Always one in every group, lol.

 

Unfortunately I am dealing with a very similar situation as well.

We had a routine maintenance done which included most fluids, water pump and timing belt. Picked our 2018 Pilot Touring up on Thursday and by Tuesday it was on the side of the road with a blown engine. A ticking sound started that morning. Called Beaverton Honda ( Beaverton Oregon) where the work was performed by the dealer and they asked that we bring it back in to check their work. Didn't even make it there when a horrible noise came from the engine and it died and would not restart.

It was towed in and the tech took the timing cover off and told us that he verified that his work was correct. ( Not sure I can wholly believe him but can't prove otherwise yet.)

However, his diagnosis of the issue without dropping the oil pan to inspect the engine was that it spun a rod bearing. Which is exactly what the recall is for! Literally for improperly machined journals on the crankshaft leading to premature rod bearing failure and catastrophic engine loss.

But our VIN is not is in the list so they won't do anything except offer put a used engine in for $7700.

Our engine only has 134,000 miles on it and should've went another 100k easily. Our maintenance was spot on, oil changes regularly as spec'd.

I have contacted Honda Corp but had no success so far. I will be talking to the case manager tomorrow and hope to have more success.

I too have been a loyal Honda customer and have owned a Honda or two every year since 1987 so it is very frustrating to have them not stand behind their typically very reliable engines...

I will update when the dust settles...

 

Here is some information on contacting Honda, including executives (scroll down to them). Chris Elliott's website has contacts for many corporations. I've used it to contact a high level executive and that resulted in taking care of an issue.

 

Wow sorry to hear this very disappointing that Honda is now competing with Big for failing engines and poor customer service 130k use to be nothing for maintained Honda and now they are looking to merge with the biggest failure in world Nissan

 

Takes TWO to bicker, not just one.....

 

I did end up speaking with Honda corporation and they said that in order to consider my engine as it was not in the list of VIN’s affected they would need an authorized Honda service center a.k.a. a dealer, to disassemble the motor to the point that it could be determined if either the timing had been set incorrectly, or there was an issue with the crankshaft journals. When I inquired at a couple different service centers for the cost, they indicated it would be minimum $3500 just to determine what happened inside the engine. That cost would have to be paid for by me with no guarantee that it would be reimbursed. I personally am not willing to take the risk that Honda corporation would then refuse to help out, so I have decided that I will source a used motor, probably one imported from Japan, so that it couldn’t possibly have the same issues that mine does and install it myself in a friend’s shop that has a lift. You can find those motors quite easily for under $2000 and even with a few gaskets and some new hoses I would still be significantly less than even just the cost to diagnose what happened in the engine.
After I get the engine out, I will tear it apart and determine for myself what happened. It will be very obvious.
I will video document the whole process, and if it turns out that the crankshaft was the issue then I may at least try to get a Honda representative to look at the video, but like I mentioned before, the way this has all been going I’m not going to hold my breath.
I don’t know if it’s blind loyalty or what but a month after our 2018 blew the engine. We got my wife a newer pilot to drive while I handled this situation. I’m hoping that this was an isolated event for us and I can go back to regarding Honda as having a reputation of well built vehicles that last a long time!

 

We got my wife a newer pilot to drive while I handled this situation. I’m hoping that this was an isolated event for us and I can go back to regarding Honda as having a reputation of well built vehicles that last a long time!

This has happened to the 2022 Pilot as well (rod bearing failure.) I believe they started investigating in 2022/2023, so the issue very well could be through out the entire 3rd gen series, so the more people report it to NHTSA even if covered under factory warranty or Honda Care, PLEASE REPORT IT, don't let Honda hide it with them covering it with goodwill/warranty edibility (if still covered) as Honda is not going to report it to NHTSA. I have a 2022 myself and I'm debating giving it up on lease end in Nov. Between the cost of a new ZF9/Remaned J series engine, it maybe cheaper to dump what you have, take a loss and just buy or lease another vehicle than deal with the headache down the road, like get a Lexus instead if you have the budget and not have to deal with this drama.

