Repeatedly, the engine idle auto-stop function fails. The dealership and authorized Honda repair facilities say it is a known issue to them but not acknowledged by Honda. They state it must be due to driver error. When this function fails, it is random and creates an immediate emergency situation. The engine auto-stop feature is on by default. We try to remember to turn it off every time. But when we forget, we come to any stop (light, traffic etc), the engine will go from idle to stall! No notice, no warning, no indicator light. The car will completely turn off with the car in drive. You need to put the car in park, try to restart the car, get back into drive and hope an accident doesn't occur. We have a college teen now who drives this Honda Pilot. Soon to have a High School teen. They do not have enough driving experience to react to something like this. My fear is that a serious accident may incur. Last year this same engine had some type of issue where every light on the dashboard would light up. Apparently a know problem with a defective fuel injection system. We were never notified about this issue from Honda. Honda repaired it at no cost but, it was another know issue about a major engine flaw. Now this auto idle which is going out of control. Honda needs be accountable before fatalities occur. This car is becoming a lemon.
2016 Honda Pilot engine complaints
Page 19 of 29: complaints 521 to 550 of 828, newest first, as owners wrote them.
About a year after we bought the car the engines fail to restart after stopping, in some cases the jump start was required to get the engine going again. After it happened on the highway a few times we took the car into service and they said it was the battery they changed the battery which cost us a lot of money. After changing the battery it happened over and over again, we took the car again into service and they said it is not related to the battery and that they shouldn't change the battery in the first place. They said it's a software issue and they updated the software and we paid a lot of money and the problem continued. We report the issue every time we take the car to a car maintenance and they say it's a Honda problem and they can't help us (the service we go to is Honda car service). Whenever there is traffic we are afraid the car will stop and we will cause a collision. No warning lights before the failure.
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.
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 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 the federal safety agency 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.
Start stop failed in middle of intersection. The car died and would not restart without a jump. Battery has been replay and it continues
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the federal safety agency 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.
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.
When the car stopped at red light, sometimes it can not restart. I got a few time too hard to restart to drive.
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.
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.
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.
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-start failure occurred at a busy 4-way intersection; upon getting the vehicle restarted (in an admitedly more panicked state) we unsuccessfully attempted to disable the auto-stop-start. The failure occurred again about a mile away at the stop light before the ER; this time the car would not start back up; ultimately we let the car sit for an extremely long minute (a full cycle of the traffic light) before attempting to successfully start the car again in time for the next green light.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 federal safety agency currently has an investigation opened in this matter (opened in June 2022)
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