Automatic Transmission problems of the 2003 Honda Pilot - part 1

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving approximately 40 mph, the contact smelled a strong burning odor inside of the vehicle. The engine warning indicator illuminated and remained illuminated until the engine was turned off. The transmission would not shift into third or fourth gear. In addition, the vehicle failed to accelerate over 40 mph. The vehicle was previously repaired in January of 2005 for a recall under NHTSA campaign id number: 04v176000 (power train:automatic transmission) however, the remedy was insufficient. The vehicle was not further repaired. The failure mileage was 136,000.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving approximately 25 mph, the contact noticed that the check engine warning light illuminated. The dealer and a private mechanic performed a diagnostic test. Both test revealed code p0730 which means that the vehicle could have a faulty transmission shift control system, low transmission fluid level, or poor electrical connection. Both sources advised the contact that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired nor was the manufacturer notified. The current and failure mileages were approximately 87,000.

Car clunked when accelerating, seemed to be slipping when shifting into gear, happened here and there and then happened more often. Told by the dealer that it needs a new transmission.

Transmission beginning to go bad. A very common problem on the 2003 Honda Pilot. Honda knows about this and refuses to do anything about it. Also motor mounts going bad.

I have a 2003 Honda Pilot with 137,000 miles on it and it vibrates somewhere around 35-45 mph. My mechanic recommended we have the transmission checked as he has seen 3 or 4 other Pilots do the same thing. This has been going on for thousands of miles to the point where I just got used to it. With the thought of a new transmission looming, I decided to search if others have this same issue and am shocked to see how many others have dealt with this. I have been a Honda owner all my driving life and seeing this issue so prominent definitely makes me rethink another one. I do hope Honda will rectify this before something serious happens.

I am the owner of a 2003 Honda Pilot. I had this problem in June 2010. On a moderate uphill climb, the vehicle slowed down to about 35 mph and I felt vibration and shaking. From a standing stop, the vehicle hesitated for a few seconds before shifting to the 2nd gear, and then again before shifting to the 3rd gear. The problem came off and on until yesterday. I was again driving on a moderate freeway uphill climb when the vehicle shifted gears, slowed down to about 50 mph, vibrated before shifting again and picked up speed. I got fortunate that the vehicle behind me was able to slow down and did not hit my vehicle. It could have been a serious accident. This is when I noticed that the drive d indicator was flashing and the engine warning light came on. I got off from the freeway and turned off the engine for about half an hour. When I turned the engine back on, the flashing d disappeared. I took it back to community Honda today with the same complaints I told them in June, plus what happened yesterday. I was shocked to hear that my Honda Pilot needs a new transmission, to the tune of $4,100 plus tax. I searched the internet for the same problem on other 2003 Honda Pilots and I found out that it is very common for this particular model. What infuriates me is that Honda issued a service bulletin (06-003 dated June 9, 2007) for the 2003 Acura mdx which is basically the same as the 2003 Honda Pilot. This problem could have been avoided. Because of Hondas failure to issue the same service bulletin for the 2003 Honda Pilot, I believe that Honda should be paying for the transmission replacement on my vehicle.

Frequently the Honda Pilot will shutter while accelerating passing through speeds of 20 to 40 miles per hour. The shutter will continue if throttle is kept in, if I back of the pedal shutter dissipates and I can resume on accelerating. I can feel a slight vibration upto 60 miles per hour. I have spoken with Honda about this and they have no explanation. It looks to be a problem with multiple Pilot/mdx owners. A recall needs to be address soon, before serious injury could occur.

I have a 2003 Pilot with over 130,000 miles, I began to notice a problem while accelerating where the transmission would stick and rev up, if I let up on the accelerator it would correct. Now it is sticking, revs up, and it will not correct at all. I have to come to a complete stop and accelerate again. The "d" light has started flashing and engine light is on. Now I have to have the trans replaced for @ $4000.

