2020 HONDA PILOT Complaints

The auto start/stop feature of the 2020 Honda pilot is defaulted to on. At three times in the last two weeks, at a stop light, the vehicle lost all power, directed me to put the car in Park and restart the vehicle. I had to press the start/stop button several times to get the vehicle to start again.

Third time now that my speakers have been popping and crackling. All this leads to "Network Connection Lost" and the entire NAV screen goes black, also the main dashboard display sometimes...very unsafe. First couple of repairs were the connectors in the dash being replaced. This time my dealer has to call Honda for authorization. Received a call from dealer this morning that my battery was dead and this cleared out all of the warning codes, how convenient and it's only 3 years old. Now it needs to be kept until the warning codes "possibly" come back.

Frightening experiences with Auto Engine Idle Stop feature. My local mechanic, as well as the dealership where I purchased my brand new 2020 Honda Pilot Elite AWD were unable to address the issue. Have been experiencing electrical failures associated with my AEIS for about a year that have gotten progressively worse. At first, once disengaging from AEIS at a red light (by releasing my foot from the brake pedal) the radio would shut off and switch back on, but to AM radio. What seemed like a few months later, when AEIS was disengaging, my whole dashboard went blank and I received a message to "Shift to Park + restart engine". I have tried to be diligent in turning off AEIS immediately after starting my vehicle, but in the few times I have forgotten, and my AEIS has failed, the dashboard goes blank and the car shifts to neutral (indicated by the red light becoming illuminated around N). My local mechanic looked at this issue in June of 2022, and said that my battery was only holding a 30% charge, so we replaced it. After my most recent Pilot engine electrical failure, I called Honda, and was advised to contact my dealership since I was still covered by the powertrain warranty (<60k miles). To have a vehicle stalled in the middle of the road, once on I75 in stopped traffic in downtown Atlanta, is an OBVIOUS safety hazard. I was trusting HONDA with my family's safety when I purchased my Pilot, but that trust has been lost. Today, November 01, the dealer told me my battery was bad; it's less than 5 months old, mind you. Went straight to my mechanic, they ran a diagnostic on my battery, and was told it's fine. Called Honda Corporate and set up a case investigation today.

When stopped at a traffic light my Pilot's engine stops because of the fuel conservation feature of the car. The engine is supposed to restart when I take my foot off the brake. However, 4 or 5 times in the last month the engine did not restart. A message would flash that my car is in neutral (I did not put it in neutral) and that I needed to shift to park. Once I put it in park I have to hit the start/stop button several times to get the engine to restart. The radio becomes inoperable during all of this and even after I eventually get the engine to start again. The radio is inoperable until I drive, park the car, shut it off and restart it. This is a major hazard to me and my family. My car has stalled in city traffic and it takes a few minutes to get it restarted. I'm concerned that this could cause an accident at some point. My Honda dealership is not aware of this problem or how to fix it. I found that there is an open investigation with Honda and the NHTSA. I hope this can be fixed soon.

While driving my 2020 Honda Pilot it jerks very hard when accelerating. It continues to do this when shifting gears. It’s also slow to accelerate and drags with the gears getting stuck until it finally jerks and shifts. I just had the transmission flushed 7k miles early yesterday 10/21 due to Hondas recommendation. I get regular scheduled maintenance and this is the 2nd flush with my car only having 50k miles. Now they say I will need to keep coming back getting repeated flushes at my expense until the fluid is cycled through. My car is driving worse than before the second flush. I’m afraid to drive it on the highway due to these jerks and stalls in shifting because it might freeze up causing a life threatening situation.

The Auto Engine Idle function has been problematic for a while now, causing the engine to stall. It seems to have gotten progressively worse and now happens whenever I forget to disengage the Auto Engine Idle. One time in the spring of 2021, my husband had pulled into the intersection and was waiting for the chance to turn, only to find the engine stall and not respond to anything. It took a good almost two minutes of turning off the engine and trying to push the power button back on. It finally did turn on so we did not need a tow, but it was extremely scary to be in the middle of an intersection with a stalled engine. Subsequently the engine stalled a couple of times, briefly flashing an error message on the dashboard before shifting into Neutral on its own and then indicating to shift into Park. I have had the diagnostic test ($99) done at the Honda dealership (Dublin, OH) and was told that they could not replicate the engine stall and that there were no error records recorded in the engine log. A few times, the engine seemed to hesitate like it was on its way to stalling after being in Auto Idle Engine mode, but would start up when I released the brake. Today the engine stalled again when I was at a red light, briefly displaying an error mode and then shifting into Neutral on its own again. I had to power off the car, and try the engine start push button a few times before it finally powered on. I am constantly worried about the engine stalling, which is not a pleasant experience. It is scary to think the engine could stall while driving the kids somewhere.

Our Honda Pilot displays and shakes the wheel for Forward Collision Warnings a minimum of 30 times a day over approximately 32 miles daily. The vehicle has on more than one occasion engaged the Collision Mitigation Braking System (CMBS) as well in situations where no vehicle was on the road ahead or beside us, nearly causing us to be rear ended at high speeds. This has also happened when pulling out into intersections where the closest vehicles are approximately 75 feet. This has happened while travelling at anywhere from 15 mph to 55 mph, and has occurred every 1 to 2 months since owning the vehicle. We have been nearly rear-ended at least 5 times since owning the vehicle. Honda has told us that the collision warning "can't be adjusted" to fix this, and that our "best option is to disable the alert or the system". Being told to disable safety systems as a fix rather than actually fixing the issue is wildly inappropriate and unsafe.

The vehicle is showing the same issues as found in the Honda Service Bulletin 20-029 for "9-Speed A/T Hard Upshift with Steady Acceleration", and an occasional hesitation or slip. Our Honda Pilot has a Honda 6-Speed Automatic Transmission and AWD. The transmission has just had a full service, which included a "transmission fluid exchange to include torque converter lines" and replacing the transmission filter. When watching the vehicle shift, the tachometer will spike RPMs, then drop well below, and rise to settle in-between with a hard upshift. This issue was extreme prior to the transmission service, especially given the vehicle has only 49k miles and was purchased brand new. The constant hard shift and slip is a safety hazard.

engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged. I was at an intersection at 10:30pm and it was extremely dangerous as my car would not start and was completely black. I could not even turn on hazards or put the car in nuetral to move out of the way. I had to call 911 and have the police assist. My car was towed to the dealership and I am waiting for an update. This will be the 4th time I have had my vehicle there for service for an electrical issue.

My vehicle has had repeated instances of the audio "infotainment" system causing loud, unexpected popping and crackling noises. During these instances, the infotainment system sometimes quits working completely and often the handsfree telephone function quits working. When this occurs, the volume control and audio on off button have no effect whatsoever. It can occur with or without my telephone connected to the system. The only way to temporarily correct the condition (and it only works sometimes) is to pull off the road, turn the car off completely, and then restart it. This issue has occurred during three seperate time periods, and each time, it has progressed from intermittent to continuous. The first time I took it to the dealer and they replaced some small wiring harness connectors. The second time, they had a Honda Field Engineer look at the car and replaced the entire dashboard harness system (July 2022). Then today, it began doing it again. I have reported this to my Honda Dealer (Hendrick Honda Pompano Beach, FL) and they said they are contacting Honda for more information