Honda Odyssey 1999 - 2004

mike734

I just spoke to Geico. They told me their warr has a 250 deductible and costs $51/yr. You have to buy it before 11 mo. or 11,000 miles. If you wait 11 mo to buy it, 6 years at $51 plus $250 makes your cost for one repair in 7 years, $556.00. I fully expect to use the warr more than once as the car ages. It the deduct was lower I might go for the Geico warr. The HCW might be more expensive but I like the 0 deduct.

drew_

Be careful when switching to these. The stock wiring harness may not be designed to handle the additional load. Not only this, but the extra heat that the higher wattage bulbs generate could potentially melt your bulb sockets/lenses/reflectors.

If you do switch, go with a reputable company such as PIAA (made in Japan), Sylvania, or Phillips.


Drew
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Vans and Aftermarket & Accessories message boards

mschafer

Hella (Germany) also makes excellent bulbs.

timothyadavis

but I bet they make a Hella of bulb, eh? ;-)

pat84

I put Hella 80/100 Watt bulbs in a Dodge Caravan I traded in on the ODY. They were better than the stock bulbs which were absolutely inadequate. The Hella's burned out rather quickly though. They did say they were not for on road use.
I get high beam flashes on my low beams in the ODY. The ODY lights are really more than adequate for me.

azm

I test drove an odyssey yesterday and have questions concerning using car seats on the 2nd row.

1. According to my Evenflo car seat instructions, if the seat belt buckles are made into the upholstery instead of crease of the seat, then the tether strap must be used. How do you use a tether strap with the lower anchors on the 2nd row seats?

2. Can the tether straps only be used on the 3rd row?

3. Has anyone had trouble securely installing car seats on the 2nd row?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The salesman was no help at all.

zdriver1

I read that you should always use the tether if possible, since it provides more stability from lurching forward. On my Y2K Odyssey, the anchor (for the tether) is underneath the seat. I don't know about the third row, but I imagine there is an anchor (have to check the manual).

bikerguy

The 2001 Ody should have the new LATCH system for securing car seats, but the car seat must also be compatible with the LATCH system.

For "regular" car seats, the Ody installation is a breeze. Seat bottom is nice an flat, not overly contoured like in some cars.

Most rear facing car seats (infants) don't use a tether, though our Britax does and we loved it. For forward facing, route the tether under the headest and to the special anchor on the underside of the seat.

A special trick is to install the car seat with the van seat somewhat reclined. Get the car seat in as snuggly as you can, by placing your knee into the seat as you snug up the seatbelt. Then return the van seat to a more upright position, which really cinches down on the seat belt. You are in, rock solid.

There is also an archived topin on Ody and car seats - a couple of hundred posts there.

Paul

caviller

To reiterate previous comments and add a few-

In row 2, 2001 Odysseys will have 2 lower anchors between the seat cushion and seat back, but ONLY in the 2nd ROW. Earlier Odysseys do not have lower anchors. These lower anchors MUST be used with a LATCH compatible child seat, and eliminate the use of seatbelts entirely. The Cosco Triad and Fisher Price Safe Embrace II are the two major compatible seats, with more on the way. For the second row, the upper tether anchor is under each seat, so the tether wraps around the back of the seat to reach it. This tether location is the one to be used with the standard top-tethers on ALL carseats. This is a great setup, and means that with a LATCH seat, the tethers and seatbelts will not be in the way of rear seat access. For the third row, there are no lower LATCH anchors. The are 3 top tether anchors on the sill of the liftgate, two of which have plastic covers. This applies for my 2001 LX, but may vary for earlier years/models. The manual shows the locations of all the tether points fairly well.

A good carseat installation will have a lot of force on the seat. You may want to use some type of seat cover to protect your fabric from gouges and tears (I bought this one at a local baby store http://www.princelionheart.com/travel3.html ). You should also have your installation checked by a professional if possible. Properly installed, a seat should have almost no wiggle at all; pushing on the seat should wiggle the whole vehicle. Some seats can not be properly installed in some vehicles and there's not much you can do. Our Britax Roundabout has been rock solid in our Odyssey and all our cars. We also have a Century Smart-Fit infant carrier (with base) that does have slight movement when installed. Both these seats are in the 2nd row. We are about to replace it with a FP Safe Embrace II or another Britax Roundabout. Supposedly Britax is releasing a LATCH compatible Roundabout in the "Early Spring"...

I have some good child safety and child seat links at http://www.caviller.com

These include a list of compatible seats and where to find a local inspector for your seat. Good luck.

timothyadavis

So, for those frustrated by trying to reach the link above, try http://www.princelionheart.com/travel3.html (it will work a whole lot better -- which means "at all").

Oh, I forgot to mention that our SEATSAVER has performed as advertised for over two years now, successfully preventing any damage to the rear seat in our 1995 Civic, our current 1999 Ford F-150, and several vehicles we test drove in between. Now, I have to remember to buy another one for the impending little girl....

azm

Thanks for all your information. I'm going to put my deposit down on an EX today!!!

kprn94

I am the one who bought the Ody. in Pa for the sticker price, not $2000 under MSRP. It has been a savings. The dealer I was going to deal with in NY, was adding $2000 to the sticker price. I bought my Ody, at Dean Honda 15 minutes from Pittsburgh Pa. They have been wonderful. They are about 550 miles from NYC. Their number is 412-466-8120. Ask for Tom in sales. I also got the extend Honda Care warrenty 7years or 100,000 miles with $0 deductable. They are great there, considering the NY dealer was full of bull when he said he adds $2000 to the sticker and gives accessories at cost. The cargo tray he said at cost was going to cost me$149 and the Honda dearler in Pa, would sell it to me for $96 and that was not cost! So the dealer in NY was a flat out liar. Good luck. I have family in Pittsburgh, so they are going to drive the car to me in NY. I thought an 7-8 hour trip was worth $2000. Goodluck! KPRN94

exindenver

Just saw this at the acuramdx.org site for a decoder which will allow DVD, video, TV, etc to play on the Honda Navi screen. Check it out.

http://www.acura-tl.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000288.html

I'm not associated with this guy in anyway and you'll need to ask him your questions. kinda make me wish I'd gotten the Navi now in my Odyssey.

jhaverlack

Howdy all!

After a ton of online research, we are about to join the ranks of you Odyssey (EX) owners and I want to pose one question to the group.

My wife and I are a just a little concerned about the safety of the auto sliding doors. We have a two year old daughter and have any of you tested the safety of them? Should we be at all concerned. I just hate to think about her little arm being in the way of the door as it closes. Does it sense obstruction via resistance or beam of light?

Thanks

Jeff

ut_ski_bum

Jeff,
I have a two-year old also. I tested the power door on my arm at the dealer before delivery. It uses resistance. Although it sneezed my arm a bit, it wasn't bad. Obviously Honda tested this out extensively before production. I feel comfortable with my toddler. Just try it yourself at a dealer before you take delivery.

cnybro

OK, can you stand more more post of this topic? :>)

I have two car seats in the middle row. I folded up some old towels to go under the seat base, and then bought some color coordinating towels to match the seats in the van. These towels run the full length of the seat to protect the seat back and cushion and then an additional towel that goes across the seat cushions (the 2nd row seats are placed together to form a bench) so the food from the kids doesn't fall in between the seats. Works well.

Also, when using the seats belts to secure the car seat, make sure you retract them FULLY so that it "clicks" when you let the slack back in. The seats belts are locked and will not go back out. Ideally, you can have someone who weighs a lot (>200 lbs like me!) to put their knee in the seat to push it down. Be sure to have the seat reclined a little bit before you do this and then bring it back up when you're done for a snug fit. This is why I use all the towels to protect the seats from indentations since this is a lot of pressure on the fabric. It's so tight I can't even pull the booster seat forward even though I don't have tethers.

jhaverlack

OT: "Although it sneezed my arm a bit" )

Eeew, maybe I will look at the Sienna.

Gotta love spell check.

I was quite amazed to see that the 7/100k warranty was so well priced in that you can get it for around $1000. Somehow I expected it to be much much more.

J

pisaacs

I'm buying a new Odyssey. The salesman, who seems real knowledgeable about the car says that with the id chip in the key the car is impossible to hot-wire and theft of new Odysseys are down 1/3. When we asked him in that case whether we needed lojack to protect the car (since we live in a large urban area)he said he didn't think it was necessary unless we were very worried about that sort of thing.

I'd very much appreciate hearing comments about this.

billg7

As I understand it the only way to get a key is to go to a Honda dealer. Since a number of car companies including Ford do the same thing it would be interesting to find an article on it.

If someone had a tow truck then a Lojack could come in handy, but I don't know what the probability of its being stolen that way is. It would be interesting to get some statistics on stolen car rates.

As for me I am not going to worry about it, however if you have your car stolen, don't expect the insurance car company to give you enough to buy another just like it. Most of them give you quite a bit less as I was just reading in the newspaper.

isido

I like to install air deflector in my Ody.
Will this cause unnecessary air drag on the van?
Anyone can help me on this?

isido

You should not worry about Ody reliability.
It is definitely "THE VAN".

balderson

Has anyone found a dealership in the Ft.Lauderdale/Miami area that gave you a good deal on the EX? How about dealer prep charges and
add-ons? Did they add any items at no charge i.., rear cargo tray, fabric/paint protection,etc? Thanks for the info.

billg7

I wanted a rear air defector on my Odyssey also. I notice that more and more foreign as well as American vans and SUV are coming with them. It is a much better way to keep the rear window clean then that silly windshield wiper.

What happens with vans,station wagons and SUV is because they are squared off in the back a vacuum is created by the air flow in the back and the vacuum causes a flow of air to turn back and hit the rear window, therefore getting it dirty with dust and mud. the rear air defector prevents this from happening.

I had one on my station wagon and it did the job with no need for a rear wiper at all. I saw an article 25 years ago which said they caused a decrease in gas milage of about 0.2gallon/mile. But it looks like they are designing them much better now with less resistance. They are smaller and closer to the roof so I would expect even less of a penalty in gas mileage.

billg7

An after market rear air deflector would be great, but I don't know how you would install it.

If you mean the front air deflecter that comes as an option. I passed on that. Not many cars have it. Maybe some small fration of a percent. I am not sure how benefical that is or exactly what it is suppose to do. Keep the front window clean I would guess. Do American cars have this option?

dylanrn

Does anyone have a sunroof on their Ody? Any info. re: prices paid, problems, would be appreciated. Thank you.

azm

When driving a 2001 EX at about 5 mph (forward & reverse) with a full gas tank, is it "normal" to hear the gas splashing in the gas tank? I test drove an EX with 10 miles on it yesterday and noticed this. Of course, the salesman this was normal but I want to be sure.

mojo66

Doesn't surprise me that someone figured out how to use the screen for video stuff but I think if I had the NAVI I'd pass on it. If I had video on the dash I'd probably end up having an accident! Also, location-wise, it doesn't seem real practical for the kids, and they are the ones who would most likely be using it. I'd rather have the video system behind the front seats, but the decoder is still pretty cool, isn't it?

mesabg2001ex

To balderson: we shopped for about one month around the area before we bought our 2001EX from John Perrone of Coral Springs Honda. No matter where we went, the dealers would not take below sticker, but Mr. Perrone offered us the Edmunds Private Party FMV (smack between auction and lot price) for our trade-in. Together with the sales tax advantage of nearly $500, we think we got the best deal going on a Honda Ody in South Florida. He gave us a great deal on a leather interior, which came out gorgeous, and we got pin-striping thrown in although we didn't ask for it. He was not pushy at all and this dealership puts the emphasis on customer service. Go see 'em and tell 'em Robin & Sasha sent you!

mesabg2001ex

You asked about accessories and add-ons. We thought they were excessively priced, even at cost. We will probably cut some clear, heavyweight vinyl and keep it in the car to serve the same purpose as the cargo tray, etc. In Florida, the deflector or the nose cover may be useful due to the autumn Love Bugs and their corrosive properties (you can get one cheaper, sans the Honda brand name). However, Florida drivers would still have to thoroughly scrub down their rides after coming in contact with orgies of Love Bugs within 36 hours or corrosion will result. In any case, our dealer was willing to give us any after-factory option or accessory we wanted at dealer cost, and would take off the dealer fee if we would take a car off of the lot . . but we wanted something particular, so we paid the extra $388 and waited a few days. We didn't order or really want anything more than the leather interior. Hope this has been helpful . . .

exindenver

Yes it is normal to hear the gas tank splash when it is full or near full. Has to do with the relatively flat and wide resin gas tank mounted up close to the floor. It is a feature now to use the sloshing sound to tell if the tank is full since the gas gauge is so inaccurate }