2006 Honda Pilot
This year drew an ordinary 266 complaints for a Honda Pilot — the model's median is 178. What they were about is the unusual part: 6% of them mention head, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation.
Generation 1 of the Honda Pilot, which began in 2003 and ran to 2008. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 266 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 178 |
| Involving a crash | 23 |
| Involving a fire | 7 |
| Recalls | 10 |
| EPA combined | 17.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- head — 6% of this year's complaints, against 2.4% across the other years of this generation (2.6×). Owners wrote it as: head, diagnostic testing.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
WHILE PARKED, THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT ILLUMINATED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE DEALER FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING WHERE THE TECHNICIAN ADVISED THE CONTACT THAT THE HEAD GASKET AND THE RADIATOR WOULD NEED TO BE REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS REPAI…
WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 50 MPH ON NORMAL ROAD CONDITIONS, THE ENGINE WARNING INDICATOR ILLUMINATED ON THE INSTRUMENT PANEL. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO THE AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR DIAGNOSTIC TESTING, WHICH INDICATED THAT THE ENGINE MISFIRED. THE TECHNICIAN REPL…
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 19V182000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19E068000 VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL Fixed free of charge.
- 19V499000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 19V501000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 06V270000 EQUIPMENT
- 18V268000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 17V029000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V344000 AIR BAGS Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 10. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Honda Pilot was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2006 Honda Pilot? What happened to yours?
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