Vehicle report

2021 Honda Ridgeline

Free recalls, owner complaints, and NHTSA safety ratings for the 2021 Honda Ridgeline, plus how to check this specific vehicle before you buy.

The 2021 Honda Ridgeline has 7 NHTSA recalls on record and 15 owner complaints filed with NHTSA. Its overall NHTSA crash-test rating is 5 out of 5. Below is the full breakdown, plus how to check this specific vehicle by VIN before you buy in Alberta.

7

Open recalls

15

Complaints

5

Overall safety

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2021 Honda Ridgeline recalls (7)

  • SEAT BELTS:REAR/OTHER:RETRACTOR

    Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2021 Accord Sedan, Accord Hybrid, CR-V, Ridgeline, 2022 Insight and CR-V Hybrid vehicles. The automatic locking retractor on the second-row center seat belt assembly may deactivate improperly, which can result in an unsecured child restraint system. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."

    Remedy: Dealers will replace the second-row center seat belt assembly, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 14, 2022. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138.

  • VISIBILITY:REARVIEW MIRRORS/DEVICES:EXTERIOR

    Honda (American Honda Motor Co) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Pilot and Ridgeline, and 2020-2022 Passport and Odyssey vehicles. The heating pads behind both side-view mirrors may not be bonded properly, allowing the mirror glass to detach. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard number 111, "Rear Visibility."

    Remedy: Dealers will replace both left and right side-view mirrors, free of charge. Owner letters were mailed January 17, 2024. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's number for this recall is FE5.

  • SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:FOUNDATION COMPONENTS:MASTER CYLINDER

    Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2021 Civic, 2020-2023 Ridgeline, 2021-2023 Passport, 2021-2022 Pilot, and 2020 Acura MDX vehicles. The tie rod fastener that connects the brake booster and the brake master cylinder may have been improperly assembled during manufacturing, which can cause the brake master cylinder to separate from the booster assembly.

    Remedy: Dealers will inspect and repair the brake booster assembly as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 7, 2023. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are VEU, AEV, and ZET.

  • AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER

    Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2020-2022 Pilot, Accord, Civic sedan, HR-V, Odyssey, 2020 Civic coupe, Fit, 2021-2022 Civic hatchback, 2021 Civic Type R, Insight, 2020-2021 CR-V, CR-V Hybrid, Passport, Ridgeline, Accord Hybrid, 2020 Acura MDX, 2022 Acura MDX, 2020-2022 Acura RDX, and 2020-2021 Acura TLX vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, failing to suppress the air bag as intended.

    Remedy: Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed March 28, 2024. This is a phased recall. Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for these recalls are XHP and VHQ.

  • BACK OVER PREVENTION: SENSING SYSTEM: CAMERA

    Honda (America Honda Motor Co) is recalling certain 2020-2024 Ridgeline vehicles. The rearview camera (RVC) tailgate wire harness may fatigue and break, which can prevent the rearview camera image from displaying.

    Remedy: Dealers will replace the RVC tailgate wire harness, free of charge. Owner letters were mailed November 8, 2024. Owners may contact Honda service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's number for this recall is YI7.

  • AIR BAGS:SENSOR:OCCUPANT CLASSIFICATION:FRONT PASSENGER

    Honda (American Honda Motor Co.) is recalling certain 2018-2021, 2023 Acura TLX, 2019-2024 RDX, 2017-2020, 2022-2026 MDX, 2017-2021, 2023, 2025 Honda Ridgeline, 2017-2022 Pilot, 2019-2021 Passport, 2018-2026 Odyssey, 2019-2022 Insight, 2019-2021 HR-V, 2018-2020 Fit, 2020-2022 CR-V Hybrid, 2017-2022 CR-V, 2017-2018, 2021 Civic Type R, 2017-2021 Civic hatchback, 2016-2020 Civic coupe, 2016-2022 Civic, 2017-2022 Accord Hybrid, and 2016-2022 Accord vehicles. The front passenger seat weight sensor may crack and short circuit, which can cause the air bags to deploy unintentionally during a crash.

    Remedy: Dealers will replace the seat weight sensors, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed July 7, 2026. Owners may contact Honda's customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are BOL, WO9, OOA, WOM, XOH, NOC, POD, BOE, UOF, POB, EOG, AOI, QO8, TOJ, DO7, and SOK. This recall expands previous NHTSA recall number 24V064. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will be searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning May 29, 2026.

  • STRUCTURE:FRAME AND MEMBERS

    American Honda Motor Company (Honda) is recalling certain 2016-2022 Honda Pilot, 2017-2023 Ridgeline, 2019-2023 Passport, and 2014-2020 Acura MDX vehicles that were sold in Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, or Wisconsin. The rear subframe may corrode at the suspension mounting points, which can result in rear suspension component failure.

    Remedy: Dealers will inspect the rear subframe and install a rear subframe reinforcement kit and, as necessary, repair or replace the rear subframe components, free of charge. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk were mailed July 27, 2026. Additional letters will be sent once the final remedy is available, anticipated in the fall of 2026. Owners may contact Honda's customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's numbers for this recall are AOU and AOT. Vehicle Identification Numbers (VINs) involved in this recall will become searchable on NHTSA.gov beginning June 10, 2026.

2021 Honda Ridgeline safety ratings

5

Overall

5

Front

5

Side

4

Rollover

Source: NHTSA NCAP ratings.

2021 Honda Ridgeline owner complaints (15)

  • FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

    The complete Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) has been disabled on my truck and all the warning lights are on. All the safety features ment to keep me safe on the road are no longer working.

  • SUSPENSION,WHEELS

    1.The rear wheel assembly, lug nuts, and potentially the wheel studs/rear suspension system failed due to improper torque and installation by the dealership. Yes, the vehicle components are available for inspection 2.The dealership released my vehicle with completely untorqued lug nuts on the rear wheel assembly. A lug nut physically fell off onto the public street while driving back to the shop. This severe negligence created an immediate, life-threatening risk of the wheel detaching entirely at highway speeds. 3.Yes, the initial loose lug nut failure was witnessed and confirmed on-site by the dealership's staff when I returned. Furthermore, the ongoing mechanical looseness and wobble were confirmed by my own driving experience immediately after their supposed "fix," and an independent shop inspection is scheduled to document the remaining issues. But I couldn't provide the key to the lug nuts because I couldn't find it in my car, after I brought the car to them. 4.It was superficially inspected by the O'Malley Honda service department, who merely rebalanced the tires and claimed nothing was wrong, they said they properly inspect for structural stud or suspension damage and everything seem good, and nothing wrong with it. 5.There were no warning lamps or dashboard messages. The physical symptoms—a heavy clunking noise, severe road wobble, and loose rear wheels—appeared immediately upon driving the vehicle off the dealership lot following their service on July 10th, and the rear end has continued to feel wobbly ever since.

  • VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE

    This involves the paddle shift operation on the steering wheel. There are two paddles, one at 3 o'clock and 6 o'clock where the hands come into contact with the steering wheel. On four separate occasions, while driving at a relatively high rate of speed, my hands accidentally activated the gear mode by lightly touching one or both of the paddles. Very little pressure is needed to activate the gears. When this occurs, the vehicle shifts to a lower gear, and the vehicle rapidly decelerates from a high rate of speed to a low rate of speed while traveling. In addition to the unexpected and dangerous change in speed while in traffic, the shift into low gear causes the engine to rev and the noise from this caused me to panic while in traffic. On one occasion this occurred when I was trying to cross a road with oncoming traffic. The paddles are very close to where the hands come into contact with the steering wheel and very little pressure, only a tap, will activate the paddles and switch the vehicle into low gear. I have contacted Honda and there is no way to deactivate the paddles.

  • ENGINE

    Auto Idle Stop failed as I was sitting at a red light. As I came to a stop at the light, the truck entered the Auto Idle Stop. When the light turned green and it was time to accelerate, I released my foot off of the brake and the engine stopped. It cut out right there. Warning lights came on and I had to restart the engine by totally shutting down the truck on a busy highway road. It took 2 attempts to get it to start. After this, I turned the Auto Idle Stop OFF using the button located on the lower console. I am taking it to the Honda dealership tomorrow to work on a remedy via the AutoIdleStopSettlement from Honda.

  • FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE

    When driving the vehicle suddenly displayed warning and failure lights for the following: Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, Road Departure, High Beam Support, and Collision Mitigation. The vehicle in the past regularly experiences issues with oncoming traffic (especially on 2 lane roads) when it comes to auto braking and forward crash warnings so I immediately brought the vehicle home as I was worried for my safety and the safety of others on the road that if these systems were now warning of malfunction the vehicle might auto brake in traffic for no reason and cause a crash. I took the vehicle in following this as I looked online and discovered there were multiple recalls on this vehicle for other various issues and I wanted the dealer to fix those in addition to determining if this was part of one of the recalls also. The dealership has diagnosed the issue as the forward multi-purpose camera and is stating it needs to be replaced to correct the safety issues of the vehicle. I reviewed online and found that just a coupe years ago this part was approx $800 and the dealer is not charging over $1600 for the part. The other issue is that I paid for the part and the dealer claims this part will not even ship until August 26 (over a month away). Additionally I have further researched this issue and found that it is a common failure on Honda and Acura vehicles and creates a major safety concern, yet Honda Motors has refused to address the issue and handle this as a recall as it should be done. New vehicles should not be regularly experiencing catastrophic safety system failures regularly and the manufacture not be held liable for the damages and not be able to fix the part or car in a timely manner. The fact the parts are in such short supply and backorder further attests to the common failure of this part. I would appreciate your immediate review and action of this matter to ensure that Honda is held accountable for the major safety failures they have created.

  • ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

    My 2021 Honda Ridgeline Sport experienced failure of the forward-facing Honda Sensing camera system. This camera controls safety features including Collision Mitigation Braking, Lane Keeping Assist, and Adaptive Cruise Control. The failure disables safety assistance features. Honda acknowledged the issue but refused to provide full repair coverage and only offered $941 toward a repair costing significantly more. I believe a safety-related camera failure should be investigated as a potential defect

  • FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE

    Front camera system failed lights that are on are brake system, Lane assist lkas and acc

  • AIR BAGS,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

    I was involved in a rear end collision earlier today. My vehicle sustained significant front end damage and the air bags did not deploy. The vehicle had to be flat bedded to a Massachusetts State Police Barracks, pending further action by my insurance company. There were no injuries.

  • STEERING

    I CURRENTLY OWN A 2021 HONDA RIDGELINE SPORT AND IT WAS BROUGHT IN TO A HONDA DEALERSHIP THAT HAD DIAGNOSED A STEERING RACK FAILURE. THE QUOTED PRICE OF REPAIR WAS $4,000. AFTER DOING EXTENSIVE READING ON THIS ISSUE I LEARNED THAT SIMILAR ISSUES HAVE OCCURRED IN LATER YEAR MODELS AS WELL AS SIMILAR YEAR MODELS IN THE HONDA FAMILY. THERE WAS A RECALL OF 1.7 MILLION VEHICLES WITH THIS SPECIFIC ISSUE. THE VEHICLE MAKES LOUD AND CRACKING NOISES AND AT TIMES THE STEERING GETS HEAVY AND ALSO LOOSE WHILE DRIVING AT HIGH AND LOW SPEEDS. THE DEALER HAD RESPONDED THAT IT WAS A KNOWN ISSUE IN THE LATER YEAR RIDGELINE MODELS AND THERE HAD BEEN A SERVICE BULLETIN ON HOW TO RECTIFY THE ISSUE ON THESE MODELS. I DID NOT SEE ANY CURENT RECALLS FROM THIS YEAR, HOWEVER THIS DOESN'T MEAN THAT THIS IS NOT A KNOWN OR GROWING ISSUE FOR THE YEAR HONDA THAT I CURRENTLY OWN. PLEASE ADVISE. THANK YOU

  • FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE

    Forward brake assist, collision mitigation, auto headlight dash lights came on sporadically. As of today the lights are now on constant and unable to clear. Advised that the forward facing camera most likely died and a replacement due to recalibration would be 1500-2000..

