10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 2
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
9,493 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.

So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.

2017 Honda Pilot electrical problems

electrical problem

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2017 Honda Pilot Owner Comments (Page 5 of 12)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #141

Aug 012021

Pilot

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The car sometimes fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or stop sign with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged. Furthermore, on two recent occasions the car would not start at all after it was turned off to get gas. One of those times it sat for 40 minutes at the gas pump while waiting for a jump start (it eventually started on its own), and the other it had to be towed to the dealer. After the first incident, we were told there was nothing wrong with the battery and a month later, when the car had to be towed, we were told the battery was completely dead. The concern with the start/stop trouble has been reported to the dealer and we were told there was nothing they could see. There have been no warning lights, lamps or messages. The start/stop problem began approximately a year ago, and we have tried to turn that feature off when driving, due to the problems that occur, since we were told there wasn't a problem that could be seen. On the occasions we forget to take this step, it always struggles at a stoplight or intersection and if not caught in time, the car will stall out, sometimes taking 2-3 tries to restart. The vehicle is currently in the shop, awaiting a battery replacement as we have been told that is what is causing the start/stop issue.

- Warrenton, VA, USA

problem #140

Sep 192018

Pilot

  • miles
On multiple occasions, the engine idle stop system has failed to restart the engine at an intersection when releasing the brake leaving the car disabled in a dangerous situation. This started after about 20k miles. When it happens the car is fine until brake release. It seems to try to restart but the entire car loses power. No lights, no anything. Won't restart at first either. After a few moments trying to get it to restart it will fire up and you can put it back in drive and continue. I did note it happened less when I replaced the battery for a while. Dealer has replaced fuel rail and ignition switch to no avail. As a car guy I can say when it happens it's almost like there is not enough power to throw the starter. At that moment it's like all the power is sapped away like a bad ground or something. But then it comes back because obviously it restarts after a bit. Battery, Alternator and starter tests are always good. We now turn engine stop off every time we start the car out of fear but there is no permanent off switch.

- Virginia Beach, VA, USA

problem #139

Sep 092022

Pilot

  • miles
The idle stop feature not working properly. Many times the engine will not restart after releasing the brake and pressing the accelerator. This has left me stranded in busy traffic situations including intersections. This is very dangerous and a hazard for me and my family.

- Pensacola, FL, USA

problem #138

May 172022

Pilot

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I have experienced several instances where the vehicle's auto stop-start system fails to restart the vehicle's engine after a stop. This has happened 2-5 times. Specifically, when the vehicle is at a full stop (with brake fully depressed), the auto stop-start system is designed to stop the engine to conserve fuel by turning the engine off. During the episodes at issue, the system works correctly to stop the system. However, when I have released the brake pedal and attempted to resume driving, the engine has failed to restart and the power system appears to fail/reset. The vehicle then requires that I attempt to restart it using the stop/start button. On at least one occasion, I had to make multiple attempts to restart the vehicle before it finally began operating again. This situation often results in the vehicle obstructing traffic for an extended period of time and creating a dangerous situation. I have begun disabling the auto stop-start system when driving the car to avoid this problem occurring.

- Chicago, IL, USA

problem #137

Aug 252022

Pilot

  • miles
On numerous occasions, when the auto engine start/stop engages, due to coming to a temporary stop, the vehicle completely shuts down. I then have to restart the car manually. Usually a notification pops up on the dash telling me there-??s an issue and you have to follow the instructions. It-??s very stressful because I am usually in traffic and have my children with me. This is a huge safety issue.

- Montgomery, NY, USA

problem #136

Aug 272022

Pilot

  • miles
I was stopped at a stop sign and the auto-idle engaged. When I went to start again, the entire car shut down and would not start. I told me to depress the brake to start the vehicle, but the brake would not depress. I was stuck at the stop sign in the middle of a busy intersection because the car wouldn-??t restart after the auto-idle engaged. After about 10 minutes, the car was able to start and I was able to drive it home. Prior to this, I have had some instances where the auto-idle would engage and when I went to drive again, all the lights would flash and it would delay in starting. The code reader read zero codes. Previous inspections from the deal found no errors as well. We are replacing the battery, but there are no other indications the battery was dead, dying or faulty and would cause this issue.