 

 

Thank you @21EXL & @hokiefyd for the information. Have been going back and forth with dealership service center with little success. OUR Pilot VIN does not fall under those that are part of the recall. This was explained as the VINs inform what location they were manufactured in, and my Pilot was not manufactured at that specific location.

With that said, the EXACT issue is what was diagnosed by the service center. Which infuriates me that Honda will not cover the repair. If they find it is a recall issue in the future, we may be reimbursed, but at this time they will not cover the cost even when we applied for Goodwill Assistance.

I came to Honda for the dependability of the Brand. But I think, at this point, I'll have to get it fixed and drop out of the Honda Family. This is not what I was hoping for when I purchased a Honda.

 

Sad to read your posting. How can one tell from VIN where it was manufactured ? Was your assembled in Lincoln, Alabama; Engine & Trans USA like shown on our sheet ?

 

Unfortunately there were engine failures in some Odyssey, Pilot, and Ridgeline vehicles. There is a recall, but those are VIN specific.

You could certainly get a second opinion at another dealership or independent shop.

Microsoft Word - A23-097 Safety Recall Conn Rod stop sale (nhtsa.gov)

 

Searching this forum, you'll also find a recall unrelated to the connecting rod bearings...it's for a camshaft issue where a certain bearing surface was not manufactured to specification. I would think that sort of problem would manifest itself earlier in life, but it's hard to say how the dealer first diagnosed a camshaft issue. 150k miles is not an insignificant number of miles, but one still expects or hopes for more from a modern automaker (any modern automaker).

The recalls and various issues on these engines, especially from the 2017-2019(ish) range, are disappointing and not becoming of Honda's reputation with these V-6 engines (which is otherwise quite good).

 

@2018PilotTouringDriver, yeah, that's really unfortunate. I think you have the right perspective, though. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

We have several older Hondas in our family and they've all been very good. Despite that, we tried a different brand before we bought our 2022 Pilot, and that was based on excellent overall reliability and owner satisfaction data. It just didn't work out for us. The car's reliability was okay, but it seemed to be going on a downward trend, and that was exacerbated by a poor dealer. We were in the position to be able to trade the car off and didn't really lose any money (this was during the used car market after COVID), so we did that. No ill feelings...sometimes it just doesn't seem to be a good fit.

I hate that your experience with your 2018 Pilot has been rough, and hope for better times for you ahead!

 

Same issue here with a 2016 honda pilot elite 128.000 miles we are out of luck honda said they can't do anything about it so now we are looking for a replacement engine and will sell this junk and never buy honda again

 

Joining the forum to only bash the heck out of Honda will not earn you any respect. Sorry for your loss. There is substantial issues with EVERY engine manufacturer brand. I've owned Buick, GMC, Chevy , Ford (Mazda) , and had reliability issues with ALL of them. Overall Hondas rate very good in the long term relibility measure IMO as I drive all my vehicles 200K+ and I do most all my own maintenance and repairs. I've soley owned Hondas since 1991. Just because I read of issues on a forum i'm not jumping ship on Honda's . As you did many people joing to bash, not to speak positive, and this is a tiny percentage in the "full" scheme of all Honda vehicles sold.

 

I’m having the same issue here. Still paying for my truck. Got it as a lease and purchased it after lease end now with just 79k on the engine. Now it’s toast and since it’s a 2018 Honda doesn’t want to cover it. It will not move under its own power and when you start it, the sound it makes is horrible. Sounds like marbles in a glass jar. The engine is the same across the board from what info I can find.

 

I am sorry to hear about your Pilot engine failure. I won't pretend to know what the cause is. I'm driving a 2018 with 89k miles, and I certainly want to keep my Pilot in operating condition.

My thoughts are: Perhaps Honda dropped the ball and made some bad engines?

Or, the Honda VCM system caused bearing damage due to out of balance running that overstressed the lower end.

Or, the 10,000 mile oil change interval programmed in the maintenance minder is to blame.

Or maybe all of these things.

I'm disabling VCM, using Valvoline RP oil on a 4000 mile OCI. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I would think that you could find a good used engine for your Pilot out of a crashed vehicle. I'm not sure that JDM engines are necessarily a better choice. Take a look on car-part.com for domestic salvage engines. Good luck!