NHTSA Complaint #11562043 — 2019 HONDA PILOT

Experiencing Judder/hesitation when car reaches a speed where it has to shift from first to second gear and from second to third gear. Sometimes it feels more like a jerk. Issue mostly occurs after the car has warmed up, so after around 3-4 miles of driving the car. Second issue was RPM fluctuation when car is at steady acceleration. Judder issue first occurred back in June 2022 when the car has ~63000 miles. It started with a sudden jerk, felt like someone hit the car from behind, this happens when the car is trying to shift from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. Issue was very intermittent at that time and restart of car would make it go away. But issue will come back every few weeks. Issue increased around ~68,762 miles, so took the car to my local auto repair shop on 8/31/2023. The shop performed maintenance listed below – •Transmission Flush / Fluid ATF DW-1 / Transmission service •Oil Change •Differential Front and Back Service/Flush •Cooling system Flush and new anti-freeze •Fuel Injection Service Issue was still ongoing, so decided to take the car to Honda Authorized service center on 9/27/23, they were able to duplicate the Judder experience and performed snapshot and diagnosed car and advised vehicle needs torque converter. Wanted to go for second opinion, so scheduled an appointment with another Honda service center, they informed me that the transmission fluid was very dark and performed the flush of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) 3 time. Issue frequency has reduced after the flush, but every few weeks the car experiences Judder/hesitation while shifting and usually turning off the engine and back on helps resolve the issue. All this while no engine lights came on.