Complaint volume
403 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
2021 Honda Pilot Complaints
403 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2021 Honda Pilot, grouped by component category.
403 Total complaints
12 Crash reports
1 Fire reports
7 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 unknown or other, electrical system, engine. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 12 crash reports, 1 fire report, 7 injury reports, and 0 fatality reports. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 42 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 36,320 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to unknown or other, electrical system, engine?
- 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 2021 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.
2021 Honda Pilot
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2021 Honda Pilot complaints?
12 Crash
1 Fire
7 Injury
0 Fatality
12 Towed
4 Medical attention
What are the most common 2021 Honda Pilot complaint categories?
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 40
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 37
ENGINE 33
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 29
AIR BAGS 22
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE 20
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 16
VISIBILITY/WIPER 16
TIRES 13
SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 11
403 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2023 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V431000 (Back Over Prevention) however, the part to do the recall repair was unavailable. The dealer was made aware of the issue and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The manufacturer had been notified of the recall. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,VISIBILITY/WIPER | There was a recall for driver side mirrors. The original mirror was fine but they replaced it with a mirror that is distorted/warped. They replaced it again with another distorted mirror. All the replacement mirrors are faulty. You can not safely drive with them ! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I was driving my Pilot and came to a stop during stop and go traffic on a highway. Normally the auto stop/start feature would stop the engine and start it again when I released the brake, but at this stop the vehicle stopped the engine and lost all power. The car went completely dead. As traffic started moving again I had no idea what was going on and my vehicle was in the path of moving traffic causing a hazard and safety risk to myself and others. I was able to restart the vehicle with the normal procedure, but it was in park and had to be shifted back into drive to get moving again. This became a normal occurrence so I took the vehicle to Honda for evaluation. They contend that the battery, while still "good", was not providing adequate voltage for the stop/start system. Proposed solutions were continue use but manually deselect auto start/stop function each time I started the car or replace the battery (at my expense - not covered by warranty). I am reporting this due to how the vehicle handles this lower voltage state of the battery. I think it if the vehicle senses this situation it should 1) notify the driver of the low voltage state of the battery and 2) automatically turn of the auto start/stop function of the vehicle thereby preventing an unsafe and startling vehicle shutdown while on the road and in traffic. This is an unsafe vehicle reaction that should not occur with proper system programming. I confirmed with the dealership this is a normal occurrence when the battery falls below certain voltage requirements, but the operator of the vehicle has no prior knowledge when this situation might occur (ie no warning light). This creates a potential for vehicle accidents and personal injury. Some type of warning and automatic suspension of the auto stop/start feature should occur. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The car shuts down when coming to an idle such while stopping at a light. All systems are powered down including the hazard lights, front and tail lights and windows. The car has so far restarted after multiple attempts at the start button. This may range from 30 seconds to 5 minutes before the car will restart. This is a safety concern as when this occurs in traffic especially at night with limited visibility, this can lead to being rear ended waiting for the vehicle to start. When this occurs is unpredictable. The Honda dealer was unable to replicate the issue and as such carried out a software reset to address the issue. This has happened 8 times already. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | With engine idle off… at a stop (intersection, light, etc.) engine suddenly turns off. Dashboard message reads- “put in park to start engine”. At that moment, the transmission shows that it is in neutral. I have to frantically put it in Park and try several times to restart the car. Cars are honking, yelling and pulling up/at me! I have called (when it happens) and taken my car to dealer 4 times. Each time they say they can not replicate and not able to do anything to fix unless they can replicate. Yet, I see there are blog posts about this exact issue for past few years! This happened 3 times last week. As I need to be able to safely transport/care for my 102 year old father, I am concerned and cannot be without transportation. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I have had the AEB system engage incorrectly. 1.) Driving on a two lane road at about 40 MPH when I started to enter a curve in the road to the left with no oncoming traffic and no cars in front of or behind my car the AEB engaged and started braking the car. 2.) Driving on a two lane road at about 4 MPH when I started to enter a curve in the road to the left with a car oncoming with no cars in front of or behind my car the AEB engaged and started braking the car. In both of these cases the system stopped alerting as soon as I tapped the brakes. The latest instance occurred on a straight two lane road on a sunny day. I was traveling at about 30 MPH with no cars in front of my care and no oncoming traffic when the AEB engaged unexpectedly and braked my car hard. I was actually thrown forward in my seat. Thankfully no one was following my as this would have resulted in a rear end collision. After the car hard braked the AEB disengaged as quickly as it engaged, and I was able to drive the car normally. I had my car in to have it inspected and recalls fixed a week ago. I asked the service manager about this problem and was told there was nothing they could do and that I could turn off the AEB system. My concern is the AEB system randomly engages and brakes and in one instance it hard braked. This could cause a serious rear end collision. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ENGINE | The Auto Idle system that enables the cut off the engine is now working intermittently some or not at all, regardless of temperature outside or inside the cabin. Note: Took to Honda Mall of GA dealership to look at this very issue, and according to the technician, it is 'heat' related. I feel this is 100% incorrect, as the temperature in the evening has dropped into the 70s and the issue continues. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the information center was not connecting. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer for NHTSA Campaign Number: 20V439000 (Back Over Prevention, Electrical System) and the vehicle was repaired but the failure occurred. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was unknown. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On Friday, August 18th, 2023, I started up my 2021 Honda Pilot EX and all safety system warning lights (ACC, LKAS, CBWS, etc) came on. I called Metro Honda Montclair and a service advisor asked me to bring the car in to them as soon as possible. I asked if it was safe to drive, and he said I honestly do not know, but if you can drive it, I advise you to take the slow lane and avoid the freeway. They kept my car over the weekend, and on Monday August 21st, 2023, Dealer diagnosed the problem as a defective multi-purpose camera. These cameras are on back order until October. They said multiple codes came in in the diagnostic but they will have to start with this. I asked if I can safely drive the vehicle since the Brake System light is on, and they said "honestly we cannot tell you that it is safe, it could be something minor, or something indicating a bigger problem. The first time this happened, it turned on, and off, and the dealer couldn't duplicate it, they told me to bring it back when it happened again, and now the "problem with ACC, LKAS, CMS, Brake system, etc., these are the messages currently in the screen: "Road Departure Mitigation Problem", "Auto-High Beam problem", Collision Mitigation System Problem", "Lane keeping Assist Problem" "Adaptive Cruise Control Problem", etc., all these warning messages keep popping up and does not turn off. Honda should fix this at no charge since it impacts safety related functionality. Also, there is a water leak from under the steering wheel, water lands on my foot and in the front seats floor mats when I wash my car. [XXX] with Metro Honda Montclair said they couldn't duplicate this issue. I have pictures of all the dashboard warning messages. I showed them to the service technician. They suggested I look for alternate transportation until my car is fixed, but I do not have other vehicle and I have to transport my kids to 3 different schools, and drive to/from work daily. My car only has 20,028 miles. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Two weeks ago, the audio in my 2021 Pilot became very distorted also as if the car was losing power. On my way to work this morning, I reached a red light, came to a complete stop, and the vehicle went into idle mode as normal. However, while in idle mode the vehicle turned completely off just as I was about to release the brakes to start driving again. The battery indicator on the gauge clustor flashed a few times and the car automatically went into neutral. I was not able to put the vehicle back into park as instructed by the message prompt. After waiting a couple of minutes, I pressed AND held the start button and the vehicle finally turned back on. I do not know what the issue is, but due to this incident I felt that it was completely unsafe. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VISIBILITY | The sunroof of my 2021 Honda Pilot spontaneously shattered while driving down the highway with my family inside the car. There is a class action lawsuit against Honda for this issue at the moment as well. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2023 | VISIBILITY | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that he had received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number 23V174000 (Visibility), and the vehicle was taken to the dealer for repair. Following the repair, the contact became aware that the side-view mirrors were distorted, severely compromising side-view visibility. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer or an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 34,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 34,000 |
| Jul 2023 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | Infotainment panel goes dark for 5-10 minutes while the car is in motion. Attempts to reboots multiple times unsuccessfully and then finally recovers. Network Connection Lost message appears on the Infotainment panel. Intermittent crackling noise in the sound system speakers. Creates a safety issue when vehicle is in motion on a highway and the GPS display on the Infotainment screen disappears right before taking a high-speed exit. The confusion can cause a major accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | On 2 land roads especially with no other vehicles in view, the car will suddenly brake, flash the dash for emergency braking and violently shake the steering wheel back and forth and almost take it out of your hands. It was done this since new. Taken to dealer 11/15/21 for this issue, they "aligned it" and made it somewhat better but still did the braking and steering wheel shake on way home from dealer. We just put up with it as the vehicle cost so much. The dealer also replaced the windshield as it cracked within 3 months of new sitting in a parking lot. This again required another paid alignment of this system. They said windshield may have been defective buy we had to pay for it anyway, alignment was needed for avoidance system In may of 2023, the vehicle became un-drivable as it would kick the process off about every 30-50 feet. The vehicle has never been in any accident or collision of any type. So they said they aligned it gain but replaced some sensors. The vehicle still has some issues and they charged us $904 to replace some sensors even though they said they were believed they were good but could not find any other explanation, yes the vehicle has been under warranty during this entire time. Dealer and Honda spoke person stated warranty repair is discretionary on these repairs. So they will not honor their warranty either on this system | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I went to my Honda dealership today 7/15/23, and my side mirrors were on a recall, and they replaced them and my driver side mirror is all distorted. It looks like I’m looking through my contacts while wearing my glasses. It’s given me a headache. My passenger side mirror looks fine. I’ll be calling the dealership on Monday morning. This fix is awful and a real safety hazard because now I don’t want to look out of the mirror because it gives me a really bad headache. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2023 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Lane departure braking mechanism has become faulty. Over the last 2 weeks, I've had 2 incidents that could have resulted in a rear end crash, bodily injury or death, when the lane departure caused BRAKE to flash on the dashboard and the automatic system caused the Pilot to temporarily hard brake in the middle of the freeway. I reported this to POWAY Honda during my last visit, but they ignored this system problem. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | I received the recall remedy for my Pilot from a Honda service center per the side-view mirrors detachment recall (NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 23V174000). Although my side-mirror was working just fine, I decided to receive the recall remedy, i.e., new side-mirrors, believing that it will improve safety of my car. However, after the Honda service center finished replacing my old side-mirrors with new side-mirrors, I realized while I was driving away from the center that the image of the new side-mirror on the driver side was very waving and distorted, which made me feel nauseous and zoned in when I looked at it. In fact, I had to keep looking at the mirror for more than a second while driving in order to clearly see what's behind my left lane. After trying to adjust myself to the new mirror for several minutes, I realized that I couldn't do it. So I had to take my car back to the service center and they explained that they received the same complaint a lot but another new mirror would have the same issue. After several back and forth between me and the staff, thankfully they replaced it with another new mirror. Although the distorted image on the mirror got better, it still bothered me while driving. As the manager at the center suggested that another new mirror replacement might be even worse than the current one, I decided to try the current one for now, and not ask for another replacement. In addition, I kept asking if I could get my original old mirror back since it was working just fine. But the center said that it is impossible due to the federal obligation they have toward NHTSA. I think quality of the recall remedy should be warranted. But, here, my situation got worse after receiving the recall remedy. I hope NHTSA will look into this issue and make sure the quality of the mirror provided by the manufacturer meets the basic customer expectation. Thank you. (FYI: https://www.piloteers.org/threads/distorted-sideview-mirror-image.180764/) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jun 2023 | TIRES | On 6/23/23, my wife was driving on a street & was changing lanes (from left to right) when the driver-side rear tire suddenly ruptured. She heard a loud pop coming from the tire and immediately scanned for a car impact or debris on the road—but neither was present. The vehicles within her proximity yielded to allow her to pull out of the street and into a safe parking lot. Since our children were in the car, she confirmed that they were safe. Upon my arrival, I could see a visible tear in the side wall of the tire. It is apparent that the tire side wall tore so rapidly that when the rim hit the asphault of the street its impact was so hard— that it left a gaping hole in the rim! Our family’s safety was in jeopardy because had vehicles not yielded , a crash may have been inevitable. Our local dealer has recommended reaching out to the tire manufacturer for a possible claim. There were no warning lamps prior to this incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |