Honda Odyssey 2005+

yjfu

The Owner's Manual instructs tire rotation procedures are different between directional and non-directional tires. How can I tell the OEM tires of EXL are directional or not?

cccompson

I haven't experienced any such "clunking or popping noise" on my Touring. Sounds as though it is time for a trip to the dealer.

If you look through the spokes of your PAX wheels you should be able to see the weights on the other side. They are different from conventional weights, are rectangular in shape, and are mounted flat on the inside of the wheel.

loopnroll

This is my second new model Honda purchase and I probably should have learned something from the last one. The clunking noise is most likely a strut. I had the same problem and went to the dealer 3 times. Looks like third times the charm. The noise I had was pronounced in slight left hand turns on slightly rough pavement. If the road was smooth or very rough, there was no noise. Dealer replaced the strut on the passenger side and the problem is gone. I Think I am hearing the same thing on the driver side but not as bad. I will wait and see before I have them replace that ore to.

I have other concerns. Mileage is no where near advertised. When the compressor kicks on particularly where engine is cold, the resulting high idle is enough to more the car if you only have light pressure on the brake pedal, this caused me to back into my wifes van in the driveway.

The rear windshield wiper seems to have a short in it but I still like the car better than all other minivans for comfort, style, room and drivability.

But, I am disappointed inthe number of delivery problems.

For those that hear rattles inthe rear area, check that theseat belt is not rattlingagainst the side when itdoesnot fully retract.

eman

weights are ususaly on the inside of rim

eman

directional tires usually have arrows showing forward direction, they will also have an agressive tread pattern in one direction. I doubt that you have directional tires on the EXL.

ottsm

I've norrowed my choice down to a fully loaded Dodge Grand Caravan or an Odyssey EX with Leather/DVD/NAV. Last night my wife and I drove the Odyssey, we both like the car slightly better then the Grand Caravan. The Odyssey is a lot more in price but I keep my cars until the wheels fall off so I normally make sure that we get something that we like.

We like the Odyssey's 8th seat, the driver & passanger center console that folds down. The conversation mirror that allows a driver to look at the kids in the back seat while driving. The navagation system is where a person can actually see it when driving verses the Dodge. The window shades. The buttons placements were a little confusing on the Honda, but I drive a PT Cruiser so I'm use to Chrysler products. I love the power of the engine, and the turning radius of this van is great (although the Dodge was also good).

We like the Dodge stow&go, the price is better, and we can get a power rear lift gate (why doesn't Honda offer this in the EX!!!!). The dealer let us drive the Dodge for 3 days. I was able to get about 24 MPG on the highway on the short test that I did. The city and highway rating seemed to be close to what the sticker states.

I thought the Odyssey would have a quieter ride, but it was about the same as the dodge. I noticed that when I flipped down the power outlet covers on the Odyssey one of the springs inside snapped off on one of covers.

The dodge emergency brake release is just stupid. Whetever happend to a good old T handle release. They should have put a better scuff panel at the door entrance. The plastic scuff panel is light in color and shows all the shoe scuff marks.

I don't plan on towing anything. This car will mainly be used for traveling and trips that the PT cruiser just doesn't have enough space. For a family of four, the PT is fine in town but on long trips the space isn't enough.

I've never had a Honda,

Do the rust out (I live in West Virginia, our winters have been mild and I probably wouldn't be driving the car much in the winter)? My sister had a Honda back in the 80's, it was a nice car but it rusted out easy.

Is anyone getting the stated gas milage?

I only test drove the Odyssey for 20 minutes, I'm 5'8" 160 lbs and my wife is 5'2" (her weight is increasing because we are expecting our 2nd child, which is the main reason we are looking for more room), the PT cruiser seats are fine for me and the dodge caravan seems similar, are the Honda seats OK? I noticed in this forum some are complaining about the seats, is anyone who doesn't like the seats of similar stature?

I noticed that Honda has had 3 recall's and Dodge has had only one so far. The dodge has an extended power train warrenty, Honda only has the standard 3 year.

