76 complaints reported

2017 Honda Pilot Electrical System

Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.

Reports
76
Crashes
1
Fires
0
Injuries
0

Complaint Timeline

Chronological view of owner reports

May 2023

Alarm spontaneously went off while in garage & several indicator lights lit up and repetitive clicking sounds heard. Honda dealership Johnson City, TN diagnosed problem as a faulty body control unit module. I was told I could drive the vehicle and afterward unhook the battery cable to keep the alarm from going off & draining the battery. I followed instructions but then it would not start and was then told the body control unit module is at fault. My understanding is that some features of safety are compromised with body control unit module malfunction so perhaps I should not have been given this advice?? When we first got vehicle, 2017 awd honda pilot w RES - the NAV system did not work. Supposedly they replaced it - still does not work. The RES quit approx 2019 - still not work. My wife was told it would cost 2-3,000$ to fix it - did not offer to file a claim on our warranty; we were told to hang an ipad back seat. On 6-19-2019 clock froze; 6-17-19 dash computer not work - Honda replaced display audio replace Navigation unit - warranty covered...9/29/21 starter & battery replaced at 37,394 miles we paid $1020.86 despite having a platinum warranty covering electrical. 10/4/22 at 46,779 miles fuel injectors replaced - warranty covered. 3/26/23 alarm spontaneously went off - Honda diagnosed as body control unit module as problem - "lucky if part arrives by 5/8/23 would cost us $725 to fix (even though we have platinum warranty). Once we reminded them to file warranty will cover but I have to pay for my own rental car (over $900 at this point). Interestingly 737,000 recalls for BCM in 2020. Honda says quote: Our goal is customer satisfaction, that is why we keep a large stock of body parts, mechanical & electrical parts on hand. We have one of the largest inventories in East Tennessee, Western N.C., SW Virginia. 6 times we've had this vehicle at Honda dealership for electrical issues. The SUV has been garaged, driven gingerly, has 51,000 miles on it.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Mar 2023
Mar 2023

Keyless Start System Problem indicator illuminated in driver information display. Error notification is displayed intermittently. Stays on for several drive cycles and then goes off for a bit only to come back on again. So far the car seems to start ok, not sure if this issue may eventually cause car to no longer start.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Mar 2023
Feb 2023

The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while driving approximately 15 MPH and decelerating, the fuel saving feature malfunctioned, causing the vehicle to hesitate and almost stall. The contact was able to drive the vehicle off the road to turn off and restart the vehicle. After restarting the vehicle, the transmission erroneously shifted to neutral and failed to drive. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 24,000.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Feb 2023
Feb 2023

Idlestop issues

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2023
Feb 2023

Keyless control unit has an electrical issue. Dash flickers on and off on its own while the vehicle is off and keys out of it. Alarm randomly triggers. Lights turn on and off. Keyless start issue as well.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Feb 2023
Jan 2023

The alarm has gone off 30 times from 7am this morning to 2pm. I also have a picture of the dashboard lights. About a month ago I took it to the Honda Dealership and they charged me for a bunch of other things and gave it back for it to do it again the same day. Honda said it's a control unit they need to replace but I have to pay?

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2023
Jan 2023

Several times while at a full stop, the idle stop feature has failed when I have taken my foot off the brake and tried to accelerate. The error message tells me to put vehicle in park then press start. That does not immediately work. So far, I have gotten the vehicle to start within 1-2 minutes but this is a safety problem for me and other drivers on the road. I have not taken this to Honda but will be doing that in the next few days.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Nov 2023
Jan 2023

Auto shut off happens all the time and the car shut off and need to restart. It is so scary when you are at a light and it turns green and a car appears behind you and almost slams into you. One day it will happen and i will be dead.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2023
Nov 2022

The Auto Idle will kill the engine at a stoplight and force you to restart the vehicle when the light turns green. It is dangerous, and have caused many near accidents and frustrated drivers.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Nov 2022
Oct 2022

