I was exiting a highway and entering a right hand turn lane. There was traffic in the turn lane and I came to a complete stop. When I stopped my car shut down. I attempted to restart by pushing the engine start/stop button but the car did not restart. It took about 30-60 off trying the butting, attempting to shift into drive and opening/closing the door and trying to restart before I could get the car to restart.
2016 Honda Pilot complaints
Owner reports filed with NHTSA about this vehicle, newest first and reproduced as filed. They are unverified accounts: one proves nothing, and a pattern across many is the thing worth reading. Back to the full 2016 record →
The start/stop turn the car off and when I tried to restart the car nothing happen. The battery is good and I heard a click sound but it won't start back for a few minutes sometimes.
When at a stop, t he start/stop feature is enabled and the engine shuts off as expected. When I lift my foot off the brake, it doesn't always restart, and I am left stranded in an intersection or at a light, and almost in accidents. Very unsafe. I have to turn it off every time I get into the car. When I forget to turn it off, it always fails to restart.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after stopping at a red light the auto shut off feature activated and turned the engine off to consever fued. After releasing the brake pedal the engine restarted but immediately shut off after the vehicle had rolled into the busy intersection. The vehicle would not immdiatly restart. The message "keyless start problem" had displayed. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. . The failure mileage was 120,000.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after stopping at a red light, the Auto Stop/Start feature activated and turned the engine off to conserve fuel. After releasing the brake pedal the engine restarted but immediately shut off after the vehicle had rolled into the busy intersection. The vehicle could not be immediately restarted. The message "keyless start problem" was displayed. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure. The manufacturer was not contacted. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 120,000.
On multiple occasions, the engine fails to restart after the auto start/stop function has engaged. I have previously had this addressed by a Honda Dealer at which time they replaced some parts having to do with the ignition system. The problem is still occurring and the only remedy is to manually shut off the auto start/stop function each time the vehicle is driven.
Around 60,000 the transmission started to shift erradically. The key indicator is the tachometer is not steady. My mechanic suggested to change the transmission oil which I did. It resolved the problem, except now at 68,300 thr problem has returned.
The idle stop shuts off my engine as designed but then it fails to restart approximately 10% of the time. When this occurs I have to put my car in park, turn off the car completely, turn it back on and put it in drive. While this most frequently happens at stop lights it has occured on the freeway when I have needed to stop. The frequency in which this is happening seems to be increasing. I have already had the start button on the car replaced twice. The issue continues to happen with increasing frequency.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that on several occasions while at a complete stop, the vehicle would stall upon acceleration without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they informed him that the battery was likely the cause of the failure. Upon investigation, the contact linked the failure to the auto Start/Stop switch which was under NHTSA investigation. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 60,000. The contact stated that a maintenance check showed that the battery was actually fully functional and had a full charge. The stalling issue still affects the vehicle.
Engine has failed to restart after stopping on multiple occasions. When stopped, the engine shuts off and the dash prompts you to place your foot on the brake and press the ignition button. The engine may start back up after several attempts. All lights on the dash flash intermittently with each attempt to restart the vehicle.
Start stop failed in middle of intersection. The car died and would not restart without a jump. Battery has been replay and it continues
Driving in traffic. Idle stop system kicked in to turn off the engine. I let my foot off the brake pedal to turn left in the intersection, and the engine failed to restart after stopping. I put the car in park, and the car would not re-start. Ultimately, I had to turn the car fully off and then back on before it would restart. I was blocking traffic for over a minute with the car unable to restart. There had been several prior instances where the car almost didn't re-start, but this is the first time that it would not restart. I have seen prior notices that the NHTSA ODI is currently investigating this issue.
Auto idle stop malfunctions regularly without any warning lamps, messages, or other symptoms before the malfunction. This causes the vehicle to restart automatically or it requires the driver to restart the vehicle manually. An error message appears on the console screen for less than one second at the time of the problem, but no warning or error messages before or after. This presents a safety issue (i.e., risk of collision) to the driver and other passengers when attempting to accelerate when a traffic light turns green, proceeding after a stop sign , or turning left in front of oncoming vehicles. Service technicians at multiple Honda service centers have reproduced the problem, with the only solution being to replace the battery on two separate occasions (Jan-2020 and Sep-2022). However, the issue pre-dates Jan-2020 but the Honda service center did not perform any repairs after the diagnostic scans.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while driving, utilizing the engine idle feature, the vehicle would shut down while depressing the brake pedal. The contact stated the vehicle struggled to restart. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact had to depress the brake pedal, place the vehicle into the park, depress the brake pedal, and press the START/STOP button several times for the vehicle to restart. The Forward Collision Avoidance system would randomly depress the brake after the restart. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer where it was diagnosed that the battery system needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure persisted. The mechanic informed her of several Forward Collision Avoidance system error messages in the system. The contact stated that while driving and making turns or driving in stop and go traffic with the cruise control activated, the Forward Collision Avoidance system inadvertently engaged. Additionally, while driving over a seam in the road the Forward Collision Avoidance system engaged. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 53,908.
The vehicle is equipped with start stop feature. The issue is it will stop, then crank for a second or two, but sometimes not restart. It’s a safety issue when you try to move with traffic, but the engine is now off. This issue has been reported to the Honda dealer numerous times over a 4 year period. The starter & battery has been replaced, but the issue still exists.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the while operating the vehicle, the check engine warning light remained illuminated, and the vehicle would not properly accelerate while depressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who replaced the engine heater coil, the fuel injectors, and the camshaft however, the failure recurred. The fuel injectors were replaced a second time however, the vehicle continued to experience the hesitation while attempting to accelerate. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer who diagnosed that the torque converter needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 40,000.
My car often does not start back up at stop signs/traffic lights. I feel very much in danger. It is difficult to get my car to start back up after it fails to start back up. I usually have to press really hard on the brake and even this is difficult to get it to restart. This is supposed to save fuel but I’m so afraid that someone is going to crash into me and put us all in harms way. Please help!
While driving between 30-45 MPH the engine RPM’s will start bouncing by around 500 RPM’s up and down. Usually on flat to slight grade with RPM’s in the area of 1500. The engine will bounce between 1200 up to 1800 RPM’s. Vehicle has 52,000 miles, just started in last couple thousand miles. Doing a Google search I found numerous complaints of same issue. This is a safety issue when the engine will unexpectedly surge or slow down.
Car's auto start feature for fuel savings has failed to function on numerous occasions and required shutoff and manual restart. There is no provision to permanently disable this feature but requires disabling every time car is started.
When the car stopped at red light, sometimes it can not restart. I got a few time too hard to restart to drive.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that on several occasions without warning, the vehicle stalled. Additionally, the contact stated that a year ago, the vehicle stalled with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the battery was replaced and the contact was informed that the Start/Stop switch needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired however, the failure recurred. The dealer was notified of the failure and the contact stated that she was informed that there was no fix for the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was informed that an appointment was scheduled for September 20th for a diagnostic test. The failure mileage was 89,529.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the engine would not immediately restart after the START/STOP feature was activated. The contact indicated that the vehicle occasionally restarted approximately three seconds after releasing the brake pedal. On other occasions, the vehicle would not restart. The vehicle was able to be restarted by pressing the START/STOP button. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The local dealer was notified of the failure and a service appointment was scheduled. The contact referenced the NHTSA Investigation Number: PE22005 (Engine and Engine Cooling). The contact indicated that the vehicle had experienced the same failure listed in the investigation. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 47,000.
For years, dating back to 2018, our 2016 Honda Pilot Elite auto on/off switch operations has been failing. Vehicle will not restart the engine after its engaged the auto start off. Engine and all components including electrical are off. Dashboard indications light up and essentially we are stalled, at risk of not being able to drive. It requires to place the car into park and restart the engine. This is serious safety issue that could result in being struct by another vehicle without being able to move. I have been taking the car to several authorized Honda service dealerships to address the issue. They have replaced multiple times the auto on/off switch, battery, adjusted values and updated software with no resolution. One dealership claimed to disable the auto on/off switch but this is NOT feasible. With the latest inspection, another local Honda dealership contacted Honda Corp Tech Line for assistance. Once again they instructed the dealer to perform all the potential fixes above and to ignore a code P2638. After investigating this online, Honda and NHTSA have opened an investigation June 2022 on this issue after 220+ complaints. There is no known fix, yet Honda Corp Tech Line informed local dealer to conduct value adjustments yet again, at a labor cost to us.
