Fully loaded with 2 adults and 6 teens, the smoke poured out of all areas of the car. On a busy highway 60 miles from home, we waited 90 minutes on the side of the highway for the tow truck. After being attacked by wasps and waiting in the smoking car (difficult choice) a wonderful Martin County Sheriff (Grace) stayed with us for over an hour till help arrived.

This converter (which we have now learned) blew without any warning, We have been told that this is a vwry common 2003 Pilot problem. They should help with the cost

My husband and I decided to purchase a used 2003 Certified Honda Pilot in 2006. With the last payment due 12/11, the transmission just failed. Estimated costs for repair are $3500+. Since we bought the car after the initial recall was sent out in 2004, we do not know if it was serviced. It would have been nice to have been notified of this when we bought the car. We purchased a Honda because we thought (especially Certified) that it would last us a good 10 years. Now we are faced with a large repair bill- which is ridiculous at 106,000 miles or purchasing a new car. Neither of which are acceptable at this time. We stopped at the Honda lot and we were told by the salesman that he knew nothing of any issues with the Honda transmissions from this time. Obviously, the line you expect from a salesman. No more Honda's for us!

I had my Honda Pilot Serviced regularly. In fact, it had a service on 8th November 2011. Then on 9th November 2011, without any warning whatsoever, no warning lights, nothing...I was driving onto the on ramp of interstate 1 95 on a dark, foggy, rainy night. My 11 year old son was in the car with me. We were driving home from swim practice. The car made this awful rumbling noise and would not go faster than 20 mph. This was the journey from hell. I had my hazard warning lights on all the time, trying to merge into high speed interstate traffic while only being able to reach 20 mph is not good for my heart rate !! it took me well over an hour to drive 15 miles home. The car " limped" up my driveway. I tell you, if there had been a cliff handy... I would have pushed the stupid car over the cliff. I wish I'd never bought a Honda Pilot. I hate this car.

I purchased a Honda Thinking it was a trustworthy car. Honda knows that the transmission is bad in the Honda Pilot but fail to do anything about it. I called Honda and they told me it wasn’t covered. The 1st time I broke down in Nov. 2009 about 90,000 miles, I was in Phila, Pa for my mother’s 75th Birthday party. I am a widow & travel with children with me in the car. The car jerked badly before we got on the highway it terrified us. I had to stay in Phila, for a week waiting to get my car fixed. I had to use my credit card & borrow money to pay for the repairs. Is Honda just like everyone else money, money, money with no concern for life. They need to reimburse everyone who had to pay to get their transmission fixed. Now here I am again Aug 2011 stuck in Richmond VA transmission out again. Shame on Honda how many people will be injured or die before Honda will do the responsible thing. I am still paying on the credit card from 2009 and still paying for the car. I thank God for keeping us safe. Praying Honda will pay.... I have never had a transmission problem with any other cars I have owned.

Our Pilot has been family owned since new and was dealer maint. up to 80K miles. My wife and I bought it from her parents with 80K miles. It's hardly even needed any maint. done. I did the timing belt/waterpump/plugs @ 107K miles, the first brake job was done at 125K miles. We drive mostly highway.

Here's the catch:

The first transmission went out at 130K miles. Honda quoted us $3,700 to replace it with a factory reman. with a 3-year/36K miles warranty. We had them replace it because we didn't want to ever have to worry about it again. Honda ended up covering some of the cost so the bill was about $2,700. We though, "Things could be worse. It's been a good vehicle. Anything can break once. We like it, we'll keep it.".......... to be continued.....

Here is a copy of my previous post: "Our Pilot has been family owned since new and was dealer maint. up to 80K miles. My wife and I bought it from her parents with 80K miles. It's hardly even needed any maint. done. I did the timing belt/waterpump/plugs @ 107K miles, the first brake job was done at 125K miles. We drive mostly highway.

Here's the catch: The first transmission went out at 130K miles. Honda quoted us $3,700 to replace it with a factory reman. with a 3-year/36K miles warranty. We had them replace it because we didn't want to ever have to worry about it again. Honda ended up covering some of the cost so the bill was about $2,700. We though, "Things could be worse. It's been a good vehicle. Anything can break once. We like it, we'll keep it."

Here is my current post: Now 2 years later @ 172K miles and the transmission needs to be replaced again. They won't cover anything because we have put 42K miles on it (we are out of warranty). They quoted us $4,700 this time. Now we think, "We don't like it, we wont keep it. Buying another Honda would be asking for trouble. They are extremely expensive to maintain."

Can YOU afford one? We can't.

