Seat belt or retractor failure on the 2017 Honda Pilot
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When seat belt or retractor failure gets reported
There are 18 reports of seat belt or retractor failure on the 2017 Honda Pilot, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 13th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 150 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
Putting it right typically runs $200–$900 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2017 has 18. 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.
The drivers side seat belt is to confining and tight that it hinders the movement of the driver slowing reaction time. It is unsafe. The driver's side seat belt does not extend out far enough for a short heavy person to pull the seat belt around and buckle it so it is comfortable. The passenger side seat belt has no issue. A visual inspection comparing the 2 seat belts shows the driver side seat belt does not come out of the floor as far as the passenger side. This issue results in the seat belt being to tight and restricting the drivers mobility while driving. The honda dealer service department and honda customer service confirm this is by design and nothing can be done. This is an accident waiting to happen. Honda needs to offer a passenger side seat belt configuration and specs for the drivers side.
Driver side seatbelt is markedly shorter than passenger side as well as other current year honda models. My wife is shorter than I and when she positions the seat, she has barely any travel in the belt. This could be very dangerous and apparently has been previously reported and is documented in various forums on the internet.
I just bought a new pilot after owing a 2011 for 6 years. I never had any issues with my 2011 pilot seat belts. On the 2017 pilot, the driver's side seat belt appears to be several inches shorter than the passenger's side. It makes it difficult for me to be able to move the seat to an optimal position because it traps me in too tightly if I move the seat forward or raise it higher. I am a shorter person and I'm not able to position myself comfortably due to the shorter seat belt. Instead I am forced to sit lower and all the way back. How is this safe?I took it to the dealer and they explained that the driver's side seat belt is attached to the floor, where the passenger's is attached to the seat, which makes that seat belt have lots of extra room. The dealer said I need to purchase an extender since there is no fix to this problem, as "it is a design flaw". I don't feel this is a safe option. I should be able to use the seat belt without needing an extender. The safety rating of the car is based on using the standard seat belt, not an extender. Please have this issue recalled so they can either install a longer seat belt or they…
Also reported on the 2017 Honda Pilot
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other powertrain problem
Other fuel system problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 18 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 seat belt or retractor failure happen on the 2017 Honda Pilot?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 200 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is seat belt or retractor failure on the 2017 Honda Pilot?
18 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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