10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
1,679 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.

2020 Honda Pilot engine problems

engine problem

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2020 Honda Pilot Owner Comments

problem #13

Jul 132022

Pilot

  • miles

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

In two, separate, instances the vehicle exhibited sudden acceleration with the brake pedal depressed. The first instance was, as the 2020 Honda Pilot was pulling into a driveway and was approximately 10 feet behind another vehicle parked in the driveway. With the brake pedal being depressed, as one does when parking, the 2020 Honda Pilot suddenly accelerated and struck the rear of the other vehicle. The automatic braking system was never deployed. The second instance was when the 2020 Honda Pilot was on a city street and was parked behind another vehicle on the right side of the street against the curb. The 2020 Honda Pilot was approximately 10 feet behind another vehicle parked against the curb. With the brake pedal being depressed, as one does when parking, the 2020 Honda Pilot suddenly accelerated and struck the rear of the other vehicle, driving it over the curb and into the yard of a house. The automatic braking system was never deployed. These incidents happened, almost exactly, one year apart on clear summer days when the temperature and humidity were almost identical. The 2020 Honda Pilot was inspected by a private crash expert company to obtain any crash data but found none, as the data is not recorded unless the air bags are deployed. An incident was reported to Honda who had a representative drive the 2020 Honda Pilot and "could not replicate the sudden acceleration". All safety features were running at the time of both crashes. The crashes occurred on 7/24/21 and 7/13/22.

- Troy, MI, USA

problem #12

Oct 172022

Pilot

  • miles
The vehicle is showing the same issues as found in the Honda Service Bulletin 20-029 for "9-Speed A/T Hard Upshift with Steady Acceleration", and an occasional hesitation or slip. Our Honda Pilot has a Honda 6-Speed Automatic Transmission and AWD. The transmission has just had a full service, which included a "transmission fluid exchange to include torque converter lines" and replacing the transmission filter. When watching the vehicle shift, the tachometer will spike RPMs, then drop well below, and rise to settle in-between with a hard upshift. This issue was extreme prior to the transmission service, especially given the vehicle has only 49k miles and was purchased brand new. The constant hard shift and slip is a safety hazard.

- Toney, AL, USA

problem #11

Oct 092020

Pilot

  • miles
I have been dealing with the issue of my stereo crackling for over a year. The first appt is listed below. I have taken my car in 4 different times for this issue and am still as of today waiting on the part to come in to fix my car. I had an appt today and was told that the part was in and after dropping off my car was told the part is not in stock and they don't know when it is coming in. This is a dangerous and unsafe driving situation. The navigation turns off, the radio completely shuts off including my dashboard so I don't know how fast I am going. The crackling noise continues if the car is on or off. This is very distracting and loud especially since you cannot control the level of the noise. I think waiting a year for this to be resolved has been long enough and I expect the dealership to step in and provide some options.

- Loomis, CA, USA

problem #10

Aug 102020

Pilot

  • miles

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

Stopped at a red light waiting to make a right turn. After traffic cleared pressed on the gas and car immediately started revving really loud. Looked and it said it was at 6000 RPM even though I was barely touching the gas. The car then started decreasing speed without me taking my foot off the gas. I quickly pulled off the road and it wasn't until I put the car in park that it finally stopped revving so loud. I shut the car off and let it sit for a few minutes before starting it again and driving. It then started flipping from showing the blu-ray info to apple carplay repeatedly on the info screen.

- Eagle Mountain, UT, USA

problem #9

Aug 052020

Pilot

  • 1,290 miles
The infotainment center goes blank, statics when on, sometimes the speedometer screen goes off, or the the entire infotainment center goes away.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #8

Jul 152020

Pilot

  • miles
The infotainment and sometimes the dash go blank. Prior to losing all signals and visual, there is loud popping noises around the windshield. The noise sounds like rocks hitting the windshield, but it ends up with infotainment losing all communication and dash sometimes going blank. This happened in January 2020 with about 1000 miles on the vehicle and has happened on/off over the past few months. In July it has been a daily occurance and no longer safe to drive.

- Fairlawn, OH, USA

problem #7

Jul 262020

Pilot

  • 1,900 miles

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

Follow-up on complaint #11340119. July 26, 2020. As previously noted in complaint, 2020 Honda Pilot information system popping noise: Now the electrical service to information system is completely blacking out: No speedometer information, no telephone, no back-up camera. All information systems go black from 10 seconds to several minutes. Just before this happens emergency breaking notification is displayed. No display on freeway for speed, lane assist malfunctions and backing sensors do not work. Car is unsafe to drive and Honda says it cannot fix system. Only have 1900 miles on vehicle. Thousands of lives are at stake. What are you going to do nhsta" wait for folks to die"