- Leesburg, VA, USA

problem #135

Aug 262022

Pilot

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

1. The problem is linked directly to the Auto Start/Stop capability. The Car is available for inspection upon request. 2. Car shut down electrically in the intersection of the road and caused traffic and police presence, semi trucks rolling through were frightening 3. Honda West Dealership in Las Vegas inspected the problem but had no resolution to fix it. 4. No warning lights indicated a shut off was emminent.

- Las Vegas, NV, USA

problem #134

Aug 262022

Pilot

  • 100,000 miles
The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that alarm on the vehicle would activate erroneously. The contact stated that after deactivating the alarm, the alarm sounded again hours later. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 100,000.

- Los Banos, CA, USA

problem #133

Aug 012022

Pilot

  • miles
The auto start/stop on my vehicle doesn't always work. I come to a complete stop, the vehicle turns off and when I pick my foot up off the brake to restart the car sometimes it will stall. There is no warning message or indication whether or not the car is about to stall, it just happens randomly. We cannot consistently replicate the issue. In order to restart the car I have to hit the start button, wait for the car to completely shut off and then turn the car back on creating a huge safety issue especially if I'm in the middle of an intersection waiting to make a left-hand turn. This is an accident waiting to happen. I brought my car to a Honda dealership approximately 6 months ago and brought the issue up to them. They told me they could find no issue with the car, couldn't replicate it and told me they had never heard of it before. It wasn't until I did an online search a few days ago that I realized that I wasn't the only one having this issue. I drive my children in this car and would be willing to allow anyone to inspect my vehicle to try to get to the root of the issue. This is a huge safety issue for what is supposed to be a safe family vehicle.

- Chagrin Falls, OH, USA

problem #132

Aug 232022

Pilot

  • miles
we bought April 2021 and 1st issue not even 60 days after purchase, dealer removed warranty without us knowing! We have had problems ever since with warming lights coming on & flashing on multiple occasions, even while traveling @ 50 mph!. Huge safety issue as the vehicle jolts and then looses power and can't pick up speed and go with flow of traffic! Someone will get in an accident because of it and that will be a HUGE liability for honda as you all are ware of these issues and are doing NOTHING to recall them and fix the problem! This is a problem for many honda pilot owners from all the honda forums i have read and research ive been doing! i want the issue resolved as this is NOT a random. I just read that there was a service bulletin in 8/2019 pertaining to this specific car/VIN and it references faulty fuel injectors. i have no way to know if this was completed. i feel i should be able to have the injectors serviced/replaced at NO COST to me as this is a HUGE problem with 2016-2017 pilots and the fact a honda dealer pretty much sold us a LEMON of a car! I want our pilot fixed as it is a problem that Honda has been having with 2016-2017 pilots and Honda should be liable for this! Happened again today and has been happening more frequent in the past few months but have been dealing with it since we bought the vehicle. recent mechanic said the ECM/PCM may be faulty as you cant get a viable code as everytime it happens it throws all kinds of warning lights & codes that are not accurate.

