2020 HONDA PILOT Complaints

1675 miles- rear taillight including brake light failure 10,094 miles- rear differential oil stain noted 23028 miles- front passenger seat motor and seat frame failure 23258 miles- AC compressor failure 24090- very leaky rear differential noted

Issue with auto start-stop. Upon being stopped at a light, the auto start did not reengage and upon starting back up again the radio defaulted to an AM station and would not allow us to change anything.

I just bought this vehicle yesterday. While driving it home the front collision breaking system came on twice. There were no other vehicles, pedestrians, animals, or objects on the road. On both occasions it was only momentary. One time the instance was on a curve, the other was on a straight-a-way. This happened on a 2 lane (one in each direction) road. I will be reaching out to the Ford dealership where it was purchased along with Honda.

The radio and other components of the "mostbus network" fail constantly (radio, rear entertainment and Blu-ray drive, in dash meter, amplifier). The rear view camera frequently fails to activate when switched to reverse gear. The car will also frequently give a forward collision warning and occasionally slam on the brakes even where there are no other cars in sight. Honda has been unable to fix these issues, and says that even after 2.5 years of owning the vehicle and 2.5 years of attempting to have it repaired, that they haven't exhausted all of their options yet.

In two, separate, instances the vehicle exhibited sudden acceleration with the brake pedal depressed. The first instance was, as the 2020 Honda Pilot was pulling into a driveway and was approximately 10 feet behind another vehicle parked in the driveway. With the brake pedal being depressed, as one does when parking, the 2020 Honda Pilot suddenly accelerated and struck the rear of the other vehicle. The automatic braking system was never deployed. The second instance was when the 2020 Honda Pilot was on a city street and was parked behind another vehicle on the right side of the street against the curb. The 2020 Honda Pilot was approximately 10 feet behind another vehicle parked against the curb. With the brake pedal being depressed, as one does when parking, the 2020 Honda Pilot suddenly accelerated and struck the rear of the other vehicle, driving it over the curb and into the yard of a house. The automatic braking system was never deployed. These incidents happened, almost exactly, one year apart on clear summer days when the temperature and humidity were almost identical. The 2020 Honda Pilot was inspected by a private crash expert company to obtain any crash data but found none, as the data is not recorded unless the air bags are deployed. An incident was reported to Honda who had a representative drive the 2020 Honda Pilot and "could not replicate the sudden acceleration". All safety features were running at the time of both crashes. The crashes occurred on 7/24/21 and 7/13/22.

Auto start/stop feature failed to restart vehicle and shifted to Neutral when foot was taken off the brake. Collision Mitigation Warning lights came on after vehicle power was shut off and turned back on to restart the motor.

The engine completely shut down in the middle of the road after driving with auto Idle ON after stopping due to traffic. The car's engine would not restart. I had to shut down the car completely to have engine on again. (push the start/stop button to shut it down, and then to start it again). This was during a busy traffic and resulted in cars cutting in to my lane when I had to wait for the car to restart. This has happen a few times on the street as well, when stopping for RED light, but the engine does not auto-start again when ready to drive on GREEN light. Note that, this feature of auto-idle come auto start every time the car starts unless you manually turn it off. I feel like this can be dangerous and can result in accidents due to the fact that the car stopped completely while others might expect you to move as the light change/ traffic free up ahead.

Automatic idle engine shut off had been the problem. I will come to a red light or stop sign, the car will do the engine shut off, and it will hesitate to start back up. There have been times that the car has complete shut down and I had to restart it in the middle of traffic. When that happens, it is VERY slow and hesitant to start back up. It is also common for it to restart the car and wipe out the radio and Bluetooth. The radio will turn to static. I have been unable to start my car completely while it has been parked. I have had this looked at multiple time but there is never a solution.

There is a popping and crackling sound that comes from the speakers whether it is on or off. When this occurs the infotainment system, rear entertainment system, and blue tooth stops working. This happens every single time the vehicle is used. This causes distracting driving because the noises happen all of a sudden when driving. Second problem-the car seems to shut off and turn back on by itself after pressing the gas when its on auto idle shut off. For a few seconds when I let go of the brake peddle, instead of turning on from the auto idle shut off it just shuts off, then I press the gas and it turns on. It has done this several times that it is concerning and I fear it can cause an accident if it moves forward when I think it shut off on its own.

The Honda Auto Start Stop system has been taxing my battery through daily use and creates unsafe situations. On more than one occasion, similar to the following, I have experienced the Honda Pilot stop the engine via the A.S.S. System. Upon releasing the brake, the system attempts, but fails, to come to ignition and the electrical system lacks the ability to start the engine, creating a need to re-start (or attempt restart). On 1 such occasion, my family was traveling through a city on the interstate. After driving on the interstate for a few hours we came to a stop light and stopped. At the green light, upon releasing the brake, the Honda Pilot attempted to start again and failed. The car went completely dead in the middle of a 4 lane interstate with my family inside. The car did not start again until the 3rd time attempting to restart the vehicle. Approximately 10 seconds later than intended, we were able to clear our vehicle from the interstate intersection. On normal occasions, such as the course of business with the Honda A.S.S. System, driving in situations that would be categorized as "start/Stop" situations, the Honda A.S.S. System leads to stalled response and delayed lurching into traffic creating situations due to the delay in response. Multiple times this has been reported to my dealer. They acknowledge it as a "Battery" problem. They test my battery per HONDA WARRANTY and tell me it "Passes". They basically are just charging my battery and sending me out the door. The time between vehicle events is decreasing. Please help address this obvious vehicle shortcoming. There is no permanent means to disable it. Thank you.