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Honda Odyssey Grille Insert
this is a big topic of discussion on the "other" Ody board. There have been a few people that have had the same problem with th condensor getting popped. Frankly, if you look at the design, the delicate AC peieces are very exposed to rocks or debris getting kicked up. IMO, Honda should have made some provision for protection.
A number of posters did a home made solution using gutter guard or other screening. There is also a company the makes a custom billet aluminum grill ti fill in the lower opening. Looks pretty sharp. I think the company is called "rm. grille", or something close to that.
of course, there is no definitive answer about blocking airflow, but I guess if the temp doesn't rise, and the AC stays cold, shouldn't be a problem. besides, you can sit parked with the AC on without a problem, and there sure ain't no airflow then!
A number of posters did a home made solution using gutter guard or other screening. There is also a company the makes a custom billet aluminum grill ti fill in the lower opening. Looks pretty sharp. I think the company is called "rm. grille", or something close to that.
of course, there is no definitive answer about blocking airflow, but I guess if the temp doesn't rise, and the AC stays cold, shouldn't be a problem. besides, you can sit parked with the AC on without a problem, and there sure ain't no airflow then!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
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I cut a strip about 40" in length (32" opening plus 2-4" on each side). You feed this through the opening in the lower grille. Then, I took some small black cable ties, bent them till they held about a 60 degree bend, then reached in behing the mesh and fed the cable ties through the mesh, wrapping them around the black plastic uprigths of the grille. You'll need someone with small hands to do this! Idea: hire some teen car nut in your neighborhood to do the work if you can't.
The total cost was about $4 for the mesh and a few cable ties. It will take you about an hour. I spent at least an extra half hour on figuring out if there were other, easier ways of reaching behind the front grille (answer: not without taking apart many black plastic fasteners).
I had considered the Mr. Grille lower grille (about $85 with shipping at eBay Motors, or a little higher at mrgrille.com). I decided I did not want such a big piece out on the front side of the grille, even if I spray painted black the brushed aluminum bars.
Bottom line: getting piece of mind can be cheap and quick.
Congrats!
I did the same for all 5 of my family vehicles - have been doing so for the past 25 years of car ownership. All insects and stones are blocked - never had a problem.
It saves you money as well.
Some say you are passionate about your vehicles...but another word could be obsessed.
Our 5 family vehicles(Maxima, CTS-V, Ody, Lincoln, Accord) are all so equipped to deal better with whatever mother nature(including flying stones) throws at them.
I call it not leaving home without "protection', NOT the latex rubber kind that comes first to your mind!
Had a DC owner come up to me at the gas station the other day and asking a million questions about my ody. I'm not that enthusiastic about a minivan, but he sure seemed to be chomping to get into a new Ody. I've got relatives with DC vans and they seem to be pretty good. I don't want one, at least not in the current well worn design.
We had our '05 Ody Touring for about 4-5 weeks when our condensor caught a stone. Our dealer, Desert Honda in Las Vegas, not only repaired it, but provided a rental (free of charge) for the two days it took to get one and istall it.
I was never told this was not a warranty issue until I picked it up and the service writer told me the dealer picked up the repair cost in the spirit of good customer relations.
We just got back from a six thousand + mile adventure, and thanks to jjtrindc, I had ordered a Mr. Grille product before we left. They sent the product to a friend's house in Wisconsin which was our first stop.
We had a little trouble getting the ends secured (I don't think the radius was sufficient) but after lots of grunts finally got it tied down.
My thought is that for $90, I get lifetime insurance against an $800 repair bill.
Once again, thanks to jjrindc for pointing me in the direction of Mr. Grille. :shades:
http://mrgrille.com/MrGrille-Honda-Oddyssey-Page.html
I was wondering if someone could tell me what the heck is with the condenser/rock chip issue & why people are buying the extra grilles? Is this a problem only for people who travel on dirt/gravel roads? Or is it a common problem for people who drive in the city on paved roads?
Also, what is the best cargo liner for the rear (3rd row down) area? Is the Honda one best? What about Weathertech???
TIA!!!!
I had my 05 Touring for about a month when I noticed I wasn't getting any cool air.
I took it into the dealer, Desert Honda, Las Vegas and they provided me with a free loaner.
They called two days later and told me the car was ready. When I went in to pick it up, the service writer told me that a rock had cracked the a/c condenser. He said that it was an $800 repair that was not covered under warranty, but in the interest of customer relations, the dealership was picking up the tab.
I then read about protective lower grilles, but could not find any for the '05.
I then read a message on this board regarding Mr. Grille.
Before leaving on a long trip, I ordered one and with the help of a friend got it installed.
For less than $100, I am now assured that I won't get "hit" with an $800 condenser replacement.
By the way, I have no idea where or when the condenser got hit, although I don't remember using any dirt/gravel roads.
Someone on another forum suggested I try heavy duty mesh behind the existing grill and air vent, so I think I'll try that to start. If I can see it, though, I'll definitely go with the Mr. Grill look. Thanks for your perspective.
When I first read about this A/C "problem", I made an effort of getting down and looking under the front of a new Odyssey to see what the exposure of this A/C part is. Yes, I can see how a flying rock or debris could break that metal line. I think it would take a VERY hard hit at just the right angle though.
But, after looking at a lot of other Hondas and non-hondas, they too have the potential fot this to happen.
Anything ***can*** happen to any car. I just think this would be such an oddball, remote thing it wouldn't be worth even thinking about.
UNLESS...you happen to live in an area with lots of rocks on the road or you drive on gravel roads. If you like to tailgate at high speeds, you would also greatly increase the chances of this happening.
In another forum someone mentioned a company called, I think called Mr. Grill who sells aftermarket screens. If someone is concerned that may be the thing to do or else, jury rig something yourself as others have done.
I do think if Honda Corporate is reading this they might want to have someone think about re-routing the lines maybe.
On the other thread, there are at least 6 people who ahave posted (in addition to the edmunds-only ones) with the same problem, one of whom is actually a Honda service writer!
Mr grille is a hot item. I believe it is about $85. It actually looks pretty sharp, and makes a noticeable difference to the front end (it's billet aluminum).
Others have done a budget fix using various gutter guard materials and zip ties for about $3 that also looks fine, certainly better than the gaping opening that comes standard. The hardest part is taking off the upper grill so you can get behind the lower one.
To me, if we know about 10 instances (from the forums) there have to be more. ANd it is a big deal since dealers claim it isn't warranty, and $650 - $850 to fix the AC on a nearly new van is a nasty big chunk of change.
Not a good design. If Honda had just but a tighter grid or some sort of honeycomb down there, we wouldn't be having this discussion!
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Isn't it covered by comprehensive on your insurance? Just like a windshield.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Granted, these forums are a magnet for people with problems. Someone will talk about some freak thing that happened and pretty soon, two more people will chime in...:"Me Too".
This forum is supposed to be a magnet for people with problems...it's titled problems and solutions. Get over it. If you want to tout the all the good things about your beloved source of income, you are in the wrong forum trying to discount others' real world problems. You may want to spend a little more time over in the 'Dealer Tricks' forum. Your input would be a much more helpful there. p.s. I miss you over at the CRV forum. Steve
I can assure this is not the case here. I live in Atlanta - decent roads and I absolutely do NOT tailgate - 71/2 months pg here and VERY careful with my driving. My previous car was 15 years old and you don't get to keep a car for that long being a reckless driver
I'll stick with the rules of the forum and I'll withhold the response I would love to leave in response to your nasty comments.
I said I didn't understand this and I don't.
Other cars I've made a point to look at seem to be just as apt to sustain the same damage.
I still think this would be a very freak occurance but I could be wrong...can you remember what I said..." I don't understand" ?
I still think this was a VERY isolated situation but if there is a "fix" to reduce this from happening I'm sure Honda will make the change.
I hope they read these forums.
This will be interesting to watch. On one hand , if they make a change on the 06's to the front and protect it better , are they then going to remedy all the 05 owners who are prone to stone damage or will they still charge them the 600 to 800 to repair the damage when it occurs? I saw this forum peppered with stories about the AC condensor getting damaged from stones and I looked at the front and by gosh, it's pretty un-protected when compared to the same area of a Sienna, which has a color coded grill covering the area of the ac condensor. There has already been enough mention of it here to know there is a problem, how about all the Ody owners that DON'T visit this forum and might have had the problem. Good luck Ody owners, I would hold Honda's feet to the fire on this one.
