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 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.
- Palm Bay, FL, USA
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My Honda Pilot2016 has intermittent -??keyless start system problem-??. The error comes and goes, it once caused me not able to start the engine. From online forums, this looks like to a common issue of Honda Pilot 2016. I am very concerned with my safety when I drive this car.
Automatic idle engine was enable and once I took my foot off the brake, the car stalled. I was unable to start the car for a minute or two and had to turn off the entire car and then restart. This has happened multiple times before this occasion.
My wife was driving the kids to school, stopped at a busy intersection. The engine idle-stop feature stopped the engine, and when my wife hit the gas, the car wouldn't restart. It required several attempts. This happens sporadically with the car, and it's happened on numerous occasions. Others have reported the same problem on Honda Pilot forums (https://www.piloteers.org/threads/2016-wont-start-after-idle-stop.158131/). The battery was replaced a couple of years ago after the first several times this happened, but both the battery and alternator test healthy. There is clearly a design flaw with this stop/start feature. My wife was left stranded for a few minutes at a busy intersection, with fast-moving cars, with my kids in the car.
Keyless start system problem appeared at about 40K miles. Now auto lock feature doesn-??t work. At 45k miles now it-??s appeared again and doesn-??t go away. Many other owners of same car report similar issue apparently
The car was traveling on a highway and stopped responding while quickly decelerating all the while rolling through all of the warning sign sign screens. Luckily was in I side lane and able to hop curb to pull off to shoulder. Every time we take to dealer they claim it-??s a known problem and -??reboot-?? system. Then seems to work ok for a while. This is the fifth or sixth time taking back to dealer. This time almost caused an accident. I-??m starting to think the vehicle is not fit to be on the road.
Keyless Start System error in the 2016 causes a risk of being stranded without the ability to start vehicle. There is no option on the car to use a manual key for starting. You can get the door open with a manual key, but not operate the car engine. There is nothing wrong with the engine. It-??s a safety issue.
The vehicle is starting itself in accessory mode. It is completely off, no one around, no one touching the key fobs, and it will just try to start itself. Because no one is inside of the car pressing the brake, it just defaults to accessory mode. The vehicle is just turning itself on by itself. When the vehicle is locked, this triggers the alarm.
At a stop light the vehicle will intermittently, during the idle stop sequence, not restart. I have had it to the dealer for this problem where the outcome was NTF. I had the battery replaced and the vehicle still does this on occasion. In order to restart it must be placed in park, powered down, powered back up and then you can restart. This process on average takes 15 to 20 seconds. In a busy intersection this is very stressful as cars behind you start to honk and yell as you try and keep your cool to go through the restart process.
Emission problem system keeps lighting up, going to service with Honda 3x times but engine light keeps popping up, replaced knock sensor failure at first, then still pop up, they figured out now it-??s 2 bank failure, need to replace engine harness and knock sensors sub harness, p0328, p0333. It will cause acceleration problem
I get a keyless start system error that hasn-??t been fixed with changing out the battery on the remote. From reading about this, it is a major issue with the Honda Pilots
The vehicle is equipped with an auto shut off and restart feature. There are many instances when the vehicle shuts off at a stoplight or in a parking lot and then does not restart automatically as it should. The vehicle must be powered off and on multiple times before the vehicle will restart. There seems to be a faulty sensor or some thing. The Honda dealership has provided no explanation except it's a battery issue which it is not connected as we have replaced the battery. I am concerned that when I am in traffic at a stoplight if I have forgotten to press the button to disengage the auto restart then I'll be stranded while trying to restart the car. It has become more frequent the last 18 months.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Darien, CT, USA