2021 Honda Accord
Problems, recalls and owner-reported issues
Electrical system is the leading concern among 234 owner complaints filed for this model year. This is the 23rd highest complaint count among 25 Accord model years with reports.
Of the 2021 reports, 14 involved a crash and 1 involved a fire. 8 people were injured.
What owners report most often
Recalls and investigations
Air bags, sensor, occupant classification, front passengerMay 21, 2026
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2018-2021, 2023 Acura TLX, 2019-2024 RDX, 2017-2020, 2022-2026 MDX, 2017-2021, 2023, 2025 Honda Ridgeline, 2017-2022 Pilot, 2019-2021 Passport, 2018-2026 Odyssey, 2019-2022 Insight, 2019-2021 HR-V, 2018-2020 Fit, 2020-2022 CR-V Hybrid, 2017-2022 CR-V, 2017-2018, 2021 Civic Type R, 2017-2021 Civic hatchback, 2016-2020 Civic coupe, 2016-2022 Civic, 2017-2022 Accord Hybrid, and 2016-2022 Accord vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, which can cause the air bags to deploy unintentionally during a crash.
Air bags that deploy unintentionally during a crash increase the risk of injury.
Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 7, 2026. Owners may contact Honda's customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are BOL, WO9, OOA, WOM, XOH, NOC, POD, BOE, UOF, POB, EOG, AOI, QO8, TOJ, DO7, and SOK. This recall expands previous NHTSA recall number 24V064. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning May 29, 2026.
Campaign 26V332000 on NHTSA.gov
Air bags, sensor, occupant classification, front passengerFeb 1, 2024
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Pilot, Accord, Civic sedan, HR-V, Odyssey, 2020 Civic coupe, Fit, 2021-2022 Civic hatchback, 2021 Civic Type R, Insight, 2020-2021 CR-V, CR-V Hybrid, Passport, Ridgeline, Accord Hybrid, 2020 Acura MDX, 2022 Acura MDX, 2020-2022 Acura RDX, and 2020-2021 Acura TLX vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, failing to suppress the air bag as intended.
An air bag that deploys unintentionally during a crash can increase the risk of injury.
Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 28, 2024. This is a phased recall. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for these recalls are XHP and VHQ.
Campaign 24V064000 on NHTSA.gov
Fuel system, gasoline, delivery, fuel pumpDec 18, 2023
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2013-2023 Honda Accord, Civic Coupe, Civic Sedan, Civic Hatchback, Civic Type R, CR-V, HR-V, Ridgeline, Odyssey, Acura ILX, MDX, MDX Hybrid, RDX, RLX, TLX, 2019-2022 Honda Insight, Passport, 2020 Honda CR-V Hybrid, 2018-2019 Honda Clarity PHEV, Fit, and 2015-2020 Honda Accord Hybrid, Pilot, Acura NSX vehicles. The fuel pump inside the fuel tank may fail.
Fuel pump failure can cause an engine stall while driving, increasing the risk of a crash.
Dealers will replace the fuel pump module, free of charge. Owner letters were mailed September 6, 2024. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are KGC and KGD. This recall is an expansion of NHTSA recall numbers 21V-215 and 20V-314.
Campaign 23V858000 on NHTSA.gov
Seat belts, rear/other, retractorNov 18, 2021
Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2021 Accord Sedan, Accord Hybrid, CR-V, Ridgeline, 2022 Insight and CR-V Hybrid vehicles. The automatic locking retractor on the second-row center seat belt assembly may deactivate improperly, which can result in an unsecured child restraint system. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."
An unsecured child restraint system can increase the risk of injury during a crash.
Dealers will replace the second-row center seat belt assembly, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 14, 2022. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138.
Campaign 21V900000 on NHTSA.gov
Representative owner complaints: forward collision avoidance
61 reports, newest first. Show all
Forward collision avoidance, May 30, 2024
My honda Accord’s automatic braking system suddenly engaged this morning for no reason. The driver of the car following me had to slam on his breaks to avoid rear-ending me. If the other driver had not stopped, we would both have been injured. Honda’s emergency braking system is dangerous. There should be a way to disable it permanently.
Seat belts, Forward collision avoidance, May 18, 2024
Rear seat belt will not click and lock in. With the forward collision warning there was times I was driving on the freeway where there is no vehicle in front of me and Hard brake on me and shows forward collision warning. This happened like 3 or 4 times
Forward collision avoidance, Apr 22, 2024
I was driving 35mph and there was nothing in front of me when my car stopped. It would not move forward or accelerate despite pushing on the gas pedal. There was no forward motion or propelled motion. It took several seconds for my car to go again. The car was towed and serviced at the dealership. They said the front sensors had misfired. If a car would have been behind me or if I had been on the highway, this would have been a serious accident. The engine light never came on. A series of 5 warning lights related to the assisted driving came on but went away.
