I bought a 2003 Odyssey in October of 2002. The van has 6000 miles on it and so far I have not had any transmission problems. I bought the extended warranty just in case we did have any problems. I also installed a transmission cooler in an effort to increase longevity of transmission. So far, I have been very pleased with the van. It certainly has plenty of power and is a pleasure to drive. This is my first Honda product and I am hoping there will be no major issues with the transmission. Time will tell. I think the new Toyota and Nissan vans are certainly worth looking at and now compare directly with the Odyssey.
The resale value of the vehicle is one reason we are in arbitration. The dealer is offering us much, much less than NADA based on the 'unique history' of the vehicle. The 'reward for my troubles' would be getting a vehicle that won't kill my family.
I am now the proud owner of a dead 1999 Honda Odyssey transmission. It being my wife's car, she has been going for "Engine Service" problems since 75,000 mi, not realising the trany was slipping. Today at the 100 K Check, Honda said The trany must be replaced."Sorry, its 100,500 mi, and there is nothing we can do." Hey , if it's a known problem, why couldn't the have serviced it before it died?. I've never done this before , so I could use all the help I can get. Repair? Rebuild? Complain? Bug Honda? Go to AAMCO? Thanks all for listening... cjm
Keep after Honda to repair the tranny. We didn't have to fight or argue; had 97000 miles (approx) when tranny failed. Repair was covered. (replaced with rebuit tranny). Out of pocket was about $500 (included a motor mount repair). We did not have the extended warranty. This also has to do with the dealer you're using. Honda is covering the repair for the most part; just keep after them.
Well, I have been around this forum since the beginning. I bought my Odyssey in Oct./98 and was hoping I would be spared the dreaded tranny failure. I have about 50k and last week the check engine light went on. The tranny is being replaced as we speak. I am very fortunate that I had 4 months left on the warranty.
Done with that vehicle I can understand, but are you done with Honda too? Or do you appreciate the way they replaced your transmission (assuming you have not had to fight them to get them to do it)?
Fezo, mine being the original faulty tranny design it's hard to say if yours will be okay. But if I were you I'd be buying the extended warranty.
Grandtotal, I'm not really mad at Honda per se. But I didn't have to fight with them at all as it is still under warranty. They told me it needed to be replaced at they even had one in stock so I'll have it back the same day. Had this been November though, I think I would have been up the creek.
The problem I have with keeping the van is that I don't really have much confidence in a rebuilt tranny. Many here have had their replacements fail as well. I'm looking at the new Nissan Quest but if I don't like that buying a new Odyssey isn't out of the question I guess (with an extended warranty). It's been a great van up until now.
Honda dealer replaced this valve and said that was why i was having trouble with the transmission slipping and stalling . has anyone else had this replaced and did it do the job or should i push to have Honda replace the transmission. our car is 2002 with 17,000 miles on it., which also seems like a lot of miles is that mileage counter ever not accurate?
the transmission isn't technically a "rebuilt" tranny. The way it was explained to me is that the transmission housing is remanufactured with new parts inside.
I thought the '02 and '03 have been fixed and not affected. That's why the extended 100K miles warranty on the transmission only covered up to '01. I am really scared because currently I am looking into purchasing the '03 Ody...Can some one with '00 or '01 Ody clarify the letter that you received from Honda Motor company regarding the extended warranty. Thanks.
You basically said it. 00's and '01's only are covered by supplemental extended warranty. Honda identified suspect batches of prematurely failing parts for those two years, even though failure incidence is relatively low, they applied additional warranty to all Odys from affected years. Transmission has been redesigned for 02, and does not exhibit same failure mode as previous years. That's not to say that tranny couldn't have a different failure in an '03. If you're that scared about it, get the Hondacare extended warranty.
Can you confirm that the '02 transmision failure is not same as those in '01 and '00? So did they use totally new transmission for newer models or they just fix the old one? If it is new transmission design then I understand, but if the transmission was modified (and that's what I thought, they just replaced few parts) then this must be part of the old problem that Honda failed to fix in the first place. Does Honda offer to extend transmission warranty on '02 and '03 too if they "know" in advance that there is potential failure on the transmisison due to design/manufacturing (not normal wear and tear) regardless how small posibility? Extended warranty is an option but it does not make it right when knowing that your vehicle has "known" potential failure. Extended warranty should only be used against "unknown" problems, just like insurance. IMHO.