We were driving with our 2 young kids and our 2 dogs on the highway at 70 mph in our 2003 Honda Pilot with 130,000 miles on it. We heard an extremely loud bang and jerk and the car began to slow down. We pulled to side of the road with no collision. From then on we were unable to get any gear to engage (even park). Had car towed to repair shop and are awaiting estimate for a new transmission. We are the original owners of the vehicle. We had Honda service the vehicle and do all 100,000 mile recommendations, and there was no indication of a problem before total failure. We feel very fortunate not to have had a collision on the highway with our whole family in the car. Honda knew their transmission was flawed and just put a band-aid on it with the recall in 2004. I guess enough of a band-aid to get them through the warranty period. I believe these transmissions are faulty and dangerous to have on the road.

My 2003 Honda Pilot shudders when accelerating between 35-45 mph. It feels like driving over a bumpy road.

Our Honda Pilot will shutter while accelerating passing through speeds of 20 to 50 miles per hour. The shutter will continue if throttle is kept in, if I back of the pedal shutter dissipates and I can resume on accelerating. I can feel a slight vibration upto 60 miles per hour. I have spoken with Honda about this and they say the only fix is to replace the transmission. It looks to be a problem with multiple Pilot/mdx owners. A recall needs to be address soon, before serious injury could occur.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving at approximately 75 mph, the contact heard a loud bang from the engine compartment and when he attempted to shift into neutral, the vehicle moved in reverse. The contact coasted the vehicle to the side of the road and turned off the ignition. When he restarted it, the vehicle functioned normally but a few minutes later, the problem occurred again. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealership where he was informed that there were no recalls on his vehicle. The vehicle had not been repaired at the time of the complaint. The current and failure mileages were approximately 106,000.

I have a 2003 Honda Pilot with 128,000 miles. While on the highway, speed about 60 the car slammed and the speed came down 20 mph in a couple of seconds. I was lucky no one was behind me or it could have been a serious accident. Transmission needs to be replaced.

I have a 2003 Honda Pilot that is having transmission problem. It is slipping gears and bogs while driving. I have notice that their was a recall on this car andi guess it was taken care of but the problem still exit.

I have a 2003 Honda Pilot that is having transmission problem. It is slipping gears and bogs while driving.

There are several issues: 1. The problem began with the key not fitting properly as it once did, perhaps after several attempts. When I turn the key or put the key in the ignition it won't turn to get the vehicle started. I turned the steering wheel all the way to the left and it doesn't matter. The Pilot still won't start. When reading the manual, it's a push sign under the ignition but this isn't addressed in the manual. It doesn't tell you the purpose of the push sign. I've tried everything to get the key to turn and I've let others try also. And it doesn't work for anyone. The steering wheel is turned all the way to the left but the wheels are not and it won't turn to the right it all; it's locked. The vehicle won't go in neutral, so I can roll it or nothing. 2. There is knocking noise that is louder when you accelerate on the left front side perhaps it's coming from the drive-train or axle on that side, almost sounds like something is loose and may fall off. 3. The radio turns off for a few seconds randomly and it may not happen again for a while and suddenly does once again. 4. The lock and handle to the glove compartment broke off and cannot be opened. 5. The wire to control the handles for the rear seats to recline and fold down broke from within the seats. I looked inside it's the piece of plastic to hold the wire in place that broke, there needs to be a better replacement part made of steel not plastic. 6. The floor mat sticks in bunches causing the carpet to soil can be hazardous I. E. Toyota, only remedy is to replace the floor mat for the truck entirely, very, very expensive. . . 7. When it reaches 30mph it shakes and you can hear a loud noise like you're driving over something ridged it's scary. 8. The button for four wheel drive does not function 9. The chrome on the door handles peeled off tearing the skin causing injuries to the hand, my finger still feels tingly and numb. Please help!!!.

Car jolted forward while driving on the highway. Very scary. It didn't shift properly afterwards. While pressing the accelerator on a slope, for example, it didn't shift and then jolted forward. In one occasion that I put the car in the r gear, and it didn't go backwards. Checked with a Honda dealership, and told that the entire transmission needs to be replaced.

I am the original owner of a 2003 Honda Pilot that has been serviced regularly. I was on CA highway 80 when the "d" light suddenly started flashing then the gears started to stick. The car would not go into overdrive and I had to suddenly slow the car on the highway to 40 mph. I pulled off as soon as it was safe and was unable to put the car in reverse nor get it into overdrive. Had to drive it at an unsafe speed on the highway to the nearest repair station. Honda is not acknowledging this defect now that the car has 110,000 miles and I have to replace the entire transmission.

Our 2003 Honda Pilot's (with 85,000 miles) check engine light came on approximately 6/1/09. We recently just purchased this Pilot and are the second owners. The car was bought and serviced at the local Honda dealership right up until we bought it. Anyhow, we were driving on the highway and the car began to downshift and the car slowed down rather violently as we pulled off on the exit ramp. The rest of the drive home the transmission was shifting and down-shifting quite roughly. Where it gets really interesting was that this vehicle had a recall on the transmission in 2004, warning that the transmission could have "gear failure and lock-up causing a rear-end collision. " but the local Honda dealership informed us that the recall is totally unrelated to our transmission problem and that we are responsible for the entire cost of repair.

2003 Honda Pilot, 95k miles, transmission light came on and then started flashing, slipping or popping between gears, acceleration is gone, went downhill very quickly. I logged onto various websites and see the same transmission problems reported by many early model Honda Pilot owners I am extremely disappointed as I expected a Honda to be top notch.

Blinking d light on 2003 Honda Pilot transmission. Dealers say they don't know the cause. Edmunds forum full of same complaint, same evasive answer. Transmission about to fail.

Nhtsa recall campaign number: 04v176000 this recall was performed on my vehicle, now the vehicle has started slip and shift hard, the vehicle has had issues with the "d" flashing during normal driving conditions, but resets when the car is shut off. I'm afraid that the as state on the recall consequence: quote: "gear failure could result in transmission lockup, which could result in a crash. " I did some research about this and there several hundreds if no thousands of people with this issue.

The Honda Pilot 2003 which has 134500 miles on it started to rev up while accelerating and lurching forward violently. Once while trying to get on the interstate the vehicle violently stall as if put in a neutral and lurched back to 50mph speed in few seconds. Luckily not body is behind but would have caused a crash. Had the vehicle to Honda car dealer who serviced the vehicle 1 week back and they said transmission needs to be replaced and was quoted $4000 for the repair. Called Honda customer service and complained about the transmission issue and the sr checked with his supervisor and said they are not going to repair or replace the transmission parts.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving between 15-20 mph on normal road conditions, the automatic transmission hesitated intermittently when shifting from first to second gear. There were no warning lights illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to an independent transmission shop for diagnostic testing. The technician stated that there were mechanical failures in the transmission. Through online research, the contact discovered NHTSA campaign id number 04v176000 (power train;automatic transmission). The authorized dealer was notified and stated that there was an earlier recall repair performed on the vehicle in 2004; however, it has not corrected the failure addressed in the safety recall. The vehicle has not been repaired. The VIN was unknown. The failure mileage was 81,000 and current mileage was 82,000. Updated 6/01/09 updated 06/02/09.

2003 Honda Pilot. 2nd gear going out. Seems to have chipped teeth on gear. I contacted Honda. They told me that my Pilot had already been looked at back in 2004. My mechanic says that this is without a doubt a direct result of original recall on this model. This all began with my "d" flashing. Now my second gear is grinding and about to o out.

For the past 6 months, I am having this blinking "d" light on the transmission while driving on my 2003 Honda Pilot SUV. I believed this has to do with the premature failure of the transmission that could cause serious injury to passengers and yet there is no recall yet by Honda America to alert the owners of this serious defective transmission problem on this 2003 Honda Pilot car.

