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.
10.0
really awful
Crashes / Fires:
3 / 3
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
29,036 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
I received a letter in the mail from Honda North America in early 2022 stating that my vehicle/vin was covered under an extended warranty on emissions systems problems. HONDA TSB 20-100. I took my car in to the local dealer, dealer performed a software update, 2 days after software update, all warning lights turn on in dash and do not go away. Check engine light, Power steering problem, hill start assist, vehicle stability control, trailer assist, traction control. Took vehicle back to the dealership. The service advisor takes the car back and when I return a few hours later he states that his technician informed him the injectors must also be replaced when the software update is done. Then I am informed that due to previous salvage history (from 2017) the vehicle emissions warranty extension will not be covered by Honda and I will be required to pay roughly $1,500 for this repair. The TSB states that all 2016 Honda pilots are covered. The faulty injectors were an issue from the factory on every single last 2016 pilot that was produced. The dealership caused these lights to come on and now wants me to pay to fix the additional issues they caused.
Unpredictably when my auto idle is engaged my vehicle will stall, resulting in me being unable to move my vehicle without forcing a prompted restart.This occurs at very random times to include when I am stopped at a stop light, waiting in a drive-thru line, in traffic, or any additional times when the auto idle engages. This is very dangerous because it results in my vehicle being an unexpected stalled obstacle for all participants on the road. The vehicle has been inspected and the engine start/stop button has been replaced twice. Unknown if there were any warning laps messages or other symptoms.
Our 2016 Honda Pilot recently had dash panel flickering, relays clicking and alarm going off after car was locked up. Reading more about this issue, it seems that a lot of people with the same year 2016 Honda Pilot were having the same issue. Reference this website link -- https://www.piloteers.org/threads/2016-pilot-electrical-issue-possible-keyless-control-unit-panel-relays-flicker-alarm-goes-off-unexpectedly.169315/page-2. Unfortunately, the manufacturing has failed to communicate this to the public, and we had to let our autobody Honda dealership about this widespread issue. A resolution that was explained by some on this website was replacing the keyless control unit, which by the way is on a nationwide backorder. Which is peculiar? This is apparently an issue with this specific model year, and Honda not addressing the issue is a problem. The customer shouldn't bear the responsibility of paying for this electrical or component issue with their vehicle. It seems like this could be a potential safety issue too, if for some reason this affects the computer system of the vehicle. It definitely is not safe, as the alarm is triggered for no reason when the doors are locked! That is an insurance issue, if you can't lock your vehicle because of threat of it being stolen.
- Ambler, PA, USA
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We are new with this vehicle and a couple times now we couldn-??t open the drivers door to get out. When you put the car in gear it auto locks which it should. But however after parking and shutting the car off the drivers door wouldn-??t unlock. My wife even got out went are to try and open it and it wouldn-??t open but after several try-??s and panicking it finally opened. Now this has happened a couple times already. I keep checking for a recall on this cause I pray there is never an emergency/accident and I can-??t exit the car and being elderly I can-??t climb over the console to get to another door. Cause it-??s only happens to the drivers door only. I did just get a recall in the mail today for the hood which I will take care of.
The car on prior occasions would not start and it would show emission alert as well as other alerts, have the car for servicing and they started checking and replacing everything. Same problem happened 2 weeks ago but resolved on its own. Today while driving, all the emergency lights came on including emissions malfunction, as well as other malfunction and then accelerator was not working, D was flashing and started making clicking sounds in transmission. Luckily we were close to a fire station house and stopped there, where the car was not going into park, was not changing any gears to reverse or neutral and when turned on, all emergency lights were flashing and could not even get it into neutral to push it away as it seemed to be transmission wheel jammed. Also a burning smell came from the engine when we attempted to restart and put in gear and the transmission clutch made horrible sounds and the car was revving up on its own. If we were on a major Highway this situation could have been a disaster with the family in the car, as the car was stalling on the road and could have resulted in a crash, loss of Life or injury to others. The novel is an elite 2016 pilot and has given my wife recurrent similar issues but we-??re lucky it happened in a parking lot. The dealership always states the problem is assessed and fixed but at year 5 and only 75000 miles this is a disappointing situation. We bring this to the notice of NHTSA as this could be a life threatening issues for family owner drivers
When on the road and you stop at traffic light with auto stop and go the car shuts off completely. It won-??t start afterwards and car needs to be placed in park and turned back on. Though this isn-??t an immediate solution. The car has been brought in multiple times into dealer. Changed battery couple times and problem persists regardless of what they do and they continue to say they don-??t see anything. Though it still continues and is completely dangerous.
Vehicle unexpectedly and unpredictably shuts down when stopped for a red light, at stop sign, or for an extended break period. Vehicle does not immediately restart after shutting off. Vehicle is available for inspection; however, given the safety concerns for our family and unanswered questions from Honda with no resolution in sight, we plan to buy a new vehicle. Vehicle has been disabled when it shuts down in the middle of intersections with cars swerving to avoid. It puts vehicle occupants and other drivers at risk of an accident. Dealer cannot reproduce. After the 1st instance, dealer claimed they found info that was sent to Honda corporate. Vehicle has been inspected by dealership with Honda corporate involvement 3 times. After the 1st time, Honda corporate/dealership replaced battery and state of charge sensor at no cost even though vehicle was not under warranty. After 2nd time, Honda said valves may need adjusting but refused to cover expensive ($1000) work and indicated they were not sure it would even resolve issue. If issue continued, they stated they would not refund money. They now refuse any resolutions without reproducing the car shutting down. There are no warnings, messages, or notifications that vehicle will shut down until it does. A variety of errors display after the vehicle shuts down and vehicle shifts on its own into neutral.
I have 2 problems. First my error is Keyless Start System Problem, that also will not auto lock the car when I walk away with the keys. Second is every once in awhile they audio system will completely reset itself.
Auto engine idle malfunction: engine would not restart when brake pedal released. Dash instructed to shift into park. All electrical stayed on, but engine would not restart for several minutes. With electronic shifting, wasn't even able to get into neutral to get out of the way of traffic. At busy intersections, being stranded could be very dangerous or even fatal.
When stopped at a light, the idle auto engine off feature turned off the engine, then when I remove my foot from the pedal, the engine fails to start again. After several attempts to start the engine it finally will start, but this has left me stalled at intersections on several occasions for up to 2 minutes. Honda has stated that this is a known issue with no known fix which is distressing and unacceptable.
My 2016 Honda Pilot Touring randomly completely shuts off at traffic lights rather than restart in the automatic shut off. It displays "Shift to Park" on the dash. This has been occurring for the past 2 1/2 years and has been reported to both Honda and the dealerships with no resolution. Despite my numerous reports to both Honda and dealership, only two times have they documented as requested. The past 8 months it has been occurring more frequently and has become increasingly difficult to restart. The past two times, I have been in a location with high speed limits so traffic approaching from the rear was coming at high speeds. The first of these recent incidents, it took 6 attempts to restart the vehicle and the second time I lost count. These situations were terrifying to the point I am no longer wanting to keep this vehicle. I can't help but consider if I have children in the back and am rear ended. The dealer has repeatedly told me there are no codes, so they can't identify the source of the issue. Interestingly, I purchased this vehicle when it was 18 months old and the switch for the auto shutoff was missing. The dealership replaced it, but now I am wondering if the previous owner was experiencing this same problem and had it removed.
At a stop when the idle stop shuts the engine off, the car will not restart automatically like it's supposed to and I'm stuck in the intersection until I can get the car to restart. This is obviously very dangerous. Others with Honda Pilots are having the same issue. This needs to be addressed. This has happened many times over the past 4 months.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while stopped at a red light and after releasing the brake pedal the fuel-saving feature had malfunctioned and the engine did not immediately restart. During the incident, the message "put vehicle to park mode" had displayed. The contact indicated that the failure was very intermittent and when the vehicle was taken to the local dealer the failure could not be duplicated therefore no problem was found and no service was performed. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 30,000.
The car, when at idle, and the "idle start/stop" feature is active, does not restart. The car stalls, loses all power, including hazard lights. This happens at busy intersections, and the car is able to be started again after several minutes. The las time it occurred, the power was not restored until the hood was popped (while on a major highway in the left lane) and battery power cable checked. The power suddenly was restored and the car was able to be restarted. After which, error appeared on screen for power failure. We purchased this car used in April 2021, and this issue has occurred consistently (at least weekly) since the beginning of May 2021. The last incident occurred on October 1st. The car has been at the dealer since October 5th, and they have been unable to diagnose or recreate the issue.
At 40,000 miles the vehicle was receiving the following WARNING message when started:Keyless System Start Problem. For 3 years it has consistently gone on and off for days. Honda states it-??s a key fob battery change need - when this does NOT fix the problem. I am now being repeatedly referred back to their service dept. to pay for diagnostic when they know that this is a manufacturer issue.
We've experience two instances where at a stop light, while under braking and the auto engine has idled, the car shuts off and after a long delay appears to restart its ECU and displays a prompt on the display to start the car again. This was of particular concern as we were at a stoplight on a rather busy crossing of a local freeway with heavy truck traffic for local manufacturers. There was no warning prior to the car shutting itself off. After it shut off, it triggered nearly every Honda warning symbol on the dash: LCAS, ABS, etc. all reporting problems.
Auto engine Idle shut/off malfunctioning. At red light...when turned green, took foot off brake to accelerate...car completely shut off. Dashboard lights came on and instructed to shift vehicle to park and restart. Vehicle in rear view coming up fast and thought I was going to be rear-ended and quickly found hazard lights and luckily driver was paying attention and shifted to other lane. Never happened when brand new now happening few times a week. Of course am making an appt with Honda but if they can't replicate the problem in the shop they can't/won't fix. This is a safety issue and people are going to get rear ended! Honda needs to rectify this situation as I have seen many threads with others stating the same problem.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Madison, TN, USA