Other electrical problem on the 2016 Honda Pilot
2 crashes 2 fires 4 of the 413 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Honda Pilot report other electrical problem at a median of 49,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 36,000 miles and a quarter after 64,000 miles, from 217 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 22,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 81,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,680 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
24% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21,720 miles | 36,000 miles | 49,000 miles | 64,000 miles | 81,400 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 2 a fire are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 2,500 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 132,500 miles.
By volume the 2016 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Tl* the contact owns a 2016 honda pilot. While driving at 55 MPH, the engine shut off and the entire instrument panel illuminated. The contact noticed smoke emitting from the front driver side. After lifting the hood, flames emitted from the passenger side near the engine. The contact was able to extinguish the fire. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 1,600.
I have 2016 honda pilot elite and I noticed that the navigation system gets lost especially when I start the vehicle a start moving. On most occasions it takes about 8 to 10 minutes for it to find itself. I had a 2011 honda pilot and from day one it never got lost. If there is anyway to get the old navigation system installed in the 2016 model please sign me up! Bottom-line, honda needs to come out with a fix as-soon-as-possible. The navigation option I paid for is in adequate. I will address this issue with honda service this week. Again, this is a daily occurrence!
I had a 2014 pilot. The navigation worked great. Now I own a 2016 pilot and most of the navigation system is locked out while driving. I now have to pull over in the city or interstate to make changes--both dangerous. As a result, I am now using my iphone for navigation which defeats the purpose of the car navigation system and is much more dangerous. The honda dealer indicated your agency has required these changes. I am happy to discuss at [xxx]. Thanks, [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
Also reported on the 2016 Honda Pilot
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other fuel system problem
Other body or interior problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 413 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2016 Honda Pilot?
Across 217 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 49,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 36,000 miles and a quarter after 64,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2016 Honda Pilot?
413 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 5.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed