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As for trying to prevent future Ody Issues a friend of mine has an A/T repair business and sends his re-builds out the door with a 5 year 50,000 mile warranty..
BUT to maintain that warranty, he requires you to bring the unit back once a year so he can change the fluid and the "Magnefine" external filter he adds to the return line from the cooler.
Oh, and BTW, he doesn't use Honda a/t fluid in his re-builds, hasn't for years.
I got the parts from TransmissionPartsUSA.com, except for the stuff that I broke, which I got from my local Honda dealer. Any decent transmission shop can rebuild or source a rebuilt converter. You can't do it home as they are welded shut during assembly. I didn't rebuild mine since it didn't fail, but if I did it again I would fork over the extra $200 to have it done.
I was very organized, took lots of pictures, labeled EVERYTHING, kept my work area as clean as I could, and took my time. I disassembled, rebuilt, disassembled, rebuilt, etc., until I was comfortable with how it all went together. It's just a 3 shaft 4 speed with differential. There is planetary gear set or clutch band witchery to fool with, just shafts, gears, clutches, servos and the like. Not bad at all.
If you decide to do this and you have questions, let me know and I'll answer them as best I can. The hardest part was splitting the cases. After I saw the guts of the thing it pretty well made sense. If you are comfortable doing other work on your car and you have a decent imagination you can do this work and save yourself thousands.
Our van now has 6,000 miles on the rebuild and I'll be changing it over to synthetic fluid soon, and adding a transmission cooler.
Also, it sounds like your second and third shift soleniods are plugging up. It's a little work on the outside of the transmission to pop a little cover, pull some tubes, and clean out the slime. The passage tubes have little screens in them that jam up with clutch material. Once partially plugged it takes a lot of pressure to trigger that shift, and SLAM! you think the bottom is going to fall out of the car.
Let me know if you want to give it a try.
It sounded like something was spraying out or venting somewhere on the left hand side (if you're facing the car). The smoke was kind of sweet smelling (not like oil or radiator fluid). The reservoir for the radiator was about a quart low (which I filled) and the oil was a bit low (which I also remedied). Afterwords, I ran the engine for about 30 minutes with the AC on high... can't seem to duplicate the problem. No leaks. No smoke.
I did notice the power steering fluid was a bit high, but otherwise the normal stuff seemed OK.
Has anyone had a similar problem or have any ideas?
I can't find any leaks after letting it idle for a solid 30 minutes and it hasn't happened again. It almost seemed like when you vent a pressure cooker or something, and I would think that if a hose popped off it would be pretty easy to duplicate the problem.
It's just kind of annoying since it happened on a weekend when all the shops are closed, and I don't want to put my wife and 4 kids in the car without knowing what the heck it is.
I plan on selling the '99 tomorrow for $2K. It still runs great, but has $3.2K of damage to the rear end. The insurance adjustor didn't consider $3.2K worth of damage a total loss for a Honda Odyssey minivan with 182K miles!
Thanks for your advice. I just hate to put out 80$ in fluid but I guess it's much cheaper than a new trans ,, And yes, you bet, I wanna pop a little cover, pull some tubes, and clean out the slime !!!! Do you have a DIY on this or something that may help me out... ?? Just askin'...
http://www.handa-accessories.com/odymaint01.html
$6 a quart. I have to go to work now, but search this site:
http://www.odysseyownersclub.com/
for info on your transmission. The B7TA and B7YA were used in Accords, Odysseys, Pilots, and Acura RL(TL?) from 1999-2002 in different variations, but share the same internals. Instructions on how to pop the soleniod cover and clean out the fluid tubes is on that site. If you can't find it, please let me know and I will find a resource for you to use.
Good luck! It's not that hard to do if you have a little patience.
It would be one more thing I could service to prolong the inevitable.
Switch to the transmission fluid Honda is now recommending DW-1 a full synthetic. I did it on my 2007 Honda Odyssey. I will not have transmission problems.
If you play nice your local Honda dealership will print that drawing for you so you can see all the detail yourself.
My wife just experienced the same exact problem/mystery yesterday(March 21). Do you have an answer to this problem? We are scheduling an appt with our Honda dealer. It's a mystery. Did you get the matter resolved@!
Thanks, jd
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
mileage: 39K
(I will let his post do the talking...it will give my dealer a good head start
to look at the my AC system/compressor)...
SCROLL DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST TO SEE ANSWER.
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The weirdest thing happened the other day on my '08 EXL.
Went to start the van and the battery was dead. Jumped it, drove about 4 miles, and while parked at a gas station with the engine running, there was an incredibly loud noise coming from the vicinity under the AC compressor and the engine started to smoke badly. The noise was a VERY loud buzzing/hissing/low groaning sound that I have never heard before. Like compressed air was being forced out of something.
Brought it home, jacked it up and removed the skid plate to take a look. There was a coating of light, clear oil on the large round crossmember in the vicinity under the AC compressor and also in that area on the skid plate. It was not engine oil and not red trans fluid.
And what I witnessed was truly bizarre. When the noise was happening (it only happened intermittently, at idle) I felt with my hand compressed air being forced out of the hole in the bottom of the big round crossmember that runs across the whole front of the van. And the compressed air was mixed with the light clear oil, like an oily mist. The oily mist hitting the hot exhaust pipe was making the smoke, so at least I figured out why it was smoking.
I know this does not make sense because there are no tubes/oil lines that run inside that crossmember, but this is what I witnessed. And I could not determine exactly where the noise and compressed air was coming from. Very strange.
During this process my battery died again and I had to jump it. Now here is another piece of the puzzle. Turns out the negative battery terminal was not tight, causing the battery to lose its charge. The van had recently come back from the dealership for the infamous tranny "judder" problem and they had replaced the torque converter, but forgot to tighten the battery terminal when they were done (and did not replace half the clips that hold the skid plate on! But that is a side issue...) So I tightened the battery bolt and low and behold after that...no more noise!
I was still concerned about this problem so the next day I brought the van back to the dealer to take a look. The service manager, shop foreman, and myself all looked at it while it was up on the lift. But now it was no longer making the noise. I explained to them exactly what I had witnessed with the compressed air/oily mixture coming out of the hole on the bottom of the crossmember, in the vicinity under the AC compressor. They could not explain it either, but they thought the oil was power steering fluid because the power steering lines were disconnected and flushed during the tranny remove and replace process, and the Honda power steering fluid is clear, not red.
So they did nothing to fix it (other than replace all the missing clips in the skid plate!) Again, the noise seemed to stop right after I tightened the battery bolt (which I also voiced my extreme disappointment at!)
So what really happened?
I am thinking what I saw was maybe a "pop off valve" of some kind on the AC compressor that was triggering to release excess pressure in the compressor. And I think the oily mist I saw was not power steering fluid, but the oil that is inside the AC compressor (I think it is called PAG oil). And the compressed air must have been entering the crossmember from somewhere above and coming out the hole in the bottom.
That's the only thing I can think of that would explain the oily mist being forcefully released. And I think the whole thing was related to the loose connection on the battery because it all stopped after I tightened it. I'm thinking there must be something in the electrical system, some sort of sensor that detected low voltage that caused this to happen.
I would like any AC experts (or anyone else) to weigh in on this and give me their thoughts. Have you seen anything like this? Is there a "pop off" valve on the AC compressor somewhere that would explain this? Am I correct in thinking that the loose connection on the battery could cause this?
Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.
************************************
ANSWER STARTS HERE:
It was a bad AC relay...which caused excess pressure to build up in the AC compressor...which caused the "blow off" valve on the compressor to trigger...which caused the loud noise and the oily mist I saw. It all makes sense now!
And yes indeed, there is a "blow off" valve on the AC compressor.
A few days after I got it back from the Honda dealer, it was a hot day and I noticed that my AC was no longer blowing cold. So back to the dealer I went. This time they properly diagnosed the problem...service manager said "they were having trouble with the AC relays" so they put in a new one and recharged the AC. Problem finally totally solved, but why they didn't think to check for that the first time I was there I'll never know! Especially when I described the symptoms in exact detail (loud noise of unknown origin, oily compressed air coming out).
What happened is because the relay was not cycling the compressor on and off like it should, it built up too much pressure and triggered the blow-off valve. This valve is located on the bottom of the compressor just above the large cross member. The oily compressed air that I witnessed was actually the freon coming out mixed with compressor oil which is clear. The blast of freon/oil coming from above the cross member was wrapping around the crossmember, giving the illusion that it was coming out the hole in the crossmember (this explains that mystery!)
Whether or not the loose battery connection contributed to this whole ordeal is unclear. It might have, or it may have been coincidental.
So if you have symptoms on your Ody like I describe, check your AC relay. I would suspect that all Ody's from 2005 on (mine is an '08) have that blow-off valve, maybe the older ones too.
Hope you find this post useful.
BeachbumNJ
Fast forward to two days ago when on a trip to the valley, my beloved minivan lost power, revved up to 5000 rpms before I got it to the side of the road. A $180 tow later, I paid $600 for a dealer to fix other "might be" problems before they could road-test it, and got the report that the transmission had, again, failed. This was exactly 88,000 miles after the first one had died.
A call to Honda Customer Care did nothing because I am at 174,000 miles. My choice is to pay nearly $5,000 for a new trannie, or find a new car.
I join the many of you who wonder where the Honda reputation has gone, and why we are paying the price of poor engineering and design. I fully expected that my Honda would outlast my friend's Chrysler Plymouth minivan (she has topped 250,000 miles with NO serious problems) and paid the premium price for that assurance.
No more Hondas for me. This is only my second but will be my last after this experience. There is a lot of competition these days.
I've heard that some folks are seeking a lawsuit against Honda for this issue. Anyone have information? I would certainly join the group!
I have had the exact same experience, only the Honda dealer offered me a 10% discount on that $5000 transmission service. Well you can imagine what i was thinking when I heard that. The forums tend to suggest there are tube that need to be cleaned out. If this works for you please post your results. Tis is what I am going to pursue next, I will let you know if it works.
Thanks,
PC
Acura - All, Ford Fusion v6 FWD, Honda CR-V, Honda Civic (no Hybrd), Honda Fit, Honda Pilot,
Hyundai Sonata 4, Lexus I5 250, Lexus I5, Lexus LX, Lexus RX, Madza 3 Sedan,
Subaru Forester (non turbo), Subaru Impresive (no turbo), Subaru Legacy (4 cyl),
Toyota 4-runner, Toyota Camry (4 cyl), Toyota Hylander. For the room I need I would need a SUV room similar to my 2002 Odyssey.
I got my daughter to purchase a Kia Rondo to replace her ill Ford Explorer. Rondos are still sold in Canada for 2011 unlike the USA.
We have had nothing but problems with this van. First the a/c had to be replaced completely and thankfully that was covered under the extended warranty that I purchased. Next, the battery keeps draining. I have had 4 in batteries as many years. Some of the dashboard lights never worked. No one can explain why or fix it.
I bought this van since we have been a very loyal Honda family. This is our 3rd Honda. I have filed a complaint with the Honda executive offices and am waiting to hear back from them. I expect more from Honda and hope to continue being a customer but that all depends on how they handle this situation. If they stand behind their product, do the right thing and help fix this car, then we will remain a honda family. If not, this will be the last Honda we ever own.
The Honda Odyssey was purchased from a local Honda dealer (Marty Sussman Honda) and maintained 100% by this dealer. On Monday April 4, 2011, the dealer diagnosed the problem as "complete transmission failure”. Based on internet research and automobile forums, apparently transmission failures are quite common for these models. The dealer quoted us a price of five thousand dollars ($5,000.) to repair our van which has 99,720 miles logged.
Honda corp. is not standing by their product. We’re not sure what to do or where to turn next, but I’m not giving them another dime. This is bad news from a manufacturer that boasts about quality & reliability in their marketing. I guess those days are gone. Bad news
- also filed complaints with BBB, NHTSA.gov, and FTC.gov
This posture from Honda does not do any good for consumer loyalty. I will never buy Honda again and I will never recommend the brand to anyone. Feels like I was cheated by the dealer and by Honda who knew of this problem and never told me anything about it. Honda waited until the problem occurred and offered me $2,000 for my car as a trade-in.
I also own a 2001 BMW that had a transmission problem and BMW replaced the whole thing at no cost to me.
do you know if there is any kind of 'number' associated w/ this new update ? I have a 2007 Odyssey that I purchased on 3/21. took it into Honda dealer on 4/02 for this juddering problem - they applied a PCM update. Update didn't do a thing !! Is this different from yours ? My van is doing the same juddering at highway speeds & is very annoying. the gas mileage is not what it was on my 2003 Odyssey.
would love to go back to Honda & try this 'new' Judder software' update !
I do feel like at low speed (low torque) the engine growls/vibrates more and is simply not smooth. They claim it is normal but I drove a 2007 model and it did not do this
What do you mean by you have a aftermarket cooler and you do not tow/row? Thanks.
FYI...My Odyssey was apart of that transmission recall in 04.
FYI2...Honda dealer just serviced my transmission a week before it went out on the freeway.
The 2007+ Honda Odysseys got the newer 5 speed transmission that went into the Acura MDX 2003+, Acura TL 2004+, Pilot 2006+.
The old 4 speed and old 5 speed had the engineering flaws.
The newer 5 speed is showing excellent reliability.
However, Honda programmed the torque converter incorrectly for better gas mileage for the 2007 which was causing premature wear of the torque converter. If you got recalled/reprogrammed early on you may not experience torque converter failure. If you do require torque converter replacement, once it is done, you should experience long term reliability on this new 5 speed transmission and not the multiple replacements you have seen for the others. This is being proven with the Acuras/Hondas that have the newer 5 speed transmission.
The TL got the new 5 speed in 2007+ not 2004+.
I have a 2001 ODY with 70000 miles and having issues. Waiting for Honda to make decision. In your case, who did you "serve" at Honda for your small claim, the local dealer, etc??
Thanks,
http://www.odysseytransmission.com/
I think everyone would like to here this....
Thanks,