- Edgewater, FL, USA

problem #131

Nov 012018

Pilot

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

I have a 2017 Honda Pilot Elite. My car has had issues since I purchased with the stop/start feature and it-??s progressively gotten worse. It-??s currently failing every day. In 2017, it was the automatic stop not working right. It would intermittently come on/off when at a complete stop. It never quite functioned properly. It-??s so bad, that I turn feature off when I start the car. Unfortunately, I can-??t have it default to off so if I don-??t remember to turn off auto-start every single time, then I have issues. My son was 3 years old when I bought my car. I would be at stops and the car would shut off. Then, it wouldn-??t start. It would require me to press brake+gas+start button to reset car. I have come very close to getting into accidents while at stops and have had drivers with road rage come after me since I made them miss the light while my car restarts. I have been in the turn lane with heavy traffic and my car stops in the middle of the intersection. In 2018-2020, it progressively gotten worse. I took to Southeastern Honda to get looked at and was told that-??s just how it works. After 2020, the car stops and will not restart at all. It would intermittently happen where I would need to get a jump start to get car running. I took to Space Coast Honda thinking it was my battery or starter. I was told that it tested fine, but still does it. In 2022, my car progressively got worse and requires a jump start. I since purchased a jump starter that is portable. I have to use it every single day. I have narrowed down the symptoms. If I drive 30 minutes and turn car off and immediately back on.. it will not turn over. I have to wait 4 hours and it works. I have measured my stop battery at 11.7 when it doesn-??t work. If I wait 4 hours or jump start.. then it requires a 12.6 to start. I researched and found article that is exactly what happens https://www.cnet.com/roadshow/news/2016-2020-honda-pilot-nhtsa-investigation-engine-failures/#ftag=COS-05-10aaa0j

- Viera, FL, USA

problem #130

Aug 182022

Pilot

  • miles
Failed to restart when auto engine stop engaged in the middle of a busy intersection. Large truck with heavy duty battery jump started but it took 10 minutes of being connected to the battery for the engine ignition to start again. No lack of charge (all electronics working but turned off just in case) but a defect in the restart after cutoff.

- Monroe, WA, USA

problem #129

Aug 102022

Pilot

  • miles
We own a Honda Pilot 2017 Touring trim. I saw your news report that there is a document out there published by the NHTSA that is investigating this issue. I-??d like to add my experience to this. On or about April 2022, we started experiencing the start/stop issue while living in Kansas. When the issue occurred, an error message would flash very briefly across the dash, quick enough where we could not take a picture of the message. Our Honda would stutter then start back up. At this point, we took it to the Legends Honda dealership [10050 Parallel Pkwy, Kansas City, KS 66109] and after a free diagnostic they told us they could not A) replicate the issue, B) find evidence of the error message in the system. The next week, we had a complete engine failure while at a stop light for a full 5 minutes. During those 5 minutes, the engine remained off, the transmission shifted to Park on its own, and the vehicle could not be restarted manually. Traffic built up behind and around us as we were trying to figure out how to get off the road and we could not turn the hazard lights on. It seems this issue is related to an electrical component. After 5 minutes, we were able to push the ignition button to turn off the car completely and restart the engine. The vehicle operated normally afterwards. On August 12, 2022, the same issue occurred where the vehicle engine would not restart and we were prevented from manually restarting the vehicle for about 5 minutes. Once again, the transmission shifted itself to Park, an error message flashed across the screen briefly this time, and after 5 mins we could manually restart the car and continue as normal. Between these catastrophic failure dates, we would experience multiple start/stop stutters with error msg The only experience we have where this would not occur is to manually turn off the auto start/stop feature when driving the car. We see this as an issue that could cause injury, aggressive drivers, and other safety concerns.

- Ewa Beach, HI, USA

problem #128

Aug 162022

Pilot

  • miles
The auto restart feature fails to restart the car after releasing the break sitting at a busy intersection. The car information center provided information to put the car in park and hit the ignition button again. I was able to get the car to restart after several tries by putting the car in park, shutting it off and turning it back on. This the third time this has happened in the past month.

- Chester, NJ, USA

problem #127

Aug 012022

Pilot

  • miles
Car stalls when auto stop turns back

- Shawnee Hills, OH, USA

problem #126

Jun 142021

Pilot

  • miles
My car completely shuts off at stop sign/red light when engine idle feature is activated. I have to put car in park and restart it. This has been an ongoing issue since summer 2021. Vehicle was evaluated at dealership with no resolve. In addition, a new cam shaft had to be installed in fall 2022, at Honda's expense.Car completely stalled while passing another (55mph)

- Sylvania, OH, USA

problem #125

Aug 072022

Pilot

  • miles
Vehicle stalls REPEATEDLY when the automatic anti-idle function is active. Whenever the air conditioning and audio is on and I stop the car, the engine stops (as the anti-idle system is intended to work), then stalls out as the engine restarts. This has been happening for about 2 years and happens almost every time the anti-idle system engages. It-??s terrifying when it stalls in stop and go traffic on the highway.