I took my Pilot in for the original recall on the bad transmission gear oiler right after the notice was sent out and received the update to the transmission. I remember being told not to worry about the repair being enough as Honda was extending the warranty on the transmission to 100,000 miles. I wish I had gotten that in writing. Had the flashing [D] about a year ago and was told it was no big deal. The transmission fluid has been replaced regularly by Honda. Within a few thousand miles of my last transmission fluid replacement and inspection my transmission failed. It felt as though 2nd or 3rd gear was gone. I limped it into the dealership and was given an estimate of $4400. I was given this whole "good cop , bad cop" routine where the guy helping me talked to his manager who then supposedly called "American Honda" to see about getting some percentage of the repair taken care of by them. I ended up paying 40% or $1680. Talking to other Pilot and Odyssey owners this sort of failure appears to be common. Honda did acknowledge that there was a problem back in 2003, but I am very disappointed that they didn't take care of obviously related repair in 2011. The very part that the recall referenced is what failed. This is my 6th Honda and because of their unwillingness to own up to this being their fault it will be my last. I hope the rebuilt transmission lasts longer than I have been warned by my regular mechanic. He says they can fail in as short as 18 months. I'm warning everyone I know about the unreliability of Honda transmissions and recommending they look elsewhere. I'm just waiting for the class action suit to start.

At 120,000 miles i noticed my honda pilot 2003 was slipping between 2nd and 3rd gears. I went on line and found out there was a recall. When I went to the dealer they said the recall had been addressed and that was not the problem. The engine light was on , on the dashboard. They replaced a solenoid switch and a transmission pressure switch for about $500. I drove the pilot that evening and the transmission continued to slip and the D light started blinking. The transmission became progressively worse with no help from the dealership. I contacted Honda customer service and I'm still waiting for a response. Not very happy with Honda right now. My chevy truck has 130,000 miles and still runs fine.

I am the owner of a 2003 Honda Pilot. Back in June, I took it to Community Honda in Whittier, California, and explained to them the problem I was having which I thought was transmission-related. 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. When I got the vehicle back from them, they said that they tried to duplicate what I described but they didn't find anything wrong with the transmission and the vehicle. 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 bought the vehicle brand new in October of 2002, my first Honda, because I have heard the reliability of their products. It has been regularly serviced by Community Honda since then. 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 Honda's 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.

No previous signs of a transmission problem. While traveling on a major interstate, my engine light came on as well as the notification that I was in 4-wheel drive (which I wasn't) and the vehicle began jerking. I had to down shift to keep and reduce my driving speed to keep the vehicle moving. The following morning I took the vehicle to Honda, who first thought it was poor gas. Later the same day, they advised it was a transmission failure of the worst kind. Because all maintenance had been done at the dealership and maintained as scheduled, they paid for the transmission, provided a courtesy car, and charges us one-half the mechanics fee. I thought it was a fair deal.

Similar to other complaints, I expected the Pilot to be kept and used for the long haul. I have had Honda cars in the past and put many miles on them. The pilot we purchased new and had Honda maintain until the warranty mileage expired. Still kept up with all the maintenance and service requirements. The recall for cooling and gear was completed by Honda.

Recently the transmission started shifting very strange and the truck did not want to go into gear. Drove to my mechanic (close by) and left it there. Found that the codes were transmission errors (no surprise there) and followed my mechanics advice for the repair facility. $2400 and 1.5 weeks later we got the vehicle back and began to question why a Honda product would be falling apart like this. The mechanic said our torque converter had failed and flushed parts through the transmission. The work was covered for 36 months or 50K miles.

Two weeks later the truck started lurching again. Back to the shop for another week plus in time. The torque converter liner disintegrated and so they rebuilt it yet again but while under the warranty. The most disconcerting thing about the trips to the transmission shop was the realization that about 1/3 of the vehicles there were Honda Pilots or Odysseys. I want to think the truck is reliable but my wife is certainly not convinced.

Honda's response to this point is that the only recall and problem they have is related to the recall they serviced for us. They still seem oblivious to the issue with their V6 drive trains in 2003 even though they are pervasive through all their car lines including my neighbors Acura which had to have the transmission replaced while still under 40K miles. Needless to say I am questioning "Honda Quality" and thinking hard about how nice my Toyota Camry has been through the last 200K miles.

Complaining about louder whining noise from the transmission at our 60K maintenance service at the Honda dealer, the mechanic recommended replacement (4/8/10). On 4/28, the service mgr (having been informed by the Honda Rep) offered 50% help with cost of replacement. Unacceptable. We had previously pleaded our case to the service mgr about: 1) the recall kit installed last 2005 didn't work; 2) those failures prompting that recall in 2004 happened to vehicles over 60,000 miles; 3)all required car maintenance have been performed at the Honda dealer; 3) concern about failure that impact safety; 4) voiced concern about Honda's integrity.

At this time we will pursue further on this complaint to the Honda Co. and with NHTSA. It's shameful that we were told that the Honda Rep will not see customers.

2003 Pilot started shimmering at 29 miles and then at 49 miles, took it in and they had no idea what could be causing it. They would need to run diagnostics and test drive it. Well 2 days later transmission failure is the problem. After looking on the internet apparently it is a more common problem than they are willing to fess up to. I am so mad, we own 2 other Honda's and they are great, I tell people all the time how great my Pilot is. Not anymore. I bought the car for long term no more new car for me for 10 years was my thought. Save a little for the kids college. Brag that my car has 210,000 miles on it and now worries. Not the case. If Honda doesn't help with the repairs It will be the last Honda that I purchased.