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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Multiple safety features are failing on this 2021 Honda Pilot. At startup, I get the following errors: Collision Mitigation System Problem, Road Departure Mitigation System Problem, Adaptive Cruise Control Problem, Lane Keeping Assist Problem. Dealership says the camera inside the vehicle needs to be replaced and it will cost $1,800. It looks like many people with similar models are encountering this problem with very young vehicles. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | POWER TRAIN | When shifting from reverse into drive, there is a 5-10 second hesitation. I push the gas and the car does not go. It will eventually accelerate at a very high speed. Does not happen every time, but often enough to be very dangerous. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Auto start-stop system failed. The car completely shutoff when the engine idle was engaged in the middle of traffic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Normal driving of vehicle when suddenly several warning lights began to appear and show up every time when driving (LKAS, ACC, Mitigation, etc) despite these features working. Honda dealership claims it is due to a faulty front camera. Safety at risk because if these systems do fail, there will be no way of indicating. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car slammed on breaks for no reason. Good thing I was paying attention and was able to keep my vehicle under control. My neck hurt for the rest of the day and is Sore today. Now my cars system says the system isn’t working correctly after my car slammed on the breaks for basically no reason. I know this is an ongoing problem certain Honda models already. I believe every Honda with this system should be recalled. | Crash: No Fire: No Injuries: 1 | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Infotainment systems makes a crackling sound then the whole system will shut down and screen goes black. Nothing with the system will work including the back up camera. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | The truck lights came on, with no reason, ACC and LKAS dealer wants to charge 200 just to diagnose, I keep hearing many have thir problem, honda needs to fix this problem that they know they have. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V064000 (Air Bags); 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 not made aware of the issue. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | When driving the my 2021 Honda Pilot and I stop, the vehicle goes into idle engine automatically. There are have been numerous incidents when I lift my foot off the break, the engine does not turn back on. The vehicle is in drive and starts to beep and flash to put in park, shut off and restart. Obviously, this is extremely dangerous since it has occurred in the middle of traffic and in stop and go traffic on the highway. It puts the passengers in my vehicle at risk as well as other cars on the road. There are no warning signs or lights. My dealer has been made aware of the “idle stop” feature not working correctly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | My car started stating that 6 systems were having problems. The adaptive cruise control system, automatic high beam system, blind spot information system, road departure mitigation system, collision mitigation system, and lane keep assist system. I took the car to the Honda dealer it was purchased from and was informed that the technician found that the multipurpose camera was not working and needed to be replaced. The component that failed is the multipurpose camera. My safety and the safety of others was put at risk because the following 6 safety systems stopped working. Adaptive cruise control system, automatic high beam system, blind spot information system, road departure mitigation system, collision mitigation system, and lane keep assist system. The problem has been diagnosed by the dealer. I don't know if this component has been inspected. There were no warning lights, messages, or symptoms prior to the failure. The car was just at the dealership the previous month for the annual state inspection and nothing was noted by the dealership. I was driving when suddenly the component failed and I was notified that the 6 safety systems were no longer working. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V064000 (Air Bags). The contact reached out to several dealers and was informed that unless the air bag light was illuminated; the dealer could not service the recall. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and stated that parts were available; however, the dealers have failed to order the parts to service the recall. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Car in front of me stopped. My vehicle did not causing a rear end collision. I do not recall the brake warning flashing to alert me to brake. The automatic braking system did not seem to engage. Even though I pressed the brake pedal the vehicle did not seem to want to stop. It reminded me of a vehicle without power brakes. Nor did the wheels lock up or leave any skid marks from hard braking. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Towed | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Vehicle spontaneously caught fire. There were no known/indicated issues with the vehicle. Vehicle was eventually extinguished by the fire dept. It took them 45 mins to render it extinguished. Vehicle was parked in my driveway at the time of the incident. | Crash: No Fire: Yes | Unknown |
| Sep 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | I have a 2021 Elite and have been experiencing issues with the Auto Engine Idle Shut Off for the past year. The engine with shuts off normally when I come to a stop when I have the system engaged. The problems begin when I take my foot off the brake expecting the engine to start up again. What happens inconsistently (though more and more often) is that when I take my foot off the brake, the engine shuts off, shifts itself into Park, and I have trouble getting the engine to start up again. A number of warning messages show up on the center console as well. Things like, Collision Mitigation Braking System, Road Departure Mitigation, Brake System warnings start displaying. Sometimes, I can get the engine to start up again within 10-15 seconds. Sometimes, it's been more than a minute. It almost sounds like the battery is dead but I have zero issues ever starting the vehicle initially in both hot and cold weather. When I disengage the system, which I do practically every time I drive the car now, everything works fine. The dealer ran a diagnostic and found nothing and then charged my battery even though it read full charge. It did the exact same thing a day later at a stop light. Because it’s a safety hazard and rather embarrassing to have it keep occurring at red lights with people behind you, when it shuts the engine off I manually disengage the shut off via the button on the console and the vehicle starts up fine every time. The stalls only occur when I don’t disengage with the button and take my foot off the brake. I have spoken to several other pilot owners that this has happened to so I know it is not an isolated incident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Aug 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Like others have reported, similar to the odyssey we own that did have a recall to fix the issue, the vehicle fails to restart after it idles at a light. Causing very stressful situation in traffic because it take 10-20 seconds to get vehicle going. Happened 5 times in 6 months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER | 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. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | AIR BAGS | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V064000 (Air Bags) 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 dealer was contacted. The manufacturer was not made aware of the issue. The contact had not experienced a failure. Parts distribution disconnect. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE | Upon turning on my vehicle all of the emergency warnings came on. I did a diagnostic and was shown that nothing was wrong with the vehicle but the warnings will not reset. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | I was traveling with my daughters [XXX] , and [XXX] , in the back seat. It started raining heavy just as I passed a vehicle and returned to the right lane. I reduced my speed, then felt the vehicle hydroplane slightly and felt the traction control system engaged. As soon as the traction control icon displayed, I began to feel the traction slipping and noticed a slight unresponsiveness in the steering. My speed suddenly dropped 15-20 mph, without braking, or any change in pressure on the accelerator. I then tried to accelerate, but was unable to possibly because of loss of traction I noticed the traction light was flashing. The vehicle I had just passed moments before was quickly approaching at roughly 65 mph (speed limit was 70 mph) and had no warning of the issue with my vehicle decelerating, luckily they were paying attention and able to pass safely. When they passed, I pulled off the road and had these warnings on the screen: - Collision Mitigation Braking System. CMBS problem. - Lane Keeping Assist Problem. - Road Departure Mitigation System Problem. I placed the vehicle in park, shut it off, then restarted it. The error messages went away, then came back on as soon as I started driving. The traction control light remained off and the rain subsided, but the warnings remained. Dealership is supposed to inspect Wednesday 07/31/24. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jul 2024 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | The contact owns a 2021 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while driving approximately 55 MPH, the contact stated that several unknown warning lights started flashing. The contact stated that the Cruise Control and the Lane Departure and Lane Assist were inoperable. Additionally, the front view camera had failed to operate as designed. The contact had taken the vehicle to an independent mechanic where the vehicle was diagnosed, and it was determined that the electrical system had failed and that the front view camera needed to be replaced and recalibrated for all of the other systems to work as designed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50,000 |