Other powertrain problem on the 2005 Honda Pilot
1 crash 2 injuries 3 of the 72 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Honda Pilot report other powertrain problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 67,500 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 68 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 89,900 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,700 miles | 68,058 miles | 99,500 miles | 120,000 miles | 140,600 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a crash and 2 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 1,000 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 138; the 2005 has 72. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
2/24/10. 2005 honda pilot ex with 107k miles. Have a blinking "d" light after driving for a few minutes. The light stops blinking when I cut off the car and turn it back on, but then it returns. Today is the 1st day that this has occurred. Owner?s manual notes that the blinking "d" light indicates a transmission problem. I called the dealership (economy honda-chattanooga, tn) who said that this is a common problem and may just be a bad transmission sensor which will cost me abt $350 and 2 hrs of my time. However, it could also mean that my transmission is failing prematurely. This is ridiculous as last month I spent over $1k to get the $105k mile maint and have always kept up with required maint. If this problem is so common- why has no recall been issued? In looking at other online complaints, the same issue occurs with the 2003-2004 pilots. I have an apt with the dealership tomorrow to address this issue. *tr
Blinking 'd' light and once car is turned off, the blinking stops. This problem first occurred when we were driving back from lancaster, ca to san diego. The low fuel light went on and shortly thereafter, the blinking 'd' light. We pulled off the interstate and put some gas in the vehicle. The blinking d light did not appear again for two weeks. I took into my independent who could not duplicate the problem. The problem appeared this week and took in to my independent while it was still running and they were able to scan p0872. The car had just 62,232 miles on it and advised I take to the dealer. The dealer could not duplicate the problem. I took back to dealership where I bought the vehicle and gave them all the information from the independent and from this site. They were able to look up the dtc troubleshooting from american honda and replaced the 4th gear pressure switch, cleared code and reset the light. I was reassured that this is electrical and not mechanical. It could lead to damage to the internals of the transmission, if the switch is not replaced in a timely manner. *tr
My 2005 honda pilot ex shudders and vibrates when accelerating lightly between 30-40 MPH. It also occasionally makes a "purring" noise between 40 and 50 MPH, but not at the same time of the shudder. We have taken it to 3 honda dealers and none can replicate the problems (they can happen 10 times a day or not at all) and refuse to do anything about it. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Honda Pilot
Other brake problem
Radiator or coolant leak
Other driver assistance problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Torque converter failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 72 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2005 Honda Pilot?
Across 68 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 67,500 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2005 Honda Pilot?
72 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed