Honda Pilot 2003 through 2005

nerdball99

Does anyone know if the Gross Vehicle Weight has increased for this vehicle? Seems silly that the 2003's where rated at 5950 lbs. If it was rated at 6000 lbs. I bet you they would sell a heck of a lot more of these to small business owners who would be able to depreciate these using the section 179 rules.

kullenberg

Actually it needs to be 6001 lbs; case in point - the Lexus GX-470 is 6000 lbs and not eligible; do you think people are p#@sed?

schulhof

So it looks like the Pilot needs open road to get the stellar mileage I was looking for.

So far in mixed driving I get 16-17 MPG.

HOWEVER, took it on a trip from S. to N. California on the I5 Autobahn and got......
......23-25 MPG at 80+ MPH fully packed,
with the air on, up hill, etc.

Very nice.

robr2

But Honda is pretty much selling every one they make so what would be the point for them?

Also, here in MA you would have to run commercial plates which precludes you from parking and driving in many places. The city of Boston allows vehicles with commerical plates to park in places where resident stickers are required for on street parking but only if the vehicle is permenantly marked with the business name and phone number. Many suburban towns have bylaws that restrict the overnight parking of marked commercial vehicles in your own driveway.

IIRC, NYC goes even further - you can't have a back seat in a commercial vehicle. Lots of MB's and BMW's without back seats!!

metmdx

Forgive the apparent stupidity, but did I get this right from the Honda dealer today; there is
no sunroof option because of the roll bars in the roof????
I obviously haven't been following the Pilot too long or seriously, but this was a surprise - True?
Thanks,
metmdx

rerenov8r

... to keep Acura dealers from shoving a red-hot poker into "corporate".

You want a "large" SUV from Honda with a factory sunroof you go to the store that twisted the H into an A...

suavechavo

My sister purchased her Pilot EX about a year ago and already it seems she may need new tires. She's got ~30K miles already and is concerned as to why they need replacement, as the car isn't quite yet a year old. She lives in So. Cal, so most of her driving is hwy. The tires are Duellers and she's wondering if there might be a better choice of tire that may last a bit longer, but still handle well. Also, does anyone know which dealer closest to Glendora is the best? Thanks.

qbrozen

Depending on driving habits, this is less than average, but not unheard of. Check the owner's materials that came with the car. There should be a warranty document for the tires in there. I would expect at least a 40K warranty, so the replacements will be prorated accordingly.

And, yes, in my experience Duellers suck. YMMV. Check the user ratings on Tirerack for the various brands that fit the Pilot and you should be able to find a couple of choices that get good reviews. I've done this for a couple of vehicles and have had good results from the tires I've bought based on it.

silverpilot03

I remember you also felt the Pilot front seat was very uncomfortable. I made a few design changes that made a huge difference in the comfort level. If you are still reading the board, leave a message and I will take the time to detail the modifications. I would estimate this to be a 2 hour project-now that I have gone through the learning curve.

suavechavo

Thanks for the info. I'll let her know about the tire warranty, maybe she'll get some sort of discount on some new ones if they are defective. Although, I think she's looking to switch them out for some Michelins. I checked out the tire rack and they have some good prices.
Also, is it really necessary to change all four at once. The manual says that you can replace two at a time if you’re unable to buy all four. Although, I've heard otherwise.

qbrozen

It is a good idea to switch all at once. The HOnda AWD allows a little bit of flexibility (from what I understand thus far) since it runs in FWD mode most of the time and only engages the rear when needed. So, unless the AWD engages, just swapping fronts or rears is ok for a little while. I wouldn't do this myself, but I do think you'd be ok. The problem is that if you do this and wear down those 2, then replace the other 2, now you are still out of whack. So, if anything, I would not run 2 new ones very long before replacing the other 2 as well. The safest thing is to just do them all. Besides, if you followed the service intervals, then the tires were rotated at least 4 times in those 30K miles and should all need replacing at the same time.

porknbeans

Honda has updated their website

http://www.hondacars.com/models/model_overview.asp?ModelName=Pilo- t

nuga1

The seats in the Pilot (front) are very uncomfortable; too short and too hard. Other than the noise factor (for prospective buyers, the Pilot is very noisy) the uncomfortable front seats are my only major (additional) complaint.
Silverpilot states that a fix is possible. If so, Silver, please make it known in this forum if possible. I think that I could really like my Pilot in spite of the noise if the seats were more comfortable. Thanks.

silverpilot03

One of the biggest problems with the seats in how the seams areas are designed. Honda uses four metal rods with hog rings to hold the material down. The foam underpad is grooved out to make room for these rods. The groove is huge and makes it easier to install the rings on the grooves. Unfortunately this allows the rods to be felt when you sit on the seat. I fully removed the seat and fabric (you don't have to though) in an effort to try and understand the design. The problem I had was also with the side bolsters and the front area immediately under my hamstrings. The seat felt very hard on my lower thighs since the front of the sear rises so severely and yet the foam at the back of the seat was compliant enough to allow me to drop down putting even more pressure on my hamstrings. So, the solution, that worked out great, is as follows:
Remove the seat from the car and remove the bottom seat cushion from the seat frame. Remove the hog rings visible on the bottom of the steel pan and release the plastic clips . DO NOT REMOVE rings that hold the material to the foam pad in the seating area. I did, but only to investigate. If you do, you might not get the material back on correctly. You need to by one 24 x 20 piece of 1" think BLUE high density foam. Cut 4 strips from the foam. Take your measurements directly from the foam underpad. These will fill the grooves in the foam underpad. Also, Cut two larger squares of foam. These squares will go between the foam underpad and the 3 springs in the seat pan. I could not believe the difference. The strips of foam keep those metal rods from sticking me and the two squares of foam keep me from sinking into the seat pan and subsequently keep the pressure off my lower hamstrings. I originally placed the large squares of foam immediately below the seat fabric and above the foam underpad, but it did not look right. The seating area stuck up at the back.
WARNING. KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. YOU MUST DISCONNECT THE BATTERY and go though the idle reset and window/stereo resetting procedures. ALSO,The seat will not look exactly like the factory. It tends to loose some of the highly contoured look as those thin strips fill in the valleys, but it was worth it for me. I will do the passenger side later since my wife also agreed the difference is significant.I do enjoy driving the Honda now. If I could only fix the splotchy silver paint on the driver's side!!

larry51k

picking my new pilot up soon at an out of state dealer. just to prepare myself for a longer than usual trip home, can someone tell me what the manual says is the break-in approach?
thanks

suavechavo

The tires have been rotated each time the car went for service, so I guess they're equally worn. So, I guess she'll be getting a new set next month.

Thanks again for the info.

qbrozen

cmcardle

Don't gun the engine or apply full force brakes (unless danger is imminent) for the first 500 miles. That's what I was told...

comp

Reviewing Honda's website to find the 2004 Pilot has heated front seats but still no side curtain airbags? What's up with this. It is pretty common for most SUV's to have this added safety feature. Is it not important enough to add?
...disappointed!

wmquan

It may be Honda's simple lagging in deploying certain safety features. E.g. Honda was late in adding regular side airbags in many of its vehicles (Honda or Acura), and the Pilot doesn't have stability control which most other vehicles in it class have. Quite unfortunate.

Consumer Reports claims that the 2004 MDX will have side curtain airbags but this has not been verified yet. Honda is making side curtains available in non-V6-equipped Accords, and they are also standard in the Acura TSX.

To be fair, the Highlander doesn't have side curtains yet either. Though the Explorer has it as an option, and the Murano has them.

Given the increased number of models with side curtains, I will never buy another vehicle without them.

Here's a claim from IIHS that side airbags with head protection (e.g. side curtains) reduce fatalities in side impacts by 45%:

http://www.iihs.org/news_releases/2003/pr082603.htm

03lxv6

comp and quan,

That is what I find out too. Very disappointed. Maybe one reason is that Honda has not done curtain bags before (as far as I can remember), they are not very confident yet.

Even a Kia sorento has a curtain bag. It does not look like I will buy a 04 pilot now.

comp

Regarding the Acura MDX and airbags. Last year I visited my local dealer (knowing it did not have the curtain airbag) sat in the vehicle and waited for the salesman to bring up safety. I then asked about a side curtain airbag. Her response was (and I'm not kidding) "Oh that would hit you in the head". I promptly left.
I would be very interesting in a Pilot or MDX if they had this very important safety feature. What do most SUV's do really well? Roll Over. Honda should offer the curtain as an option at least. Would Honda make this kind of change in mid model year 2004 or would they wait for the 2005 models?

porknbeans

Hey, I've seen you guys before!

wmquan

Last year I visited my local dealer (knowing it did not have the curtain airbag) sat in the vehicle and waited for the salesman to bring up safety. I then asked about a side curtain airbag. Her response was (and I'm not kidding) "Oh that would hit you in the head". I promptly left.

LOL!!! I'm always amazed at what salespeople will say. The current excuse from some Acura salesmen on why the MDX doesn't have xenons is that they'd cause too much glare being mounted high up. What they're missing is that if Honda had auto-leveling, projector-beam xenon technology ready, the MDX would have received them already. There are some 2004 MDX spy shots that seem to show projector headlamps but no one's sure if they're xenons.

It also reminds me of Honda's answer when people asked why the MDX didn't have VSA. "It doesn't need it, it's too wide." Yet Acura adds it in the third model year.

Now, to be fair, side curtains may not help as much in rollovers unless they're like Volvo's design, where they actually inflate during a rollover, and stay inflated for a couple of seconds (to try to help keep occupants in).

Side curtains are mainly to protect against head injuries when t-boned by another vehicle, or when one slides into a pole (which actually happens, interestingly enough). On taller vehicles, there is less vulnerability because a lot of vehicles hitting you won't send enough force up high. Thus the urgency for side curtains hasn't been as high as, say, a low-riding sedan.

IIHS is now running side-impact tests that use a higher barrier than NHTSA's (which simulates you getting hit by something the size of a Corolla). The idea is that with so many SUV's and minivans out there, the odds are higher now that you'll get hit by one of them and the impact forces will be distributed higher. That's where side curtains help. In a test of small SUV's, the only vehicles to rate a "good" in the test had some type of head protection, at least in the front.

robsdad1

Air bags in the front seats. If passenger is less than 65 lbs the unit switches itself off. If you slouch toward the window it also cuts out and flashes airbag off on the dash switch.

Is a side airbag and a side curtain airbag the same thing?

wmquan

I'm afraid that the Odyssey does not have a side curtain airbag. Like the Pilot, it has front side airbags that protect the chest (more specifically, the thorax).

Side airbags with head protection provide cushioning specifically for the head (obviously the most vulnerable part of one's body). There are three types -- a side airbag like the chest ones but with a longer or additional chamber that stretches up to the head (e.g. Subaru Forester, Buick Rendezvous), tubular "sausages" that stretcn midway across the windows (most BMW's), or side curtains that cover much, but not all of, the window area (the new Toyota Sienna, some models of the Accord, Acura TSX, most if not all Lexuses, MB's, Saabs, Volvos, etc.).

nuga1

Thanks so much, Silverpilot for your information. I am afraid the adjustment is above my area of expertise. It helps (though) to know that I can have it done. Thanks again.

qbrozen

ssssshhhhhh..... u trying to get us kicked out of here?

silverpilot03

My best friend is a manger at Ford. He is currenty working on a platform where seat comfort is being reviewed. Ford is offering a seminar on seat ergonomics in a few weeks. He is going to go and provide some of the information to me. I may end up with another complete cushion redesign.
I tried several seats out the other day. I do feel that foam density is the biggest problem remaining with the Honda cushion. Changing that would be tough unless someone knows how to mold foam. You could use the old foam as a blank for a form, but my guess is that process would get expensive fast.

cmcardle

Can't imagine where... though I'm pretty sure I spotted Kemosabe last night on Water St.

Off topic...
I'm in Milwaukee, and it is NUTS around here, but in a good way. They're estimating that by tonight the metro population will have increased by 20%: 1MM to 1.2MM, most of them on bikes. It is truly a sight (and sound) to see thousands and thousands of bikes tooling around all day and night. I don't know if anywhere else will have coverage of the parade tomorrow morning, but that should be very impressive if you can tune it in.

robsdad1

Thanks for the valuable info

dski

I'm amazed to see a couple people here are so unhappy with the seat design. In my line of work, I drive long distance and as many as 40,000 miles a year. I've gone through 8 cars and trucks in the last 15 years and the Pilot is by far the most comfortable for me on long hauls.

There's no comparison in fact. We took a family vacation last month and drove from Cincinnati to Sarasota Non Stop. We had planned an overnight but both me and my wife found that we were not fatigued at all from the drive and the seats. I was surprised by her comments on the seat comfort, I was thinking that it was just me.

My Pilot has the Leather and I bought it in June. Maybe there are some running changes that were made in later production.

This is my first Honda. First impressions in the short 3 months and 17,000 miles are very favorable. So far, I'd be comfortable recommending the Pilot to anyone.

Drew

silverpilot03

Seat design is a compromise. Since humans have an AVERAGE build, you expect that a car company designs for that average. Someone with a 32' inseam might find a seat very comfortable, while someone with a 30" inseam might not be able to adjust the seat to find a comfortable position.
The one thing I have noticed in the message board is that most folks with leather like the comfort level, while most who dislike the comfort have cloth. Someone even test drove a leather EX and liked it, but bought a cloth EX and found the seat more uncomfortable. I wonder if the foam pad is different? If the leather underpad was a bit softer, I would buy one to try.

01r1

Yes, the seat comfort is very subjective. I find the Pilot seat bottoms very comfortable. Although, I find the seat backs a little wide. I only notice it while on real curvy roads - I tend to slide side to side a little. Overall, they're great! Like others, I can drive an entire tank of gas (350-400mi) in one sitting without getting fatigued. Sometimes my passengers make me stop sooner for bladder relief

I spent a good half hour before buying my Pilot jumping in and out of a cloth model and a leather one. They definitely had a different comfort level for me. I couldn't visually see the difference, but I could feel one. For some reason the leather model felt more comfortable to me and that's the one I bought. I had fully intended to buy the cloth model until I had the two side by side and tested them.

So, I've got the comfortable seats (which is important) but I've also got the saggy leather seat bottom problem and a dealer who won't fix them

-Pete

silverpilot03

The issue might be the leather giving vs. the cloth not giving. That certainly would explain why the cloth feels more firm. The key assumption is that the underpad is identical. Next time I take the seat apart, I will sit on the pad only and see if that makes a difference.

dako_tian

"My best friend is a manger at Ford."

Man, I knew the economy is not the greatest and unemployment is still high, but having to work as a feed trough for livestock is sinking pretty low. My sympathies to your best friend. Hey, you might want to help the guy out, you know. ;-)

stever

lol, there are no demerits for chat typos around here (thank goodness - otherwise I'd be peeling taters till '09). That moldy foam sounds a bit much though!

Steve, Host

davis31

I noticed on the XMRadio website that the Honda Pilot is available with XM satellite radio. However, I don't find a mention of it on the Honda website. A salesman at the local Honda dealership was not sure whether or not it is available. I will be buying an SUV in the near future, and the Honda Pilot is my first preference, but I will require a satellite radio. Does anyone on this board know if XM satellite radio is available as either a factory installed or dealer installed option?

nuga1

I would say that the seats in the Pilot are among the most uncomfortable that I have experienced. And I have leather. I felt that they were uncomfortable when I test drove the car and almost didn't buy for that reason. I liked other things about the vehicle though, and thought that I could live with the seats. The test drive does not really let you get into the seats. All one has to do is sit in a Nissan Murano, Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Tahoe, Ford Escape etc. to notice the difference. ( I drove Explorers for 8 years) The sad thing about it is that there is plenty of room in the vehicle for comfortable seats. The Pilot is a good vehicle but the seats are pitiful. And Pilots are noisy. prospective buyers should just be aware. The short hard seats with the big roll in front--and the noise-- might bug you. Give it a good drive before you buy.

silverpilot03

I guess we all have our perspective. I agree on the seats, but coming from a Dodge intrepid and my wife's civic-which I HAD to sound-proof-, I feel the pilot is pretty quiet. Check to make sure the dealer installed the plugs on the cutouts for the transport hold downs. Mine did not have the plugs in and that did allow for some addt'l road noise to enter the cabin. I don't have a dB meter anymore, but would put a Pilot up against most other higher SUV's in the NVH (Noise vibration harshness) area. Again-just MHO.

qbrozen

Coming from a Forester, the Pilot seems very luxurious in its quietness. I also find it on par with, if not even quieter than, my Volvo. I always get comments from passengers in the Pilot like "wow. this is the smoothest and quietest truck I've ever been in."

dski

I get the same comments from people who have ridden with me in my Pilot.

How anyone can call this a Noisy vehicle is something I'll never understand. Maybe the base version is noisy or early production versions, I don't know. I just know mine is very quiet, smooth and comfortable.

Drew

cmcardle

I very rarely ride with the windows down, but did this weekend for a little while and was surprised by the noises I heard OUTSIDE the car. (Inside it's nice and quiet.)

Maybe the Pilot just has so many cooling fans and other creature comforts that I should expect this, but it sounded like several tiny electric motors running at once, in addition to the V6. A couple ran at constant speed and at least one seemed to "rev up" along with the RPM.

Anyone else experience this?

rossdm

My Pilot is one of the quietest vehicles I have ever been in. The seats (leather) are also the most comfortable I've ever sat in. I just drove from Florida to Pennsylania and back. I was AMAZED at the seat comfort. I drove all day (11 to 12 hours) for two days in a row and wasn't the least bit fatigued! I give them an A+++ for comfort!

hairong

After 10 months & 12k miles, IMHO my Pilot is very quiet at 50~65mph, above 70mph, it gets much noisier very quick. At that speed, the steering wheel also starts to vibrate a little. In Michigan, where the speed limit is 70, I drive up/down around that quite a bit. The difference is very noticeable.

Overall, NVH was/is not Honda's cup of tea, Pilot is no exception. However, its many virtues easily outweighs the annoyances.

mike120877

Hey everyone, how are you? I was just curious does the Navi System on the Pilot have a trip computer like the one on the new Accord. If so, what kind of functions does it monitor.

Thanks,
Mike

hairong

For me, seat comfort is my NUMBER ONE gripe about my Pilot. It is very uncomfortable. When I sit in the driver seat (average size, 170lbs), I can't touch the hard side bolsters, so my whole weight is on the middle flat cushion. With the front part as hard as it is, I ALWAYS feel my butt is sinking into something that's very uncomfortable. It does not make me feel tired on long drive, just uncomfortable. My wife, who is petite, felt the seat is firm but comfortable, my guess is her weight is not enough to sink the cushion down. I always tell her, "Big people (who can sit on the side bolsters) and small ones may feel good in this seat, but what about the middle ones?" Maybe we should tell this to Honda.

I know, I know, this is very subjective. I am just telling my feeling with my Pilot.

carman36

Looking to buy Pilot. Trying to figure out differences btwn 03/04 versus price differences.
Thanks for help

toca

Enhancements to the 2004 Pilot include:
- EX-L heated seats standard
- EX-L heated side mirrors added
- 2nd row (adjustable) walk-in capability to 3rd row improved
- Honda Navigation system receives improved database (EX-L models)
- Nighthawk Black Metallic exterior color replaces Evergreen Pearl (Saddle interior)
- Midnight Blue Metallic exterior color (with Gray interior) replaces Havasu Blue Metallic
- Redrock Pearl exterior color receives Saddle interior (instead of Gray)

cds12

I though I was going to puchase the perfect Pilot for me. The 2004 EX-L with the heated seats/mirrors and the adjustable 2nd row seat. Upgrades that makes the Pilot exactly what I wanted. Great, order me a Redrock Peral with GREY interior.

WHAT??? The 2004's have saddle interior? DAMN!!!!!