- Castle Rock, CO, USA

problem #6

Jun 162020

Pilot

  • 3,300 miles
When I started the car, put my car into reverse mode as I was moving out (backward) the rear view camera screen will go black and will not display after the error "network communication lost" on the screen. It takes at least a minute to two until it restart, sometimes more than 10 mins or it restart and go black again. Another multiply times, same error happened, and everything went black, the center infosystem and the drivier information screen. (see picture) the gps was lost, so I am not sure if I am still on the right path, I have no idea how fast I am going, or if any of the driving assistance are still active. I.e. cruise control, lane departure warning/assistance, speed meter tires pressures if any other warnings. All these started happening in around middle of June. Now, this error is happening everyday, every drive, I have went to dealer service center to have them check and fix the error. They said they reset the system and should not see this error anymore, but I am still seeing this error even after they service the car. I went back to have it services at least 3 times already, they told me they did some wiring, reset the console and it shouldn't happen again, but still seeing this problem as of today.

- Oakland Gdns, NY, USA

problem #5

Jul 022020

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 6,000 miles
1. car flashes brake and sometimes brakes on its own when it detects an object along the side of the road or when a car may be approaching in the opposite lane or in a center turning lane. This has nearly caused an accident on two different occasions. Each time the lane we are in is clear and usually doesn't even have a vehicle in front of us. 2. when in cruise control the acc will detect a vehicle in front of us going maybe 2 mhp slower than our set speed and our car will abruptly slow down to about 10 mph below the acc set point. Then it detects there is clear distance to the vehicle in front and will abruptly accelerate till it again detects the vehicle and then repeats the same actions - abrupt slowdown - abrupt acceleration and so on vs. A gradual slowdown to match the vehicle in front speed and holding steady at that speed. I have set the distance detection to each setting and it makes no difference. 3. lane keep assist is plain down dangerous. Tried to merge onto a busy highway with turn signal on and the lka would not let us merge and jerked the wheel back to the right and the vehicle abruptly hit the brakes when there was nothing in front of us. Nearly caused traffic behind to rear end us. 4. hands free cell feature is not hands free if connected to apply car play. This was not what we were lead to believe at the time of sale. Honda has some serious issues with the Honda sensing and a recall is a must as these issues will eventually cause an accident and I have to assume already have. To date the car is unsafe with the sensing on and if I turn it off I risk liability with my insurance as they provide discounts because of the Honda sensing safety features.

- Holtwood, PA, USA

problem #4

Jul 022020

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 1,650 miles
It started with a popping sound coming from speakers, the info screen would then shut down and you would be unable to determine your speed and have no use of backup camera. After this occuring 6 or 8 times (the car has less than 2000 miles) the display will no longer even come on. I have left with the dealer today to repair. This problem occured at random times, I was driving each time resulting in no use of instruments for speed of backup camera.

- Dacula, GA, USA

problem #3

Jun 202020

Pilot

  • 634 miles

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

It first started a couple weeks before this with a crackling in the speakers. Then it wouldn't play anything plugged into the usb. Then on the 20th it wouldn't play the radio. It would say radio unavailable. Then when trying to access the radio, it would say network communication lost and everything would go black. No speedometer, no gauges, nothing. It would then restart the system. Then the bluetooth stopped working. Now it just constantly loses network communication, blanks out and restarts. It did it about 8 times in my 10 minute drive home. I got a video of it while someone else was driving but it won't let me upload it. It happens at all speeds, even being stopped at a light.

- Silverdale, WA, USA

problem #2

Mar 032020

Pilot 6-cyl

  • 4,553 miles
On the way to work while driving, navigation screen and speedometer screen went blank/black and stayed off for 3 days until I could get it into the dealership. I had to continue to drive back and forth to work 4 miles each way. Backup camera didn't work nor did usb cable. Car had approximately 4,500 miles on it at the time. This happened Tuesday March 3, 2020.

- Pinehurst, NC, USA

problem #1

Apr 062020

Pilot

  • 2,500 miles
Last week 4/8/2020, my 2020 Honda Pilot elite starting making cracking noises through the speakers while driving. A couple of seconds later the entire radio, navigation, and information center with speedometer, gas and other vital information of engine systems went black. The system came up and stated that it was rebooting and did not have data access. I called the dealer and they told me how to conduct a hard reboot. I did this and it worked for about 20 minutes and then did it again. When I called the Honda dealership back they stated that Honda was aware of the problem but did not yet have a software fix for the problem. During my research on the internet, I have found that this is a huge issue well documented on the internet for 2017 - 2019 model Pilot. In fact there is a class action lawsuit for those model years for the same exact issue. But now, having been to the NHTSA site, I see that it is also an issue for new 2020 models with very low mileage. This is a big problem and needs to be investigated immediately as everything that the driver needs to safely monitor their driving is affected by this problem and vehicle owners are not getting help from their local Honda dealership service departments. A national recall for safety needs to be issued right away and pressure on Honda to find a solution and fix should be required by law! our local Honda dealership did state that there appears to be a problem with the wiring harness, but it only temporarily fixes the issue after being replaced.

- Palm Bay, FL, USA

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