2020 Honda Pilot UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
This is about the auto stop/start feature that kicks in when you are stopped in traffic or at a stoplight. The car shuts down and is supposed to restart. Twice now, the car has refused to restart when I took my foot off the break. I had to turn the car off, open the door, and close the door and restart the car. I have no shut off that feature.
The 'infotainment system; which in includes the navigation system and backup camera and sensors suddenly goes black. I may first get a black screen with "network Communications lost" message, then it goes black or get a message that says "unfortunately, com.honda.tuner has stopped". It started happening after I had to replace the batter. This was the 2nd replacement battery I've had to install. I had the battery replaced in March, 2025 at my honda dealer, and before I even got home I started getting the messages. Sometimes, the infotainment system may come back, other times, it does not come back. If I pull over, shut the car down, wait a few mintues, open the door and then close the door, it may come back when I start the car up again. I took it to the dealer - they could not figure out the problem and said that maybe replacing the tuner for 1600 would help, but they would not guarantee it. I've contact American Honda and lodged a complaint in June 2025 but so far it has not even been assigned to a manager.
I pulled into a parking space at PAM Rehab hospital. Pressed the brake to stop vehicle and it accelerated forward with passenger side wheel jumping over concrete bar and into bushes and driver side concrete bar stopped it from going into the retaining wall. All airbags deployed trapping me in vehicle. Vehicle remained running and I was able to put in park and turn off engine so nurse from rehab could get me out.
complaint of water leak from the front windshield, water leaks into the front floorboard. It is a known 2023 Honda Pilot issue dated 5.18.23, but the 2020 has the same leak
Crackling sounds coming from the front of the car similar to the original recall in 2020 and the front digital panel is not functioning and shutting down endangering the drive by not displaying information. My recall was cleared but the malfunction seems to have returned.
I am the original owner of my Honda Pilot and have always taken the vehicle to Honda dealerships for all scheduled maintenance and service. On [XXX], I noticed the air conditioning was blowing only warm air, with no cold air at all. I scheduled an appointment at Germain Honda in Beavercreek, Ohio, where the vehicle was inspected on July 28, 2025. I was informed that the A/C system had suffered what is often called “A/C black death” and that the entire A/C system would need replacement at a cost of $6,753.93. I was also told that no parts were available and that I would be contacted when they became available. I have not been contacted since. When I asked why this happened, I was told it was rare and that I was just unlucky. However, my own research has shown that many Honda Pilot owners (and likely Ridgeline owners as well) have experienced the same failure, sometimes repeatedly, even after dealer repairs. Honda has issued recalls and extended warranties for A/C failures in other models such as the Civic and CR-V, but not for the Pilot, despite widespread reports. This is a serious safety issue. Where I live, July and August were extremely hot. The lack of A/C made the vehicle unsafe to operate, as every year children and pets tragically die in overheated vehicles. Driving without functional A/C in extreme heat creates a health hazard for families. I was unable to use my vehicle at all during these peak summer months. My Pilot has fewer than 100,000 miles, has been well maintained, and should not have suffered a complete A/C system failure this early in its life. Honda has clearly known about systemic A/C issues in multiple models yet has not taken responsibility for Pilot owners. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C.
The sun roof shattered without provocation while driving in the interstate. Glass showered in the cabin to the driver, front passenger and floor in the back seat. Temp outside was between 55-57F. Inside cabin heat in system was at 69F. Seat warmer were on. It was raining at the time of incident between 2:30-3:15pm. I (driver) was very shaken by incident but did not lost control of steering. Initially could not correlate explosion like sound to location. Thought it was in rear of car but upon feeling rain and recognition of glass in the cabin realized it was the sunroof. Vehicle was at around 60-65mph in 70mph. This is memorable as GPS send notification of speed checks on zone prior to incident. Car in front was very far ( more than 10 car lengths) in two lane road. Car in rear was also at about 2 car lengths. Not reported to insurance as deductible is higher than cost of repair. Did not reported to police as no other vehicle involved and no loss of vehicle control. Definitely a safety risk. Both passengers were wearing glasses, and long sleeves due to weather and glass was all over driver and Passeger. Explosion sound was terrifying and unsettling. No warning lights or sounds noted prior to the incident. Car had been driven the day before. Car is always stored in garage. This was first drive of day for car.
The backup camera on my 2020 Honda Pilot shows green and purple blobs on the image. These colors make it very difficult for me to safely use the camera to back up. The guiding lines are hard to see and images of objects or people beside or behind the car are covered by these green and purple colors. This is very dangerous. I have seen online that many others have the same issue. I have completed the recall of the cables to the camera but that did not address this issue. The camera is almost useless now. All other images on the dash screen are fine.
The problem is with the fuel system. My vehicle has stopped in traffic twice already.
Windows Down and Sunroof Open randomly if the unlock button on the FOB is pushed too long. This can happen then the FOB is in your pocket. I have found my car with the windows all open. Casuing the possiblity of the car being stolen, or worse this can happen and if it rains it an damage the car. Dealer says this cannot be disabled
Passenger side floor soaked. Dealer said it was a grommet that was missing on ac line and was fixed. However the issue is still happening. Had to replace carpet and most likely will have to again. And the problem is still not fixed.
Transmission was running hot causing the pilot to have a bad "jitter" when driving. The software had to be updated and transition had to be flushed a few times.
My rearview camera guidelines are a mile off. Honda allegedly can't do anything to fix this. This could cause an unnecessary accident or cause a person to hit a pedestrian. Especially when it's as bad as this vehicle is. I'm talking 1.5 feet that's it's wrong.
From the time we purchased the vehicle, the radio suffered from popping and crackling in the speaker. It was repaired but the problem persisted. Starting this year, the center console that controls the radio as well the back up camera will shut down with the following failure "Network Communication Lost, MOST Net Off". This results in unexpected use of our rear back up camera as well as the additional features the center console provides. In total, Honda has attempted to repair this vehicle 4 times and have not been successful. My concern is if the rear camera fails as I am backing out of a parking spot, I do fear in that moment I could hit another vehicle or pedestrian.
Purchased the vehicle in Salisbury, MD, now live in Hagerstown, MD. Between the dealer purchased from (Pohanka Honda) and the dealer where we live (Hagerstown Honda) I can not get the recall corrected. One dealer tells me to call the other then the other dealer tells me to call the first dealer. I’ve tried and tried to get this resolved with no satisfaction.
On multiple occasions the FOB randomly locks the car. Last time this happened on this past Friday it was hot outside and I had to frantically break out the window to get my baby out.
Sunroof exploded without warning while driving on the highway at 75mph. The explosion was extremely loud and the scare could have caused me to cause an accident with other cars nearby. I had two little children with me in the car. Vehicle has been sitting at the dealership, with not ETA of part due to backorder.
There is a crackling/popping noise coming through the speakers and then a sudden loud noise and the audio system will shut off. The warning sounds from the safety features also stop working when the loud noise happens. The noise is quite shocking when you are driving. The audio system has to be restarted to work again.
I brought the vehicle in on March 23, 2023, the side view mirror has seemed to shake for some time, we were told we just needed a new mirror and at $400, decided to not immediately repair, approximately 2 weeks later I went to the car wash and the sideview mirror came out and smashed against my window. I am told my vehicle is not part of the recall, but I had mentioned the mirror seeming to be not secure in the past.
The car was stopped at a light. The idle feature kicked in and when foot off brake to go car stalled and turned off. Almost caused an accident because it was on a road that speed limit is 60 mph. Car behind me didn’t realize I was unable to go and had to quickly swerve. The car would restart for about 3 minutes.
The adhesive that holds Headliner on this vehicle is causing it to separate from the ceiling and I’m concerned that it will fall and block my view when driving. Can cause a serious accident. We recently had a recall problem with the adhesive on the side view mirrors .
While driving down the highway, we heard a loud, sudden pop and then wind. The sunroof shattered and the cover was closed so all glass ended up on the cover. There were no overpasses above us or vehicles in front of us that could have caused anything to fall on the sunroof. There was nothing other than glass found on the cover and no damage to the top of the vehicle (as if something would have hit the glass and bounced off). The driver was startled and, if the cover had not been closed, the glass would have ended up in the face of our backseat passenger. Prior to this, I had no problems with the sunroof and there had been no prior damage to it. When I took the Pilot in for repair at the Honda service center, I was told that they have heard of a few cases like this where the sunroof spontaneously imploded, but that it was not a safety recall or under warranty. I have photos of the shattered sunroof.
Automatic idle engine shut off had been the problem. I will come to a red light or stop sign, the car will do the engine shut off, and it will hesitate to start back up. There have been times that the car has complete shut down and I had to restart it in the middle of traffic. When that happens, it is VERY slow and hesitant to start back up. It is also common for it to restart the car and wipe out the radio and Bluetooth. The radio will turn to static. I have been unable to start my car completely while it has been parked. I have had this looked at multiple time but there is never a solution.
N/a
The vehicle makes uncontrolled loud noises. It is very intermittent and sounds like loud cracking/exploding of windshield. It sometimes startles the driver and makes the driver cringe. Leading to uncontrolled movement of steering wheel. Potential hazardous. Honda has acknowledged that there is a problem with several hundred thousand cars and done service bulletins (A19030B Version 3) and others. Our car now has been in for the same problem 7 times. Twice a specialist was working on the car in the last 22 months but the problem persists and is getting worse by the month. This is unacceptable and can lead to an accident but Honda does not want to take responsibility.
Trend Over Time
Complaints by year
Other Issues
Common problems reported
Quick Summary
The 2020 Honda Pilot has 35 UNKNOWN OR OTHER complaints on file. 1 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.