Hood - flutters and wobbles significantly at highway speeds. Per recall check, this vehicle is not included. Seat belt - more of a personal thing, but the driver's seat belt cuts into the driver's neck, even when high of shoulder strap is adjusted. When using a device to help control where the shoulder strap lays, it was found that the driver's seat belt is MUCH shorter than all other in the vehicle. Therefore not allowing the driver to use something to adjust the shoulder portion and still safely check blind spots.
The auto start/stop feature activated while I was at a stop and shut the vehicle off. When I removed my foot from the brake the vehicle stalled and would not restart. Had to place the vehicle in park and apply the brake to get it to restart. The restart took multiple pushes of the start button. This was a busy intersection where I immediately became a hazard.
Engine fails to restart after an automatic engine idle stop while completely stopped at a stop sign.
The engine's idle-stop feature shut off my car while stopped at a busy intersection in urban traffic, and took 15 seconds to restart the automobile. The idle-stop feature kicked in when at an intersection. When I took my foot off the brake to accelerate forward, the car instead turned off. The dashboard prompted me to shift the car into park, put my foot on the brake, and press the engine ignition button. I did so, but the car did not restart, even when I repeated the process 2-3 times. Finally, on the fourth time, the car restarted.
I own a 2016 Honda Pilot (Touring) model. Upon start-up the idle-stop feature is defaulted to enabled. When the vehicle comes to a stop the idle-stop feature shuts down the engine but leaves some features such as air conditioning and radio running. Upon disengaging the brake, the vehicle should automatically restart. However, on many occasions both on residential and freeway the vehicle has failed to restart and stalled. After putting the vehicle in park and attempting to restart it, it does not restart right away. Because of the stall, the vehicle appears to be left in an indeterministic state making restart more difficult and time consuming. After several tries of applying the brake and pressing the on/off button to restart the vehicle, the vehicle finally restarts. When the vehicle stalls, many of the dashboard lights come on... maybe all of them do. The major safety issue is that the vehicle becomes non-operative on busy streets or freeways. The driver will be required to turn on his hazard lights while trying to restart the vehicle. This failure places the driver and passengers at risk of being hit because it is non-operational in an environment/situation where other motorists believe you should be moving. I have made an appointment with my dealership to have it inspected. The problem has occurred multiple times on both the street and freeway. It is not always easily reproducible but has been witnessed by passengers in my vehicle. There appears to information from the pu
AUTO START / STOP functionality won't re start engine after it has engaged. Engine won't crank over, multiple dash warnings come on. PUSH START bottom doesn't work, have to put vehicle back in PARK and have to attempt several times to start engine.
The Honda Pilot includes an engine-idle stop feature that is specifically for energy savings. When this feature is on, when the vehicle comes to a stop, the engine idles and then is to restart upon release of the brake and by pressing on the accelerator. On a few occasions now, upon coming to a stop, my engine idles, and then when I attempt to press on the accelerator, the engine does not restart, but rather shuts off completely. When this occurs, multiple interior dash lights ignite and it states to shift to park. When attempting to shift to park the engine still does not come on, and rather I have had to wait until I am able to fully restart the car completely. This has occurred unexpectedly while in the middle of city traffic, while at a stop lights, and while at stop signs. On each occasion, it has been a safety issue as the vehicle is idle in the middle of traffic and there is no immediate resolution.
We have a 2016 Honda Pilot Touring model equipped with the stop-start feature. This feature has failed to restart the engine while stopped at an intersection 3 times; after the first failure we try to remember to disable the feature however it must be disabled every time the car is started (worse, there is a delay in the confirmation that sometime leads to pushing the button twice and inadvertently re-enabling the auto-stop-start). The first time the stop-start failed was near the end of a long trip (New Jersey to North Carolina); it was dark out and we stopped at highway traffic signal triggering the auto-stop, there was no indication that anything was wrong. When releasing the brake, the car failed to start and went into an "off/stalled" state, leaving us stuck in the dark intersection with no lights (presumably the brake lights still worked). Given the vehicle has both an automatic transmission and ignition controlled by buttons (not a shifter/key switch); it took nearly a minute to find the right combination of button (and brake pedal) presses need to get the car restarted (as this was a highway light, the cycles are long). We took it to get the ignition system tested the next day and everything tested OK. We did not experience the issue again for roughly 7 months. The second and third time occurred in the same drive: our son sustained a compound fracture to his arm and given our proximity (less then 2.5 miles) to the ER we opted to drive ourselves there. The auto-stop-st
My 2016 honda Pilot Touring model won’t restart after idle stopped. I have to place car in park and restart using the start button. Issue occurs only when can idle stops. This has happened to us about 5 - 6 times over a course of 1 year. Detailed says they are unable to find the issue after a software scan. This is a serious safety concern.
On numerous occasions, the auto-engine stop/start feature that turns off the engine when the car comes to a stop has had issues where the engine does not restart and the car enters into an error state. I must then turn off the car, then turn it back on. Sometimes this happens after I've pulled out into an intersection but have to stop before proceeding.
This like the third time this has happened where the stop-start feature on my Honda Pilot almost have gotten me into a serious accident. It has happened during stop and go on I95 when I was heading to Maine and I stopped and it literally almost shutdown after I got ready to go forward. Most recently it happened 4 Sep 2022 at about 11:05am EST and was in a turning line in Chelsea, MA and it when it into stop idle shutdown feature but then completely shut off and it took about 2 to 3mins to get it to start back up. The car behind almost hit the back thinking I was pulling off but my Honda Pilot shutdown right when I was getting ready to take off. This is serious danger and defect in this when I see other vehicles operate with no problem with this feature. This could cause someone to get into a serious accident especially in Massachusetts.
When auto stop/start engages the vehicle occasionally will experience a complete engine and electrical shut down when auto start is supposed to engage; the is often leads to a dead vehicle in traffic at an intersection. Occasionally it will have extreme difficulty with a restart, often only starting after several attempts at push button starting. Fuel injectors and battery have all been replaced recently, fuel injectors under recall/manufacturer issue and battery at replacement lifetime. Is often unpredictable when it will cause issues and when it will operate correctly. Has occurred intermittently for several years with a somewhat unpredictable pattern.
When stopped at a red light with my foot on the brake and the engine in idle, the engine turned off when I put my foot on the gas peddle. The engine idle stop was on. This occurred while stopped in city traffic (6/2022) and again when I was stopped at a red light on a highway (9/3/2022). The car rolled backward. I had to put the car in park and restart the car. I now have manually turned off the engine idle stop.
The vehicle stalls at stop signs, traffic lights and in stopped traffic. Sometimes takes multiple trys to restart the vehicle. Been happening regularly for several years. Have had multiple repairs done with no affect.
This issue has occurred twice. First occurrence was when stopped in traffic. Auto stop engaged. When brake was released auto start caused vehicle to stall-out. Vehicle restarted after multiple attempts. Second occurrence was when stopped at traffic light. Auto stop engaged. When brake was released auto start caused vehicle to stall-out. Vehicle restarted after one attempt. For both occurrences, radio was on, air-conditioning was on and outside temperature was +85 degrees. This is a serious safety concern.
My 2016 Touring Honda Pilot has an issue with the idle stop/start feature. I exited the highway and the vehicle shit down as I was decelerating. All of the dash lights flashed and the car would not accelerate. The flashing warning toggled bw engine idle problem and transmission. I was unable to shift gears even into neutral. After shutting the car off, It acted normally for a few weeks. Now, the car is doing it again and I had to have it towed to the dealership bc the lights continued flashing and the I couldn’t shift gears. Dealer says it’s an electronic control issue and costs $900 to repair.
When you start the car it is always in economy mode so that the engine can shut off when you are stopped. I like to turn this feature off manually as a few times if I don’t the car has stalled and also goes into neutral. Happened while I was on California highway 80 in stop and go traffic which was pretty scary as I was in the center lane. This was about two months ago. It happens about 10% of the time when I am in this mode if not completely stalling it splutters and feels like it won’t start or delays to restart. Happened yesterday at a light. Became a safety issue as cars tried to go around me by getting into the next lane which was flowing freely. Basically if I don’t turn the function off when I first start the car it is not safe. The dealer took a look about a year ago and found nothing and said they had not heard of the issue. I pointed out I had read about the issue in Honda forums they could find them easily it however they had no interest, maybe because they focus on known issues? Love the car apart from this issue.