- Rye, NY, USA

problem #124

Aug 042022

Pilot

  • miles
In support of NHTSA Action Number: PE22005 2017 Honda Pilot multiple experiences with the auto idle cutting off and not restarting. 8/4/2022 was worst experience to date. The vehicle cut off at a stop light and would not restart. The ability to roll down the windows and unlock the doors was disabled so 2 occupants were potentially trapped inside. Fortunately a door had just been opened to waive backed up traffic around the disabled vehicle. AAA and Sheriff's were called to the scene. It was successfully jumped and the AAA diagnosis was that nothing was wrong with the battery, starter, nor alternator. This is a major flaw in engineering and a fix has to be developed or the vehicle appropriately replaced.

- Winston Salem, NC, USA

problem #123

Apr 152020

Pilot

  • miles
Starting in the summer if 2020 every few weeks after coming to a stop and the auto idle stop would stop the engine. When releasing the brake the engine would not immediately restart. The pause on restart would slowly increase as the time between occurrences decreased. Occurred during each trip. Pauses increased enough that the entire control panel and radio screen would go black, and then the car restarted with warning message coming up on control panel. Contacted Honda and took it in on 9/9/2020. They couldn-??t recreate the issue. They charged the battery, did hard reset. Drove car with issue still occurring. Returned the vehicle for additional service on 9/16/2020. They are still unable to duplicate the issue and opened up a tech line case#4376911. They replaced a Dc/DC converter. Issue continued. Returned car with same issue. Don-??t know date at this time. They replaced the battery which did fix the problem, temporarily. Began having same issue April 2022. Issue slowly increasing in duration of pause and frequency of occurring. July 10 2022 started having pause long enough for control panels to go dark and get warning light when engine restarted. Started occurring daily. On Friday 7/29/22 came to a four way stop and idle stop engaged. Lifted foot off brake, pushed on gas and realized car had not restarted and car was rolling backwards. Quickly pushed on brake to to stop car rolling backwards which then car restarted with warning light. Called Honda on 7/29/22 made appointment for 8/4/22. On Sunday 7/31/22 We were driving and came to a stop and idle off engaged turning off engine at a red light. At this occurrence the dash and radio went black when foot was pulled off break. Engine did not restart. Dash lights came back on with message that car must be in park to start engine. Attempted to switch to park but controls would not until few attempts. Finally Able to put in park, start car, put in drive and pull away. Stuck in traffic lane for about 15-25 seconds. Scary.

- Lafayette , OR, USA

problem #122

Jul 302022

Pilot

  • miles
I was stopped at a red light. The stop idol engaged and the vehicle did not start when I attempted to make my turn. The instrument panel indicated that I should shift to park. I did so and attempted to restart the vehicle but it did not start. After a number of attempts to restart it eventually turned on and I drove straight home. I was in the middle of a major intersection with my son in the car. Car zooming by me as my car was stuck in the turning lane. If a car failing to start as a result of a feature that was integrated by the manufacturer isn-??t a safety issue then I don-??t know what a safety concern would be classified as according the this institution. Permanently shutting off the feature is not an option as it renegades every time you start the car initially. The car has stalled a few times prior to today-??s incident but this is the first time it failed to restart. As I drove home I reengaged the system to see what would happen, if failed to restart again and began the stall every time once the idol stop was engaged. This is unsafe. If I forget to turn off the function of this feature and I am on an expressway what happens if the car fails to restart, my brakes lights may not be pressed as I am thinking I am simply going to drive off and I could get rear ended at 60 miles an hour. This is a safety issue. This is a ticketing time bomb and further delays are putting thousands of lives at risk. I did I not know about the problem until I research the internet to find a solution. Why haven-??t we been informed of this problem" Is this institution waiting for the body count to be high enough to warrant a consumer alert" This is a safety issue.

- Westchester , IL, USA

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