The 2006 Honda Pilot has 7 recalls, all involving the frontal airbags, with the most serious being a defect in both the driver and passenger airbag inflators that can cause them to explode and send metal fragments into the cabin, potentially killing or seriously injuring occupants.
All seven recalls center on the front airbag system. The driver and passenger inflators at the heart of most of these recalls are part of the well-documented Takata inflator issue, where the inflator casing can rupture violently during deployment, scattering sharp metal shards toward anyone in the front of the vehicle. Prior repair attempts did not fully resolve the problem for all affected vehicles, which is why multiple rounds of recalls cover the same underlying defect across both seating positions. The risk is not limited to crashes: any event that triggers airbag deployment turns the inflator itself into a hazard. One additional recall addresses a separate but related concern: on some vehicles where the front passenger airbag was previously replaced, the replacement unit may have been installed incorrectly and can deploy improperly in a crash, raising the risk of injury to the passenger rather than protecting them.