Complaint volume
469 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2020 Honda Pilot Complaints
469 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2020 Honda Pilot, grouped by component category.
469 Total complaints
10 Crash reports
5 Fire reports
10 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are electrical system, engine, unknown or other. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 10 crash reports, 5 fire reports, 10 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 144 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 15,993 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to electrical system, engine, unknown or other?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2020 Honda Pilot?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2020 Honda Pilot
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2020 Honda Pilot complaints?
10 Crash
5 Fire
10 Injury
0 Fatality
11 Towed
6 Medical attention
What are the most common 2020 Honda Pilot complaint categories?
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 88
ENGINE 41
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 37
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 25
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 21
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER 21
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 16
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 16
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 15
POWER TRAIN 15
469 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | Honda Pilot AWD EX-L 2020 Engine Failure Incident Report October 5, 2024 Check Engine light went on 294 IL Tollway while traveling in left lane. Began to feel a slowing of the vehicle and just a wrong feeling, proceeded to move towards right lane in busy traffic and ~0.5 to 0.75 miles later check engine light started flashing as we proceeded to exit. Planned to make it to rest area or tollbooth but felt it was too far away; check engine light flashing, pulled over to shoulder short of the tollbooth. Shut down all extraneous items (radio, A/C) and pushed the ignition button to turn off vehicle. Could hear some clanking sounds (which we have later researched and found audio/video of mechanics speaking about oil pump failure and loud clanking sounds, which was exactly what we heard).Vehicle didn’t seem to respond (not shutting off), pushed button again and now several red light warnings popped up in succession, these are the ones I recall seeing: (Oil pressure low and Low oil), I believe there were others, but they were cycling fast and didn’t put them to memory, but clearly the codes had been unleashed. Pushed button again and engine shut down. Opened hood and checked oil and did see oil on the dipstick (though level was not clear, seemed to have oil on upper and lower part of reading area, but not in the middle); Called dealer and agreed sounded like an oil pump failure, which in theory could mean there is still plenty of oil in the engine and moving to a safe location. Attempted to start engine again and it struggled and didn’t really start, had a clanking sound again, so hit the button to shut it off for good; and called for tow. Diagnosed with engine failure, quoted replacement $16k, negotiated after documentation and provided good will from Honda with deductible out of pocket $4917.75. Upon posting of investigation now approaching Honda Corporate for reimbursement request. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,LANE DEPARTURE | The Honda Pilot radio center includes the back-up camera and also Apple-Play used for navigation. This system was subject to a recall earlier when the radio would crackle and then the info center would lose power on an intermittent basis. A recall was performed, and a cable was replaced. That seems to have fixed the loud crackle issue, but I still have an intermittent problem with the info center losing power. The dealer told me to contact Honda. Honda told me it is a dealer decision to charge for troubleshooting and diagnostics. Meanwhile this is a safety issue especially when backing up and while driving because I lose my GPS map. Honda has not fixed the earlier problem, and the dealer will not do anything without getting paid for their efforts (which seems reasonable). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | ENGINE | Engine developed a knocking, then started to sputter and ultimately stalled. No codes showed. Sent to dealership, they said I need a new engine, but could not tell me why. Again No codes drove car for 1 day, engine completely failed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2024 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The local dealer was contacted, and it was confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle unintendedly decelerated. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 55,000. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | 55,000 |
| Dec 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Monocular Camera electronic Failure. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | Piston rod blew out the side of the motor, was checked out at the Honda Dealership. My young daughter and friend were driving when it happened, which could have been bad. Dealer confirmed motor blown. I'm not sure if this was inspected by the manufacturer, but the dealer looked at it. There was no warning whatsoever prior to motor blowing. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after shifting into reverse to reverse out of the driveway, the contact had forgotten an item on the outside of the vehicle; the contact opened the door; however, while reaching outside the vehicle to retrieve the item, the contact released the brake pedal unintendedly and the vehicle rolled backwards, causing the contact to fall out of the vehicle. The contact stated that the vehicle continued rolling backwards and struck the sidewalk and the neighbor’s garden wall. The contact stated that the vehicle then rolled forwards and rolled over the right feet to the right shoulder of her body and then struck the garage door and garage door frame to her residence and came to a stop. There were damages to the garage door and garage door frame. The contact became immobilized and yelled for help and a neighbor ran over to assist. The contact stated that the neighbor had a difficulty in shifting to park and turning off the vehicle. The vehicle was eventually shifted to park and the vehicle was turned off. The air bags did not deploy. The contact was taken to urgent care by her mother for X-rays. The contact suffered no broken bones but did sustain mild bruising to the right side of the body. A Police report was not filed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was filed. The vehicle was not diagnosed. The failure mileage was approximately 15,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 Medical attention | 15,000 |