The Odyssey has a lot of neat features but the option combinations don't allow us to get everything we would want, such as the power rear gate. Even so, we are willing to give up this option and condider the Odyssey with it's more refined and neat interior.

Anyone have an opinions or thoughts?

ivan_99

If you don’t mind last years model…or if you could wait a couple years, a certified used Honda gives a 1 year bumper to bumper and 7 year 100,000mi drive train warranty.

I see 2003 LX or EX’s going for about $20K with around 20-35K miles.

There is a Dodge GC/T&C Versus Odyssey board as well.

isellhondas

The Chrysler vans depreciate like a rock compared to Odysseys. Buying one a year old can save you thousands.

Most "recalls" are nothing to worry about.

The best warranty is the one you seldom have to use.

Don't see much of a rust problem with modern cars compared to the old days. I think all of the car builders are paying more attention to this.

ivan_99

The Chrysler vans depreciate like a rock compared to Odysseys. Buying one a year old can save you thousands

Correct...I've searched for 2005 Used Chrysler T&C and have found prices from 15K to 20K with around 10K to 20K miles...There are not many domestic vehicles I would buy new off the lot...

ottsm

I've only had a little while to shop on ebay, but when I look at the page of vans only a few have the options even close to what I'd want for a T&C or GC. If I look at completed items very few actually show being sold on ebay. Most have a high reserve and only by looking at completed items does this show up. I only put 5000-10,000 a year on a car. A car with 30k is like buying a 3 or more year old car.

Still cars are never an investment and I get your point. I hate spending money on something that as soon as you take it off the lot it's already lot 1/3 or more of its value. I did tell myself I'd never buy another new car, but when I found out we had another kid on the way, well, here I am again looking at new cars.

cccompson

Rust is no longer an issue on Hondas (or just about any other new car).

My Odyssey Touring will hit (or come very close to) its EPA mileage estimate of 28 if driven within the speed limit. Its city rating of 20 is, like that of many vehicles, somewhat optimistic.

If you're concerned about warranty coverage, Honda offers excellent extended coverage (shop carefully as prices vary by dealer). See the topic here on it for more information. In my experience, Honda does stand behind its product to a greater extent than most other manufacturers.

If you've never had a van before I would urge you to give real thought to which features are paramount for you. For instance, Honda's second row sunshades are nice but will you really get any use out of them?

Also, it might be worth your while to shop some other brands, particularly Toyota, if you haven't yet done so.

li_285

Today I noticed another problem. When I looked at my 2005 EX from behind on a flat surface, I found that the driver side is slightly lower than the passenger side. I asked my neighbor to take a look and she saw the same. I did move the 8th seat and slide the passenger side second row seat to the middle. But this should not have a big effect as the seat is quite light compared to the body weight. My dealer replaced the front driver side strut for my chirping noise problem (which later proved they should not have done that as the noise is coming from elsewhere) and I am wonder if this has caused the problem. I checked the tire pressure and they seemed to be the same, maybe 1 psi difference since my pressure gauge is not accurate anyway. I did notice all tires were overinflated.

Is this normal?

sebring95

I tested out the changer today on the Odyssey. Using Windows XP and Windows Media Player 8.0, I ripped a CD into MP3 format, then burned a CD-R disk with the same. Worked just fine. Coincidentally, I threw the CD into all my vehicles and it workd in every one of them as well. Wish I would have figured this out sooner.....

