2016 HONDA PILOT Electrical System Problems

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...

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.

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.

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...

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.

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)

The auto engine idle feature malfunctions. When stopped in traffic and at intersections the auto engine idle feature turns off the engine; however fails to restart. I can put the car into park, but the brake remains engaged and the ignition button blinks white. I have attempted many different things to 'reset' the computer. Putting the car in park, waiting, unlocking seatbelt, open/shut door. The last time, i had to walk away from the vehicle with the key fob in traffic. Locking and unlocking the car seemed to reset the computer. This placed me in dangerous traffic. It has happened in a construction zone on interstate, at intersections several times, during rush hour when it was impossible to leave the vehicle due to high speed traffic, and once while towing. Each episode has generally taken about 15 minutes for computer to shut down/reset. There is no message on the dash...

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. This happens intermittently, but has put my family in danger on several occasions. When the light turns green, the car turns off, and has to be put in park and restarted. I have come close to being rear-ended during these situations, as approaching vehicles have to stop suddenly because my car is disabled. I have taken a video of these incidents, but Honda is unable to recreate the issue and has not offered a solution.

2016 Honda Pilot stalls during idol-start stop. Driver is forced to put it into park and restart vehicle. I took the vehicle to Manchester Honda (CT) for service over a year ago, but no issues were found. They updated the software, but it did not help. The issue is getting worse - sometimes it takes multiple attempts to restart the vehicle. This is a serious safety concern as it has happened in the middle of a busy intersection and in the middle of the highway in traffic. It is currently not possible to disable the system and I don't always remember to manually shut it off every time I start the car.

Keyless Start System Problem light came on and I saw that there had been recalls on this.

When the car is locked, the alarm will randomly keep going off and the cluster randomly flickers.

Auto stop/start function shut down all electrical components when vehicle was stopped and the function activated. This occurred on 2 separate occasions.

During several stops now, the auto engine idle kicks in, but vehicle does not restart. The vehicle is at a complete stop with the engine off. This has happened on 2 occasions on freeway off/on ramps, which has been extremely dangerous, with the speed that vehicles are traveling. It has also happened over 4 times at intersections and stop signs. 2 separate dealerships have inspected the vehicle, where 1 was able to reproduce the issue and both times, my battery was replaced, well before the life of the battery. Maybe 1 year into having the new battery the issue presents itself again. I have owned the vehicle for just over 3 years now and I have purchased 2 batteries, that is not acceptable.

Multiple times the idle-stop feature has caused my car to stall out at an intersection. The idle-stop will engage, but when I take my foot off the break (or move the steering wheel), the car does not start again, instead it will try to start but then turns off completely. At that point I have to re-engage the break, put the car in park, turn off the car and then try to turn it back on as normal. When this happens at a green light it's very stressful and dangerous as cars are behind me. This has happened probably 10 times in my ownership period, it is always worse when it's hot outside since so many parts are running (including the AC). I have brought the car in to fix this a bunch of times, they never find anything wrong at the dealer. The last time they replaced the starter...

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...

At low idle, car will lock up, unable to drive, cannot put in neutral, will not go. I can't even shut the car off to restart. The dash tells be to push brake and start button, but that still does not work. I continue to push buttons until it finally kicks in. I was in the middle of the road. 1 car almost rear ended me. This also happened while I was traveling and stopped at the end of highway. I needed assistance, but since I couldn't put car in neutral, we could not push. I put hazards on and again, pushed random buttons until kicked back in. This is very dangerous! I will not let my kids take my car for fear that they will get stuck as well. I'm scared to drive it. Honda's response was bad gas or alternator, which it is NOT.

While at a stop the engine stopped as it should but did not restart. It then took multiple tries of pressing the brake and hitting the start button to get it to restart. This meant the car was blocking the flow of traffic creating a safety issue. This has occurred on multiple occasions with no issues found at the dealer.

The auto idle start stop does not restart automatically while in traffic or stopped. Issue has occurred several times, I must turn off vehicle completely to restart vehicle. Huge safety factor when traffic is following again and I am unable to restart vehicle.

When the auto idle stop is not disengaged (the default setting when the car starts is that the auto idle stop is engaged), the car will sometimes not restart when the idle stop occurs. It's unpredictable and scary, especially when it occurs at a light or in stop-and-go traffic. The dashboard lights up like a Christmas tree, and there is a clicking noise. I have to place it into Park, shut off the engine fully (it's not running - I think it's in Accessory mode), step on the brake and restart. Because of this, I make a habit of disengaging the auto idle stop when I start the car. Unfortunately, sometimes I forget to disengage and this engine restart failure happens. I have read that an old/weak battery is suspected. This is not true in my case. This issue has happened several times after I changed the battery on 12/15/2020....

While stopped at a red light, with the auto start enabled, the car would not turn back on and placed the car in “neutral”. The dash info message prompted me to put the car in “park”. I did. It then instructed me to depress the brake and hit the “start” button to turn the car on. It did not after I tried a few times. Finally to get it started I pushed the “start” button with the key fob. It then turned on and allowed me to put it in “drive”.

Today was the second time my car has shut down at a traffic light in the last 2 months. The auto engine stop kicks in and the car shuts down. It took multiple combinations of pressing the start button and turning on/off the car before I could get it to restart. I’ve recently replaced the battery so I don’t think it’s a weak battery.

When idling at a stop light, the auto shut off feature engaged and turned off the engine. When I engaged the gas to start moving again, the engine would not restart. I applied to brake, put the car into park and then tried to manually restart the car using the start button on the dash. The car engine would not start. The auxiliary power to the accessories would not go off when I pushed the stop/start button on the dash, but the engine would not restart either. I attempted to restart the car several times. It did not attempt to turn the engine over, but did literally nothing. I paused and waited for a minute and then attempted to restart the car again with the stop/start button and the car engine finally turned on. The exact same sequence of events has happened and two separate occasions some weeks apart. This...

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that on multiple occasions, the START/STOP feature failed to operate as needed while at a complete stop. The contact stated that the vehicle would shut off upon releasing the brake pedal with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic on several occasions where several electrical components were replaced. The dealer was notified of the failure and the contact was informed that they had no knowledge of the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 75,000.

Auto Idle System failure. This has been a problem for several years and continues to be a safety issue. If I don't disable the auto idle feature my car will die when I take my foot off of the brake to accelerate.. The vehicle has to do a complete computer reset before I am able to restart the engine. This has happened many, many times at stop lights when the light turns green and I attempt to accelerate, when waiting to merge onto the frontage road of I-35, when turning onto a main road out of a parking lot when traffic is backed up but someone was attempting to let me into the lane (I was half in and half out of the parking lot). In every situation, there is someone behind me expecting me to go (rightfully so). I could easily be hit if the other drivers weren't paying...

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. Making it necessary to restart manually.

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated while attempting to drive from a complete stop, the brake pedal was released however, the Auto STOP/START feature failed to operate as designed. There was no warning light illuminated. The contact stated that the failure recurred on several occasions. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and the ignition switch was replaced; however, the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 44,000.

Multiple times the vehicle wouldn’t start. The start stop switch is the culprit after 7 months of dealing with it and taking it to dealership finally. Car will cut off at stop light but won’t turn back on. Takes like 4 tries to get it back on. Also at 126k or 128k engine had a knocking sound and needed replaced and it cost $7000 the air conditioning doesn’t work and this is very upsetting this isn’t why I buy Hondas. The start stop event happens everyday and every time I start the car and don’t deactivate the start/stop system

The engine idle-stop feature did not restart. It is available for inspection. The safety of my two small children and myself was at risk as we had to get out of the car at a busy intersection. It has not been reproduced by a dealer or a service center. The vehicle and the parts have not been inspected by authorities. It happens without warning. While at a red light, when I take my foot off the brake it shuts off completely.

My 2016 Honda pilot stalls when my car turns off from the auto idle engine. If I do not manually turn the feature off EVERYTIME I turn my car on my car will stall out when i lift my foot off the brake. It has progressively taken longer to turn the vehicle back on (anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes) I have been to honda 2x for this issue & their "fix" has never resolved the issue. They will not admit they cannot fix it, even when I showed them a video of exactly what happens when I try to get my vehicle back on.

The stop/start feature fails to restart engine and I have to shut off the car completely to restart again.

I bought this car used in May 2022. My wife is the primary driver and this incident happened to her three times and myself once. When stopping at a red light, the engine turns off to save fuel with the auto start stop feature. We normally turn this off, but sometimes when we forget, the auto start fails to start the engine leaving us stuck in traffic trying to start the car at a green light. It takes multiple attempts to restart the car. This wouldn't be an issue if we could turn off the auto stop start permanently. We don't like the feature anyway, sometimes it causes the car to lurch forward when removing your foot from the break while the engine is starting.

The Pilot has an auto start/stop function that turns off the engine when the car is stopped/idling. When the driver releases the break pedal, the engine is supposed to turn back on. The engine would very frequently fail to turn back on after idling. This happened many times at traffic lights and while stopped in traffic. It's much worse than stalling out with a manual transmission vehicle, because the engine does not turn back on quickly. The whole system (including battery power to the car) needs to be turned off and turned on again. This is a safety issue because the engine has failed to start while in traffic on the interstate, where cars are quickly accelerating, and the failure for the car to accelerate with traffic could lead to a collision. It also poses the risk of leaving the driver stuck in a dangerous location without the ability to...

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that after stopping the vehicle and then attempting to accelerate, the vehicle lost motive power and stalled. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle restarted however, there was a delay in the proper functionality of the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer to be diagnosed; however, the mechanic found no failure with the vehicle. The contact stated that an unknown part of the instrument panel was replaced however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was not contacted or notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 20,000.

