CarComplaints.com Notes: It's worrying when the top category for 2016 Honda Pilot problems are transmission problems. Owners report jerking when accelerating. Also as the first model year of the redesigned 3rd generation Pilot, it's not a good sign.
Honda released a TSB on October 29 2016 that's possibly related. The TSB deals with a "a judder from the torque converter lock-up clutch ... while driving between 20 and 60 mph" due to deteriorated transmission fluid resulting from "specific driving conditions". In the TSB, Honda states they are developing a software fix to try to keep the transmission fluid temperature within spec.
We are keeping a close eye on this defect trend because if certain driving conditions can affect transmission shifting in the first year of ownership, we'd hate to think what 10+ years will do.
6.0
fairly significant
Typical Repair Cost:
No data
Average Mileage:
30,000 miles
Total Complaints:
1 complaints
Most Common Solutions:
warranty tech bulletin 17-014 at the honda dealer (1 reports)
I began hating my 2016 Pilot once it started acting like it was gasping for fuel or air - it ran rough and with weak acceleration. It is my third Pilot and my other two Pilots ran much smoother than my new one. Sometime in 2017 at about 30,000 miles, I asked my Honda service manager about experiencing the rough acceleration and what I thought was rough shifting. He said there were no adjustments for fuel or acceleration problems. It continued to get worse until my wife started complaining a couple months ago that it wasn't running smooth. I was aware of the problem too but I let it go. I did try some injector cleaner but that did not help. It continued to get worse rather quickly.
Today the same Honda service manager agreed to look at my car. Guess what? He found an extended warranty tech bulletin 17-014 dealing with a torque converter problem making the acceleration "stutter" in his words. They changed the tranny fluid and reprogrammed something in the tranny at no cost to me. I signed the warranty invoice that showed cost of $238 paid by Honda. I just got home with the car and it seems to be fixed with a smoother shifting sequence. Yeah!!! What a relief and now I love my Pilot like I did my other two before this one.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
I began hating my 2016 Pilot once it started acting like it was gasping for fuel or air - it ran rough and with weak acceleration. It is my third Pilot and my other two Pilots ran much smoother than my new one. Sometime in 2017 at about 30,000 miles, I asked my Honda service manager about experiencing the rough acceleration and what I thought was rough shifting. He said there were no adjustments for fuel or acceleration problems. It continued to get worse until my wife started complaining a couple months ago that it wasn't running smooth. I was aware of the problem too but I let it go. I did try some injector cleaner but that did not help. It continued to get worse rather quickly.
Today the same Honda service manager agreed to look at my car. Guess what? He found an extended warranty tech bulletin 17-014 dealing with a torque converter problem making the acceleration "stutter" in his words. They changed the tranny fluid and reprogrammed something in the tranny at no cost to me. I signed the warranty invoice that showed cost of $238 paid by Honda. I just got home with the car and it seems to be fixed with a smoother shifting sequence. Yeah!!! What a relief and now I love my Pilot like I did my other two before this one.
- johncooper, Manhattan, US