So, I figure if I load the changer with CD's full of MP3's, that's about 100 full CD's worth of music using the 128k setting.

just4fun2

Since you live in West Virginia, I would ask people in West Virginia that own the ODY what MPG they are getting. Hills and mountains will kill MPG.

sebring95

Gotta take it all back. Turns out Windows Media puts MP3's back to a nomal audio fomat when burning CD's. Explains why it worked in all my vehicles. I tried burning the MP3's using anoher program (NERO, came with my laptop) and the Odyssey nor my other vehicles played those CD's. I'll have try Roxio. Used to have that program on another laptop...

nwng

use the ones that you would have to pay for (or upgrade you nero), and I would like to take this opportunity to thank p2p for my roxio...

jimingv

We just went through the same decision process. We have a 97 Chrysler Town and Country that we wanted to replace with a new one. We liked the idea of all the seats folding into the floor so we started by looking at the new Chryslers. We were very disappointed! In order to preserve headroom, the folding seats have a very steep backward angle on the seating surface--it's like sitting in a hole and was difficult to get out of. Additionally, the third row seat has such a long seating surface that my wife's legs did not go over the edge and her feet could not touch the floor! We were also planning to get one with the DVD Nav system but they have designed in a very small screen--about half the size of the other minivan makers. Next, we looked at the Sienna and Odyssey. We found them to be much better designed and they don't have the seat problem probably they were redesigned from the ground up. In the end we settled on an Odyssey EX which was a couple of thousand less than the comparably equipped Sienna. So far we love the Odyssey and it has had no problems. With eight adults on board the acceleration and handling is still great. Our only complaint is that we don't like leather seats (my wife thinks they are cold in the winter and hot in the summer) and you can't get a Nav system from Honda (or anyone else except Chrysler/Dodge) without ordering leather seats which adds several thousand to the total. We ended up having Magnolia HiFi install a third party Nav system (Eclipse) which appears to be working fine except for one wire (speed pulse) that they are still trying to locate.

jimingv

Our new Odyssey EX started out getting just slightly over 20mpg and has been improving with each tank. On a trip from Auburn, CA to Reno and back, we averaged 22mpg--that trip involves a lot of hills. We got the EX to get the two powered sliding side doors. We would have liked the power liftgate but you have to pay too much to get into the EXL or Touring models. We live four miles off of a major highway with the last two miles being twisty. The Honda has a stiffer ride than the Chrysler/Dodge and it corners much better. It also jostles us less going over angeled speed bumps in parking lots than our Chrysler did. We opted for cloth seats (my wife doesn't like leather seating at all) so we had to have a third party Nav system installed in place of the EX audio system. On an earlier post I mentioned that the design of the Chrysler folding seats and the small NAV system display turned us off of the Chrysler.

ottsm

I'm thinking about waiting a few months to see if Honda adds the power rear lift gate. Maybe they will also take care of some of the other problems listed in this forum. I want the 8th seat and a power lift gate, can't understand why they would make you get the Touring just to get a lift gate. We have one kid and another on the way, my wife is short. Even with one kid, having a load from the super market in one hand and trying to keep a kid from running in front of a car with the other, it sure would be nice to have a power lift gate. I'd rather have the power lift gate then the sliding side doors, but the sliding doors are nice for the same reasons also, even if they are slow. I like leather myself, just because it's easier to clean the spills up. I wouldn't even care if it was vinyl. Our baby is due in November and chances are we wont be traveling for a few months after the baby is born and winter is over. I didn't have many complaints about the Dodge seating, but I'm the one doing most of the driving on long trips.

ottsm

Actaully the 2nd row sun shades would probably be used all the time. With our one year old we have these ugly but very usefull sun screens that stick the window to keep the sun out of the childs eyes. I did give the Toyota a quick look, it was OK, but I'd probably go ahead and get the Dodge before the Toyota.

Our speed limit in WV is 70 MPH, in the PT Cruiser I get about 24 MPG Highway at this speed, which is about the stated value. I do like the idea of getting high milage and going further without stopping.

eman

Please keep us updated on this issue.
I have a boom box that plays mp3's, what it seems to do before it starts playing is load all the songs ( or some such data) which could take up to a minute with a big mp3 cd. That makes me wonder if the boom box has some kind of memory chip which the Honda cd player would not have and therefor could ot load the mp3. Just a thought.

