general problems of the 2021 Honda Pilot - part 1

The vehicle experienced failure of the air conditioning system caused by an a/c compressor shaft seal leak on my 2021 Honda Pilot. The issue was diagnosed and confirmed by both an independent mechanic and an authorized Honda dealership. The dealership confirmed that the recommended repair is replacement/repair of the compressor shaft seal consistent with Honda service bulletin (TSB) 23-050. The vehicle and failed component are available for inspection upon request prior to repair. The failure created a safety concern because the inability to properly operate the air conditioning and defrost system can reduce driver visibility due to windshield fogging and create unsafe driving conditions during warm and humid weather. Excessive cabin temperatures can also negatively impact driver concentration and passenger safety during travel. Prior to visiting the dealership, my mechanic identified the likely issue as an a/c compressor shaft seal leak and advised me to bring the vehicle to Honda because it appeared to be a known manufacturer issue. The Honda dealership later confirmed the same defect after completing a paid diagnostic inspection. The vehicle has been inspected by an independent mechanic and an authorized Honda dealership service department. A case has also been opened with Honda corporate regarding the issue and denial of coverage assistance though was told it could take several days to weeks to be resolved. Prior to the failure, there were no warning lamps or dashboard warning messages displayed. The first symptom was the air conditioning system no longer cooling properly when first used during warmer weather around may 2026. Because the a/c system had not been used during the winter months, the problem only became apparent once temperatures increased and the system was needed again. This appears to be a known issue already acknowledged by Honda through the publication of TSB 23-050 covering 2021 Honda Pilot models.

Auto idle stop activated at a stop light for the 2nd or 3rd time over a few years. Lifted foot off the break and stalled, the car went into park and I could not put it into neutral or drive. The odometer screen looked like it does when the engine is on. The battery light was on. I tried to turn down the radio and the volume didn't work. I tried pressing the ignition button to turn off the car entirely but it didn't work the first couple of tries. Once I was able to completely turn it off, it struggled to turn over when I tried to start the engine, which I've never had happen, but did turn over. Dealership wanted to charge $325 for a few hours of diagnostics which we declined.

Auto start-stop feauture turned on at complete stop at traffic light. When light turned green and pressed the gas pedal to accelerate, engine did not turn back on. It had put vehicle into neutral and would not allow vehicle to shift into any other gear. Had to shut off engine and turn on vehicle an additional 3 times to get the engine to start again and into drive. This has happened twice before within the last year with the auto start stop feauture when it turns on at a complete stop. I usually press button to turrn off auto start stop feature to prevent this known issue from happening but forgot to turn feature off. Honda wants to charge $300 to diagnosis problem with auto start stop feature due to problem being known but no recall issued.

The car engine autorestart causes all sorts of problems. We have repeatedly had the warning come on and the engine stop while at a light or paused in moving traffic. We have replaced the battery and other parts. The safety issue is that the car totally stops while in traffic and we have almost been hit multiple times as we try to restart the car. You have to put the car in park and restart the engine due to "compression issues" or something else. That has nothing to do with being a branded title and everything to do with a safety issue. The car just stops and won't autorestart. This has happened several times in the last week and then yesterday other warning lights came on resulting in the car then not accelerating beyond 25 mph initially and then 45 mph. Imagine this happening on a highway. This is really scary as it has happened on an interstate when traffic stopped and at a traffic light. I called Honda and they acknowledged it was safety issue but written up as a warranty extension so they refused to cover the repair of the vehicle. I am therefore escalating what I believe you are already investigating according to articles I have seen.

The auto idle start-stop feature has been failing for many years without being resolved. Honda has done updates and updated the fuel injection software without improvement. I have also replaced the battery as recommended. I continue to get stuck at stop lights and intersections which is a safety hazard. This most recently occurred on 3/7/26.

After I drove for 30 minutes and made a stop in a red light, the car automatically went to neutral position and I wasn't able to turn it back to driving or parking ( the brake locks) and I had to turn the car off for 10 seconds in the middle of the road and put my emergency lights on. After I turn it back on it worked normally.

Honda’s auto idle stop system shuts vehicle off when at a full stop and fails to restart after removing foot from the brake. Instead, when you remove your foot off the brake, the vehicle switches to neutral or park and does not restart despite following on screen instructions to restart (example: switch to park, put foot on the brake, and press start button). We have to put the hazard lights on and try the steps over and over again until it restarts. This is a major safety issue, especially when at a traffic light or in heavy traffic, where every second counts and you have to worry about someone not noticing that you are stopped or have hazard lights on and plows into you.

Wife was driving car and it stalled when slowing down for a red light. No check engine light or dash warning notices. Car then displayed instructions to restart the car tried to restart 4 or 5 times. Finally started. We were lucky she was not on a highway driving at highway speeds.

My Honda Pilot experiences a serious safety issue with the auto idle stop feature. When the system engages at a stop (such as a red light), the vehicle sometimes fails to restart, leaving me stalled in traffic. This creates a dangerous situation for myself and other drivers. The problem appears to be related to the auto idle stop system and/or the auxiliary battery. Many other Honda owners are reporting similar issues, which suggests this may be a widespread defect that needs investigation. I just dropped the car at Honda dealership for further inspection.

Car does not restart after auto start stop is engaged, car stalls at intersections, causing dangerous conditions.

Auto start/stop feature turned off the engine at a stoplight. When the light turned green and the brake pedal was released, the engine did not restart. There also appeared to be some sort of electrical malfunction since the start stop button would not turn off the ignition system in an attempt to reset the vehicle. This happened on a light regulated highway with a posted speed limit of 55 mph.

I closed my back door and my back hatchback window shattered outwards. It isn’t winter and nothing hit window. The entire window shattered at same time. Not a crack and then shattered.

I notice there is an investigation on the Honda Pilot stop and start shutting off the engine this also happen to my car twice this week and also once prior to this. There are also issue where the radio will restart when the auto stop and start restart. In the report I don't believe the 2021 Honda Pilot was included.

The auto-idle-stop system in my Pilot just shut off my engine and then failed to restart. The engine finally restarted after multiple attempts and finally holding the start button for 5 seconds. This happened in traffic and could have caused an accident.

We've been having a continuous issue and taken it to out escondido Honda dealership, to the service department. Our service department advisor named omar had his tech look at it awhiel ago but they couldn't come up with anything. I recently saw the 2 million vehicle recalls on including the Honda Pilot, which we have a 2021 special edition. When I put in my VIN it says that there are no recalls as of right now. However, our vehicle is exhibiting the same exact mechanical failure as described in the NHTSA recall. The auto start stop is failing to reengage when trying to start going after the stop light turns green, it completely dies out and won't restart, leaving us stopped and stranded at the stop light or wherever we are at, at that time. We've also had issues that when it does reengage the auto stop/start it sounds like it was struggling initially before it started to just not reengage at all and started leaving us stranded. Then we would have to press on the button to put it back in park and then push the start/stop button. Which wouldn't always work, then we'd have to keep pushing it and eventually started. Please assist and thank you for your time.

While driving the screen with the speedometer and essential information goes blank for a few seconds.

The auto idle-stop feature in my Honda Pilot prevented from starting the engine again. It is available for inspection upon request. I was at the stop light with the idle-stop feature enabled and when it was time for me to start driving again, the car would not start. The car turned off completely and a lot of the lights including the battery light turned on and a message stating to bring the key fob close to the start button came on. The battery has been changed within a year since I mentioned this problem to the dealership when I brought it in for an oil change. They determined that they had to change the battery. Clearly this did not solve the issue. When this happened today, I was driving on [xxx] which is a highway with a lot of traffic. Since I was unable to move forward, I backed up the traffic coming behind me. The problem has not been produced or confirmed by the dealer since this happened today. The component has not been inspected by the manufacturer even though I have brought it up to their attention, police, or insurance representatives. No warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure have appeared. This is the first time that the car has completely failed to re-start. In the past, it has struggled to start, but it makes it happen. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

I was stopped at a red light and my engine stopped like normal but then when light turned green and I attempted to accelerate the engine never turned back on. I had to put the car in park. Shut down the vehicle and then attempted to start the car again. It took a few time before I was able to start up the vehicle. This has happened multiple times and initially I thought I may have done something but then as it became more frequent, I started paying closer attention to the stop-start of the engine and came to the realization that it is not the way I was operating but more or less an issue with the engine.

On multiple occasions after being stopped at a red light and the engine turns off it failed to restart. After shutting the car completely off and attempting to restart after a few tries it was able to restart however this is an ongoing issue.

This issue has to do with the auto engine idle shut off feature. While the issue does not happen all the time, but when it starts to happen, I have to turn the auto engine idle shut off feature off. I have not found a way to reproduce the issue on demand, which is why I have not taken the vehicle into Honda. It would be a waste of time and money. I bought the vehicle used and the battery was new when we bought it. The first time it happened, we were traveling to the beach. We had already driven about 1. 5 hours on the interstate without stopping and then we got into a lot of stop and go traffic due to an accident. The engine would cut off like normal after coming to a complete stop and having my foot on the break. When I took my foot off of the break, the engine sounded like the vehicle was trying to start, but was sluggish. It sounded like it was a bad battery issue. I had to place the vehicle in park, then press the start/stop button to turn the vehicle off with my foot on the brake, then press the start/stop button to start the vehicle. The vehicle did not have any issues starting. After a few times of this, I replaced the battery even though advanced auto parts said it tested fine. I did not have the issue for 4 or 5 months after that. Then it started happening on occasion again. I have taken it back to advanced auto parts and the battery tested fine. Another scenario was just today where I had been driving for about an hour on the interstate. I got off the interstate and shortly after getting off the interstate I was stopped at traffic light. The auto engine idle shut off feature activated. When the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake and the vehicle would not even attempt to start and the shifter changed to neutral automatically. I tried to start the car and it would not even start. I had to put the vehicle into park, then I was able to start the vehicle without any issues. I plan to take the vehicle in to test the battery, but have not yet.

