Should You Buy a 2023 Honda Pilot? Thorough Review By A Mechanic

hello and welcome to the car kernel Channel and welcome to the 2023 Honda Pilot which is already designed for 2023 with a lot of changes and basically this is not a mid-year refresh this is a full ground up change so in today's video we're going to do a proper technical review we'll look under the hood we'll look underneath the car we'll look inside and outside to explore if they did good with this change on the pilot or not right after this [Music] foreign let's start our technical review under the hood and under the hood here is something that is a Honda special this is 3.5 liter V6 engine no turbo no supercharger nothing many SUVs in this kind of segment are dropping their V6 for four Soul no turbo but here we have a V6 a very famous and kind of Timeless V6 a j35 however Honda finally have fully updated this engine and this is actually a kind of a groundbreaking update to this engine j35 Y8 is the name of this engine and let's start with talking about some of this mechanical construction and you'll see what change the biggest and most important change to this engine this is no longer a single overhead camshaft this now is a dual overhead camshaft and that is a huge change from all the previous versions to the j35 now something happened with the the the kind of a little bit got carried away they did one German thing here so the valve covers are not plastic they're actually aluminum and that's a very good thing but what is not good is they decided that the valve cover will have the cam caps integrated in them so basically when you pull the valve cover the cams will just come flying up because there's no cam caps underneath them like previous the previous version of this engine that perhaps adds a lot of more complication to the service and the other thing is there's no valve cover gasket it's actually sealer because you have a lot of tension from the cams on this valve cover so servicing the valve cover became a little bit more tricky on these but they did a few more changes where you might not have to remove those valve covers as much more on the mechanical construction this is dual overhead cam this engine still have a timing belt Believe It or Not 2023 with a fully revised engine timing belt super long time it belt because now you have four cams at this timing belt goes across and it still drives the water pump just like business as usual as before and the interesting thing here is the timing belt tensioner in the previous revision used to be an automatic tensioner now it became a manual one which has a special procedure to set it so you have to set the tension yourself not really an automatic tensioner the other thing that is interesting because now we have dual overhead cams there's a special tool to lock the cams now you don't have to remove the valve cover like some cars it's a tool that sits directly on the Cavs gears themselves and locks the cams doesn't seem like a very complicated tool nor an expensive one but it is something new if you've done if you're used to kind of timing belt or you've done them before on on the j35 this one is a little bit more different than the previous one going back to the mechanical construction the cylinder head remains a single piece cylinder head with something very interesting long gone are valve adjustments on the j35 and this used to be something very common that's long gone now we have hydraulic lifters however this is where things got a little German again this engine has cylinder deactivation and the way it does that is it has a solenoid that takes away the pressure from these hydraulic lifters collapsing them and now the valves don't open anymore and you basically shut down that cylinder that's how they do this it's been proven a little problematic over in the past from Honda and others shutting down cylinders on engines is never a good idea but they do it for Missions and that's why this engine is actually have a very high rating of emissions which is pretty interesting to see like a naturally aspirated V6 with this High rating it's because of the cylinder deactivation now the oil pump remains very similar it sits right behind the timing belt it's driven by the crank the nose of the crank very similar oil filter makes exactly the same place and that's the interesting it's been exactly the same place for a very long time and it remains now let's talk about the air filter situation because when you take a glance at this engine bay you'd assume this is the air filter but that's not the case this is just a resonator you have this over elaborate intake opening that some of it is on the hood some of it is here and the air filter is all on top of the engine this is actually new and we have three bolts to remove to replace the air filter pretty interesting location but the cool thing is spark plugs remain easily accessible the front three are super easy the back ones perhaps in order to remove the giant Contraption on top but it's very simple the air filter housing and then the plenum does not go over the back and that's something Honda has always done and it is a very cool thing now the cooling system in this engine is extremely basic there's really nothing to it the water pump is driven by the timing belt it's a mechanical one there's nothing special about it no special valves or kind of thermal management system nothing really regular thermostat Colon's always going to the heater core things that are extremely basic here and that's what contributes to this engine bay being very open we'll talk about that in a little bit but the fuel system here is direct injection only fortunately this is the way they had to do it to keep a dimension compliant but they could have airport they didn't that's okay carbon buildup is possible problematic carbon buildup is also possible in certain