  • ENGINE

    The check engine light came on Dec 26 which I took to have checked and was told that it should go to the shop. The code was not being stored. I took it to the Honda dealership and they did a complete check and said the engine had gone back. The connecting rods and barrings cause the engine to fail and it needed to be replaced. I contacted Honda Goodwill and they declined to do anything to help repair the engine.

  • ENGINE

    Driving home from work on a Friday about 1am and my engine started t knock and sputter and the engine light started flashing. Luckily I made it home. I let it sit for a minute and started it back up and it ran fine. I let it sit over the weekend I made an appointment the the dealership for the following Monday. On Monday it started fine to go to my dealer appointment but half way there every caution light imaginable came on and the info screen was scrolling failure of every system in the truck it seamed. Even the D for drive was flashing. It was knocking, sputtering with loss of power. Like it was in limp mode. Made it to the dealer and they said it was misfiring which caused the engine to come apart inside. 11K for a new engine or 8K for a used one with 46K miles. The truck only had 86,000 miles on it and has been always dealer maintained. We buy Hondas mostly for their reliability. Skeptical about buying another one

  • SUSPENSION

    Vehicle started making a clunking noise that could be felt at 45,000 miles when steering left and right. An independent auto business found loose subframe bolts and lower control arm as well as checked sway bar links and found loose core support braces. The clunking stopped after the bolts were tightened. I found this very odd and concerning. 2021 Honda Rigdeline RTL. Cost to remedy included two hours of labor.

  • ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING

    The contact's husband owns a 2021 Honda Ridgeline. The contact stated that while her husband was driving 55 MPH, the vehicle went into LIMP Mode and made an abnormal knocking sound. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The driver was able to pull over to the side of the road. The vehicle was towed to the dealer, where the timing belt, the water pump, and the tensioner pulley were replaced; however, the knocking sound persisted. The dealer determined that the lower bearing had failed, and the dealer recommended replacing the engine with a used engine. Additionally, the contact was advised that the oil pump was leaking and might need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a case was filed. The manufacturer requested the vehicle service records. The contact related the failure to NHTSA Action Number: EA25004 (Engine and Engine Cooling). The failure mileage was approximately 102,000.

  • ENGINE

    I began to hear a knocking noise at 2500 to 3500 rpms and I immediately took my vehicle to the dealer who confirmed rod bearing damage.

Checking a used Honda Ridgeline before you buy

The recall, complaint, and safety data above describes the 2021 Ridgeline in general. To know the condition and history of the specific vehicle you're looking at, check it by VIN. A VIN check shows whether this particular Ridgeline's recalls are still outstanding, and a full history report adds accident, title, and ownership records the data above can't show.

Before you buy a 2021 Honda Ridgeline in Alberta:

See other model years of the Honda Ridgeline, or browse more Honda models.

2021 Honda Ridgeline — questions and answers

Does the 2021 Honda Ridgeline have any recalls?+

Our check found 7 NHTSA recalls associated with the 2021 Honda Ridgeline. Check the specific vehicle by VIN to see which remain outstanding, since some may already have been repaired. Recall repairs are free at a franchised dealer.

How many complaints does the 2021 Honda Ridgeline have?+

NHTSA lists 15 owner complaints for the 2021 Honda Ridgeline in our results. Complaints are problems reported by owners and don't always lead to a recall, but a pattern of similar complaints is worth weighing before you buy.

Is the 2021 Honda Ridgeline safe?+

The 2021 Honda Ridgeline has an overall NHTSA crash-test rating of 5. Review the front-crash, side-crash, and rollover ratings above, and pair safety ratings with a mechanical inspection of the specific vehicle.

How do I check a 2021 Honda Ridgeline VIN?+

Enter the vehicle's 17-character VIN into our free VIN check to see recalls, complaints, and safety ratings for that exact vehicle, then run an Alberta Personal Property Registry (PPR) lien search before you pay.

Are recall repairs on a Honda free?+

Yes. Safety recall repairs are performed at no cost by a franchised Honda dealer, even for a used vehicle and even if you're not the original owner. Confirm the required parts are in stock before relying on the fix.

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