While driving at freeway speed the gauge cluster including speedometer, gear selection, and navigation system shut off. The speedometer area was blank and the navigation screen said "network connection lost" no most network. It began to come back on a minute or 2 later. The most cable recall work has been done.

As I approached a red light and hit the brake - the car went into auto idle. However this time, the car shut off completely. I was able to turn it back on but then it happened again when I hit the brakes again.

The system that is malfunctioning is the transmission. It is randomly shifting into neutral while at stop lights and while driving down the roads. This is an unsafe problem because the vehicle has to stop and be turned off then restarted before the transmission will allow you to change into drive. Stopping in the road on multiple occasions due to not being able to move to the side, has been causing hazardous conditions and near accidents on several occasions. The problem is random and when taken to the dealer for the issue, they test drove it for a few minutes and said they couldn't see the issue happening. They stated that we should just wait until it is happening more often and then come back. I have done a quick internet search for the issue and it has popped up in many Honda forums and sites. It seems to be a somewhat common problem. Honda seems to act unaware of the issue. Our insurance is aware of the issue but it has not been checked by anyone other than the dealership service department. There were no warnings or lights to indicate an issue before during or after the problem.

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.

I think the issue may be the auto idle system. Twice the car has shut off when waiting in traffic at a light causing obviously severe panic as the cars behind me honk and I try to get the car to come back on. Then another time, the car just wouldn't turn on. It took about 30 minutes before I could get it turned on. My safety could have been compromised had someone rear-ended me while I was trying to turn the car back on. The dealer can not reproduce the problem. No one else has inspected the vehicle. There were no warning lights etc. Prior to the failures.

1) recall 2020-22 multi-model seat weight sensor safety recall. Called since February 2024 when it was posted. I called the dealership and was told that I will received a postcard by mail. I have been waiting for the postcard and called multiple dealerships multiple times. I have been told that they don't have the parts to fix the issue and be put on the waiting list until further notice. 2)the screen goes off or it goes blurry. 3)the car charger goes out sometimes too.

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.

I'm having issues with the auto stop start. I see there is a known problem for the 2016-2020 Honda Pilots. I have a 2021. It's the same issue. I stop at an intersection and the car auto stops the engine. I then tried to go and the car stalled. I had to put in park and restart the car. Since then I have had 2 more incidents where the car almost stalls, the dash errors lights come on but then the car starts and goes without stalling. This has happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks. I have it in the service center today. I wanted to report this issue is still ongoing and seems to affect more than the previously listed vehicles.

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!.

Problem dealer said recall for airbags risk/ seat sensor cannot be fixed due to unable to get parts.

I have 4 car washed for this car so far ive only had it for a few weeks. Every time I wash it the dome light/rear mirror leaks water and wets the entire cup holder and center console.

This has now happened twice, resulting in my infant getting locked in the car. I unlocked the car open the driver side second door where my car seat is. I buckle in my infant put in my bag and then go to get in the driver side door and the car has locked itself with my key in my bag that I put inside the car with my baby. Either the car should not lock with the key inside of it or there should not be a timed lock system once the car has been opened.

I was stopped at red light on a slight grade. When light turned green I took foot of over brake and car started to drift backwards. I pressed the brake and looked down. Car shifted in neutral on its own. I pushed drive button and it was ok. The auto-start was off. If I had been on a steep hill, I would probably have drifted into car behind me. I took car to Honda dealer and there were no codes logged. They told me they checked with Honda. This happened in April, 2024 and only time this has happened. This is the third issue I have had with this car with no errors logged. The other two were not safety related.

On 3/18/24 I started my car on a routine after school pickup trip but my notification system started blinking with different sensor problems. I took pictures of the display and tried to drive my car and saw at the time it did not affect drivability. I made an appointment with my dealer and brought it in 3/25/24. I started researching if there might be a pattern with other Honda Pilots and did find some discussion boards about 2020/2021 Honda Pilot that had a similar event—sensor problems displaying for no evident triggering event. I brought my car in for the appointment and the advisor said they would run a diagnostic as well as address 2 active recalls on my Pilot and take care of the maintenance. The diagnostic test showed that I have a faulty front multi purpose camera that must be replaced. Ny car has about $70k miles so it is outside the warranty period so I am having to pay for this repair myself. Note: the active recall that was repaired at this same visit was an issue with wiring in the rear camera. I asked the advisor if it was possible that the camera issues were related even though they were different cameras and he said at the moment there were no recalls for the multipurpose camera so he could not say. I am submitting this claim to document a possible safety concern that should be covered under a recall. Other incidents noted: when advisor asked if I had experienced any issues starting car, I did mention that last summer appx. Aug 2023 at a stop light my car went in idle mode (auto start/stop function) but when I took my foot off brake to go on green light the car did not restart. I had to get my key and push it into the ignition button to restart it. This has happened 2 since I’ve had the car. With all the recalls and these auto stop/start issues, I have experienced lower confidence & satisfaction in my Honda Pilot, but I am worried that safety may be an issue as well.

There is a problem with the camera that is disabled my brake system features. I am hearing this is a known issue with many of these cars.