1997montez34

The lack of a power liftgate on all but the Touring model turned us away from the Odyssey toward the Dodge. I have not regretted my decision. Also, I could not understand why Honda didn't put a telescoping steering wheel on the Odyssey. My '03 Accord LX has one and it allows me and my wife to both be comfortable. In the Ody the steering wheel felt too far away for my wife, and power pedals were not available on models below the Touring either.

michellek3

Hi Bud,
The dealer is in Westport. I contacted them through the honda website on the request for quote link.
Good Luck.
Michelle

ottsm

I also noticed that the DVD player on the EX looks like it can only handle one DVD. Looking at the pictures I thought it had a multi DVD changer. Looking at other photos on Ebay, I noticed that this might not be the case. Does the EX DVD only hold one disc and the Touring addition hold more?

Can any of the players play MP3, I noticed the option was in the EX without leather, then if you get the DVD the option disappears? This is in the build option on the Honday web site.

aaronwi

Does anyone know when we can expect to see the 06's?????

mikeo1

I've always heard that leather seats are "cold in the Winter and hot in the Summer" but from my experience I've found that to be completely false. Good leather "breathes",
and I've found them to be very comfortable year round.

Btw....just did a 3,000 mile trip in my '05 and found my leather seats to be
extremely comfortable....zero back pain. In fact the longer the drive the
more comfortable they became.

We spent 31 hours in this van and it is amazing.....I'm sold.

dulnev

"I also noticed that the DVD player on the EX looks like it can only handle one DVD. Looking at the pictures I thought it had a multi DVD changer. Looking at other photos on Ebay, I noticed that this might not be the case. Does the EX DVD only hold one disc and the Touring addition hold more?"

If you're referring the the overhead DVD player, then yes it can only handle one DVD at a time. I'm not aware of any factory or aftermarket overhead DVD system that has a changer.

sebring95

Sony makes a dvd/cd changer for the car. Costs about $1,000 by itself.

The DVD/Navigation system is the same between EX and Touring. They both just play one dvd at a time. They both have 6-disc CD changers in the dash.

Kirstie_H

Don't forget tonight's member-to-member chat - it's open mic night, so come and discuss whatever's on your mind.

6-7pm PT/9-10pm ET. Drop by for live chat with other members. Hope you can join us!

kirstie_h

ottsm

I understand how the dash works now, when I first looked at the picture I assumed the navigation system was the only way to setup the radio and that below the AC/Heater controls was the DVD system. I found another picture of the dash that shows the DVD player. Is this below the cup holders? Wouldn't cups get in the way of changing a DVD? The dealer didn't have a DVD/NAV that I could test drive at the time so I just drove the EX with leather. Has anyone found the layout to be difficult?

cccompson

Yes, the DVD player is below the cupholders. I regard it as a rather poor design. It's somewhat hard to see and reach. I worry about spilling a drink that could go into (and damage) the player and there's no cover to protect the loading slot. Haven't used those cupholders but obviously they could hamper use.

nomar69

Hi,

I'm trying to locate the ground clearance measurement for the '05 Odyssey. Does anyone know this measurement? On the website, it has every measurement except this one.

Thanks!
nomar69

sebring95

According to autos.yahoo.com it's 4.3"

nomar69

Thanks for your reply! I was comparing this clearance with that of the MDX (which is 8").

sebring95

Yeah, my VW has more ground clearance if these numbers are correct. It won't make it up my drive in the snow and I have doubts this odyssey will either, but I have better bad-weather vehicles to pick from.

masterpaul1

What part of the vechicle do they use to compute the ground clearance? The front/rear axle, front/rear bumper or tires. :confuse:

dilbertzzz

What part of the vechicle do they use to compute the ground clearance? The front/rear axle, front/rear bumper or tires.

The lowest part that doesn't move up/down with the wheels. If they didn't then you wouldn't clear the ground!

ottsm

After comparing Dodge/Chrysler mini vans to the Honda Odyssey, I've decided to wait a few months and see what next years offering our. Our baby isn't coming until November so I'm not in a rush to get more space just yet.

Anybody have any knowledge of what changes may happen in 2006 for the Odyssey, or is it just going to be the same. I understand Dodge may have a more modern engine to offer. The number one item I like about the Honda is the engine and transmission. Next would be the interior offerings (although a few problems such as the DVD placement bother me). The Dodge looks better on the outside.

dilbertzzz

If Honda remains true to form, they will make some updates/changes/improvements to the 2006 Odyssey and never say anything to anyone about exactly what those changes are! Honda should play poker; they hold their cards closer to the vest than any other automaker outside of the former Eastern Bloc.

sebring95

With my luck, they'll fix the few things I dislike about the Odyssey! Bought my '05 last Friday.

mwg100

Has anyone noticed unusual transmission noise/ vibration on the 2005EX? It appears when holding a constant speed in the 45 to 54 MPH range - even on fairly level roads. At first, I thought it was a shift point problem - but Honda Service techs disagreed saying this was normal. As another person ( MACAKAWA ) pointed out - it does happen around 1400 - 1800 rpm. I think in belief that the engine is lugging and on the verge of a shift point. But this is over a 9 - 10 MPH range while holding a constant speed on fairly level roads. Have driven 3 new vehicles and each has the same sound ( drone , groan ) and steering wheel vibration. Please help.

engenlow

Had the same problem. Eventually, my VSA light stayed on all the time.
The dealer had to go under the dash and redo the wiring harness. Seems 1 little wire was unplugged.

twiceshy

I have a 2001 Honda Accord LX that has undergone one transmission replacement so far (hopefully no more). I am thinking about buying a 2005 Odyssey and am a little skeptical due to the transmission problems I had with my 01 Accord.
Does anyone know if Honda has rectified this problem?

mikeo1

I had to put 3 transmissions(2 under warranty)in a pampered DGC but
none in my HO's.

masterpaul1

What was the year and model of your DGC? At what mileage was each trans. replaced and the total miles driven?

hansienna

And what year is your Ody and how many miles?

I would NOT be concerned about transmission problems in a new Odyssey GC.

mikeo1

It was a "91 Grand Caravan EX which we bought new. The first tranny went out at
22,000 the second at 67,000 and the third at 128,000.
My wife drives slower than my grandma.
I've owned over 20 vehicles(mostly used) and have never replaced another automatic transmisson.

On top of that the anti-lock breaks went out twice, the computer twice,
5 oxygen sensors and thats just getting started.
I've never been so frustrated with a vehicle in my life.

Yes it was a long time ago but it swore me off Dodge products for good.






Yes it was a long time ago but it was enough to keep me away from Dodge products.

mikeo1

You mean a Dodge GC right?

I would hope by now that Dodge has fixed the major tranny problems that
they had in the early 90's. IMO(and most automotive magazines) the HO is
much more bang for the buck and thats been my experience.
I won't be buying another Dodge.

Just sold an '01 with 72,000 for an '05.

ord62

I am looking for a replacement van and went to the see the Odyssey last weekend and I found that the Odysseys are now only 20% Japanese. The first thing I noticed was that when I entered the 2nd row passenger door and grabbed the ceiling handle the plastic covers came off. We could not even put it back. I looked at it and it was like a cheap plastic part of my daughter's toys. Does this mean that I expect this low quality materials on the new Odyssey?? I am also seeing a lot of problems posted on the forum with regards to transmission which the window sticker claims to still be Japanese. Where are the Japanese quality workmanship now???

I also looked at the www.nhtsa.dot.gov web site and the side crash test indicated that the driver door opened during the test which indicated there is a danger for the driver to be trown out during a crash.

There are also a lot of recalls on the 2005 Odyssey.

Does anybody have any idea where I can find a good reliable van???

hansienna

Yes. I thought I had typed I would not worry about transmission problems with a new Ody or GC.
IMO, the GC SXT has more bang for the buck than the Ody EX but I would probably pay more and buy a new Ody EX to get more comfortable seats and forfeit the nice, complete overhead console of the GC SXT.
However, some people think the Ody seats are not comfortable. Seats must be a subjective item varying by a person's body shape and weight