driving conditions but Hondas have not been known for kind of problematic carbon buildup but I guess time will tell with this engine now the cool thing about this direct injection is they don't have the injectors on top of the valve covers like we've seen some other manufacturers do they're actually in the Valley of the V so they directly go on the cylinder head away from everything else and then they have a single high pressure fuel pump that sits on the rear valve cover very simple and life is good now the transmission is a 10-speed transmission which is also new to the pilot and it is a second generation or revised version of that 10-speed transmission from The Odyssey very smooth transmission this is something that has to be said and this is potentially the second 10-speed transmission that I see that is very smooth the first one being the one from Toyota in their tundra or whatnot very smooth we went from six-speed to eight speed you could feel at a speed constantly shifting and constantly up down up down the 10 speed very behaved or could be constantly shifting but it's so smooth shifting that you can hardly tell and this is another one very smooth transmission no throws torque converter everything is very standard now the all-wheel drive system here is pretty interesting so in the rear you have ivtm it can distribute the power to each individual wheel separately which is pretty cool but in the front Honda did one big change so I can almost say a hundred percent of all-wheel drive configuration cars like this will have the transfer case mounted on the side of the transmission and it's driven by a sleeve or sometimes driven by the axle itself not directly by the differential like gear to gear here they move the transfer case a little bit back a little bit in and now it has a direct drive off of the final drive or the differential which is pretty cool it gives it a little bit more direct feeling it's not you know you don't have all this loss through the shaft and whatnot to drive the transfer case it's a direct drive which is pretty cool now in the trailsport model which is this one this is meant to be kind of the over Landing model it's not really a serious off-roading truck but it's just meant for families that like to go in the wilderness it's not really heavy off-roading but it has a little bit of lift we'll talk about it more when we look underneath and around it but something about the logic of the all-wheel drive that is different in the trail sport which is actually pretty clever so they can torque Vector in the rear where they could send power to one wheel or another but it actually cannot do that in the front but the way they did it here to do torque vectoring in the front is pretty clever so when you need to send power to one wheel because this is an open differential on the front they actually apply the brakes to one wheel and let all the power go to the other wheel that is actually pretty cool it's just a simple Logic the computer will watch what wheel needs more power and it'll apply the brakes to the opposite we'll send the power to that one that is pretty cool I wish they did it actually for all models but it's actually this logic is limited to the trail sport model now before we wrap up our technical review let's talk about a few things a few observations as a mechanic looking under the hood here and having some experience with Honda the first thing is this car has two Hood latches that is actually pretty new to Honda and all Japanese manufacturers very few of them actually have two latches this one does has two Hood latches and the interesting thing is there's one cable that comes out of the lever splits into two and then goes to both latches so closing this Hood you do not want to close the hood down and kind of press on it because you can engage one latch and bend the hood you do actually want to drop it a little bit from a good distance to let both latches engage at the same time the other thing is looking around this engine bay there's a lot of room I mean this is a pretty big V6 and this is even though this is a big SUV I've seen four cylinders get more crammed in an engine bay like this this is wide open and once you remove a couple covers you have a lot of room it looks like such a pleasure to work around here the timing belt area you have a lot of room it's it's basically a very simple timing belt to do you no longer have a hydraulic power steering pump that is in the way everything is wide open you have tons of room it's a pleasure to work on something like this now this engine revision I think was done really well they retained the timing belt making this engine very quiet actually compared to its any other V6 you look out with a chain and the other thing is the materials and the build and everything you look at and touch and feel very high quality stuff you don't see flimsy stuff here you don't see flimsy hoses you don't see flimsy clamps everything is very much the quality you expect from Honda and it's all evident it's very clear there's a lot of Honduras here if that hondaness ever goes away it would be very missed and it's not gone here now the only downsides about this engine is it is direct injected only that's potentially in certain driving conditions could cause issues with reliability the other thing is the cylinder deactivation is a little bit of a concern it is known to cause some issues down the road the unfortunate truth with this that is something I wish we could just turn it off with a switch that would be really nice the other thing is the integration of the cam caps into the valve cover is a concern making service on the valve covers a little bit more difficult which means more labor intensive which means it's going to be a little bit more expensive than you're used to just to do valve covers gaskets or run out of others no gasket here but still it's going to be a little bit more involved than usual to do anything with the valve covers but overall the best thing about this powertrain is how refined it is this engine is quiet this transmission is smooth and them together they're very smooth the one thing have to be said though it is not the most powerful engine in the planet for a V6 yes it does make 285 horsepower but over the previous version that's only five horsepower or more so we did all this to gain five horsepower although they did gain the very good emission rating but still at times you drive this it can feel a little bit on the underpowered side for a V6 SUV let's take a look underneath the 23 Honda Pilot starting with the front everything is covered up by the way the trail sport has a metal cover this is an actual heavy duty metal cover the normal one won't but there's something that brings joy to my heart as a mechanic when I look at cars designed like this look at this right here this is the radiator train even with all these covers it's fully exposed you could just drain your coolant very simple and then equally to do a simple oil change the drain plug is right here nothing has changed this is a 17 millimeter drain plug you'll find in every single Honda with a single piece aluminum oil pan that if you over tighten this it'll strip the thread and you've all run through this with older Hondas it's exactly the same here and the filter is in the exact same spot nothing really changed and did you know a couple fun facts about Honda oil filters they always put them in a place where it's right on top of the subframe where if you drain them they'll actually get oil inside the subframe and then throw it right on the hot cat and cause all kinds of mess so they actually have a special funnel tool that goes in here to drain the oil filter away from the subframe and the second interesting fact is all Hondas have the same oil filter with the exception of the S2000 and a few odds and ends here and there but majority of them have the exact same oil filter which is pretty cool and that is actually brilliant engineering moving on from that let's look at the front suspension and the brakes aluminum control arm with an integrated ball joint Panda loves to use this they never use a separate one but a cast iron knuckle it's pretty interesting to see that in 23 I mean this is a good idea and then dual piston caliper which is understandable for a car of this size the toy bar links are aluminum they're no longer the plastic thing they actually started making them better which is good as we move our way back look at the transfer case look at the orientation of this transfer case this is a transfer case that drives directly from the rear from the differential very interesting design it actually seems very simple it's kind of away from the engine and transmission service doesn't seem to be very difficult and they still use the same same thing with the transmission like the 3 8 drive to drain and fill exactly the same deal they certain things are good why change them as we move back we look at the exhaust and this hideous flex pipe folks one thing about Honda their exhausts are not the highest quality in the world that's always been the case they just don't seem as high quality the wells I mean look at this it's a new car it's already rusting away that's just how they do things but before we move on to the rest there are a couple interesting things this car has two AC drains and usually when you see that in cars that means AC box is huge and and the only way they could fit it to drain properly is to put two AC drains which is pretty interesting the other thing is look at the floor of this car you notice it doesn't have a hump in the middle it's actually a flat floor uncovered exposed and a beautiful finish on it I mean this is underneath the car this is a beautiful finish right here on all the panels something you don't see in a lot of Manufacturers the stuff nobody sees nobody really cares too much about but even here they care and they finish it well but this floor is completely flat and the drive shaft just goes here and because of that the exhaust does something very very interesting so it comes out here goes to this side Muffler that has the entrance and the exit on the same size then it goes into this giant behemoth this is so giant that they had to cut the floor up to make space for it which is pretty interesting and then it splits into two pipes and it goes out very interesting to look underneath this because I just can't get over the flat floor it's something you don't see a lot in cars like this then the fuel tank in the trail sport and this is a press car I can imagine it's been to some more off-roading than you should because it's been hitting everywhere this is metal and that's another trail sport one they put a kind of a stronger cover here to protect the fuel tank fuel tank doesn't seem huge it's on the side of the car and then the drive shaft goes all the way to the rear differential this is a vtm differential pretty large but it actually the differential itself is not big you have the the torque vectoring deal on the side that can send power to each wheel pretty standard setup here not much have changed here from previous Hondas then we look at the rear suspension same thing this is the trailsport which has a one inch lift on it they do that through the Springs but otherwise suspension is very similar aluminum knuckle in the back which is kind of interesting to see that these axles are medium size they're not really meant for heavy off-roading they still have the same plastic inside roll your sway bar links in the back hey at least the fronts are not single piston caliper in the back with the integrated parking brake which is pretty cool that's all manufacturers are doing that which is a good idea right there and this is one of my favorite sites right here not only does this car has a spare tire this is a full size spare tire which is very nice folks some cars don't even have spare tires anymore we'd be happy with a little donut this thing has a full size spare tire everywhere I look here it's business as usual with Honda except the exhaust historically their exhaust hasn't been the best everything is solid everything is well built everywhere you look things are put together well the exception of one thing that was pretty interesting to me this open void I mean car manufacturers try to cover this because this acts as an air brake here it's wide open same thing on the other side it's just wide open there is no cover here nothing as they just didn't deem it necessary I suppose but things are well underneath this because the quality of things here it's just refreshing we've looked at some cars that just look the fit finish underneath it just look horrible looks like they don't even care here they even care underneath it and that's something you expect from Honda let's take a look at the outside of the Honda Pilot starting with the very front I mean this car was so focused when they designed it I think it looks a lot better than the previous generation it's just an understated look it's I love how the headlights are not over the top they have do have a bar in them LED bar nothing really over at the top and then you look at this little line that comes from the Grille and kind of integrates into the light it just looks at gives it that very sophisticated look I really like it I I truly think this is like an SUV shape if you look at the hood it just doesn't have a lot of lines a lot of design just comes down and then you just curves and that's it they didn't over style this the previous generation I felt like it was a little bit on the over style side this one looks very nice now there are a couple things first the Honda Logo is huge this is something they love to do with the pilot and behind this is actually the radar sensor for the cruise control which is a very good place for it pretty high and then this is the 360 camera and right next to it you have a little thing and that thing is the washer for the camera so when you activate your wipers this comes out and washes the camera all it does is just put water on top here make a giant mess in the front they don't really work I have to say that moving on to the side and this is the trailsport one I can understand the point of this SUV it's not meant to be really heavy off-roader but it does have a one inch lift as we talked about and it does have these kind of aggressive off-roading tires that hum and hum they make a lot of noise folks just one note I wish Honda made these tires optional on the trails board because you can't really go severe off-roading with this because it's not really meant for that and these tires make a lot of noise when you drive I mean this is a very quiet car but you really hear these tires I wish that was an option where you can get the one inch lift without these tires and one note on all the trims of this pilot every trim have multiple options of Wheels pretty interesting I think this wheel looks pretty cool but moving on from that there's one thing that is very interesting if you look at this opening this is an actual brake vent because if you come on this side and look at it it is an actual open vent right here that is a real vent pretty cool to see that on an SUV now moving on from that the mirrors I like the size of the mirror it's not oversized where it's huge but it is a decent size they didn't give you a tiny little mirror and just send it the doors only the fronts are locking not the rears which is understandable this is a smart key car and this is not really a luxury car you would expect something like that in Acura but possibly the biggest thing about the pilot and the most important thing has nothing to do with the design of the outside and look and all that let me open the doors and we're going to talk about this see most cars you look at this panel the shell right here and people assume that this is the actual structural piece that gives us side strength folks this is actually just a decoration this is just the finished panel this is very weak it's nothing really strong what's behind it though is a structural piece and Honda did something here very out of the norm for the Auto industry they really they were so focused on this being the ultimate family SUV they went over and above to make this safe see most cars on the side you don't have a lot of real estate to absorb accidents on the side this is always a problem but this car the inner structure specifically the one that's around the drivers and kind of runs a little bit to the back and then there's another structure right in this area it is not high strength steel it's ultra high strength steel which gives this car a very high rating of side impact we went to an event and actually demonstrated this and they had all this off where you could see it I mean the solid feeling of that ultra high strength steel is something I have never seen in cars before this is a huge deal for safety folks you can't they can't do much on the side of the car but they managed to find a way to protect this from a side impact this is a huge deal makes this car very safe on the side and they did it in a way without raising the price of the car too much they really did a good job there it has to be said and this is a first to me perhaps others have done it in the past but for our normal SUV that is not a luxury SUV or something like that this is a huge deal and really good job to Honda for doing this let's go in the back so this is a very understated bat and it's purposeful that way it's not really all over the place where the design taillights normal design they come in I love that it writes pilot in large letter here it's not a bar tail light they're not following the Fashions here I love how this back looks the only thing I have about it and this is becoming also a trend in the automotive industry the back bumper or they're of the lack off there's no back bumper here if it doesn't stick out anything you hit will hit the back door as well even the tiniest Pole or something so you might want to be careful if you have one of these now the back door is power operated and just like everybody in the automotive industry the motors are integrated into the shocks that hold the door up this is becoming the standard design of this everybody's doing this this is the way of the Future Let's look in the back though you do have a little storage area here with my favorite two words spare tire this is where you actually you remove this and you remove this little rubber grommet and this is where you lower the spare tire from very very cool but there's something interesting here now this is a three row SUV you have a lot of room here that is actually pretty cool usually you have to go to a much larger SUV to have this much room with the third row seat up and then the coolest thing about this is there's no fuss no gimmicks you just pull this pull this third row seat is down you want to put it up use the same handle and it's up doesn't have complicated thing and handle and all that it's super simple to put this third row seat down and back up I really like this this is such a focused car on being functional I really love that about it and of course just like the front we have the camera and then a little useless washer right next to it let's take a look at the interior of the 23 Honda Pilot and initially when you get into this interior it is so focused you're going to look at it be like this is very simple like it feels just okay but it's been a few days with this car and you will appreciate why it is this way it is so focused it takes you no more than two minutes to get used to how everything works it is such a comfortable place to be not only like seat Comfort wise which is by the way very comfortable but just everything makes sense everything is sensible and easy to operate this is a car you don't have to think to operate it it's very simple you look at the center stack over here it's not overwhelming with a lot of buttons and all this stuff it's very simple hvc controls very simple and they make this very high quality sound when you turn the knobs listen to it this is what matters their screen does few settings you can change here but all your HVAC controls are here all your heated seats and cooled seats for those that are equipped are here the rear controls the rear lock to lock the rear HVAC controls it's a big button very easily marked you don't have to go through the screen because families will actually use that and that is important the wireless charger is a very nice place and there's plenty of space this is a very spacious center console even the lid what's underneath of the store is very large and then the shifter is the buttons that Honda loves to use I prefer to have this than the rotary dial or all that stuff underneath it you have some controls but the biggest thing here is it is such a beautiful place to be and not to look at but to use because everything is so simple the infotainment system is similar to that of the 22 Honda Civic that we reviewed some time ago does have the back button as the physical button which can be a little confusing until you get used to it infotainment system overall is very conservative works pretty good it's not really super Advanced nor is it very old school works pretty good now in the higher trims you have wireless Apple carplay and Android auto and the lower trims you don't don't know why they did that would have been nice to have wireless all across but it's not the end of the world the gauges on the lower trims you have a smaller screen on one side and a physical gauge like the one where in the trailsport very good screen has some customization on the higher trims you have a full screen which doesn't really do much more than this one does so there is that and then the typical Honda stuff which is very interesting the steering wheel heater button is right in the middle of the steering wheel that's just they decided to put it there I guess it makes sense I mean you're heating the steering wheel the button is right on it and then there's one thing that is completely out of place this is the furthest thing from a sports car there will ever be that's a guarantee but we have uh paddle shifters that's perhaps the only thing that follows Trend and fashion in cars that we're trying to make it sporty with the paddle shifters otherwise this is a very focused interior and it's it's not really exotic materials but Everything You Touch feels high quality put together well nothing rattles nothing feels like it's about to break everything is built solid and that's what families want and in that department this interior is truly a masterpiece not really gimmicky and sweeping Lines no it's very simple but that's the whole point this is an SUV for those families that are busy with their kids too busy to be figuring out how to work this car this car is not it very simple to use that is a huge Plus for it let's talk about the back seat of the 23 pilot I am 5'7 this is my driving position I have plenty of new room a lot of Headroom but the one thing about car seat back seats in modern cars I do have a little bit of a gap between my inner thigh and the seat because the floor is too high this is not only the Honda Pilot I'm starting to see this in a lot of modern cars even SUVs which doesn't make this the most comfortable seat for adults long term but let's talk about a few things here because the first thing I notice is the seat even though this is not some exotic leather the