2023 Honda Pilot Seat Belt Problems

Mileage when the problem started

Owner reports

Selected complaints filed with NHTSA by 2023 Honda Pilot owners, lightly cleaned up (personal details are redacted by NHTSA).

The contact owns a 2023 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the second-row seats which were occupied had properly latched the seat belts; however, the seat belt alarm was activated. The seat belt warning light was illuminated. The failure reoccurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where it was diagnosed that the seat wiring harness needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000.

The rear passenger seat belt warning system in the 2023 Honda Pilot suffers from a critical malfunction. Specifically, the right rear passenger seat belt sensor triggers false, persistent, and loud "unbuckled" audio alarms and visual dashboard alerts while an occupant is sitting in that position with the seat belt securely and properly fastened. According to an official Honda Service Bulletin addressing this precise symptom, the root cause is a manufacturing defect involving a damaged or broken wire inside the seat belt buckle assembly, which causes the vehicle to misread the occupant's buckled status. Safety Hazards & Risks: Severe Driver Distraction: The loud, continuous auditory chime and flashing dashboard alerts create an extreme, immediate distraction for the driver while the vehicle is in motion, increasing the risk of a crash. …

The rear passenger-side (second-row, right-side outboard) seatbelt warning system is defective, repeatedly triggering false "unbuckled" alarms even when a passenger is securely buckled in. This is a known manufacturing defect involving the occupant detection sensor inside the seat cushion frame, which sends intermittent, incorrect signals to the vehicle's computer. The defect presents a severe safety hazard. The continuous, loud chiming distracts the driver and causes immediate "alarm fatigue." This forces the driver to ignore seatbelt warnings, creating a dangerous situation where a rear passenger (including a child) could actually become unbuckled without the driver realizing it, significantly increasing the risk of injury or death in a crash. …

Within 1 year of purchase, the seat belt sensor on the 2nd row passenger side began malfunctioning. My child who sat in the seat was properly buckled, but the sensor would intermittently indicate the child was unbuckled. This was repaired in October 2024 under warranty. Beginning in August 2026, the same seat began exhibiting the same behavior again. I took the vehicle back to the Honda dealership where I purchased it, and they diagnosed the same issue. They attempted to charge me for the repair, but I pushed back that this should be covered given it has now failed twice and there is an active investigation into this issue. They repaired it at no cost to me. …

Safety Concern: 2023 Honda Pilot - Persistent False Seat Belt Warnings (2nd & 3rd Row Seats) Issue Description: Repeated false seat belt warnings originating from: Second-row middle seat Third-row passenger-side seat The system triggers loud, repetitive auditory alerts and dashboard warnings even when seats are unoccupied or belts are properly buckled. Attempted fixes (unbuckling/rebuckling, restarting the vehicle, power cycles) fail to resolve the issue. Alerts recur intermittently, causing significant distraction. Safety Risks: Driver Distraction: Constant false alarms increase crash risk by diverting attention from the road. Alert Fatigue: Occupants may ignore all seat belt warnings due to repeated false positives, compromising safety. …

I own a 2023 Honda Pilot equipped with second-row captain's chairs that experiences intermittent false seat belt warnings. The right-side second-row seat triggers the audible chime and red/gray "unbuckled" icon on the driver information display even when the seat belt is fully and securely latched; the warning is frequently activated by normal passenger weight shifting or movement. The same false unbuckled warnings also occur in the third-row seats. These symptoms match the conditions described in Honda Service Bulletin A26-027 and fall within the scope of NHTSA Preliminary Evaluation PE25017 concerning inaccurate rear passenger seat belt warning status (both false positives and false negatives) on 2023-2024 Honda Pilots. …

My vehicle, 2023 Honda Pilot Elite, is experiencing intermittent, inaccurate seat belt engagement readings for the second-row seating middle and right position captain chair while driving. The system frequently sends incorrect status information to the driver's dashboard display, presenting two specific safety hazards. A false negative alert, The dashboard display indicates that the second-row middle and right captains chair positions are unbuckled when in fact the passengers are completely buckled. This prevents the driver from knowing if rear occupants-specifically children-have unfastened their seat belts while vehicle is in motion , creating a severe safety risk. This also triggers persistent, distracting warning chimes and dashboard alerts while driving. …

The middle right side passenger seat belt alarm is going off and indicating it is not clicked when it is. I have had my [redacted] son and [redacted] daughter (different weights) sit there and the alarm will go off constantly indicating their seat belt is not fastened. I have also had adults who were heavier sit there as well and its doing it constantly. The alarm will not shut off and flashes on the dashboard that it isn't fastened. Is there an issue with others? I have used canned air to blow out the seatbelt thinking there may be something inside the latch. When this first started beeping it would only beep a few times and indicate it wasn't fastened. Now the alarm keeps beeping and you can't even sit in the seat due to the alarm constantly going off and indicates not buckled on the dash board.

For the middle row, right passenger seat, the seat belt alert (visual and audio alert) goes off even when the passenger is properly buckled in. It is intermittent. This is a safety issue as the alert keeps beeping throughout the journey. The beeping can be very distracting when driving due to the noise, and also as it raises concern of safety. My workaround is not to use that seat (an inconvenience), or use the seat without a seatbelt buckled in (safety). Dealership dismissed it as a non-issue as they could not replicate it because the issue is intermittent. The vehicle is out of the bumper-to-bumper warranty thus discovery and fixing the issue (if there is any) will be out of my pocket. I have seen others mention this issue so it is not isolated to my car but rather to this model and year.

This is the second time experiencing a complete failure of the rear seat belt warning architecture on my 2023 Honda Pilot. In 2025, I formally reported that the warning sensors for both the 2nd-row middle seat and the 3rd-row seats were malfunctioning-triggering persistent unbuckled alarms even when passengers were properly seated and securely fastened. The issue has now returned and is actively failing on the 2nd-row seats. Despite passengers being buckled in safely, the vehicle's dashboard alerts and audible chimes sound continuously, causing severe driver distraction and making it impossible to accurately determine if my rear passengers are actually protected. I am providing a diagnosis of the seat belt warning issue in 2025, I am having the same issue now in 2026.

NHTSA investigations

Seat Belt complaints in other Pilot years