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 / 4
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
27,682 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.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while at a complete stop, the vehicle would stall upon the depression of the accelerator pedal with either the Collision Mitigation Failure or Shift to Park and Restart Vehicle messages were displayed on the instrument panel. The contact had taken the vehicle to the dealer several times for the same failure; however, the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. The contact stated that upon disabling the auto idle-stop feature, the failure did not occur; however, the feature had to be manually disabled each time upon the start of the vehicle. The manufacturer had been notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The vehicle remained in the possession of the dealer and was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 30,000. The VIN was not available.
Driving the vehicle started to quickly lose power for about 15 seconds and it stalled while at speed on an interstate. Luckily I was in the right lane and was able to pull out of traffic onto the shoulder. The car had all the lights flash on the dashboard. The check engine, the hill assist, the oil, power steering, etc...i mean all the lights. I turned the car off through its power button and waiting about a meeting and attempted to restart the vehicle. It would not restart. I repeated this action. After two more failed attempts i went and opened the hood to check to see if there was a visible problems or potential a lose sensor connection. The engine looked ok. The main sensors were connected. I again tried to restart the car. The car started and drove about half a mile before losing power again. I repeated all of the above. Again. After about 45 mins the vehicle started even though nothing had actually changed. I didn't do anything. I took the car with the check engine light still on to autozone where they plugged the computer in to tell me my fuel pump wasn't working. Code P0087 registered. The next day the computer cleared itself and has been running. My mechanic said Honda had released a TSB pertaining to the fuel pump with new lines. Unfortunately there is a nation wide shortage of those parts so my car cannot be fixed. I feel unsafe. I dont know if the car will work or not. Its terrifying
No accident. Keyless warning light on. nothing wrong with vehicle. you tube full of same complaints. some cars are covered and some not. have replaced batteries etc etc
The vehicle is equipped with idle stop if I don-??t disengage it when the vehicle is started. At a stop when the vehicle shuts down if completely shuts down and then you have to shift into park. To restart the vehicle. My radio/ gps unit also goes black and shuts off while I am driving and reboots.
Auto idle system fails. Auto idel turns off engine at stops and fails to restart engine when foot is removed from brake. Must restart car. Errors on dash which may be associated with issue: Charging system error auto engine idle stop system problem key fob error
- Orchard Park, NY, USA
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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.
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.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Mountain View, CA, USA