whole seat is wrapped which makes it pretty nice but what is more nice you have a zipper here makes service on this seat super simple folks whenever you see this or a panel here it actually makes service on the seat very easy the other more on Plus on the technical side more in the day-to-day they have a little pocket within the pocket for your phone you just put your phone here and it's right in front of you that is actually a pretty cool touch you do have dedicated rear entry AC controls with its own Zone and you can lock them in the front like we saw that lock button now the configuration of this is this does have a third row which we're going to look at in a bit you could have seven seats like this one you have two Captain chairs here or you can have eight passenger but the cool thing about the eight passenger you have two configurations there will be a seat here it would be the same as the captain Cherry but you would have a seat here that is removable they have two styles of this seat which is pretty interesting so the first one is a wireless seat and some people wonder what does that mean these seats have a seat belt reminder so in order for that seat belt reminder to work for the middle seat so you wouldn't forget your child without a seat belt it actually has a receiver and a sender that senders in the seat receivers in the car and they have a little battery that sends the signal it's a seat belt buckle for this particular seat that is removable or not that's not a special battery it's a 2450 X or something like that it's just a small little watch battery but the other style has a connector so you can remove the seat but you just have to unplug the connector and then remove the seat the higher trims will have the wireless one the lower trims eight passenger will have the wired one they're both removable and they're both designed to be removed and that's a very good idea in my opinion the third row C in the pilot seats three however if you put adults in there they will fit but I think two will fit better you do have some USBC charger in the back you do have your dedicated vent I think the size of the third row seat is pretty good for the size of this SUV and leaves you some storage in the back as well it does have a little hump on the side that intrudes on your leg space but overall it is a pretty comfortable third row not for super long trips but it is a usable third row let's talk about some things I do not like about the 2023 Honda Pilot and small disclaimer I really like this I think there is very little not to like about this SUV but there are a couple things nothing is perfect in life first one is while the updates work great on the engine it feels on the underpowered side I mean all these updates we only went up five horsepower it is adequate in most situations but load this car up with people and their luggage and push it you're gonna feel like it's a little bit on the underpowered side for a V6 and then the other thing with the engine the cylinder deactivation historically with other manufacturers including Honda this has not been the most iconic reliability point they still go with it and the gas mileage is not very impressive even with that that has to be said but the other thing doesn't really have to do with the car it has to be with Honda's decision on how to option these cars so you don't really have any options per se if you want more options you go to the next trim if you want a little bit more options you go to the next trip they didn't really give you any ability to option any of the trims even a little bit so if you want that one feature and you don't want everything you have to pay up for the next trim up that is not ideal perhaps that is great for production possibly brings keeps the cost down of the car to purchase but from a consumer standpoint you're gonna have to pay a lot for the next room to get one option that you want that could turn away some folks out there so should you buy a 2023 Honda Pilot folks of all the cars and SUVs that we've reviewed this one comes very near to that perfect score this SUV is super focused and that is what makes it good not really everything else it's focused on and it knows exactly what it is you look at the interior super comfortable it's simple it's focused there's no overwhelming feeling when you get in this interior it takes more no more than two minutes to be familiar with everything you're not buying an SUV like this for flashiness or show-off or to go to the top of the mountain off-roading you're buying this to haul your family around in Comfort reliability and safety in that department it really delivers and as a mechanic kind of observing everything looking around everything things that you normally don't see under the hood underneath it this is very well made truth have to be said something you expect from Honda yes and they really deliver that well and yes reliability of cars have been coming down with the complications this keeps things simple to a point when it comes to the mechanical aspects so expectations for this is it will be typical Honda reliable folks I hope this video was helpful informative I hope you learned something new if you like it consider giving a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the Lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut Reviews

Views: 553,223

Keywords: honda pilot, 2023 honda pilot, honda, honda suv, honda review, honda pilot review, 2023 honda pilot review, honda reliability, honda suv review, best honda to buy, honda problems, the car care nut, honda vs toyota, pilot vs highlander, Mazda vs honda, honda engine, honda v6 engine, mechanic, car care nut, savagegeese, Doug demuro, scotty kilmer, car wizard, mechanic review, car review, 2024 honda pilot

Id: 1PENmOZ5pjI

Length: 36min 32sec (2192 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 01 2023