My car had a transmission recall notice in 2004. I took the car in July 2004 and supposedly the problem was corrected. However, after that time, my car seemed to downshift very roughly and was jerky when putting into gear. Last year my transmission locked up while going down a hill. While, the car behind me did not hit me, my abrupt halt caused at least 3 cars behind me to rear end each other. I had the transmission replaced but I am starting to feel some of the old shifting issues again. I'm hoping it doesn't die.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving approximately 5 mph on normal road conditions and proceeding from a stop sign, the engine began to rev. There was suddenly a 3-5 second delay before the vehicle was shifted into gear. The check engine warning indicator illuminated on the instrument panel and it remained lit until the engine was turned off. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, but they were unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was previously repaired according to NHTSA campaign id number 04v176000 (power train;automatic transmission). On a separate occasion, the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic for identical failures. The technician recommended that the transmission be replaced. The vehicle is operable and has not been repaired. The failure mileage was 100,000 and current mileage was 105,000.

Car started to ride rough at 75k miles with "d" light flashing intermittently. Dealer mis-identified the problem for about 5k miles but eventually determined that the car needs an entire new transmission. Car now has just over 80k miles. Very short life for a transmission.

We purchased a used 2003 Honda Pilot in April 2007. We were aware that there had been a previous transmission recall in 2004 and our vehicle had been serviced as part of that recall. It is now July 2008 and we were just told by the dealer that services our car that the transmission needs to be replaced at a cost of $3700, and that price is after a $1000 contribution from Honda. The vehicle has 93150 miles on it. Clearly this transmission is defective. Honda should own up to a substandard transmission design and stand by their product and their customers. We are not satisfied with what Honda is offering us and will continue to negotiate with them. We have found many complaints online about the 2003 Honda transmissions and it seems this is a widespread problem. A wider recall should be issued on these defective transmissions.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving approximately 60 mph, the gears failed and the transmission locked up without warning. The dealer stated that the vehicle was previously repaired according to NHTSA campaign id number 04v176000 (power train:automatic transmission); therefore, they would not assume any additional responsibility for the repairs. The contact would have to pay $3,500 to have the transmission replaced. The vehicle has not been repaired due to the cost. The VIN was unknown. The failure and current mileages were 162,525.

The contact owns a 2003 Honda Pilot. While driving at various speeds, the transmission tends to hesitate when shifting from first to second gear. Occasionally, the contact has to place the vehicle into neutral and then back into drive in order for the transmission to shift. Several months prior to the failure, the contact noticed that the transmission was leaking. The vehicle has been diagnosed by the dealer, but the failure still persists. The VIN was unknown. The current mileage was 99,000 and failure mileage was 75,000.

: the contact stated in 2004, the recall notice for NHTSA recall # 04v176000 pertaining to the automatic transmission was received. The vehicle was taken to a service dealer, who installed an oil jet kit. This seemed to correct the problems with the vehicle. However, on 10/02/06, the contact stated while driving 30 mph, the vehicle slowed as if losing power then jerked violently while entering second gear. The vehicle was taken to a service dealer, who determined the transmission had completely failed. The dealer replaced the transmission, but informed the contact that there would be a charge for the labor. The contact spoke with both the service manager and the manufacturer, with no success.

After receiving the transmission recall 04v176000 update the transmission on my 2003 Pilot ex-l failed. The problem consisted of the vehicle not change to and from second gear properly. American Honda is giving me the run around about addressing this problem.

Our 2003 Honda Pilot was part of the Honda recall of the automatic transmission. We took our vehicle to carl hogan Honda in columbus ms when we found out about the recall. The service department inspected the transmission for heat discoloration and installed an oil jet kit. In early 2006 we started having problems with our Pilot. It will intermittently surge and jerk between first and second gear and at times it seems to have problems going into overdrive. When these problems occur, the drive light will flash a few times then go out for several minutes before coming on again. We have taken our vehicle back to the dealership several times. Each time the service technician has hooked our vehicle up to a computer to diagnose the problem but each time has failed to get a code. The first time they hooked it up they did not get a code and when we got the car back the srs light was on. We then had to get that repaired. The problem is now a weekly occurrence and we have been told that there is nothing the dealership can do until the check engine light comes on and they can retrieve a code. The jerking and surging is becoming more frequent and we feel it has become a safety issue. We were driving with our two small children today and made a left turn across traffic, the vehicle jerked, slowed down and surged. An oncoming car narrowly missed us.