While at a stop light, with the engine "Auto Start/Stop" switch engaged, I released my foot from the brake, and the car died. I was totally confused as to what occurred. After a minute or two I was able to restart the car. I was very concerned about being re-ended as when the light changed to green is when the car died. I had no advance warning of a problem, and it just died unexpectedly as I released my foot from the break. No lights on the dash either. I notified my dealer, who had never heard of this happening, and said when I can, please bring it in. In as much as the incident occurred in May 2022, and hadn't happened since, I did not take my car into the dealer. I can take my car in at any time to be examined.

The vehicle’s Auto Stop/Start feature routinely fails to restart the engine when releasing the brake, turning the steering wheel, or selecting Park. In order to start the vehicle, it must be placed into Park, turned off, and then turned back on by holding the Start button. This has worked on most occasions (approx 90% of occasions thus far); other times a jump start was required. Attempts to resolve from Honda have required several purchases of a new battery and denial of there being a larger issue. There is no indication or warning that the feature has failed until attempting to resume driving (or the vehicle attempts to restart itself based on the vehicle’s self-monitored parameters). The failure to start leaves the vehicle stuck in traffic risking collision and/or personal injury as a result.

The engine in my vehicle fails to restart after coming to a complete stop. My car stalls out and can take several attempts to try to restart the car. This has been very dangerous. It can occur whether I'm stuck in traffic on a major highways or even just at a stop sign. It always occurs when the start/stop function is engaged. I have taken the car to the dealer multiple times to deal with this issue and even tried to get the start stop function removed. Unfortunately, they have never been able to fix the problem.

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the AutoStart function failed to engage temporarily when attempting to drive from a complete stop. However, the AutoStart feature was designed to engage automatically while depressing the accelerator pedal. There were several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer several times, where it was diagnosed that no issues were found. However, the failure persisted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 40,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that the Auto START/STOP function had failed. The vehicle would suddenly stall and shut off. The contact stated that the failure recurred at various speeds and also while the vehicle was idling. The vehicle would also shake and jerk. The contact would restart the vehicle and turn off the Auto START/STOP function. The contact had not taken the vehicle to the dealer to be diagnosed. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 81,000.

The contact owns a 2016 Honda Pilot. The contact stated that while operating the vehicle, the Auto START/STOP fuel-saving feature malfunctioned and the vehicle would not immediately restart after lifting off the brake pedal. The contact indicated that the failure had occurred on multiple occasions. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who was unable to determine the cause of the failure and no service was performed. The manufacturer was not yet contacted. The failure mileage was 22,000.

I recently saw an article that NHTSA is investigating Honda vehicles 2016-2019 regarding the idle stop/restart of the car and want to corroborate that this issue does exist. My husband and I bought a 2016 Honda Pilot Elite in late July of 2019. We believe we are the second owners of the vehicle. All was fine except for occasionally, the idle stop/restart feature would not work: the car would cut off at a red light, but when taking my foot off the brake and expecting a restart, you would see and hear all of the electrical turn off--radio, a/c, etc. and sometimes the car would not restart. I would have to wait 30 seconds or so, then restart the car as normal. The most harrowing experience with this happened on a six-lane highway where I was the last in line at a red light. The light turned green, all cars...

Vehicle died when auto start/stop was activated at a stop sign. The vehicle had to be jumped to restart. My wife and 8 month old baby were in the vehicle alone in heavy traffic and nearly caused an accident.

On multiple occasions the car will stale and not restart when the auto engine off engages. It is left me stranding in the middle of traffic several times. The vehicle has been taken to Honda for service on many occasions and told there is nothing wrong.

For the last 6 months (or maybe a bit more) my 2016 Honda Pilot Touring does not successfully re-start after it's auto-idle-stop feature kicks in at stoplight or in stop/go highway traffic. This maybe happens 20% of the time, but more likely on a hot day or when AC/radio all running high or uphill start. When this happen car stalls and needs to be completely restarted which takes 30 secs and a requires a "reboot" by pressing the start button 2-3 times. To add to the annoyance you cannot permanently disable the auto-idle-stop feature. Instead every time the car restarts it is on by default and the user has to manually turn it over ever time. This is happening with the original 2016 battery from new dealer purchase. The dealership claims it's an old/weak battery issue, but the car has no problem starting on a fresh cold start. This is...

Was driving the car in a parking lot (thankfully) when the dashboard lights started randomly flickering and clicking like crazy. Then the battery completely drained. The car wouldn't start at all. When I tried to restart the engine the lights would go crazy, flashing every single emergency warning light on the dashboard and clicking sounds for a few seconds then dead again. Had to get a tow truck and finally was able to jump it and drive to the dealer. I've seen so many reports of this same issue occurring with this same model. The dealer told me that its due to a faulty keyless control module that only the dealer can replace for $800 plus labor. The bill is over a $1000 with tax included. The part is on national back order so they said my car will be in the shop for probably 3 months at least. And...

alarm going off intermittently, dash board glitching when car is off and parked.