10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
4 / 2
Average Mileage:
107,815 miles

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« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #55

Jun 042015

Pilot

  • 73,200 miles
This is an addendum to complaint #10734361 the incident date was not correct. It was 2015 not 2014. And since the original complaint, we took the vehicle to auto parts store & they came up with 2 error codes. 25-1 yaw sensor malfunction & 61-1 battery voltage malfunction. These error codes seem to be a common thread with a lot of the complaints filed. Also, we have had to replace our alternator & battery since the recall service. Coincidence?

- Macon, GA, USA

problem #54

Jun 042014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 73,500 miles
1st incident-I was traveling at a slow rate of speed (approx. 25-30 mph). Heard a growling sound & car suddenly braked on its own. I also felt as if I had lost steering ability. The vsa light flashed on then off during the incident. 2nd incident- same as above only a week later. 3rd incident- about 2 weeks later. My wife was driving the car. Had slowed down to enter the ramp to get on the highway. Again the car made a grinding sound, the vsa light came on momentarily while the car applied the brakes on its own. All of these incidences occurred after the car was serviced for the vsa recall(13-026) on May 6, 2015. Previous to this service, we had never had any issues with the vsa. We believe that by having this recall performed, has caused another malfunctioned as a result. I have read some much more frightening incidences than ours on your site. So we are now driving our car with the vsa off! please investigate before someone seriously gets hurt. Updated 11/27/2017

- Macon, GA, USA

problem #53

Apr 282015

Pilot

  • 126,000 miles
The contact owns a 2005 Honda Pilot. While driving approximately 60 mph, the brakes engaged independently. As a result, the vehicle swerved from left to right and the vehicle stability assist warning light illuminated. The vehicle was serviced under NHTSA campaign number: 13V092000 (service brakes, hydraulic, traction control system); however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the yaw rate sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 126,000.

- Arlington, WA, USA

problem #52

Mar 052015

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 220,000 miles
Sitting in a parking lot and the vsa light came on. Looked it up and saw the recall on the vsa so intended to get it checked out. A couple days later I'm tooling along at freeway speed and for a brief second it felt like someone slammed on the brakes and released, and the vsa light came on. Took it to the dealership and the codes they found were for some sort of a power drop and blamed it on a possible power outage or drop at some point. Maybe alternator, battery or something, but they didn't find anything wrong with any of those, but it cost me $125 to be told they don't know. The vsa recall was completed in 2012 for the wiring harness. Today (a week later) I'm going about 25 on a surface street and the exact same thing happened, so I took it to the dealership without turning off the engine and possibly clearing any codes. What they came back with was a faulty yaw sensor code, but they want to keep it for a couple days to do further research. I'm told it is connected to the main computer and if it is the yaw sensor then the main computer has to be replaced, at a cost of $1650 (they will credit toward the repair the $125 I paid last week for the non-answer). In reading online, I'm not the only person who has had this issue. Also reading online a quick review seems to lead me to believe that the sensor can be replaced by itself, separate from the main computer, at a much lower cost.

- Fontana, CA, USA

problem #51

Feb 032015

Pilot

  • 162,680 miles
My daughter was driving our family's 2005 Honda Pilot. She applied the brake lightly which resulted in excessive breaking in the left front wheel and then appearance of the vsa light. I brought the vehicle to the Honda dealer who first indicated there was no recall and then indicated there was a vsa wire harness recall (NHTSA 13V-092) but that it did apply the vsa light going on and therefore had nothing to do with the recall. A vsa light diagnostics which I independently paid for indicated a yaw rate failure code (25-01). This light vsa light has continued to intermittently go on and off with an intermittent contemporaneous relationship to braking. On 2/25/15 my daughter was driving the vehicle on the highway (no vsa light on), applied the brakes lightly and the car braked severly even once her foot was off the brake and pulled the car in the same front right direction as before forcing her to swerve along side a passing truck. The vsa light went on after the event occurred. Calling the Honda dealer today, the service manager indicated that Honda does not have a recall on this matter once the part for the 13V-092 recall was replaced. In reviewing safer car.gov NHTSA campaign id number DP12002 it describes well what has occurred twice and which has not been corrected by the recall service performed. I have also contacted Honda usa. I believe Honda has inadequately evaluated the relationship of similarly reported events regarding unexpected car brake assist with mild application of the brake since the vsa wire harness recall repair did not resolve the unexpected and inappropriate vsa/ESC/ba system logic response. It is not clear why Honda is not addressing my matter under this recall (NHTSA 13V-092) and the referenced NHTSA DP12002, and further investigating under a known safety recall.

- Altavista, VA, USA

problem #50

Nov 182014

Pilot

  • 108,000 miles
This is an addendum to my November 21, 2014 report regarding the vehicle stability system on my 2005 Honda Pilot engaging the brakes on its own: On one of the occasions that the stability system engaged the brakes on its own, the car swerved to the left into the adjacent lane.

- Brookline, MA, USA

problem #49

Apr 222008

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 52,016 miles
Vehicle stalled and will not accelerate, vtm, vsa and engine lights on. Problem started in 2008 before Honda issued a recall. Problem ongoing as of present. Seems like temporary fixes each time, Honda can't seem to find a permanent fix. Keeps getting the run around. Very frustrating.

- Snellville, GA, USA

problem #48

Oct 152014

Pilot

  • 112,000 miles
I heard a loud thumping or grinding sound from the front of the car and the brakes engaged on their own. At the same time the vehicle stability warning light came on (yellow triangle). Over next three weeks this happened three times, seemingly randomly. On one occasion the "yaw sensor" code was triggered. The vsa recall in 2013 was performed by the dealer in 2013.

- Brookline, MA, USA

problem #47

Oct 172014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 108,000 miles
My 2005 Pilot model has 108,000 miles. The vsa light started to come on while I was driving the car. Whenever that happens for a fraction of a second the brakes and steering wheel would lock up and vsa light remains on until vehicle is turned off. The stability control recall 13V092000 was performed July 2013, it was to fix this problem. Local Honda dealer found yaw rate sensor failure and wants $1,100 to replace.

- Miami, FL, USA

problem #46

Oct 142014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 47,810 miles
Vsa engaged while driving xway, pulled vehicle to right, into other lane. This was repaired per previous recall, but continued to engage periodically within 3 days. Additionally, I am on list for airbag recall, but not yet recalled in ky. We are in Ohio valley, with higher humidity than Florida. I have driven to Florida multiple times. We should be added to recall list.

- Louisville, KY, USA

problem #45

Aug 232014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 122,100 miles
On numerous occasions during the ownership of the car, especially when it is raining, damp, or snowing while driving the car for no reason it loses power. The steering wheel locks, and the car acts as if the battery has been disconnected. This has happened more than 20 times. This is a defect. I am reporting, because I realize this needed to be reported. It is a safety issue. This loss of electrical power has occurred with the original battery, as well as two other batteries over the life of the car. It appears to be electrically related. The loss of power results in the steering wheel locking and no power. Luckily, each time this has happened, I was driving at 30 miles per hour. If this ever occurred on the highway, it could resulted in an accident.

- Chicago, IL, USA

problem #44

Oct 152007

Pilot

  • 9,000 miles
The contact owns a 2005 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while driving approximately 60 mph, the vsa light illuminated as the vehicle started to shake. The contact mentioned that the steering wheel became hard to maneuver and it felt as if the brake were engaging. The vehicle was merged to the side of the road, where it was turned off and restarted. The vehicle resumed normal operation. The failure recurred several times. The vehicle was taken to a dealer. The technician diagnosed that the yaw rate sensor had failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 9,000.

- Tallahassee, FL, USA

problem #43

Jun 112014

Pilot

  • 162,829 miles
The first incident happened while turning, car came to a stop, jerked the wheel almost hitting another car; all without warning. A child passenger was in the back seat and was thrown forward hitting her head on the passenger front seat and seat belt locked causing her to have a seat belt bruise. Vsa (light), the vsa activation light (triangle with exclamation inside) were both illuminated. SUV was taken to local dealership to perform the recall work. Two weeks later, same thing but this time I was going about 55mph on highway, SUV came to almost a complete stop within a short distance. Grinding feeling and with the vsa indicator lights on. Almost hit someone when the wheel jerked and caused me to go into the right lane and almost hitting someone, kids were in the SUV one in the passenger side front and the other in back same side. Seat belt once again left a bruise on their chest and caused the front passenger to have strained his neck. This is a vehicle that cause great concern. I am now afraid to allow my son to drive this vehicle with this problem continuing. The dealership has said that they have performed the recall bulletin and I will need to fix this on my own. This is not satisfactory at all.

- Roanoke, VA, USA

problem #42

May 302014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 164,000 miles
I went to Honda dealership on May 30, 2014 in fremont California for the safety recall campaign - installing subharness. After the dealership installed new harness for the safety of vsa (vehicle stability assistance) on the 30th of May 2014, vsa light is on when I pickup the car and the service advisor at the dealership said it was yaw rate sensor failure according to the code scanned. Before the recall, the car was ok, without the vsa light on. Basically I am driving the without vsa after the recall from Honda.

- Milpitas, CA, USA

problem #41

Mar 142014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 96,000 miles
While driving around a bend towards a red light, without my foot on the pedal my car made a weird shutter or brake pulsing, I thought I had gone over some ripple strips. When the light changed, I proceeded to make a right turn in a busy intersection, when going almost 30 & out of the turn, my Pilot came to an unassisted abrupt stop! im so lucky the person behind me didn't rear end me! it sounded like the transmission was grinding & the tires were locked. I waited a few seconds let go of brakes & the vehicle began to move but in 5 ft it did it again. Towed to dealer who cant seem to find or recreate the problem. Multiple brake, ABS, vsc & electrical alarms were reported by dealer but still no solution. This car is unsafe to drive and by multiple reports this is a widespread problem.

- Hoboken, NJ, USA

problem #40

Feb 072014

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 109,440 miles
As I was approaching a left turn lane I applied the brakes gently and the left front brake momentarily grabbed causing the vehicle to swerve into the oncoming traffic and the vsa lights activated. This has occurred 9 times in the last 300 miles. I took the vehicle to the dealer immediately and they told me they could not duplicate the problem and they found no problems with the car. Never had a problem until the "recalled" vsa module was replaced less than 6000 miles ago. The dealer tells me that the vsa module is not under warranty.

- Santa Maria, CA, USA

problem #39

Dec 102010

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 140,000 miles
When driving on straight, level pavement, vsa light illuminates and car suddenly shudders and changes direction. Uneven brakes are being applied by the vsa system in order to correct a problem that is not present. Meanwhile, the loss of control of the vehicle is dangerous. The problem has happened several times before and after the recall to replace the wiring harness. The recall service did not fix the problem or make it happen less frequently. My car seems to only have the problem in sub-freezing temperatures. Dealer diagnosis says that yaw sensor is sending a bad signal to vsa system. A new yaw sensor is currently on back-order, so it seems that I am not alone in having problems.

- Lees Summit, MO, USA

problem #38

Jun 062013

Pilot

  • 84,236 miles
After the recall of vsa it happens that the SUV experiencing the symptom of excessive braking and vsa light comes out... before the recall we haven't experiencing this vsa problem.. I don't know in some reason why it comes out after the recall had been made..first occurrence I bring it to the dealer and advise that they been check, fixed and inform it won't come out any more.. after two weeks it happened again and my SUV will bring again to the dealer for the second time... I feel they make me feel worse this recall that been made... is there any advice "??"

- Hayward , CA, USA

problem #37

Apr 252013

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 62,000 miles
The vehicle would apply additional brake force on the driver's side front wheel while the driver use the brake to slow the vehicle on a downhill road. The extra brake force only last 1 second or 2 but it caused the vehicle steer to the left and the vsa come on. In several occasions, the vehicle crossed the lane to the oncoming traffic. The vsa light will come on until I turn off the ignition. The Honda dealer initially suggest it was related to the vsa recall but after performing the recall work 4 times, the issue still exist. They finally determined the yaw sensor was causing the problem and replace it.

- Englewood, CO, USA

problem #36

Dec 192012

Pilot

  • 195,000 miles
The contact owns a 2005 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while driving 25 mph, the vehicle stability assist engaged independently, causing the front driver's side tire to seize. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and they stated that the vehicle stability assist module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 195,000.

- Raleigh, NC, USA

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