Now that you emphasize the part about you not understanding, it all rings true. With respect to 'nasty,' comments, you better review your treatment (via words) of those that have problems with their Hondas before you start throwing any stones. Steve
thanks
I can't agree with you more. Isell is consistently doubting or questioning other owners when they have a problem. This site is for when Isellhondas becomes Iownhondas then maybe we can listen to him. I dealt with salesmen at the dealership I don't want to deal with them on the computer.
Finally, the post you are responding to is over a month old.
YMMV I guess.
Simply posting a message to say 'I don't see a problem' feels 100% dismissive. It certainly does not provide any value. So what if you haven't encountered the problem? Wouldn't it be ridiculous if every person who DIDN'T experience a problem posted a message to say so - so why are you doing it?
For example - you are sure to say that you don't see any misaligned upper glove boxes. We don't care if you haven't seen one (either because the box is aligned in the Ody's you have been in - or more likely because you have blinders on). It is a real problem in my Ody and in the two loaners that I have driven so don't dismiss it.
Please think about what I have said because you could be a very useful resource to the members of this forum due to your exposure to the product. As it is your posts are a waste of space that I mostly ignore as automatically as I do banner ads at the top of a web page.
I'll agree, I do tend to get a bit defensive. I just hate seeing problems get over amplified in these forums. What is a "problem" to a very few is nothing to others.
Using the glovebox example...I see, literally, dozens of Odysseys on a weekly basis. Until I read about this glovebox issue in these forums, I had never noticed a problem or heard of it from anyone.
So, I started paying attention and looking at every glovebox on every Odyssey.
I honestly couldn't see any with a problem. FINALLY, I sat on one that was slightly misaligned. I woudn't have even noticed it unless I was trying to find a problem. If it were my new Odyssey I wouldn't have had it fixed.
You, on the other hand have seen this on three out of three Odysseys.
I believe you, please try to believe me.
I'm not trying to be "dismissive" I just try to tell the others that the sky really isn't falling.
My hope is that people from Honda Corporate read these forums. I suspect they do. Maybe they will go into the factories and say..."We hear there is a glove box alignment problem on some of the Odysseys...let's get it fixed!"
I'm sorry you consider my posts a "waste of space".
Has anyone had luck convincing Honda USA to foot the bill for a repair on what I can only view as a major design issue (I've never known of a similar failure that wasn't accident related, before my first Honda) ? Certainly if this vehicle isn't flawless going forward, it will be my first and last Honda......
This was more work than I expected, but I now have a pretty good looking grill and really only got it for protection of the delicate equipment behind the front bumper. If you hit anything that can go through this grill, you will be visiting a body shop.
This grille was a "must have" before our major summer trip.
Is it wise to do this? I couldn't say, because the vehicle has additional cooling capacity built in.
http://mrgrille.com/MrGrille-Honda-Oddyssey-Page.html
This will protect your A/C condenser. BTW they sell these on Ebay...
Our AC has been "punctured" twice in 6 weeks. Sounds like "honda will never admit a design flaw" b.s. to me.
First time cost us 997.00. Second time I finally got them to charge for literal parts at cost only...$370.
I am still fed up with it. 30-40K cars should not get "rock damage" other than dents and paint chips.
FYI....I'm finding out this is common to other manufacturers. DCX has issue TBS for adding a protective shield to any minivan brought in for service. The service manager told me the condenser makers are using much thinner metal!! So they save money buying condensers but have to tool up and giveaway the shields!!!!
I purchased a 2006 Odyssey EX-L in September. I read other reports like yours about rocks in the AC, but it seems that the costs were higher. Someone had to replace the entire AC. Because of this I purchased a grill for below the bumper. Cost about $80. I think that it looks pretty good and if a rock goes through this grill, I have bigger things to worry about than repairing the AC.
It was McGrill and I purchased it from e-bay. A pretty nice unit, but the installation is tricky. I certainly feel much happier when driving down the Freeway at speed.
The decision to get this grill did not come just from reading the accounts of damage. When I first saw these vehicles I commented how exposed the AC was at the front of the vehicle, especially as low as it is.
I recently did my Dodge Ram with this as well because a bird met its maker and left a heckuva smelly mess down in my engine compartment. No more of that. My Tundra is next on the list.