alerts appear on that display and I realize now that I can miss an urgent alert. To me that’s a huge safety issue! I’ve seen hundreds of complaints online about this, and I know it’s caused by cracks in the solder. I would like for Honda to be accountable and let customers have this repaired at no charge.
The odometer displays keeps lagging and the display goes out. This is a common problem with this vehicle. It should be addressed because the vehicle isn’t running at is fullest potential.
The contact owns a 2018 Honda HR-V. The contact stated that while his daughter attempted to start the vehicle, the vehicle was able to start after several attempts. Several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked overnight, the headlights and an alarm would independently engage, causing the battery to fail. The contact stated that the electrical systems had engaged independently. Additionally, the contact stated that vehicle had stalled while idling. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed, but the cause of the failure could not be determined. The vehicle remained at the dealer, where it was later diagnosed that the Body Control Module(BCM) had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not yet been repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and a case was filed. The contact was referred to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 38,000.
On the driver's dashboard, the right side gauge of the dash blinks out and shows unreadable letters/characters. This makes it impossible to rear this gauge and see how much fuel is remaining in the car.
The instrument cluster, specifically the odometer, fuel gauge, etc. (Right side) Rarely lights up to show how much fuel is in the tank, oil life, or mileage, potentially leaving you stranded or running out of gas while driving. Dealership has confirmed and said it would be $1,500+ to replace the entire cluster.
The MPG gauge on the instrument cluster does not light up. This part of the instrument cluster also displays mileage, fuel levels and temperature. This is a safety risk due to not being able to determine fuel levels and mpg ranges at the minimum. This issue for me started 4 months ago on my 2018 Honda HRV with 80k miles on it. This issue has been reported to Honda for vehicles ranging from 2018-2023 models HRV, crv, pilots and fit. The issue has been determined to be that Honda manufacturers the instrument cluster by using lead free solder which over time, the solder cracks from exterior temperature rising and dropping. The damage is these cracks cause the instrument clusters sensors to not function properly and completely fail. Honda suggests buying a new instrument cluster however, the replacement instrument cluster is manufactured with the same lead free solder and this will only be an issue again down the road. Honda dealerships have not yet acknowledged that the lead free solder on the backside of instrument cluster is the problem. The instrument cluster is quoted at $1,300.00. I believe Honda should be investigating this and correcting it as this is a safety risk for a wide range of their vehicles.
Odometer has been glitching due to freezing temps. Mileage seems to still be tallying but yesterday in temp of 10 degrees F, meter was glitching badly. Seems to be fine when warmed up but even button on dash to see trips becomes difficult to push. Sometimes turning car on the odometer is blank and will turn off the car and back on again to have it pull back up. Gas gauge and light still function even with glitching. Have read that other makes are having this issue as well.
Just bought this car in a private party sale. As with other complaints posted on this site, the car has issues with its electrical system related to its Dashboard and specifically the right display showing the mileage, fuel gauge, outside temperature, etc. Intermittently (and possibly related to cold weather), the entire dashboard will either flicker with unintelligible information and/or go completely black where no info will show. This will happen upon start or after driving a short bit and last several minutes. Very concerning as you will not be able to view mileage and fuel levels. My guess is this has been happening for some time. There should be a recall to fix this as from looking at your complaints and internet research, this is affecting many, many vehicles.
I’m having an issue where the odometer/trip/fuel display is dark when I start the car and then it will flicker on and off with gibberish. Eventually it will display accurately.
The contact owns a 2018 Honda HR-V. The contact stated that the instrument cluster speedometer and gauges were inoperable during cold temperatures. On several occasions, the instrument cluster screen was flickering. The contact had to bang on the dashboard for it to turn the instrument panel on. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, but the vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 33,000.
The digital dash doesn’t come on sometimes and sometimes it flickers in Japanese and is all over the place. I have to smack the dash board out push the reset button to get it to come on.
The contact owns a 2018 Honda HR-V. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the instrument panel failed to operate properly. The contact stated that the fuel gauge display was unavailable. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer; however, the dealer was contacted, and the contact was informed that the instrument panel needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 59,000.
The component on the right of the dash regularly does not display anything which includes fuel level, odometer/mile range, temperature, and time among other information. This has been occurring for over a year. My two biggest issues are that I can't see how much gas I have left and that the odometer isn't always viewable. The gas tank is a constant issue because I worry about getting stranded somewhere because I didn't know. You have to be incredibly careful to catch the display on the occasion it does turn on and guess as to when you need to refuel because most of the time you can't see it on the dash. The odometer is the other issue. When getting my car serviced, I've had workers unable to read the odometer and this could be a huge issue with the DMV if they can't read my mileage. I won't be able to register my car if they need to inspect my car including for an emission test. My car will fail because the dashboard doesn't display correctly.
Car alarm keeps going off when left untouched, even when isolated in garage. After observance, the car will attempt to start itself when no one is in the car and when the car is off.
Instrument gauge cluster circuit holders are failing. As a result, the odometer screen, screen for oil and gas do not light up. This is dangerous as you are unable to know when you need to fill up or if your car has enough oil. It can result in running out of gas in an unsafe location or ceasing the engine.
Fuel gauge screen goes out completely and randomly shows up glitches. Serious safety concern because you're unable to determine the fuel you have left in your tank. Also, unable to determine your vehicle mileage and trip mileage. Unable to determine the engine oil life and the maintenance minder.
The odometer/gas gauge was shorting out, coming on sometimes and showing partial characters others. It would not come on and stay on as intended. Without the gas gauge it was near impossible to know when the gas had been depleted and I was unable to get the car inpescted without the odometer showing due to the mechanic needing to photograph the mileage for the inspection.
Display console does not come on. After driving for about an hour, it comes on. It’s been going on for over a year.
The contact owns a 2018 Honda CR-V. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the instrument cluster was randomly flickering off and on and sometimes became inoperable. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent. During the failure, the fuel gauge and engine temperature gauge could not be viewed by the driver. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 18,000.
The HR-V is four years old, and in the past month, the LCD display, which shows the driver the current fuel level, current miles per gallon, and, most importantly, the odometer, has intermittently stopped working and gone completely blank while driving (see photo attached). The display sometimes stays off for ten or more minutes before showing gibberish numbers that do not correspond to the proper odometer, temperature, and miler per gallon readings. I reported the incident to the local Honda dealership during my normal tune up, but they were not able to reproduce the issue. There are an abundance of online Honda forums where this same issue is reported. This is an obvious defect with 2018 Honda HR-Vs. This is a safety concern as this problem can lead to the odometer not properly recording the accurate miles driven and may not accurately be showing the driver how much fuel is left. There are no other warning lamps or other symptoms of the problem other than it happens most often when the temperature is below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
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Quick Summary
The 2018 Honda HR-V has 30 Electrical System complaints on file. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.