My wife and I were driving on christmas eve (December 24, 2012) to a destination about 65 miles away. I had the driver's seat heater on the high position, as it is quite cold in this part of the country. Along the way, I noticed that my right buttocks was getting extremely hot, almost to the point of burning, before I turned off the seat heater. It was dark when we reached our destination, and it wasn't until two days later when we returned home, that I saw a scorched hole about 1.5 inches long and 0.5 inches wide in the leather driver's seat. Reaching my finger down into the hole revealed a lot of crumbling black ashes. Although we didn't experience an actual fire, it's quite apparent that there is a fire safety problem with the 2004 Honda Pilot driver's heated seat. If we had left the car running and unattended with no one sitting on the seat (allowing oxygen into the seat), I suspect the seat would have eventually erupted in flames. It was very, very hot.

- Fargo, ND, USA

The driver's heated seat got so hot it melted the foam backing causing a horrible smell. The heated seat was turned off or it is possible it would have caught on fire. The seat heated still works but gets much too hot.

- Thornton, CO, USA

The front driver seat abruptly flipped upward and startled the driver with momentary disoriented and loss of vehicle control. The dealer denied ever witnessing this problem on a Honda Pilot, quoted $1500 to replace the seat, and commented I was a big guy putting a lot of stress on the seat. I am 6'3" tall and 200 pounds. It is clear the Honda dealership at Decatur, Alabama does not feel this is a safety issue and went on to boast Honda is the only company that replaces defective seat belts. My wife took the vehicle to the same dealer complaining about the front and rear passenger seat belt randomly locking when pulling the safety belt out for engagement and locking and tightening randomly while wearing the seat belt with the vehicle in motion. The dealer made no comment to this statement. A quick search on the internet revealed other Honda Pilot owners have reported the bracket holding the front left corner of the driver seat was broken near the rivets that hold the bottom of the seat. This is the same defect we have experienced with our front driver seat where the front left bracket holding the seat to the adjustment rail is completely torn the full length of the seat bottom mounting bracket. We feel this is a safety hazard and the dealer clearly does not support that idea. My wife and I have never experienced a seat breaking in such a manner in any vehicle we have owned.

- Decatur, AL, USA

The driver left seat support metal broke off leaving the seat unattached to the frame. The seat moves forward and back. This is a design and manufacturer defect. Honda will not replace the seat at no cost and will not assign a recall. This is a serious safety issue and Honda should take full responsibility for replacement before an accident causes unnecessary injury to the driver.

- Brentwood, CA, USA

The drivers seat over heats to the point of being uncomfortable on my right leg. It is now inoperable. The dealer said it was not covered under warranty or recall. There seems to me a number of similar complains on edmunds threaders discussion board. The bottom point is they will not act on this issue unless they are required to do so by your organization.

- Dublin, OH, USA

The contact owns a 2004 Honda Pilot. The contact stated the inner cushion underneath the drivers seat over heated and was burning. The contact was not injured. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated there were no recalls and she would have to pay to have the vehicle repaired. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 27,000 and the current mileage was 80,000.

- Keeseville, NY, USA

Front seat came loose from car on drivers left side of seat. I can partially lift it out of place!

- Annandale , VA, USA

The driver's seat frame sheared off on the front bar, left side. There was no outside influential causal effect for this to happen, it just broke. The seat rocks back and forth while driving, a huge safety concern. Looking at certain websites (read the comments at the bottom of the page), this seems to problematic among 2003 - 2006 Honda Pilot. When is Honda going to do a recall? other similar NHTSA complaints: ODI id number : 10348948 ODI id number : 10372456 ODI id number : 10336280 ODI id number : 10442043

- Oxford, CT, USA

2004 Honda Pilot driver's side seat heater gets extremely hot and will burn skin. Major safety issue.

- Haverford, PA, USA

The right side of the drivers seat bottom seat heater over-heats. Dealer wants $900-1000 to fix. This is a much reported failure item for 2004-2005 Pilot.

- Normandy Park, WA, USA

Overheating of drivers side seat heating elements, followed by failure of units.

- Fairfax, VA, USA

2004 Honda Pilot ex-res. Driver side heated seat gets hot enough to burn or catch fire if set to high.

- Littleton, CO, USA

We own a 2004 Honda Pilot ex. We've noticed the drivers side seat warmer has been getting extremely warm to the point where it was burning us through our pants which has been happening since early November 2010. On December 26, 2010, we started the car, turned on the seat warmer and left the car for 10 minutes to go back into the house. When we came back outside and opened the car door, we smelled smoke and noticed it was coming from the drivers side seat. It also left a brown spot. Had we not come to the car at that time, we believe it would've started a fire had it sat there for another few minutes. We are not currently using the seat warmer until we bring it in to have it checked.

- Minneapolis, MN, USA

2004 Honda Pilot drivers seat catches fire. Seat heater having issues.

- Sammamish, WA, USA

2004 Honda Pilot; drivers side seat heater catches on fire; fuse never blown.

- Bluefield, WV, USA

The driver's side seat cushion heater got extremely hot, burned right thigh. Heater shut off at switch and now doesn't work.

- Rockford, MN, USA

The electric seat heater on the driver's seat develops a very hot spot on the seat. It appears either the temperature control will not automatically turn off or it will not regulate the seat heater. The seat heater on/off switch must be turned off manually before a skin burn or fire within the seat occurs.

- North Canton, OH, USA

The heated seat in my 2004 Honda Pilot became uncomfortably hot whenever I used it for about one week. Eventually it came to a point where the seat became so hot that I could not use the heated seat anymore. At this point the seat now refuses to turn on, most likely because of a blown fuse from the problem. My biggest concern is that the seat felt like it could catch on fire.

- Lewisburg, PA, USA

Seat heater in the driver's seat of my 2004 Honda Pilot gets very hot and I can smell something burning when turned on.

- Shawnee, KS, USA