| Nov 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Every week or two, sometimes multiple times in same week, the 2020 honda pilot would turn on randomly in accessory mode where headlights would come on and/or infotainment/radio would come up, or alarm/horns would go on by themselves. Often in the middle of the night when car was in a garage. Sometimes during the day. New vechicle battery was replaced 2 months earlier. Batterries in key fobs were replace but issue continued. Honda dealership diagnosed it as keyless access unit letting voltage through transistor waking ignition switch and recommended replacement of keyless access unit. 2020 pilot was 4 years old with 55,832 miles. Appears to be a common issue/complaint on online forums with replacement of remote keyless access control unit. Dealership replaced unit 19 days ago. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | The vehicle had an engine bearing rod failure but was not included in the 23V-751 recall. The repair is covered under warranty but because there is no recall, I have to pay for car rental myself and the repair could take weeks to months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | Approaching a 4 way intersection and traffic lights. I applied my brakes to stop as the light turned red. With my right foot on the brake and the engine stopped while waiting for light to change. When the light turned green, I took my foot off the brake and started to press the gas pedal to continue traveling out of the intersection. The engine did not restart and I looked at the dash and saw my indicators were on and the transmission had gone into neutral mode. I tried repeatedly to get the car to engage into drive mode with no success. A 18 wheeler behind me started to lay on his horn to get me to move. I tried to get my transmission to engage in drive again, then park but nothing happened. I had no control. I next put my hazard lights on. The only thing I could think to do in this situation was to try to shut off the car by pressing the start/stop button. All the cabin lights and indicators went dark. I then prayed as the vehicles behind me and around me blared their horns and tried to get around me. Thank God, when I pressed the start button I heard he engine start and my indicator lights came on and I was in park. I pressed the drive mode and was finally able to get out of the busy intersection. I continued on my way without any other problems. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle struggles and jerks to keep speed between 1st and 2nd and 3rd gears and jerks trying to accelerate up until around 50 mph check engine light came on and off a few times and information center on car reports exhaust system problem and to take to a dealer, took to autozone to get codes read replaced part it said to replace but problem persisted light came back on took back to autozone same code showing different bay so I took vehicle to Honda dealer and had them do a diagnostic on it which they could not complete without me paying an extra 180.00 for a more in depth diagnostic I paid and they found the fuel injectors not functioning properly and said I need to replace them I declined Honda to do this and took it to a different shop myself to have it done where I trusted the mechanic had all the injectors replaced and same problem is still happening. The breaking assist comes on randomly while driving and hits breaks and shakes steering wheel while flashing (break) but there is nothing in front of me. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | ENGINE | Started experiencing engine hesitation while driving during May, 2024. Dealer refused to accept that it is not related to the Recall (2016-21 Pilot Fuel Pump Mtr Saf Recall Exp2 NHTSA Recall Number23V-858), instead suggested for a fuel injector cleanup. I ended up spending $500 because my wife and kids drive this vehicle, I want them to be safe. Now, the problem is occurring again after a 3 months. What should I do? | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2024 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | POWER TRAIN,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 2020 Honda Pilot with 80000 miles. A car i loved and had for over a year. I was driving from Florida to Texas. Everything was fine when I started. About 600 miles down I was at 70 mph and had to go little faster to overtake a truck because the shoulder was too small and my lane is about merge in to truck lane. There were at-least 10 vehicles behind me. I hit the accelerator pedal all the way until it touched frame but the engine is not at all responding and slowly losing power. The lane I was in was about to merge in to truck lane. I had to hit brakes with vehicles behind me but some how i managed to not get hit by them. It could have gone worse. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | When driving down our street approximately 2 months ago, an error came up for an Emissions System Problem. Over the course of the next week, the car started showing several other error messages, and while driving the transmission felt jittery or like it would stutter while in 1st and 2nd gear. We brought the car to our local Honda dealership to have a recall fixed, and asked them about the issues while they had the car. They advised it was an issue with the fuel injectors but there was no recall for the 2020 Honda Pilot as of yet. I brought the car to an independent service center and they advised the same thing after running the codes and inspecting the vehicle. The vehicle is scheduled for the fuel injectors to be replaced later this week at the independent service center. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | ENGINE | idle-stop system fails to restart the engine when I release the brake pedal, the vehicle inoperable and undriveable wherever it comes to a stop—whether at a red light or stop sign, in the middle of a busy intersection, or on a highway entrance ramp. I have to wait a minute of two before I can restart my vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Collision Mitigation System proble | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | Car shuts off when going into idle when at a traffic stop or in traffic. Does not restart. Completely shuts off goes into neutral then park and have to press brake and start the car again. Has happens 4 times in last 2 weeks. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | CMBS activates for no reason whatsoever. I can't even count how many times this vehicle has locked the brakes up and no cars anywhere near me at all. Like miles down the road. Honda said they can't replicate the issue. Well, it's going to be hard to replicate something that happens 4 or 5 times in a week by driving it 10 min down the road. This vehicle is going to get my family killed. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ENGINE | On August 12th, 2024, we were driving North on New Jersey Turnpike at 65mph surrounded by traffic when the vehicle suddenly and unexpectedly stalled (no dashboard warning lights or system messages prior, nor any signs while driving prior). The surrounding cars were unaware of this mechanical failure and thus it created an extremely dangerous situation for all on the highway. Fortunately, I was able to navigate safely to the side of the highway without incident. Having towed it to the nearest Honda dealer, they diagnosed the root cause to be seized timing belt idler pulleys, causing the engine to lose timing and stall. This failure also resulted in damage to the cylinder heads, valves and associated components. While the dealer has repaired all of this damage under warranty, they have not adequately justified how or why these components failed extremely prematurely (4 year old vehicle with 35k miles). Additionally, Honda has not provided reimbursement for the resulting expenses incurred - hotel, rental car, towing, etc. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle lost motive power. The contact stated that the vehicle had to be turned off and remain stationary for several minutes before restarting the vehicle. In addition, the contact stated that the vehicle was almost in two crashes due to the failure. The contact stated that the failure began in April 2024; however, the failure had become persistent. The dealer was made aware of the failure. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was filed. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50,000 |
| Aug 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | In a December 2023 I learned of a recall NHTSA Recall Number23V-858 for my vehicle. The recall states that the fuel pump could stop functioning, thus putting my car at a safety risk for crashing. Honda states that we will have to wait for the parts so this can be repaired. It is now a August 2024 and Honda still does not have the parts to repair this serious safety issue. 8 months later! I use my car daily and am very concerned about the possibility of a serious safety incident caused by Honda’s lack of appropriate replacement parts. This not only puts my life at risk, but others who are driving near me if I crash because of this defective part. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE,POWER TRAIN | The contact owns a 2020 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline); however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact stated while driving approximately 45 MPH, several unknown warning lights illuminated, and the vehicle failed to respond as needed. The contact pulled over and turned off the vehicle. The contact was able to restart the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent but had become a recurring failure. Additionally, the transmission warning light was illuminated, and the vehicle was jerking into gear and the vehicle hesitated before responding as needed. The vehicle was driven to a local dealer and was being diagnosed. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 81,000. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | 81,000 |
| Aug 2024 | POWER TRAIN | I am experiencing recurring issues with my vehicle that closely mirror the problems described in complaints with NHTSA IDs 11565876, 11490438, and 11489885. In July 2023, while driving through an intersection after stopping at a traffic light, I heard a loud clunking noise. Over the next 45 minutes, I noticed at least six additional clunk sounds at low speeds. I took the vehicle to the dealership at 51,244 miles, where I was informed that the transmission fluid was both dark and low. The dealership inquired if I had used the vehicle for towing, despite there being no tow hitch assembly. They recommended a transmission flush service, but within 2 to 3 weeks, I began experiencing transmission juddering at constant speeds and harsh shifting during acceleration. Despite multiple visits to the dealership, where I was advised that the vehicle needed time to "re-learn" driving patterns and that nothing was wrong, the issues persisted. Although the problem seemed to lessen, it reoccurred in 2024. At 73,656 miles, I returned to the dealership, where I was informed that the transmission fluid was once again dark and that the torque converter needed replacement. Throughout the period before the 60K powertrain warranty expired, I was repeatedly told that there are known issues with the 6-speed transmissions and torque converters, but since no "error codes" were present, the dealership could not authorize a warranty repair. Now that the vehicle is out of warranty, I am being advised to replace the torque converter at my own expense. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |