10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 9,501 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.
My 2017 Honda Pilot has a jerking issue when accelerating slowly or fast. It lags to accelerate. You can see the RPM gauge bounce when this happens. The "bucking" or "jerking" can be felt by the driver and sometimes the passenger but its not super noticeable. My vehicle has less than 60,000 miles on it currently. I have not changed the transmission fluid but this issue has only just started recently. My transmission fluid currently does not look brown or smell burnt. It looks the normal red color. There is no warning lights have appeared on the dashboard.
- Sacramento, CA, USA
I was driving my 2017 Honda Pilot Exl back from work at 35-40 mph when I heard a loud thud noise. Initially I thought I had gotten a flat or something, but then I heard air escaping as if a window was open but it was coming from over my head. As I continued to drive I heard pieces of glass sliding across the roof of the car. When a got home a few minutes (< 10 minutes) later, I tried opening the sunroof tray and noticed I couldn-??t and I could see that the glass looked to have shattered. I got out of the car and examined the roof of the car and the sunroof was indeed shattered.
- Renton, WA, USA
On [XXX] I was traveling south on [XXX] from Omaha, NE to Bella Vista, AR. There were no other cars in view either behind me, ahead of me or traveling north in the opposite lanes, nor any debris on the highway when I heard a loud explosion. I thought I had blown a tire but had no problems steering the vehicle. I immediately pulled over to stop on the shoulder of the road. I got out of the car and saw that my sunroof had exploded. Small pieces of glass were everywhere. The time was late morning and the temperature was not especially hot. I reported this to Honda and to my insurance company. On June 18 my local dealer replaced the moonroof. My cost was $691.49. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- Bella Vista, AR, USA
While driving at normal speed car suddenly is unresponsive (will not accelerate, looses power, and is jumpy). The computer triggers a limp mode and alerts every code possible on the dash screen, even though all mechanical parts are fine. This computer/electric failure is a risk that is so unpredictable may cause life threatening accident. The certified repair shop has reviewed, reproduced, and is scratching their heads why Honda hasn-??t recalled this because several other Pilots are doing the same.
- El Dorado Hills, CA, USA
Auto idle had been turning off and not re-starting quickly for past 6 months. I asked them to look at it last service. They didn't find anything wrong and said to turn off the auto idle. I did turn off the auto idle most of the time and never had a problem when it was off. Sometimes I forgot to turn off the autoidle. On Dec 5 2023, I was at a red light and had forgotten to turn off auto idle. The car would not turn back on and it was stuck in park. I had it towed and the mechanics said they needed to use a special tool to get it into neutral since the usual protocol had not worked. My car was stuck at a light and I directed traffic to go around me for about 30mins before the tow tuck came. There was no way to push the car out of the way because the wheels were locked due to it being stuck in Park. My safety and the safety of other cars was at risk because the cars went into the incoming traffic lane to go around me. If this had happened on a busy road or in traffic on a highway, it would have been more dangerous. A previous time they replaced the battery and this time they are replacing the starter. I am concerned that the problem will persist since the mechanics say there is nothing wrong with the auto idle. I do see that there is a class action suit and over 200 complaints to NHTSA on the autoidle for Honda Pilots. This is a serious safety concern to have a car stop that will not re-start and then cannot be put into neutral to be towed or pushed to the side.
- Silver Spring, MD, USA
On three separate occasions, the idol stop/start feature has failed requiring me to manually restart the car. Most recently, it took several attempts to restart before ignition fired all while holding up traffic on a busy street. During failed attempts to restart, it made a sound like it was attempting to restart but didn't have enough power. Weirdly, all three occasions have been at the same intersection, a light on an exit after driving non-stop on the interstate for an hour.
- Maumelle, AR, USA
For over eight weeks, the vehicles alarm randomly goes off until it is disabled with key FOB. There is no indication of when it will alarm. It has happened during regular business hour and in the middle of the night, with no pattern in time of occurrence. This is a nuisance and disturbance to the public, as the alarm is very loud. Took the vehicle to the dealership for a diagnosis. Dealership diagnosed vehicle with a malfunctioning Keyless Access Control Unit. The part was on back order for eight weeks but it was delivered sooner than expected to the dealership. Diagnosis cost $195 and repair cost $659.59 for a total of $854.59.
