10.0
really awful- Crashes / Fires:
- 1 / 1
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 1 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 750 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.
Our vehicle continues to randomly turn off and not go while driving. Whenever the idle start/stop is engaged, the vehicle will randomly not restart when traffic is moving. When this occurs you must completely turn off the vehicle, wait a few seconds, restart the vehicle, wait a few seconds, then attempt to place back into drive before being able to move. We have been having this same issue many times now. We have taken our vehicle in to the dealer service department multiple times with this issue. We have replaced the battery ($400) and it still happens. They act like they have never heard of this happening to anyone before and we must be "making it up". They then proceed to tell us that we need to let it keep happening until it is much more common. Then bring it back in again so they can see it happen. I complained to Honda USA with the same story, being that it keeps happening over and over, and they gave us the same answer..."wait until it happens so the mechanic can see it" as if it has never happened to anyone else before. This is going to end up causing people serious harm or worse. Honda is obviously trying to play down the issue to avoid cost at the expense of consumers.
- Woodruff, SC, USA
While stopped at a light the engine completely shut off and put itself into neutral. Nothing worked. Had to press and hold the ignition button for at least 5 seconds to shut down and restart the vehicle.
- Royal Oak, MI, USA
Twice in the last 6 months this has happened while car was stopped at red light. The auto engine restart system failed, causing the car to shut down. Car had to be placed in park and restarted. Local dealer was unable to detect cause : no codes captured and there were no problems with battery or starter detected.
- Schenectady , NY, USA
Vehicle spontaneously caught fire. There were no known/indicated issues with the vehicle. Vehicle was eventually extinguished by the fire dept. It took them 45 mins to render it extinguished. Vehicle was parked in my driveway at the time of the incident.
- Lyons, GA, USA
Like others have reported, similar to the odyssey we own that did have a recall to fix the issue, the vehicle fails to restart after it idles at a light. Causing very stressful situation in traffic because it take 10-20 seconds to get vehicle going. Happened 5 times in 6 months.
- Winter Haven, FL, USA
when auto-idle engaged and car is stopped, it will not restart the car's engine. My safety was at risk because the event took place while I was in traffic with my family. The problem has not been reproduced. It is a problem known by Honda for many years. The vehicle has not been inspected. Unknown.
- Fontana, CA, USA
When driving the car and stopped, the car goes into idle engine automatically. There are have been 5 incidents where the engine wouldn-??t turn back on. The car starts beeping and flashing to put in park, shut off and restart. This is extremely dangerous when in the middle of traffic, cars honking and my children in the car getting nervous. Luckily I have not had an accident yet and figured out how to not use the -??idle stop-?? feature to prevent this from happening but it-??s not a long term solution as I have to stop idle feature every time the car is turned on.
- Long Beach, NY, USA
My Honda Pilot has, on multiple occasions, just died after the auto engine idle stop engaged. I have had to put my vehicle back in park, restart it, immediately disable the auto idle stop and put it back in drive. On several other occasions it has also said "engine idle stop system unavailable". Even with that useless feature disabled my car will hesitate and kinda sputter when I stop at red lights. It's dangerous. I just bought this car from the Toyota Dealership in my area so I shouldn't be having these issues. There's less than 28,000 miles on it, I shouldn't be having any issues whatsoever.
- Austin, TX, USA
The automatic idle stop does not restart engine upon release of the brake pedal. It has been happening with increasing frequency.
- Ithaca, NY, USA
When I-??m stopped and try to drive my car it sometimes dies. It-??s a big safety concern and happens often and when I have my kids in the car. I can-??t get it to start again for a little while. The lights come on the dashboard but it won-??t start at all until a while after trying.
- Mcminnville , OR, USA
There appear to be more than one issue. When using the auto idle feature, my car will turn off completely. Meaning the engine turns off and it is difficult to restart. I also have issues starting the car from scratch. This has occurred multiple times where the engine will not turn on but other components will. I cannot be jumped or put in neutral as the transmission won't move out of park if the engine is not on. It has been to the dealership multiple times for both issues. A software update was done to fix the auto idle issue, but it has not fixed the issue. i know longer use the auto idle feature. The most recent incident was today.
- Chester , VA, USA
Hello, Twice in the past two months, my car's engine has lost power while driving on the highway. First, while entering and merging onto the highway, and once while exiting the highway. Both times, the check engine light came on, pressing the gas pedal had no effect, and we could only coast to the side of the road. Both times we had to restart the vehicle. After the first incident, I went to the dealership. They "fixed" the vehicle, replacing gaskets that Honda knew might fail but didn't issue a recall (only fix if there is an issue). This obviously did not fix the issue. Thankfully we did not have an accident, but complete loss of power could have been disastrous. I now have to go back to the dealership.
- Saint Charles, IL, USA
The reason we took our Honda in to the Honda retailer to begin with is because the car kept alerting a message of an -??emissions systems failure.-?? We took it in and found out that we had 3 recalls on our Honda Pilot. They fixed one recall but stated that they -??needed parts-?? for the other recalls. It has been one month and after continuous follow ups they continue to tell us that they still haven-??t gotten the parts and are behind in service. This is unacceptable. The retailer believed that we were receiving the -??emissions system failure-?? error message is because of a fuse. They replaced the fuse but the message returned several days later. I am thinking we received the error message because of the -??Passport/Pilot MOST FAKRA Service Cables-?? failure recall that has a possibility to cause -??poor, or lost, connections intermittently between the audio display unit and the vehicle cable connector-?? (Manufacturer recall explanation). I am not entirely sure exactly what is wrong with our vehicle nevertheless the reason for the complaint is that the manufacturer/certified dealership has -??failed or is unable to remedy this safety recall-?? for our vehicle -??in a timely manner.-?? I hope this complaint will get our recalls fixed.
- Merkel, TX, USA
Auto Engine Idle Stop issue. Engine would stop at intersections and not restart, which was a safety risk. I told the dealership this was a known defect affecting many vehicles and they said no, it was just a -??bad battery.-?? They replaced the battery.
- New Orleans, LA, USA
Twice now at red light my pilot has not started due to stop start feature. It was stuck in park / neutral. Car wouldn-??t restart or go into gear. Almost everyday at least once car is hesitant to start after engine cuts out. Then dash lights like system collision isn-??t working. Extremely dangerous was at a light on major interstate road. Last time it happened I. The summer had it checked out and nothing was resolved.
- Ambridge , PA, USA
Auto start/stop function. The auto start/stop engaged and the vehicles engine stopped while we were at a red light. When the light turned green and I released the brake the starter engaged but very slowly and failed to start the engine. I attempted to start the vehicle again but it needed to be in park, which was taking time engaged. We were blocking other vehicles from making a protected turn during this. On the 3rd attempt to restart the vehicle restarted. This has not been inspected or or reproduced. No warning lamps other than vehicle must be in park to start.
- Wakefield, RI, USA
The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the Auto Idle feature on the vehicle intermittently failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that the vehicle failed to restart upon the depression of the accelerator pedal. The contact stated that an unknown message was displayed on the instrument panel during the failure. The contact had taken the vehicle to the dealer on several occasions and software updates were performed; however, the failure returned soon after the updates were completed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000.
- Marco Island, FL, USA
2021 Honda Pilot is subject to "rapid acceleration". We had no notification of this issue until the vehicle drove itself into our home on its own causing damage to the car and our home. Only after we did some research did we know Honda had this issue.
- Helotes, TX, USA
This vehicle has some major concerns. I have issues with the starter on this thing not wanting to restart the engine after a traffic stop. Battery is fine and there are no obvious issues with the car other than the fact that the starter appears to barely spin the engine over the compression stroke. I have been a Honda owner for years but unless Honda issues a fix for this issue, i am finished with them. I continually turn off the auto stop/start feature out of fear that i will have issues at a traffic intersection. Please investigate this issue and force them to recall these vehicles. BTW my vehicle only has 28k miles on it so it is unacceptable for them to keep denying the issue exists when i take it to my dealer.
- Madison, AL, USA
- Perris, CA, USA