I'm in the market for a minivan. The Odyssey and Sienna are the two vans I am looking at. I didn't realize that the Odyssey had transmission problems (like the Dodge's/Chrysler's).
What has been people's experience w/the Sienna's? Any known transmission problems with those? I'm considering the 2004 model.
It's a redesigned transmission. A new 5-speed vs. 4 speed - a different animal. Honda does statistical analysis on type of failures they encounter under warranty service. If the type and frequency of failures indicate a design or manufacturing flaw on their part, Honda (corporate) has a reputation to uphold so it appears that they stand behind their products with the added warranties.( Except for the '99s as Steve pointed out.) Transmissions in 02 and '03's may be too new to have established a sufficient statistical track record to definitively state that there's some sort of common failure mode. Many times if they see a developing failure trend, there may be "secret warranties" or corporate goodwill where Honda will cover an out of warranty repair for the customer who makes a stink. (Maybe Auburn can enlighten us on them.) I tend to think that folks posting here about failures in their new 5 speeds are probably just unlucky and are experiencing infant mortality - there's always a bad apple or two in the basket. Get the Ody with the extended warranty - there's too many other more important things to worry about than a potential transmission failure.
Since you are also looking at the Sienna, and someone pointed this out to me, the Sienna is also running on a new tranny never used before by Toyota. So in that case you would have a 1st year car and a 1st year tranny, way too new to have any track record. I know this doesn't help you calm your worries about tranny issue, but it is something to think about.
If anything, you know with Ody and Sienna you are getting a good reliable minivan, with a company that promotes quality and customer service.
The wheels are pointing perfectly straight, but the steering wheel spokes are not perfectly horizontal? There is some slop in the steering, but not 30 degrees of tolerance. Sounds like they didn't precisely center the steering wheel when they reassembled stuff. I've made mistakes like that as a do-it-yourselfer, but it's a bit more aggravating when you're paying someone else $65/hour to do it right.
When my Quest was new, I noticed my steering wheel was off a few degrees after a couple of weeks of driving. The van didn't pull at all, so I figured the steering wheel was "off" at the column somehow. But when I described the symptoms to the service rep. he immeditately said alignment. And that fixed it. How else would you center the wheel as Wpalkowski suggests needs to be done?
What my mechanic actually did I don't know. But why would they remove the steering wheel to fix a tranny? More likely something got knocked out of whack putting it up on the lift and wrestling the tranny in and out. My guess anyway, but I'm no wrench turner.
It took them 2 transmissions before the 3rd one worked when they replaced my 99 ODY tranny. At least they got the steering wheel correct. It was lucky I kept the code for my radio. I had to punch in the code to get my poor sounding ODY stereo working after the whole episode. Buy an Odyssey, get to know your local car rental agent.
Take it back and have them straighten out the wheel. No big deal. When they did the alignment they did have the wheel set straight. Had it happen to my 94 Accord. Guys said bring it back tomorrow and they will fix it. brought it back, fixed it before lunch. No charge.
I was thinking back to old Plymouth sedan I worked on. Had to pull steering rack, and managed to be a couple of spline teeth off when reassembling. Took four complete turns of the wheel to go all the way to the right, but on three and half turns to go fully left. Car still drove straight, but steering wheel was off.
I had a technician drive me back to work. He said that he has seen a few replacement trannys need replacing again but not too many. He also said that because Honda doesn't let them open up they tranny that many supposed transmission failures are really only the torque converter or solenoid that needs fixing.
So not only are the transmissions a problem but the solenoids and torque converters are screwy?
Seems to me it would be more expensive and time consuming to replace a transmission than to repair the part that is broken. Guess that's one way to operate, of course that leads to higher prices for the Honda products.
Of course using a transmission designed for a car might be part of the problem as well. You are dealing with more weight and strain while driving.
No, it's cheaper to replace the assembly than to remove and repair it. By the time you figure in the cost of removal, disassembly, replacement of the defective part, reassembly, and reinstallation, the labor costs would be equal to or greater than the costs to install a replacement unit.
The defective unit is then shipped to a rebuilder who will perform the actual repair/rebuilding.
Another factor to consider is that the downtime would be much greater with the repair facility rebuilding rather than replacing which would lead to cranky customers.
I could write a book on being a Honda cranky customer. Over the course of my ODY replacement tranny, which required three total transmissions until one of them was acceptable to install and after waiting 21 days for all this to happen, I got a little cranky. Over those 21 days, I made remarks to Honda like "I traded in a Dodge Grand Caravan on this Odyssey. The Dodge had 72 K miles on it when I traded it in. I traded it because the tranny was going. Now this reliable Honda Odyssey drops the tranny at 68K miles. This Honda POS went 4 K miles less than the Dodge " "Just fix up this Honda tranny good enough to get me two blocks down the street to the Toyota dealer." "I bought this van, thinking it was reliable. It just plain sux." Other remarks would be deleted for profanity.
I was given the impression that it was taking 1 week to 3 weeks to replace the transmissions due to lack of parts. It seems to me that this delay might be reduced if the work got done on the part that was truly broken.
Of course it might cost the service department more, but isn't your time more valuable to you than their time.
In my experience, even having some other shop replace the part which was broken didn't work out either. The first transmission from a transmission rework shop was shipped without some of the mounting hardware. The second apparently never was refurbished as it was sent in a rusted condition with water inside the tranny. I attributed that to a shipping error at the refurbishment shop. The 3rd re worked transmission was in excellent shape according to my dealer. I forget where the 1st transmission was from. The 2nd was from a shop in IL and the 3rd was from CA. I live in the DC area. My ODY was dealer maintained its entire life of 68K miles. Honda did cover the dealer quoted $6K + labor cost of the transmission. They covered most of the 22 days of rental car costs, too. They did not cover the insurance costs I had on the rental car. My concern was, I was now uncertain of the reliability of the ODY. I frequently took it on trips of more than a few hundred miles from home. I could imagine having this adventure 250 miles from home. I had a 99 that was not part of the Honda 100K mile extended transmission warranty. Honda may consider repairing it one time as part of customer good will, but perhaps not twice. So I traded it in a week after the tranny repair. I bought the ODY for its supposed reliability. I was incredibly disappointed.
We have 2002 Odyssey and having been having problems in transmission, dealer drove it for two minutes , couldn't verify problem (it doesn't occur consist. I have been in bad traffic and it did occur and almost caused a wreck, the car downshifts and then when we excelerate it does not engage. call dealer they agreed to put a linear solenoid valve. i guess to appease me, because they said they couldn't verify problem. three weeks later we started noticing same problem occasionally. call them and reported they told us to call honda corp. spoke to customer relations they said they couldn't authorize new transmission unless they verify it. since it doesn't do it all the time i would have to leave the car there with out me getting a loaner car and they would have to drive it. Honda rep. was not taking our word for anything saying only way to fix the problem was for it to be verified. I am upset i ask them to call the dealership and ask them to give it a diagnostic check because last time they said there wasn;t a transmission diagnostic check. Help we are suppose to leave for vacation in two weeks. honda is not being cooperative. any suggestions would be appreciated. thank you csuec52aol.com
Looks like I am joining the club. My van is in the shop now. It is at Autofair Honda in Manchester NH. The problem only seems to act up while the van is cold. After about 10 mins it seems to go away. When I come to a stop a few seconds later I here a clunck and the van lurches forward. As I drive in the lower gears the engine will rev as it is trying to switch to the next gear. I'll let up on the gas a little and it will then catch into the gear. From the descriptions here I am guessing I have a bad transmission. I am hoping that Autofair Honda will step up to the plate and offer assistance thru Honda. My van is 4 yrs old and has 58k on it. I bought a Honda precisely for reliability. I only looked at Toyota and Honda because of their track records. I hope that I do not have to fight to get this taken care of. A $5000 bill is unacceptable for the reputation that Honda has for a 4 yr old van. I hope I post back praising Autofair Honda for taking care of me. I'll be back...
ok - mine went. i just got the official diagnosis from my dealer who told me it's not covered (62,000 mi.) but that i could appeal to Honda USA.
After reading several posts on this board + speaking to people i know, was encouraged that Honda would pick up the full tab even on the 99's (even at high mileage). they played a game with me, first offering to "participate" then to pay half and finally to pay for all parts - but not labor. My dealer quoted me $750 for labor & I tried appealing (again) to HQ. The Regional Mgr. for my state (NJ) said it was their final offer, take it or leave it. i explained that i bought the car precilsely for Honda's reputation of reliability, after my horrible experiences with Taurus (transmission!)that i was still paying out my 5 year loan, etc..etc... No dice. Any feeling about how far I might be able to push this?
I posted earlier and this is a follow up. Indeed my 99 van need a new transmission. As a matter of fact it is the very minute being replaced (I hope anyway). AutoFair Honda of Manchester NH was pretty decent about the whole thing. The contacted me and said it would cost $5200 to replace and that they went ahead and contacted Honda and Honda offered to pay for parts of $4500. Leaving me to pay labor of $700. I was relieved but still upset at looking at a $700 bill on a 4 year old mini van from Honda. I wrote a letter to Honda and they called me to say they would not cover the labor. I have to honestly say I wont buy another Odyssey. Its too major a problem for me to stomach. I also wont even get into the trouble I've had with those stupid electric doors. My dealer was decent and so was Honda but I think they should go the extra little bit. In the long run I think it is going to hurt them.
Comments
Can you also tell me if you opted for the extended warranty. Yes/No do you recommend it, why/why not. You know the whole spiel if you don't mind.
I have an 03 Ody for one month, and I am still going back and forth on the ext. warranty. I also want to be prepared for any problems that may arise.
Thanks in advance.
Now humor me... what about other Honda cars is this an issue for them as well? Thanks again and hopefully you are good to go now.
Thanks for your concern.
I've never done this before , so I could use all the help I can get. Repair? Rebuild? Complain? Bug Honda? Go to AAMCO?
Thanks all for listening... cjm
Good luck.
mac
Needless to say, I am done with this vehicle.
Man, that is sad. Guess I should be thinking about extending the warranty on mine....
Grandtotal, I'm not really mad at Honda per se. But I didn't have to fight with them at all as it is still under warranty. They told me it needed to be replaced at they even had one in stock so I'll have it back the same day. Had this been November though, I think I would have been up the creek.
The problem I have with keeping the van is that I don't really have much confidence in a rebuilt tranny. Many here have had their replacements fail as well. I'm looking at the new Nissan Quest but if I don't like that buying a new Odyssey isn't out of the question I guess (with an extended warranty). It's been a great van up until now.
Or the ever popular Yugo
Now, the Yugo, that would come before the P.T.
I never understood why Honda didn't extend coverage for the '99 trannies; there have been quite a few reports of them failing too.
Steve, Host
I'm in the market for a minivan. The Odyssey and Sienna are the two vans I am looking at. I didn't realize that the Odyssey had transmission problems (like the Dodge's/Chrysler's).
What has been people's experience w/the Sienna's? Any known transmission problems with those? I'm considering the 2004 model.
Thanks for your help.
Aw Dang
Transmissions in 02 and '03's may be too new to have established a sufficient statistical track record to definitively state that there's some sort of common failure mode. Many times if they see a developing failure trend, there may be "secret warranties" or corporate goodwill where Honda will cover an out of warranty repair for the customer who makes a stink. (Maybe Auburn can enlighten us on them.) I tend to think that folks posting here about failures in their new 5 speeds are probably just unlucky and are experiencing infant mortality - there's always a bad apple or two in the basket.
Get the Ody with the extended warranty - there's too many other more important things to worry about than a potential transmission failure.
If anything, you know with Ody and Sienna you are getting a good reliable minivan, with a company that promotes quality and customer service.
I've made mistakes like that as a do-it-yourselfer, but it's a bit more aggravating when you're paying someone else $65/hour to do it right.
Where else can you get free psychological advice like this?
Steve, Host
2. Put a hex on Fezo's Odyssey. A hex is not required on Crkeehn's P.T. Cruiser as it will self-destruct on its own accord.
What my mechanic actually did I don't know. But why would they remove the steering wheel to fix a tranny? More likely something got knocked out of whack putting it up on the lift and wrestling the tranny in and out. My guess anyway, but I'm no wrench turner.
Steve, Host
Buy an Odyssey, get to know your local car rental agent.
Anyways, it looks like Zueslewis inherited my car's problems. I should thank him sometime.
Seems to me it would be more expensive and time consuming to replace a transmission than to repair the part that is broken. Guess that's one way to operate, of course that leads to higher prices for the Honda products.
Of course using a transmission designed for a car might be part of the problem as well. You are dealing with more weight and strain while driving.
The defective unit is then shipped to a rebuilder who will perform the actual repair/rebuilding.
Another factor to consider is that the downtime would be much greater with the repair facility rebuilding rather than replacing which would lead to cranky customers.
Over the course of my ODY replacement tranny, which required three total transmissions until one of them was acceptable to install and after waiting 21 days for all this to happen, I got a little cranky.
Over those 21 days, I made remarks to Honda like "I traded in a Dodge Grand Caravan on this Odyssey. The Dodge had 72 K miles on it when I traded it in. I traded it because the tranny was going. Now this reliable Honda Odyssey drops the tranny at 68K miles. This Honda POS went 4 K miles less than the Dodge "
"Just fix up this Honda tranny good enough to get me two blocks down the street to the Toyota dealer."
"I bought this van, thinking it was reliable. It just plain sux."
Other remarks would be deleted for profanity.
Of course it might cost the service department more, but isn't your time more valuable to you than their time.
My concern was, I was now uncertain of the reliability of the ODY. I frequently took it on trips of more than a few hundred miles from home. I could imagine having this adventure 250 miles from home. I had a 99 that was not part of the Honda 100K mile extended transmission warranty. Honda may consider repairing it one time as part of customer good will, but perhaps not twice. So I traded it in a week after the tranny repair.
I bought the ODY for its supposed reliability. I was incredibly disappointed.
Autofair Honda in Manchester NH. The problem only seems to act up while the van is cold. After about 10 mins it seems to go away. When I come to a stop a few seconds later I here a clunck and the van lurches forward. As I drive in the lower gears the engine will rev as
it is trying to switch to the next gear. I'll let up on the gas a little and it
will then catch into the gear.
From the descriptions here I am guessing I have a bad transmission.
I am hoping that Autofair Honda will step up to the plate and offer assistance thru Honda. My van is 4 yrs old and has 58k on it. I bought a Honda precisely for reliability. I only looked at Toyota and Honda because of their track records. I hope that I do not have to fight to
get this taken care of. A $5000 bill is unacceptable for the reputation that Honda has for a 4 yr old van. I hope I post back praising Autofair Honda for taking care of me. I'll be back...
After reading several posts on this board + speaking to people i know, was encouraged that Honda would pick up the full tab even on the 99's (even at high mileage).
they played a game with me, first offering to "participate" then to pay half and finally to pay for all parts - but not labor. My dealer quoted me $750 for labor & I tried appealing (again) to HQ. The Regional Mgr. for my state (NJ) said it was their final offer, take it or leave it. i explained that i bought the car precilsely for Honda's reputation of reliability, after my horrible experiences with Taurus (transmission!)that i was still paying out my 5 year loan, etc..etc... No dice.
Any feeling about how far I might be able to push this?
transmission. As a matter of fact it is the very minute being replaced
(I hope anyway). AutoFair Honda of Manchester NH was pretty decent about the whole thing. The contacted me and said it would cost $5200 to replace and that they went ahead and contacted Honda and Honda offered to pay for parts of $4500. Leaving me to pay labor of $700. I was relieved but still upset at looking at a $700
bill on a 4 year old mini van from Honda. I wrote a letter to Honda and
they called me to say they would not cover the labor. I have to honestly say I wont buy another Odyssey. Its too major a problem for me to stomach. I also wont even get into the trouble I've had with those stupid electric doors. My dealer was decent and so was Honda but I think they should go the extra little bit. In the long run I think it is going to hurt them.