general problems of the 2021 Honda Pilot - part 2

My wife was driving the family down the highway I was a passenger. While we were traveling approximately 70mph down a 4 lane highway there was a loud clunk with a consistent knock and an immediate loss of power. I was able to help navigate her to safety on an off ramp so that my family would be safely off the road. The vehicle was towed to the Honda dealer where it is currently under warranty. The mechanics at the dealership have confirmed a spun bearing on piston number 3 and the motor will need to be replaced. There were zero warning lights and and no notification from any sensors with an obd tool. Honda America is only willing to replace the motor with a salvaged motor. Unfortunately the VIN from the car with the salvaged motor will not match my current VIN, so if there is an active recall on the engine like on the previous year Pilots that are VIN specific, I will not be covered and Honda will have replaced my engine with a known faulty one. I nor should and other family have to take the risk of receiving faulty salvaged Honda parts while still under factory warranty. The attached file is the last service records that are available for the salvaged engine and as you can see there is a noted vibration at the front in as well. Honda refuses to send the information from the salvage yard detailing the engine information including current mileage and the date the motor was pulled from the salvaged vehicle.

The car randomly fails to start up again after stopping it during an auto start auto stop cycle.

While stopped on a red light the auto idle engine restart was engaged, when I released my brakes the vehicle did not restart and went into neutral stalling the vehicle. .

The engine fails to restart at times after the auto engine idle cuts the engine off when stopped. The previous recall has been completed. When I returned my vehicle to the dealership to have it checked again because the same issue continued to occur, I was told the battery needed to be replaced. I have since replaced the battery with a Honda battery from the dealership yet the issue still occurs. It seems to be worse in cold weather.

Engines sometimes fails to start again after being turned off briefly. Will have so turn off all electrical and push button to start multiple times before it engine starts again.

I have had numerous issues with the car stalling while in idle- it will shut off but still display all the warning lights on the dash. It would require the car engine to be restarted. Has happened at stop signs, stop lights, carpool lights. This has happened at least 10 times over 3. 5 years. Last week I had a similar issue but this time it was much scarier- it did that same shut off but completely shut off the engine. All systems were black and the start button did not trigger a response for at least a minute. Once it finally restarted it displayed a “lost power” message on the screen. More similar issues to report.

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.

So on oct 25, 2024 I took my car to get an oil change at the moss bros Honda dealership. I always get all maintenance done there. Then a week later on Nov 3, 2024 my SUV Pilot broke down on the freeway it just started jerking and the screen kept glitching then right after the engine light went on. I was not aware of any signs for it to happen but luckily there was a cop and a tow truck close by because who knows what would have happened. After that I took to the dealership on Tuesday and they inspected it then they come and tell me that my engine is done. So they were trying to charge me $8792 for a used engine. I just think is so weird that how everything happened knowing that is a semi new car and I been taking care of the maintenance so for this to happen I find it sketchy.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The auto-idle feature on this vehicle stalls out the engine on a regular basis, causing risk of accident from surrounding traffic. When breaks applied for red light, stop sign, traffic, etc. , the auto-idle feature first engages and powers down the engine, however upon releasing the breaks, the engine stalls out, shifts into neutral, and the battery light comes on. I then have to get it into park and try to restart the vehicle. Sometimes it starts right away, other times it can take a few tries. Meanwhile, cars behind me are honking because I can't get my vehicle to move forward with traffic. Several times I have almost been rear-ended because the car behind me is expecting me to move forward when they see my brake lights turn off. I've talked to my dealer who informed me they completed a auto-idle recall software update in 2023 (recall #23-008) but the problem continues to happen. They have scheduled me to bring in the vehicle to look at the starter for potential replacement, I am hopeful it will not cost me a lot of money. There should be a recall to fix this issue! this is known issue on many Honda vehicles (there is a class-action lawsuit). It is also ridiculous that ther is no way to permanently disable the auto-idle feature. Thank you!.

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.

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.

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.

The automatic idle stop does not restart engine upon release of the brake pedal. It has been happening with increasing frequency.

The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while his wife was driving 50 mph, the engine seized, and the functions on the vehicle became inoperable. After waiting for an hour, the vehicle restarted. The contact was unaware if there were any warning lights illuminated. The contact stated that on a separate occasion, while the contact's wife was driving 30 mph, the engine seized. No warning lights were illuminated. After waiting for a long while, the vehicle was restarted. The vehicle was taken to another dealer, Honda of whittier; however, no cause for the failure was found. The dealer restarted the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 15,000.

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My push start is not starting the car. Then while driving the car will shut off on parkway, at a light and won't start. This has been going on since I purchased the vehicle 9/23 I have warranty and th auto dealership keep acting like they fixed it yet the haven't. This is the most dangerous issue. We can die getting hit from behind or the car can catch fire keep pushing start button and not turning on.

The auto idle restart feature has malfunctioned a number times and cars behind us have almost rear-ended us. With eco mode on or off, a/c on or off, it doesn't seem to make a difference. When the vehicle has auto idle restart enabled, the vehicle is stopped at a stop light, the engine turns off, and when the user presses the gas and releases the brake, the engine does not turn on. When the brake pedal is released, the brake lights turn off - the vehicles behind us drive forward as they think we are accelerating but our vehicle does not move as the engine does not turn back on properly. We are lucky we have not been rear ended yet. This is very unsafe, especially in very busy intersections.

Vehicle shut off while at a busy intersection light. Unable to restart the vehicle for several minutes. All safety systems (crash mitigation. . . . . ) were disabled. Unable to find a current recall through Honda and the dealership is closed since it is Sunday.

When the idle stop system is enabled in my vehicle, on 5 separate occasions, my car has stalled. Each situation happened when I was stopped at either a stop sign or traffic light. When I took my foot of the brake to go, the car shut off and took ~30 seconds before I was able to turn the engine back on and go. I took my car to the Honda dealer and they were unable to determine the cause of the problem, and it has happened since that time.

Honda Pilot 2021 elite awd w/ 34k miles shuts down at a complete stop e. G. Traffic light, stop sign or highway stop and go rush hour. Panel says put in neutral, but the push button transmission shift does not respond. Attempts to restart with the push start/stop button and fails multiple times first and then it starts again, while other motorists are honking behind you for blocking traffic. Major safety concern.

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.

The autostart failed to restart at an intersection traffic light when light changed. It put us at risk of rear end collision while trying to decipher and correct issue. Message appeared to state car needed to go into park. Driver doesn't remember if they tried to put it into park due to stress of situation, but issue was resolved by shutting off car and then restarting.

The idle stop feature sometimes fails to restart the vehicle after stopping at a stoplight or stop sign. The vehicle transmission will go into park, with the engine no longer running. This requires the vehicle to be restarted manually in traffic, and shifted to drive. This puts the vehicle and passengers at risk for an accident, as it blocks the normal flow of traffic until manually restarted and shifted. This car is available for inspection upon request. This problem has been inspected by a local Honda dealer. There were no warning lamps prior to the incidents.

When going from stop light, car died in middle of intersection. Couldn’t get it started. Had it towed to dealership. Dealer did diagnostics and couldn’t find any issue. Drove car home. Turned it off. The car would not restart. Had it towed back to dealership. Not sure if it’s starter, alternator, auto engine stop features. Battery seems to be gett drained. Danger is that the car randomly dies and won’t start. Dealer has no idea of the issue. Tow truck driver said he has towed severs Honda Pilots with the same issue.