I have a 2016 Honda Pilot, color, Pearl White. The paint started to peel appointmently one month ago. The area is on the roof in front of sunroof behind the front windshield. There is a recall on the same color, make, year and model. Peeling in the same area. I was told by Honda of America that it was only for Honda that were painted at a certain factory that are covered by the recall. I did have the vehicle inspected by Honda and a body shop that they sent me too. Total estimate is around $1200. They both confirmed that it's the same area as the recall. I do have the email with pictures that they took to send to Honda. Honda is only willing to cover 25% and told me to put a complaint into your department. PER Honda they said if there is enough complaints. There would be a recall for the other vin numbers to cover the paint job. We find there response unacceptable based on pass practice and previous recalls.
The engine will stall at stoplights. It appears the auto start/stop feature fails when engaged. Car has stalled 4xs in the past week. To fix issue: You have to put the car in park, foot on brake, and hit the start engine button in order to restart the car. Also put hazards on for safety reasons. Once car starts, you can put into drive and go forward. We've been fortunate not to have an accident. It's a significant safety issue stalling at stop lights with traffic behind you. Local Honda Service center could not replicate the issue. I instructed them that you have to drive car for ~20-25 minutes before it will stall. Car was scheduled for regular A156 Maintenance. They are looking at the stall issue today, 8/26/2022.
Car has auto engine stop/restart as a fuel saving measure. Several times the car has failed to restart after turning off. This happens in highway stop/go traffic, at traffic lights. This is dangerous, as my foot comes off the brake, cars behind me think i am moving, and then the engine fails as it is restarting. I have to then put my foot back on the brake, put the car in park, and restart the engine before being able to drive again. This happened on 8/25, and 3 other times within the last month. This did also happen perhaps a year or 2 ago, the dealer did examine the car but I don't believe they found any issues to be repaired.
My 2016 Honda Pilot is displaying a "Keyless Start System Problem". There is a Service Bulletin 20-117 that extends the warranty for affected vehicles so they can be repaired under the warranty for free. The Service Bulletin states that ALL Trim levels are affected vehicles, however, my vin #[XXX], does not come up as an affected vehicle. My vehicle needs to be included in and covered by the Service Bulletin 20-117, which will extend the warranty so I can have my vehicle repaired. Please address at your earliest convenience. Thank you. INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
With increasing frequency of occurrence, the car will not start after the auto stop/start mechanism has been invoked. For example, when stopped at a red light, the engine will turn off as the car is not moving. However, once the light turns to green and the brake is depressed, the car will not start and/or will start and then the engine will cut-out. To start the engine, the car needs to be fully turned off, gear put into Park and then restarted. There appears to be something at fault with the automatic stop-start mechanism and/software. My car is a 2016 Honda Pilot Touring with less than 28K miles.
Vehicle rpms will vary and not be steady on light to medium acceleration between 20 to 60 mph. Rpm guage needle will bounce up and down slightly while accelerating. Torque converter seems to not be locking up resulting in judder. No engine lights or warnings. Dealer was able to confirm the same thing and isssues went away when replaced and flushed transmission fluid. But the problem slowly returned 20k miles later..
My 2016 Honda Pilot Touring stalls out at a red light while using the auto stop-start. It happens occasionally when I take my foot off the brake and put my foot on the gas. Instead of coming out of idle with the engine starting up again, the car would stall completely and I would have to put the car in park, press the brake pedal and push the start button to get it on again. I took the car into the dealer and they told me that there was no software update and that they couldn’t do a update anyways because check engine light wasn’t on. Also have a issue with transmission not switching gears smoothly on take off. Jerks on take of. Once again they told me transmission was fine and there was no software update and that they couldn’t do a update anyways because check engine light wasn’t on.
As previously described on the NHTSA website, this model has the 9 speed transmission and it randomly turns the vehicle off at intersections/red lights when the vehicle is stopped. It is different than the engine start/stop system since the full vehicle turns off. It is very random and stressful when it happens since other vehicles are then waiting on our Pilot to get moving again.
The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after stopping at a traffic light, the Auto START/STOP feature failed to operate as needed. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact had taken the vehicle to a local dealer however, the mechanic was unable to determine the cause of the failure. The contact was informed by the dealer to replace the battery; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.
When start-stop feature is "on," the car will not start again in certain instances when the engine is shut down after a complete stop. The NHTSA currently has an investigation opened in this matter (opened in June 2022)
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NHTSA publishes every complaint as the owner wrote it and investigates only a fraction. Spelling, capitalisation and judgement are the filer’s own. What carries weight is repetition: the same component failing the same way across many filings, and whether the manufacturer eventually opened a recall for it.
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