10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 2,489 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
« Read the previous 20 complaints
The auto stop and start has almost caused multiple accidents. When I remove my foot from the break the vehicle will not always start. Sometimes it dies and I must restart it and sometimes the vehicle rolls backwards before it starts.
- West Linn, OR, USA
On multiple occasions the idle stop feature will engage and upon re-engage it will stall my vehicle. When I place the vehicle in park, press the brake and press the ignition start, nothing happens. Upon multiple attempts to restart the car it will either do nothing or making a chug without restarting. Continuing my attempts to restart the vehicle it will finally restart. During these times I will be stalled at a stop sign or traffic light with impatient drivers going around me. All the dashboard lights come on. I have taken it to the dealership, they stated they couldn-€™t duplicate the problem. This is unsafe for motorists or pedestrians. If this happens while I'm in an intersection or other location with moving traffic it could be very unsafe for myself, other motorists and/or pedestrians.
- Hampstead , MD, USA
On multiple occasions the idle stop feature will engage and upon re-engage it will stall my vehicle. When I place the vehicle in park, press the brake and press the ignition start, nothing happens. Upon multiple attempts to restart the car it will either do nothing or making a chug without restarting. Continuing my attempts to restart the vehicle it will finally restart. During these times I will be stalled at a stop sign or traffic light with impatient drivers going around me which I believe is unsafe for motorists or pedestrians. If this happens while I'm in an intersection or other location with moving traffic it could be very unsafe for myself, other motorists and/or pedestrians.
- Van, TX, USA
auto start/stop failure - Vehicle stops, engine shuts off as usual. however, when brake is released the engine does not start back up. It then needs to be put in park and takes several takes to start again.
- Lithia, FL, USA
I have had multiple (5 times) over the past month where when stopped at a stop light or other stopping point my Pilot failed to re-start on it's own. In all 5 instances I had to put the car in park and restart the vehicle. It is August (warm weather) in Chicago and there were no other weather/local environmental issues that should have caused this issue. There were no warning messages prior to the automatic re-start failure. I have not yet reported this issue to Honda but plan to do so.
- Oak Park, IL, USA
On 8 August 2022, 1220 pm Chester, Virginia. I was driving my SUV and I heard a loud boom, I thought it was an back fire from another car. When, arrived home, checked my SUV for any possible damages. I noticed there was a slight budge on the sunroof. I opened the sliding portions of the sunroof and I noticed the entire glass had shattered with a large hole in the middle of the sunroof. I inspected the area and didn-€™t notice anything that could have shattered the glass. In my opinion, with increasing temperatures, the sunroof glass shattered because extremely hot weather. The outside temperature was 97 Degrees Fahrenheit which the inside temperature was much higher.
- Chester , VA, USA
When vehicle comes to a stop, vehicle start/stop feature engages, then vehicle stalls. Vehicle then indicates that it should be shifter into park before it can be re-started. This has happened numerous times. Vehicle was brought into dealer, they are aware an investigation is underway with Honda but had no known solution besides updating the main computer program. They also recommended replacing the batter which tested ok. The fact that the vehicle stalls when you come to a stop is a very big safety concern.
- Grafton, MA, USA
The engine had failed to restart multiple times on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light and in the middle of an intersection with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged. I am very concerned for the safety of myself and occupants because the inability of the vehicle to restart and move forward to clear through the intersection creates a very high risk for a potential collision that could be life threatening. The vehicle has not been inspected by the dealer, manufacturer or any appropriate organization. There have been no warning signs alerting me to a potential problem. I started to experience the problems commencing last month (May 2022).
- Blandford, MA, USA
I was driving on highway in a stop and go traffic with "auto idle" on. The engine was completely shut down when at a complete stop and the vehicle was stalled in the middle of a highway with all kinds dash flashes. I was unable to press the brake and "start" button to restart car or put car in neutral to move the car. Had local Honda dealer's tech on line for about 10 minutes to help restart the car with no success. Contacted insurance company requested a road service. About 55 minutes later the tow truck come and the tow truck drive successfully start the car. Feel unsafe to drive the car and towed the car to local Honda dealer and they could not find any error code in system and failed to repeat the situation.
- Norman, OK, USA
My car has been put in PARKING on its own and won't allow me to put it back in DRIVE or REVERSE. I can't turn it off when this happens (I pressed the START/STOP PUSH button, and nothing happens) and the steering WHEEL locked up and the brakes too. This has happened to me on two occasions: one time when I stopped in a red light. When the light changed to GREEN and I released the brake to move, the car went into PARKING and locked up itself, NOTE: when I stopped in the red light the car went into AUTO idle engine mode (April 19 2022). My safety was put in risk because it happened in a busy road. On another occasion it happened when I was entered the garage slowly and I pressed the brake to completely stop, the car went into AUTO idle engine mode and then changed its own to PARKING (April 7). The car just like "turned off" although everything seems ON without warning messages. I couldn't start it until a few minutes later. After this event happened the "CRUISE CONTROL" and "LANE KEEPING Assist" features stopped working. I went to a place, and they checked the battery and the battery is not the issue.