- Santa Maria, CA, USA
The car had 49,400 miles on it when I decided to take a trip to see a friend in NC from NY about 3 hours into my trip a transmission temperature to high light came on. I pulled over turned the car off for a half hour and restarted it and the light disappeared after another hour a light came on that said transmission problems. I stopped in VA and brought it to a Valvoline where they flushed the fluid and said it was running low on transmission fluid. I continued on my journey and no light came on and 2 hours into driving the transmission temperature light came back on. When I arrived in NC I brought it to a Honda dealership where I was told I needed a new transmission on a car that only had 49,000 miles and was a $65,000 car. I also had to pull over on major highways because I was scared the car would catch fire. (Pulled over on NJ turnpike and I-95)
- Pearl River , NY, USA
This vehicle keeps having a "Emissions System Problem" Then other times says "Transmission Temperature Too Hot" I bought and get this serviced at my local dealer. They don't know what the problem is and it goes away after I see them for a couple weeks but the problems come back. They say no problem. It's unnerving to drive a car with theses messages and I drive long distances.
- Spartanburg, SC, USA
My Honda continues to display a transmission service problem warning. There-??s nothing specifically wrong with the transmission and this is a reported problem across the Internet. I suspect there is an issue with the torque converter or other part that is causing this error in some cases, passengers have been stranded.
- Arlington, VA, USA
On March 18th, 2023 at 6:30 PM I parked my car and waited for the curbside pick up at a cafe with my 3 girls 6 (my niece) 7, (daughter), and 11 (daughter) years old. The car started blinking all the lights started accelerating by themselves and turned off immediately. while I tried to turn it on it never started instead it blinked and displayed many messages, including transmission system problem, emission system problem, etc. I thought the battery died and called my husband to jump-start the car and it took 30 minutes to get driving with all these scary movements. my kids were traumatized by the experience and I thought thank god they were safe and the problem is solved. After almost a week once again on March 27th at I'm driving the kids to Karate and driving back at 5:45 PM all of sudden it started blinking, shanking, grinding noise, loud noise, and many messages, transmission system problems, emission system problems, etc. "D" drive started blinking. smoke came and I was still on the road not sure what to do. I thought I will be hit by the other cars behind me. luckily I was almost close to our street and it made a loud noise and I parked the car. it still blinked and smoked heavily and I turned off and got out of the car. It was a very scary movement of my life. I have 2 kids and I drive them every day for their day-2 day school/activities. I cannot believe I bought a new car in 2017 trusting the brand and it is already failed, my family. The car has to be towed to the dealership the dealer gave me a code P-2652. I want Honda to take care of their mechanical issues. I cannot get over the trauma I went through and I'm still shaking while I'm writing this. My 7 year old do not want to talk about the car which made me very sad. My girls loved the family car and now I'm in tears thinking about their safety. I want NHTSA to safeguard the consumers who go through these issues. HONDA PLEASE WAKE UP. My girls are ready to draft a letter to HONDA and NHTSA.
- Piscataway, NJ, USA
I have a 2017 Honda Pilot EX-L with a mileage of 41010 miles. I have completed all the recommended services in a timely manner by an authorized Honda Dealer. When I was driving the vehicle yesterday (3/25/2023) at a speed of around 65 mph, I got an error message saying "Transmission System Problem". There was no error code associated with it. There was no problem in the driving. But at the end of the drive, in the parking lot when I had to reverse, the backup camera will not turn on. After parking the vehicle and turning off the vehicle and restarting it, the error message went away. And then the backup camera also started to work fine. When I was driving back home, the error message came on again when the speed reached around 65 mph. I came home and searched about this error message and I came across a lot of complaints of the same nature for 2017 Honda Pilot owners. Please refer to the discussions on the following links as samples: https://is.gd/RB78A1, https://is.gd/a84e9h. Since many owners are experiencing this, I am wondering if this is a manufacturing issue. Many owners are talking about the Dealerships asking them to replace Transmission which costs around $8000 or to replace Transmission torque converter which will cost $5000. As of now my vehicle drives fine but I got exactly the same message twice at the speed of about 65 mph. I am scared to take this vehicle on to highways since my vehicle is following exactly the same pattern as that of other owners of 2017 Honda Pilot. I also saw Honda Ridgeline owners in the same year also having similar experience online. All of this make me think that this is more of a design/manufacturing problem impacting many owners and hence may be NHTSA would want to look in to this.
- Suffield, CT, USA
Car has failed to restart numerous times after coming to a complete stop, typically at a traffic signal leaving me stranded in the middle of the road with cars whizzing by in adjoining lanes and cars behind me beeping. This creates a very great hazard. This has happened at least a dozen times. To restart the vehicle, I have to put the vehicle into park, put my foot on the brake, and press the start engine button. This issue started in 2019. Another issue is that periodically the dash display will rotate through every possible malfunction indicator. When this happens, each malfunction indicator light stays on the screen for a couple of seconds and moves onto the next one. When this is happening, the vehicle will not go any faster than 15-20 mph which I think is a safety mechanism to make sure the engine is not further damages if an actual issue is occurring. Fortunately, this has only happened on neighborhood streets where the speed limit is 35 mph so the sudden loss of power did not create an immediate hazard. This issue started in 2019. I took the vehicle to a Honda dealership regarding both these issues but they were unable to determine what caused these issues even after I showed them the video I took of the dash display rotating between all of the malfunction indicators. No police, insurance representatives, police or others have inspected the vehicle.
- Glen Allen, VA, USA
Vehicle's start/stop system continuously failing. Vehicle will "stop" or shut off at intersection as intended, but then fails to restart, leaving my family stranded in the middle of traffic. This obviously creates a very dangerous situation for my family. This has happened several times. When you try to restart the vehicle it acts as if it doesn't have the power to do so. Inspections of the vehicle at the dealer continuously show the battery is in the "green" or great working condition. Although they've said this, their only response to the issue so far is to replace the seemingly fine battery.
- Richmond, IN, USA
Was stopped at a very busy intersection today (2/12) and the vehicle's auto start/stop turned the vehicle off. When the light turned green, I attempted to apply gas and the engine stalled out. Was unable to restart the car again after many retries. I was very concerned that another vehicle would hit me since we were at a very busy intersection. All the electronic warnings on the dash appeared to flicker on and off when trying to restart. Eventually had to have the vehicle towed to the Honda dealer since the vehicle could not be jump started or restart on it's own.
- Powell, OH, USA
I took ny Honda Pilot in for a routine oil change. I have had issues with a squeaky sound coming from under the hood. The dealership said my transmission fluid had broken down, and they had to flush/replace it. It cost me over $350. Honda said it wasn-??t covered under warranty as it is a maintenance issue. I only have a little over 57,000 miles on it. The squeaky sound persisted, so they replaced a belt. I had to take it back a week after, because yup sound is still there. It was in the garage for over 2 weeks and I just got it back yesterday. I-??m not sure exactly what they did, only know they had to take the undercarriage off to get to it. I never received the paperwork as the case hasn-??t been closed by the repairman yet. I have an appointment Thursday February 16th to go over wheel bearing issues now and am supposed to get the paperwork for this last repair then. Very frustrating.
- Champlain , NY, USA
The auto stop/start does not restart after stopping at a red light.
- New Albany, PA, USA
I am reporting 2 safety issues in this report, both involving the AUTO STOP/START function in my car. SAFETY ISSUE #1: MALFUNCTIONING AUTO STOP/START (ASS) FUNCTION: At least 4 times during the past 2 months, I have had a serious safety issue with my 2017 Honda Pilot wherein it stalls and is completely inoperable for a short time, while I-??m stopped at an intersection. This has caused me undue stress and jeopardized the safety of myself and my passengers, and disrupted traffic. According to my best recollection, the situation occurs when the ASS function stalls the engine (when stopped), and I manually press the -??Disable ASS-?? button to restart the engine. But instead of the engine turning back, all systems completely -??black out-?? as I frantically try to re-start the engine, to no effect. After several scary seconds, somehow it re-starts. SAFETY ISSUE #2: CORRECTLY FUNCTIONING ASS FUNCTION: Even when functioning correctly, the ASS function has caused a safety issue for me at least twice. When the ASS function was automatically engaged, I was unable to immediately accelerate to avoid a potential collision. Although no collision resulted, these few scares -??trained me-?? to manually disengage the ASS function whenever I remember to do so. Based on my experiences, It would be safest to have no ASS function at all.
- Rochester, NY, USA
Emissions System Problem On 8-11-2022, multiple lights came on the dashboard with multiple systems errors. Brought to dealership and they replaced the fuel injectors. The dealership stated that this was a known problem with the 2016-2017 Honda Pilot's. Honda is giving a 10-year, 150,000 mile extended warranty from the date of purchase to cover fuel injectors and pipes leading up to the fuel injectors. On 9-27-2022, dash lit up with another Emissions System Problem. Brought to same dealership and they stated that the vehicle needed a software update. On 10-31-2022, dash lit up for the third time showing Emissions System Problem. Brought to same dealership. Currently waiting on diagnosis.
- Carencro, LA, USA
- Sylvania, OH, USA