Forward collision avoidance, Apr 18, 2024
I was driving 40 mph and slowed down gradually pressing my brake due to a car making a right turn. As I'm slowing down to probably 15mph, the brakes wording shows on the odometer display. i had plenty of room between the turning right car but suddenly the car automatically stops while I'm in the lane. I could of got hit if there was a car behind me. This is the 1st time it has happen. I've seen the brake wording show up a few times while driving but this is the 1st time the car stopped on it's own. Currently researching on how to turn off the brake assist for the car. (This is a safety issue for other Accord owners)(purchased car DEC 2023)
Forward collision avoidance, Apr 18, 2024
I was driving down the highway at approximately 70 mph and a vehicle ahead, probably 8-10 car lengths lightly applied their brakes slowing down to my estimate of 60 mph. The forward collision activated and slammed my brakes causing a pickup behind me to slam on their brakes and swerve onto the shoulder to avoid a collision. This is not the first time this has happened, but the previous time the braking wasn't as severe.
Forward collision avoidance, Apr 17, 2024, crash
I was traveling on interstate 10 going around 50mph with a safe distance from the traffic in front of me. The car in front of me did break but then sped off immediately. My car's automatic emergency breaking system engaged very aggressively and unnecessarily (a front end impact was not imminent if my car had not braked). I tried to accelerate but I had no control over it. The sudden breaking caused my car to slow so rapidly that the freightliner behind me did not have time to react, causing him to rear end my car. The car was totaled as a result. I have front and rear dash camera footage showing all of this. ***I marked a document as the police report to proceed but I do not have a copy of the police report. This is not provided unless ordered***
Lane departure, Forward collision avoidance, Mar 22, 2024
--Automatic braking: When I first purchased car in 2021, the automatic emergency braking engaged abruptly 3 times within the first 3000 miles of driving the car. I was unable to get a resolution through dealer, local Honda service centers or Honda corp. I turn off the feature each time I start my car, but I'm told by Honda service that there is no way to disable feature to prevent safety hazard. --Lane Keeping Assistance: Since purchasing car in 2021, my lane keeping assistance does not work properly and pretty often will actually try to pull the car out of lane both on local roads and more often on the interstate. I have the feature disabled for safety.
Forward collision avoidance, Mar 8, 2024
While driving on an open road with no cars around, the emergency braking suddenly engaged causing the car to come to an almost complete stop by itself.
Forward collision avoidance, Dec 28, 2023
At speed limit cruising down I66. I was all alone. No birds in area at all. Open road. I was in middle lanes. Car attempted to come to a complete stop by itself. “Phantom Braking”? All my friends with Honda’s and Acura’s mentioned similar issues. If anyone was behind me, I could have caused a pile up or even worse. It’s happened a few times. Took to Capitol Heights Honda and Landmark Honda. They ran diagnostics. Explained to me there were no error codes. I explained to them, if system has a fault, it thinks it’s operating properly. So, no errors would appear! I have experience and education in computer programming (College), mechanical and electronic (US Army) and over 30 electromechanical troubleshooting, repair and maintenance and other IT experience. SME After they haven’t been able to do anything about it, I turn off all safely systems. I drive a lot. So, I’m also a very good driver. Have almost 65k miles on my vehicle. Date of incident below was when I forgot to turn off sensor. But it happened a few times before and I brought to Honda after first two times. I even had to rent a car at my expense.
Forward collision avoidance, Nov 25, 2023
My family and I were driving home to LA from NM. I had been using the cruise and steer assist earlier in the drive but had it off after going through a metro area interstate. There was no vehicles within the cars front camera system when while driving 75 mph( that was the sped limit in TX), the cars braking system engaged with a hard break, no “brake” light flash of rapid break pumps as it would do if something was within the camera range. I was able to get in slow lane and within 30 secs it did it again. I was able to drive another hour with no issue but stayed under 65mph. We are 7 hours away from home and will be getting it to the dealership. This could have caused a major wreck.
Forward collision avoidance, Oct 17, 2023, crash
A vehicle in front of me made a quick slow down. The automatic braking engaged, the driver behind me did not react in time and struck the back of my car. Resulting in totaling of the vehicle. The automatic braking would not stop engaging, if it would have dis-engaged I could of pulled forward a few feet and the driver behind me would of missed me.
Forward collision avoidance, Jun 18, 2023
Honda accord breaks unexpectedly for no reason. It’s an automatic break or slow down without us pressing the break. The car has an automatic emergency break system and it seems to break when nothing is I front of us. Happens many times and dealer can’t figure out what is wrong. They tell us car is running well.
Electrical system, Service brakes, Forward collision avoidance, Jun 13, 2023
I was driving home in the rain and felt the car automatically braking when there was no car or object in front of me. The car was also slow to accelerate because the brakes were automatically applied. 5 miles later numerous warnings appeared on the dash and the following error messages came through my Hondalink app: Electric Parking Brake Problem, CMBS Problem, Adaptive Cruise Control Problem, and RDM Problem. Several times during this drive home the brakes automatically applied without any intervention from me or roadway object. I almost got rear-ended once when a car behind me had to slam on its brake when my car automatically braked without me doing anything. This is a very dangerous condition that should be looked further into as multiple drivers have reported brakes being applied without driver intervention or an apparent road hazard. How many complaints will it take before a recall is issued so other Honda drivers do not need to be put at risk?
Forward collision avoidance, Jun 9, 2023
I was driving on the freeway going 65mph when the automatic safety brake system slowed my car down abruptly for no reason at all. Luckily there wasn’t any other vehicles anywhere near me or it would have caused an accident. This wasn’t the only time the safety system activated without reason either. It also happened two other times in similar situations.
Forward collision avoidance, May 18, 2023
The collision mitigation brake system continues to come off, and today it made my car spin, and I almost crash into the media.
Vehicle speed control, Forward collision avoidance, May 5, 2023
The contact owns a 2021 Honda Accord. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 35 MPH, the vehicle inadvertently decelerated. The contact veered off the roadway. The contact then stated that she carefully drove the vehicle to her residence. Additionally, the contact added that on a separate occasion while the accelerator pedal was depressed, the vehicle inadvertently jerked without the brake pedal depressed. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 17,000.
Forward collision avoidance, Apr 6, 2023, crash
1.Driving on a straight road at about 45-50 MPH sudden abrupt braking for no reason . 2. Good thing I was wearing a seat belt , it was a very forceful brake action that pushed me forcefully forward, I was struck from behind by another vehicle. Visial minor damage to the rear bumper cover. 3. No it happened today 4-5-23 I plan on calling the dealer tomorrow. 4. The BRAKE message appeared at the exact time of the incident.
Service brakes, Forward collision avoidance, Mar 19, 2023
The electrical emergency brake locked up without warning as I was coming off the highway by the way of off ramp. Almost put the car in the guard rails! Brake has locked up twice now
Electrical system, Forward collision avoidance, Feb 17, 2023
I was driving my 21 Honda Accord 1.5T on the highway and all of a sudden vehicle lost the power and Honda sensing / Emission warning lights came on. It almost cause a major accident and I was lucky enough to exit the freeway without incident. I drove to the Honda dealer and they found out one of the wire harnesses was chewed by a rodent which causes the whole issue. I did some research and found out that Honda was using less expensive Soybean base wire harnesses (instead of Petroleum base wire harnesses) to save the planet earth. This Soybean wires are easy target for rodents. This less expensive Soybean wire harness cost about $3000-3500 to replace and it's NOT fair to the consumer. Honda must re-call this Soybean wire harness before causing some major accident, especially on the freeway ( imaging your car losing power while driving 65-70 mph)
Forward collision avoidance, Feb 10, 2023
Automatic emergency breaking system has benn activated in about 6 different ocassions while driving in the highway for no reason. No vehicles or obstacles in front of the car but car suddenly applied brakes stopping the car very suddenly while driving 70-75 miles per hour.
Forward collision avoidance, Feb 7, 2023
in the last 10 days, we there's been 4 incidents where the vehicle suddenly brakes when travelling on high speeds on the freeway out of nowhere. We were almost involved in a serious car accident yesterday where a vehicle behind us narrowly got out of the way. Took vehicle to honda dealership service and they claim they cant find any issues with braking system or sensors and they are not aware of any braking issues with this model. When i told them that i found online that theres an investigation opened last year about this issue in other accords, they had no idea what i was talking about and asked them to google it and they refuse. They refuse to fix the issue and suggest to just keep driving the vehicle since theres nothing for them to fix.
Forward collision avoidance, Feb 1, 2023
This car has randomly slammed on the breaks too many times to count and has been reported far too many times. Today while in the left lane on 95 southbound this car randomly slammed on the breaks so violently the speed was reduced 20 mph with seconds. This is incredibly dangerous, HOW LONG WILL YOU ALL THIS
Forward collision avoidance, Sep 6, 2022
Vehicle tends to turn on brake warning light when there is nothing in the way. Driving with no obstacle in the way and the brake warning sign will display on dashboard. I’ve driven it on the highway with no cars and it will signal me to brake for no reason. I’m afraid the brakes might apply which could cause a serious accident.
Forward collision avoidance, Sep 4, 2022
Vehicle flashed "brake" on the dashboard and automatically engaged brakes despite nothing being ahead in the road. This occurred on a clear, sunny day around late morning on the interstate. Similar issues have occurred previously where the car flashed the "brake" warning light despite nothing being immediately ahead in the road. With this other incident the brakes were not engaged. This time the brakes engaged, then released, and the car continued. Later on that same trip, the "brake" warning would again flash despite no objects being immediately ahead in the road. The vehicle arbitrarily braking without warning or reason is extremely dangerous as it may cause vehicles behind including much larger trucks to slam into the car. The Honda dealer and Honda customer service were both contacted when the car on a previous occasion flashed "brake" despite no obstructions but neither has returned my messages.
Forward collision avoidance, Aug 15, 2022
My automatic emergency breaking kicked in today when there were no cars in front of me. My car began beeping loudly and flashing the word “BRAKE” and the car abruptly stopped in the middle of a very busy road. My daughter and I could’ve been very hurt but were lucky there was enough room behind us that we didn’t get rear ended. Nobody has checked this out yet because it just happened, but I am willing and open to having it looked at. I had a brief warning while the car flashed “BRAKE” and beeped, but there were no cars in front of us, and nothing I could do to make the car not slam on the brakes by itself.