Car fails to restart when the engine auto shut off engages. The engine will attempt to restart, but then nothing happens. The car is essentially stalled in traffic. This has happened three times. The car has to be put in park and fully shut off before it will restart using the car’s on/off button. One time it took a few minutes before the car would restart. This happened even after having the battery replaced. I informed the dealer about the problem, and the dealer acknowledged that there is some sort of problem with the auto shut off feature.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2022
Oct 2022

The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The Auto START/STOP system failed to operate as designed and the vehicle would stall and had to manually be restarted. The contact stated that occasionally several attempts were needed to restart the vehicle before the vehicle would perform as designed. The failure had occurred approximately 4-5 times. The contact had taken the vehicle to the dealer however, the vehicle was not yet diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 45,000.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Oct 2020
Sep 2022

The auto-idle system causes the car to stall quite often and poses a major safety hazard. We bought the car brand-new in May 2018. The problem started happening approximately 2 years after buying the car. The car fails to restart when you lift the foot off the break and instead, stalls the car. My husband and I have had the car stall at red lights, at stop signs, and recently while we were in the left lane of a major highway in traffic. Just this past weekend, it stalled on me twice in less than 24 hours. It takes quite a bit of time to restart because you have to put the car in park and make sure it is completely shut down before trying to start it again, while also trying to remember to put on hazard lights. I did bring it to Lia Honda in Albany NY on Sept. 24, 2021, 3.5 years after buying the car, specifically for this issue. They could not recreate it in the shop. They suggested I needed a new battery and proceeded to install a new batter at a cost of approximately $500 (it is my understanding batteries should be replaced every 5 years typically). This helped for about 6 months but now the car is stalling quite often again. While they have a button to disable this system, it defaults to "on" every time you power the car off/on, and it is easy to forget to turn it off. This is a major safety issue as the cars behind me don't realize I have stalled. I realize this is a known issue as other Pilot owners have filed similar complaints, and I hope Honda fixes this issue because we paid a lot of money for this car and will have teenagers driving it soon. We are happy to have the car inspected further if necessary. Thank you.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2022
Sep 2022

The idle stop feature not working properly. Many times the engine will not restart after releasing the brake and pressing the accelerator. This has left me stranded in busy traffic situations including intersections. This is very dangerous and a hazard for me and my family.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2022
Sep 2022

Parked in a lot with vehicle at full temp. Quick Stop. Drove vehicle to exit of lot and stopped to wait for a break in traffic. Vehicle turned off engine with Start/Stop feature. On brake release, the vehicle made an attempt to restart and failed. Took 10 minutes and I had to disconnect the battery to get the vehicle to reset enough to get started again. Had I not had a toolkit in the vehicle, it would have been much longer. During that entire time, the single exit to the parking lot was blocked and there was a significant backup with people going out the entrance. VERY dangerous. This was not the first time the vehicle had failed to restart, but the first where it was not possible from the driver's seat. It was also the last as I installed a device to disable the feature. I've not had any issues with the vehicle since. Start/Stop does not save enough fuel to make it worth the potentially dangerous failure. Feature should be MANDATORY for disabling in every vehicle. I for one will NEVER EVER own a vehicle that it can not be disabled.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2020
Sep 2022

The auto start/stop is not reliable. I have had three incidents in the past 2 years where if I'm at a light and the car turns off due to the auto stop, it will not restart. I did take it to my dealer and they could not find anything wrong with the battery or any other issue. I have to manually turn the auto stop/start feature off every time I drive the car in fear I will be stranded in an intersection. Very frustrating. It has been an issue for 2.5 years out of almost 5 years of owning the car.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Sep 2020
Aug 2022

On numerous occasions, when the auto engine start/stop engages, due to coming to a temporary stop, the vehicle completely shuts down. I then have to restart the car manually. Usually a notification pops up on the dash telling me there’s an issue and you have to follow the instructions. It’s very stressful because I am usually in traffic and have my children with me. This is a huge safety issue.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2022
Aug 2022

I was stopped at a stop sign and the auto-idle engaged. When I went to start again, the entire car shut down and would not start. I told me to depress the brake to start the vehicle, but the brake would not depress. I was stuck at the stop sign in the middle of a busy intersection because the car wouldn’t restart after the auto-idle engaged. After about 10 minutes, the car was able to start and I was able to drive it home. Prior to this, I have had some instances where the auto-idle would engage and when I went to drive again, all the lights would flash and it would delay in starting. The code reader read zero codes. Previous inspections from the deal found no errors as well. We are replacing the battery, but there are no other indications the battery was dead, dying or faulty and would cause this issue.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2022
Aug 2022

The contact owns a 2017 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that alarm on the vehicle would activate erroneously. The contact stated that after deactivating the alarm, the alarm sounded again hours later. The vehicle was not taken to be diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 100,000.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2022
Aug 2022

1. The problem is linked directly to the Auto Start/Stop capability. The Car is available for inspection upon request. 2. Car shut down electrically in the intersection of the road and caused traffic and police presence, semi trucks rolling through were frightening 3. Honda West Dealership in Las Vegas inspected the problem but had no resolution to fix it. 4. No warning lights indicated a shut off was emminent.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Aug 2022
Jul 2022

The problem is that which is reported here: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10184330-0001.pdf My problem is that I am being told that my VIN number is not included in the group eligible for the warrantee extension and fee coverage for the replacement of the keyless start sytem. Seeing how my vehicle is the model, make and year that this problem is known to effect, I am confused and frustrated by the inequitable and arbitrary use of VIN numbers as determinant of coverage. This is a known issue for 2017 Honda Pilots. My vehicle CLEARLY demonstrated all the malfunctions described and therefore, I believe it should be provided the warrantee extension and that I should not have to pay for the replacement ($168.17).

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2022
Jul 2022

Vehicle stalls REPEATEDLY when the automatic anti-idle function is active. Whenever the air conditioning and audio is on and I stop the car, the engine stops (as the anti-idle system is intended to work), then stalls out as the engine restarts. This has been happening for about 2 years and happens almost every time the anti-idle system engages. It’s terrifying when it stalls in stop and go traffic on the highway.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2022
Jun 2022

Keyless start system problem error message even after replacing key fob battery

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jul 2022
May 2022

Engine dies after idle stop enables at traffic light or stop sign. Car then needs to be jumped to restart

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2022
May 2022

1. The automatic start/stop feature sometimes fails to restart the vehicle 2. On a few occasions now I have been stranded at a stoplight trying to restart the vehicle with people trying to navigate around me. 3. I have not have it inspected by the dealer or mechanic yet. In my own research of the issue I found the there are a number of complaints about the same issue in the range of model years that includes my 2017 Honda Pilot 4. There were no lamps or warnings prior to the issue. When I take my foot off the brake the engine is supposed to restart but didn't. I had to completely power off the vehicle and open the door (so that all accessories like the radio were also powered off) and restart the car. But it took multiple tries. When I pressed the starter button the accessories would come on but the engine doesn't immediately start. There were no prior symptoms and, outside of the auto start/stop failures, I have never had a problem starting the vehicle. The auto start/stop works most of the time so, although the issue has happened a few times now, it is not consistent.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: May 2022
Feb 2022

Numerous times the auto stop/start feature has failed to work. When the car tries to start back after the stop/start feature has been engaged, it does not start and will completely turn the car off. All the electronics will flash off and back on. When this happens the car has to be returned to park and can take several minutes to start back leaving the vehicle stranded in the intersection. I have complained to the dealership but they say there isn’t a problem and to just turn the feature off. In order to do that a button has to be pushed every time the car is started.

Type: Vehicle, Vehicle: 2017 HONDA PILOT, Manufacturer: Honda (American Honda Motor Co.)
Incident: Jan 2022

Trend Over Time

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Quick Summary

The 2017 Honda Pilot has 76 Electrical System complaints on file. 1 crashes have been reported. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.