Top 5 Problems Honda Pilot SUV 2nd Generation 2009-15

Hey, friends. It's Len here from 1A Auto. Today we have a gen-2 Honda Pilot inside the studio. I wanna go over some of the top problems that we found with it. So let's get started.

Okay, friends. For our first problem on this particular vehicle, we're gonna talk about the VCM or variable cylinder management. With that said, what you might happen to notice if you're having an issue with the variable cylinder management on this particular vehicle might be you're driving down the road and it feels as though your engine's kind of shifting around or maybe losing power, gaining power, and it just kind of seems inconsistent overall. The reason for that is because the VCM actually shuts down and reactivates cylinders inside your engine as it feels as though it's needed. So if you're driving up a hill, obviously you're gonna need all six cylinders inside the engine to power you up the hill. If you're just cruising down the road at a nice, easy speed and you don't really need to accelerate and you're just kind of going on a nice flat road, more than likely it's gonna kick down some of those cylinders and that's gonna help improve fuel economy overall.

If for some reason your VCM wasn't functioning properly, it might be shifting around those cylinders, switching from six, to four, to three, to six, to four, to three while you're just cruising down that road and you're trying to do some nice leaf-peeping or whatever the case may be. Obviously that's gonna be annoying, but other than that, some things that you might happen to notice is you might be consuming more oil. You check your oil level, it seems like it goes low often. You look underneath the vehicle, you don't see any oil leaks. That's because your engine's consuming it and it's kind of just blowing it out the tailpipe as an exhaust fume gas, whatever the case may be. Also, what you might happen to find aside from the low oil level might be the oil light on your dash or even your check engine light. If your check engine light comes on, you know for sure you have an issue going on and you need to get in there and check it out. And you also might find that your spark plugs file out prematurely due to oil consumption.

Some of the codes you might get for this might be a code such as a P3400 or even a P3497. With that said, essentially what that means is you're having an issue with the VCM inside your engine's computer. Something to think about is that if your oil level is low, you're gonna have an issue with the VCM. So don't just go ahead and rush out and think that you have an issue with the engine, check your oil level, make sure it's full. If you're overdoing your maintenance, you need to make sure that you catch up on it and then hopefully the problem will subside. With that said, if the check engine light's on, it's definitely something that you're gonna have to diagnose like I said before. If that's the issue, the best thing that you would wanna do after the oil change, of course, would be to go ahead and go down to the dealer and get your system re-flashed or reprogrammed.

Moving along to problem number two. With that said, it's gonna come down to engine noises. If you were to start up your engine, especially when the engine's warm, you might potentially hear a ticking or even a knocking noise. And essentially you're probably gonna hear it from coming around this area right here, which is where your valve cover is. Now, obviously, we can't see inside of that engine. It's a perfectly good running vehicle and I'm not gonna take it apart, but I have another head here so I can show you. The issue that you're probably gonna find if you're having the ticking/engine noise when the engine's warm is due to loose rocker bridge bolts. So essentially you have your rockers right here and they move your valves up and down. There's gonna be bridge bolts that are supposed to hold that pivot point down nice and tight. Typically what happens is they tend to loosen up a little bit. If it loosens up then the pivot point can move around too much and it starts to chatter inside there. Essentially what you would wanna do is to be able to get to this point where you have a nice, clear view of everything, and then you would need to, of course, re-loosen and tighten all of your bridge bolts. At the same time as doing that, you'd wanna get in and make sure you adjust your valves at the same time because, well, you're here anyway, and why wouldn't you just go ahead and do it?

All right. I'm gonna sit down for a minute, but for our third problem here, we wanna talk about the power moonroof/sunroof up here. Call it what you want. Essentially what happens with these is you try to power them up and see if you can get them to open up. This one works, so that's great. But anyway, typically what happens is, is they just don't. Common reasons why they might not work is because there's supposed to be a control module that actually powers that up. The control module can technically be defective but it's not actually usually broken-broken, sometimes it just needs to be reprogrammed. It's a pretty common issue. Essentially what you would wanna do is either get yourself a high-end scanner or, of course, refer yourself to a mechanic or even the dealer to have it reprogrammed.

So now for our fourth problem on this particular vehicle, it would come down to the leather/vinyl interior. Essentially where it's gonna have the most issues would be where you rest your arm. So when you're driving, maybe you drive like this, like this, however you drive. But if you're rubbing your arms along these areas right here, more than likely you're gonna have wear areas on the actual material itself, even to the point at times where it'll actually tear into it and you'll notice that you have holes going in, whether it's on a center console area here or even on the armrest over here. It's very typical. This one's in very good condition. Obviously this person takes care of their vehicle. So that's nice. But with that said, like I said, it's a common condition, it's something that needs to be dealt with, and obviously if you had a big hole in here, you'd wanna cover it up because who wants to be putting their arm in there? You can get yourself a new covering for it, and usually that works, or, of course, you can just replace the unit.

So now on the outside of these vehicles, if you're one of those people that has those nice, beautiful chrome running boards that come along the side right here so you can go ahead and jump up into your vehicle, typically they're gonna have either plastic or even like a rubbery type of compound on them. That's gonna kind of act as like a gripping agent for you as you step. What happens with these? If you have the chrome running boards, like I said, is the black part that's supposed to be adhered to it kind of peels off. And generally it'll kind of bubble up in the center, so maybe you go to step on it and it just kind of feels like it's loosey-goosey feeling. And obviously that's not a stable feeling for you if you're trying to get into the vehicle. So it's kind of an issue.

So the way that I would go about fixing this would be to try to adhere that black piece onto the chrome running board. Use your favorite adhesive, whatever the case may be, but essentially layer it on there and then go ahead and clamp it on. Leave it for a few hours so that way there it can set and it's gonna be nice and firm. Once you've done that, go ahead and remove the clamp and then use it at will. With that said, if for some reason maybe you didn't wanna do that or you tried it and for some reason it didn't work, maybe you didn't clean it up first, you can go ahead and just replace the whole running board, but of course, that's gonna be a little bit more costly.

Okay. So I know that was five, but I feel generous today. So let's just go for a couple more, right? Why not? What that said, a couple other things that you might happen to notice, firstly would be maybe your low beams don't work. Generally it's gonna happen as it's either one low beam stops working and then the second one stops working, or usually it comes out, it's just both low beams don't work. Normally what this is, is a bulb. But in this particular instance for these particular vehicles, they actually have a common issue where there's actually a wiring issue. If you were to come inside of the cabin, right in here, you're gonna be able to find your headlight switch. You've got this right here, right? Everybody knows it. Typically what you might find is you have your headlights on and there's no low beams. You turn on the high beam, those work fine. What's the deal with that? Some of the other symptoms that you might happen to find is a slight smell of smoke coming inside your passenger compartment. And as you get a little closer over here, you can smell it right inside this area right there. Obviously that's gonna be an issue. What's gonna happen inside here is there's gonna be a wiring issue. Right at the switch where the wiring connects into it, typically it ends up burning out a little bit. You're gonna smell smoke and the outer lining of that wire is overheated and it actually melted a little bit. At that point it could ground out and it could potentially cause a fire. So it's definitely something you wanna fix. With that said, a fix for it would be, of course, to replace the switch itself because that's more than likely the cause and, of course, you'd either have to fix that wire or replace the wiring harness, which, of course, could be a little costly as well.

And lastly, something that's super common exterior-wise on this particular vehicle would be right up along this area in between the windshield and the moonroof/sunroof itself. Typically what you might happen to find is the paint starts to peel away. Generally it's gonna be almost in the center area right here. The reasons why this might happen is, well, poor preparation in the process of making the vehicle. Maybe they didn't actually sand it down properly or the case may be where maybe they just didn't prep it as well as they should have. But essentially, it's typical on the white particular vehicles like this one right here and it usually happens right in the center, right there. If this was happening to you, you wanna obviously take care of it ASAP because you don't want it to continue spreading. So, of course, either you can do the work yourself or just take it to a local body shop and have it fixed that way.

Okay, friends. So that's what I've got for you is for top problems on a gen-2 Honda Pilot. More than likely have a vehicle of your own and more than likely that vehicle has problems of its own. If that's the case, leave them in the comment section below because I always love to hear about it. With that said, I hope you liked the video. If you did, smash on the like button for me, it would mean the world. While you're at it, why don't you go ahead and subscribe and ring the bell that way there you can be kept up with all of our latest content. Thanks.