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:
2 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
24,778 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 have a Honda Pilot 2016 with a keyless start system issue. I see a recall document Service Bulletin 20-117 dated December 9, 2020; however, when I type my VIN number for my vehicle, I do not see a recall. I have been having the Keyless start system issue for the past 3 days.
Ocassionally when stopped at intersections my 2016 Honda Pilot touring edition will go into idle stop mode and not restart. Upon trying to proceed the engine will try to start and stall out. The engine goes dead and I am unable to accelerate out of the intersection. The info dash system indicates the vehicle was in Neutral and that I needed to shift to Park to Proceed. After putting the vehicle in Park the info dash system instructs me to start the engine by pressing the Brake and pushing the Start button. This action is not possible when the vehicle has stalled out as described above and continues to prevent the driver from accelerating out of the intersection. The only solution I found that works is to remove my foot from the brake and power down the vehicle completely. Only when the vehicle is completely powered down is it possible to restart the vehicle by pressing the Brake and Pushing the power button. This event has happened 4 times in the past 3 months on my Pilot. The mileage on my Pilot is ~125,000 miles.
I-??m having problem with the start/stop feature if my honda pilot 2016. For a couple of incidents already, when the car idle on a stop, it will not start back. It happened today 7/23/22 in Fletcher ave in Fort Lee, NJ. I had to jump start the car and it caused traffic for a while.
Auto Engine Idle Stop has failed to restart the vehicle in multiple situations, including at traffic lights and in stop and go traffic. Inspection is available upon request. When a trafic light turns green and I have tried to proceed the vehicle stalls and will not restart quickly, the cars behind me are surprised and not happy when I have to go through a procedure to get the car to restart. I have almost been hit by cars behind me several times as they expected me to go when the light turns green. Sometimes my vehicle will not restart for a minute or more. This could be a major issue if you were in traffic and ended up stuck in a place where you should not stop or stall. One time I had to call AAA to get my vehicle to start. They had to disconnect my battery and reattach so the system would reset itself. Only then would the vehicle start. The dealer said they have heard from other owners of Honda Pilots that they want this auto engine idle stop permanently turned off. But they told me they can-??t turn it off. This should auto engine idle stop should be something you opt into not have to opt out every time you start your vehicle. There weren-??t any lights or warnings that this system would fail ahead of time.
The idle stop on the car is defective, if not turned off which had to be turned off everytime we start the car, The car will randomly idle stop at intersections and won't come back on, will have to forcefully turn off the car and turn it back on. Couple this happened on dangerous intersection and traffic lights. Honda has not resolution, they just say turn off idle stop everytime.
- Huntingdon Valley, PA, USA
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I was driving with the intention to turn left at a major intersection. I was the first car to pull into the left hand turning lane. I put my blinker on and pushed down on the brake waiting for the light to turn green so I could make the left hand turn but the car just shut down. At first I thought it was the auto engine on/off feature but I tried to lift my foot off the brake and the car did not restart. I tried to put the car in park and turn the car completely off (then on again) to see if that fixed the issue but the brake pedal was completely locked and I could not push it down. I ended up having to call the police and a tow company to tow my car out of the intersection. Both the police and the tow company tried to start the car with no luck. They could not even start it to put it in neutral and had to flat bed the car. There were not warning lights or messages on when this occurred. Although no one was hurt, it was an extremely busy intersection where this occurred and I was with my 4 year old daughter. While waiting for the police I had to cross multiple lanes of traffic carrying my daughter because it didn't want someone to rear end my car with her in it. It was also during the start of rush hour and caused a huge traffic back up. My car was subsequently towed to the Honda dealership where I purchased the car and they were able to start it the next morning multiple times with no issue. When they checked for error codes, nothing popped up. The battery was tested with good results. They requested other services be performed: brake system service, fuel system service, etc. but I was told these were unrelated to the break down. I ended spending close to $400 in towing fees and over $800 these additional services. I saw there was an official investigation into the Honda Pilot's start/stop feature and I believe this sounds very similar to what I went through.
Auto stop/start feature will leave vehicle disabled and stranded at lights, and or in the middle of busy roads. Has happened to my wifes 2016 honda pilot 5 times now. Luckily 3 of those times were in parking lots, but twice on a busy highway with kids in the vehicle.
Honda has a "stop / start" feature that when stopping at a stop sign or traffic light, with brakes applied, stops the engine. Once you take foot off brakes, the engine should restart. On four occasions, the engine did not restart. This is a fuel saving feature, however, in each case I'm stuck in traffic while trying to "restart" my Honda Pilot.
The engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection with the Auto Start/Stop function engaged, It have happened many times. I have taken the vehicle to the dealer for assessment and they keep telling me that it is due to all the electronics going on at the same time
My 2016 Honda Pilot is experiencing the same exact issue that is reported for Honda Service Bulletin 19-057 first issued 2019 and again in 2020. I reported to Honda Corp. and the dealer we purchased the car from. They both came back after numerous inquires that my car did not qualify for this bulletin as my VIN was not part of this. Not sure how this is possible, if you look at my car the pictures noted on the Service Bulletin could literally be mine. Would it be possible to inquire and have Honda investigate further as to how our car does not qualify for an issue that is occurring for the 2016 Honda Pilot in White Pearl already but not other VIN numbers? Just doesn't seem fair. Thank you for your time
Air conditioning compressor went on my 2016 Pilot. Upon researching, I see that Honda has issued technical service bulletin #19-091 for 2016 - 2018 Civics for condensers that caused the AC to fail. I'm not sure if this is related, but I want to put the information out there anyways as Honda has already addressed an AC issue in similarly aged vehicles. My car has low mileage and is just 6 years old. Compressors should last well past that, and my service person at the authorized dealership said I may be the second he's seen come in that soon with the issue
2016 Pilot stalled at a stop sign after releasing break and pressing the gas. The engine had been off due to the auto stop/start function and did not restart upon release of break.
My 2016 Honda Pilot is experiencing the same exact issue that is reported for Honda Service Bulletin 19-057 first issued 2019 and again in 2020. I reported to Honda Corp. and the dealer we purchased the car from. They both came back after numerous inquires that our car did not qualify for this bulletin as our VIN was not part of this. Not sure how this is possible, if you look at our car the pictures noted on the Service Bulletin could literally be our car. Would it be possible to inquire and have Honda investigate further as to how our car does not qualify for an issue that is occurring for the 2016 Honda Pilot in White Pearl already but not other VIN numbers thank you for your time regards [XXX] INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
I exited the freeway and was stop at the light at the off ramp. When the light turned green, I accelerated but the car died. The steering wheel was completely locked up. There was no power and I couldn-??t even activate the hazard button. I couldn-??t restart the car until several minutes later. This is an ongoing issue. This happens once every several months. I-??ve reached out to Honda on several occasions but they couldn-??t resolved it. They ran diagnostics but no error code would pop up and since they couldn-??t duplicate the problem, they couldn-??t fix it.
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.
My 2016 honda pilot has been experiencing a problem with the auto idle stop (AIS) feature. Randomly when the AIS engages the vehicle will shut off completely and switch to neutral. It displays a message to put in park and apply brake and press start. This does not always work and can take several attempts to restart the vehicle. This happens when in the middle of the road in traffic making it very hazardous. This has occurred more than 20 times over the past 4 years. I have had the battery replaced 3 times, yet the problem continues.
When I started my car, my rear window imploded/shattered. There was no evidence of tampering, no sudden change in temperature, no previous cracks in that window.
I stopped at a red light. The idle stop engaged (ie: the engine turned off but the radio was still on). When the light turned green, I removed my foot from the break and the entire car turned off. I tried pressing the start button but the car didn't turn back on. I turned on my hazard lights as I prepared to call emergency roadside assistance while also continuing to press the start button. It took probably a minute or more for the car to finally turn back on.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Morton Grove, IL, USA