- Richmond Hill, GA, USA
The Auto-Idle feature will unexpectedly over-engage while coming to a stop and the entire vehicle will shut off. I am unable to shift, steer, etc. It will also completely shut the engine down when at a complete stop. To be clear, this is not the normal auto-idle. When the full engine disengage happens, the entire vehicle loses power and the dash flashes. The vehicle states, "put into P". Once in "P" for park, the vehicle still will not restart. It is as if the vehicle has to "reset" itself. It has taken upwards of 4 minutes for the vehicle to restart. This has happened on a highway during construction traffic, approaching a stop sign, slowing at a red light on multiple occasions. I have almost been rear-ended as a result on mutiple occasions. I am not even able to put the vehicle in Neutral to move it to a safe spot. Honda informed me that I "just need to disengage this feature each and every time I start the vehicle". That is not the solution. This feature should be permanently disabled by Honda. Immediately.
- San Antonio, TX, USA
Transmission temperature too hot Seems like every 8k miles I have this pop up. Only been serviced at Honda.
- Bronx, NY, USA
The car shut off when trying to recover from idle stop mode. All lights turned off. The car becomes invisible when dark.
- Concord, CA, USA
The navigation screen of the vehicle blacks out intermittently and without warning when I turn on the vehicle. I have called the nearest dealer at least 3 times over the past 3 months and they keep telling me that Honda is supposedly working on the issue- but nothing so far. Sometimes the problem clears when I turn off the engine and restart but I never know when it is going to work or not. Contacted Honda customer service- no satisfaction.
- Gilford, NH, USA
We've had our Pilot for 8 or 9 months and we've already had to have the home link button replaced, the alignment done twice and now the master cylinder is failing. We are taking it in today to have the master cylinder replaced. It was not properly pressurizing the brake lines and was causing a wobbling in the brakes at higher speeds. The dealership has been a real pain to work with and did not diagnose the issue until months later when it happened on a ridgeline. Last Honda I'll ever buy.
- Eagle Mountain, UT, USA
On Saturday I was driving my 10 month old 2018 Honda Pilot with approx. 7,000 miles on it to airport to pick up my daughter. My husband and 3 young kids were merging onto airport property on a extremely busy afternoon, my vehicle stalled. It was like a complete electrical failure. I was left stranded at 7pm, in dark, with 3 scared children, unable to alert other hostile drivers around me by turning on flashers. After not being about to push vehicle out way of heavy traffic, I was forced to call my insurance company for assistance which proved to be a serious challenge due to the horns and derogatory language of other drivers and as a result my children having an emotional breakdown in the back seat. My husband was forced to leave the kids and I in this very dangerous situation in order to get to our 14 yr old daughter (traveling alone) off her flight. Once police arrived, they parked unit behind me in order to protect us from being hit. The police searched manual and internet and were unable to get vehicle into emergency neutral. The vehicle had to be drug onto tow truck and towed to dealership. 2 days later, Honda informed me it was a "dead battery." "battery?" I have been driving for over 20 year and have never been left on highway, in motion due to a battery. After some reading of my own, I learned about a fuel saving feature on my car called "auto idle-stop". with this feature my engine shuts off when brake compressed in order to save on fuel. With a dead battery, the battery was unable to restart vehicle. So basically this fuel saving feature turns out to be a serious safety problem because instead of being stranded in a parking lot, I was stranded in the middle of a highway. After further reading about this feature, I learned that my vehicle should have automatically enabled this auto-idle if battery charge was low, which did not happen.
- Paulina, LA, USA
Side door glass spontaneously exploding. We were in motion 65 mph on the highway. No other cars around us or around any houses. Window went boom and just exploded.
- Preston, ID, USA
Sudden acceleration while pulling into a parking space in covered parking garage. Car engine revved while pulling into space. Brakes applied leaving skid marks on concrete. Car was damaged be hitting concrete retaining wall.
- Houston, TX, USA
In May 2018 I purchased a new 2018 Honda Pilot. Unfortunately during this first winter I have found out that this vehicle does not have a functioning heater. As soon as the weather turned cold I noticed that this new Honda Pilot did not have sufficient heat. While driving at highway speeds the heater functions ok but during city driving, or especially at idle, the temperature falls well below any acceptable minimum requirements. Below is a chart showing a comparison between a functioning heater in a 2014 CRV versus this new 2018 Honda Pilot. Please note the differences in outside air temperatures: The CRV measurements were taken at an outside air temp of -8 while the Pilot data was recorded with an outside air temp of + 8. the vent temperature varies considerably based on the engine RPM. While accelerating the temperature is warm / hot but while driving in traffic or stopped the temperature can drop 80 degrees or more in 1-2 minutes. Based on this data, I made two separate appointments to have the Pilot serviced under warranty at my local Honda dealer. The weather on the 2nd visit was cold (-17 degrees F). They 'verified the complaint' and found that the vent temperature from a fully warmed up engine was 28 degrees (yes, below freezing!). they said they have another Pilot in their shop that does the same thing therefore there is nothing wrong with mine and considered mine as functioning 'normal'. they did not do any diagnostic work and refused to do any work, even simple work such as trying to flush the heater core or remove any air from the system. They stated that Honda put in an undersized heater core in the Pilot and therefore they were not going to waste their time trying to fix. Since I live in Chicago there are 5 months of cold weather so I do not consider a lack of heat a minor inconvenience nor an acceptable to live with.
- Hoffman Estates, IL, USA
- San Antonio, TX, USA