Apple Car Play - connection issues

Has anyone else had issues with Apple Car Play connecting properly to a device / staying connected?

I am currently using an iPhone 7, 256 gig model running iOS 11.2.6, integrating to a 2017 Honda Civic with Apple Car Play that came pre-installed. Issues are as follows:

• Sometimes (albeit rarely) the device plugs in, fires up, and works properly the first time.
• More frequently, the device plugs in, will attempt to load ("loading" shows on car screen) and then just fails. It will either go back to displaying "No device connected", or will simply timeout trying to load.
• Somewhere in frequency between the first two bullets, the device loading will occur properly, and start playing my music or a podcast normally for about 20-30 seconds - and it will then just cut out and again say "No device connected." Extremely frustrating.
• Also somewhere in frequency between the first two bullets, the device will attempt to load, will start playing audio through the phone (but not the car speakers) and will then cut out, go back to "No device connected."
• Somewhat less frequently, the device will load, start playing audio on the car speakers, continue to play fine - but the visual on the screen for Apple Car Play will cut out and it will go back to saying "No device connected."
• How this is resolved most of the time, is after several attempts at loading (unplugging the lightening connector, re-pluggging) - the device will finally stay connected and will operate properly.

A few questions I have, based on my limited research of this as an issue so far:

• Does this have anything to do with having a large media library / large storage capacity device? Someone somewhere else on the web suggested that. Again, I have a 256 gb phone and currently have about 100 gb of that full with music, photos, video, etc. Right now, my phone's storage settings are showing 28.12 gb devoted to music. Does the integration with Apple Car Play somehow try to load / index all of this - is that part of the problem? Should I try to dramatically reduce the size of my music library / capacity of what is stored currently on the iPhone in an attempt to see if that helps? That would be really frustrating because I got a phone with a large storage capacity for a reason, but...I could try it.
• I have verified through use of several different lightening connectors in use w/ the car that the cord is not the problem. Apple Car Play does the exact same thing with different cords.
• Bluetooth as an alternative...I hate the idea of giving up hands free texting, maps on the larger screen, better call integration, etc. if I turn Apple Car Play off - but when I did this temporarily a few weeks ago, I found that Bluetooth as well seems to have random, wonky connection problems in tandem with my phone - though on the whole it is a tad more reliable than Apple Car Play. Examples of this include several - to up like to 10 - seconds delay when trying to advance a song with the steering wheel controls - music via ACP seems to do this as well. The songs will advance in real time if I hold up my phone and move them along in the Music app - but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it?

Any advice would be welcome. I was really excited to get a car with ACP (my first new car in more than a dozen years...) to integrate with my iPhone and large music library. So this is pretty disappointing. Are there any factory updates that I should look at having the Honda dealer to do the interface in the vehicle itself?

Thanks.