I have removed my gen 2 panel several times and it is basically the same as gen 3. First you have to remove the cargo divider. Then the door sill trim. From there remove the tabs on the panel. They should have bolts or screws behind them. Once you remove all. Use a trim pry tool and start at the lower section of the panel and work up. Be gentle to spare the clips from breaking. Do the reverse order to put everything back. I have included a PDF so you can get an idea of what to do. Good Luck.

 

Mostly what bluensleepy said. The sneaky part is the tie-downs bolted through the panel toward the bottom. There is a little hinged plastic panel in them that must be flipped down from the top to reveal a phillips head bolt. And for mine some ape must have tightened them down with an impact tool so they were nearly impossible to remove without stripping the phillips head. I had to drill one of them out and use a bolt extractor. It's still sitting in the garage bowing its head in shame.

[edit] BTW for 3rd-gen Pilot the 3rd-row seats must come out. Some trim needs to come out at the base of 2nd-row seat, but the seat can stay.

The broken corner of the tie-down is from trying to pry the thing off. Not gonna happen.

 

Mostly what bluensleepy said. The sneaky part is the tie-downs bolted through the panel toward the bottom. There is a little hinged plastic panel in them that must be flipped down from the top to reveal a phillips head bolt. And for mine some ape must have tightened them down with an impact tool so they were nearly impossible to remove without stripping the phillips head. I had to drill one of them out and use a bolt extractor. It's still sitting in the garage bowing its head in shame.

[edit] BTW for 3rd-gen Pilot the 3rd-row seats must come out. Some trim needs to come out at the base of 2nd-row seat, but the seat can stay.

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You are correct about the phillips head screw. It is rather easy to strip. I had to use a impact driver with a large phillips head bit. The must have applied some loctite on it.

I made the correction about the seat removal. Wasn't sure if it had to be removed. I must mention that Honda says to use blue loctite on the seat bolts when reinstalling.

 

Thanks for the valuation inforamtion!! I am able to open a required components but looks like without remove 3rd row, it is very difficult to pop open the panel. I bottom of the panel is not screwed anything with the 3rd row (it moves freely) but still can't pull it out due to 3rd row seat. Question: Is it easy to remove 3rd row? Is it just opening the 2 bolts visible at the back of the seat?

Thanks

 

There should be 4 bolts that have to be removed. I used a regular socket wrench. Not hard at all.

 

Go to Home Depot get the bolt extractor bit. You need a drill also.

 

Yep. Think I used a #1 extractor, which requires that you drill with a 5/64 bit. So pick up a couple of decent hardened bits. Helps to use a bit of oil to lubricate the work when you're drilling metal. You will also need a little T-handle, which I borrowed from my little tap and die set.

 

You drill into the center of the bolt, tap the extractor in with a hammer, put the T-handle on, then twist the bolt out counterclockwise.
Then you go buy an impact wrench for next time. ?

 

Hello Piloteers!!

This is my first post. I hope I can convey my question properly. Few days ago I had an unfortunate event here my new Honda Pilot 2016 EX AWD slightly got brushed with the edge of the wall at the passenger rear end. It left a small dent with crease on the metal body just behind the subwoofer area, right above the plastic bump edge. Bumper also go some scratched but no other damage.

The dent is not very bad so can be pushed out from inside. As the color is black it is not easily eye catching but still want to make it better.

I am looking for instructions on how I can remove right side cargo interior panel. I have tried to follow the forums discussion replacing subwoofer, but the information was I was getting was not enough.

I really appreciate your help!! I enjoy reading posts on this forum

Hi All,

This is my first contribution so I hope this is ok.

I had the fun of removing the right rear cargo interior panel on my 2017 EXL RES this weekend. To my disappointment in the cold something bumped the panel and broke the panel like an Eggshell. These panels ARE NOT THICK and do not bend or like impact.

The panel is all one piece from liftgate to back door and is almost $400.

To remove it, you first need to pop off a cover on the cargo nethook to reveal a bolt. Remove that. Then you need to pop open the hidden covers on the cargo tie downs which as another contributor noted, these crack if you're not careful.

Under those covers are Philips Head screws for some STUPID reason that are soft and strip. I got one out using my hammer screw driver. The other I had to drill out and now need to go find a new metal bolt. I dont know why these are not bolt heads versus philips screws. They also used locktite as they are in there good.

Next is a bolt hidden under a rubber cover right beside the 2nd row seat. remove that.

Next you need to remove the rear bench. Pull the trim panel off from inside the storage well which exposes 4 bolts for the seat. Remove those bolts. Then go to the front of the back seat and remove the plastic covers hiding two small locating bolts for the seat. After you have done that lift up the cushion carefully (its styrofoam and can crack) and you will see more bolts (2) holding down the rear bench. Remove those.

Once done so get some help to remove the rear seat as it wants to fall apart if you lift it alone.


After that begin popping off the panel from back to front. Its VERY brittle so be careful. Pop all the one way clips from back to front. Once you're at the 2nd row seat, pop the seat rail trim off which allows you to access the clips for the side panel. It's tricky to get this last area popped so be cautious.

I've included a couple photos. All in all take your time with this and follow these instructions and you will be fine.

 

Thank you all for the instructions and pictures! I also have similar problems with this right sidewall. I have already disassembled half of it. I unscrewed the screws. You never know what you can do till you try.

 

Removed, it remains to repair the plastic!

 

Great help in this thread!
I removed 3rd seat and all rear trim, cut and attached vibration dampening mats as well as sound absorbing mats and then reassembled everything yesterday. It took about 7 hours for me, and I did not stress, but as I had all info from this thread to help me, nothing backfired and the whole "install" went smooth.
The only thing that gave me some trouble was the four foremost screws for the 3rd seat back rest. Those run right through the body and since the tips of them are exposed to the elements, they were quite corroded. I had to crawl under the car and apply some rust solving "oil" before I could screw them all the way through.

 

Next time you will do this work in 2 hours!