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Honda Odyssey: Problems & Solutions:(1995-2004 Models)
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Try:
http://www.allpar.com/fix/trans.html
As far as Chrysler minivans go we have had an 89 and a 92 Grand Caravan. Both vans had the 70000mile/7 year warranty. The 89 with a 3.0 V6 was on its third transmission when we traded it for the 92. The first trans lasted until 2 years with 55,000 miles on it. The second one only lasted for 4 months although I think it was more the fault of the dealer not flushing the torque converter when they replaced the trans. The final straw came when the car started to burn oil around 72,000 miles because the head gasket was leaking. Thankfully the dealer paid to fix it since we were just out of the warranty. We decided to trade it for a 92 hoping it would be better. The 92 with a 3.3 V6 seemed to have more annoying little things wrong with it. The driver's side wiper arm pivot broke as we were driving home from a vacation in blinding rain, the rear liftgate supports broke, the serpetine belt always squealed and was replaced 4 times, and the belt tensioner failed and the belt came off the pulleys rendering the car undrivable. The transmission was replaced at the 60,000 mile service because there were metal shavings in the pan, probably because the dealer we bought it from damaged something when it was replaced before. The first dealer also forgot to plug the fan back in after replacing the coolant so the car almost overheated. We finally sold the car in 98 with 115,000 miles on it. Of all the American car companies I like Chrysler the best. I think they have greatly improved their cars and vans over the last several years.
I would also like to say that I think Honda quality has gone down in the last several years due to Honda producing most of their cars in the U.S. We have had many more warranty repairs with my moms 2000 Odyssey than we have had with my 93 Accord EX bought new by my parents. The 93 has 143,000 miles on it now and we have not had any engine or transmission problems with it yet. The only problem we had with it in the first 100,000 miles was the failure of the distributor at 87,000 miles. I had to replace the front springs at 120,000 miles, the exhaust system at 133,000 miles, the power steering pump at 138,000 miles, and a set of brake pads front and rear besides the normal maintenance items. Not too bad a repair history. I wish Honda still produced cars like they used to.
'97 Dodge Grand Caravan Sport - 3 yr lease, returned with 43k miles. Weak points - siezed front brake calipers, re-occuring 'check engine' light, some intermittent electrical gremlins. A slow (3.3L) but otherwise excellent vehicle.
2000 Ford Windstar SE - 2 yr lease expiring as above. Present mileage 26k. Weak points - tranny failure at 8k miles, two power seat switches replaced, 3 recalls, otherwise also very good. Even the dual power doors have been virtually faultless.
In both cases, the dealer support was impeccable (Mid Hudson Valley region, NY). The Ford dealer even provides a loaner with service visits, and put us in a replacement Windstar when the tranny failed.
So now the dilemma. I know we got of easy on reliability issues with the two 'American' products. Statistically, it seems most Caravan & Windstar owners go thru much worse. But I am also tired of lugging out 120+ lb rear seats, some strange ergonomics, high initial price (even with dealer discounts) coupled with poor resale value, etc.
My friends and family members say to try a Honda. Our passenger cars have been mostly Toyota's, so we are used to first class reliability. But from what I am reading here, the Odyssey van seems to suffer from decidedly un-Honda like design/build/reliability issues. Can I expect better from a 2002? I know that it has a new design 5spd auto, but is it any more robust? What don't people like about the power doors? Is there a build fix for the alignment problems? We were able to briefly drive an '01 during the summer. We liked most aspects, but found the front seat cushions unsupportive (Japanese spec. ;-) not long or wide enough for our fat American tushes). Otherwise, well done.
Maybe a minivan's heft simply overwhelmes car based components. Or Honda doesn't yet have the experience base to debug and get it 'just right'. Any comments are appreciated as we are within days of making an expensive commitment and are getting cold feet......
Thanks,
Steve
Beth and I drove an '02 EX yesterday at our prospective dealer for about a half hour and compared and contrasted it to our '00 Windstar and previous '97 Dodge GC Sport. Overall, it is a very nice vehicle. With $250 down, we are now on the list with a request for delivery in late Feb to coincide with return of the Windstar.
Our main concern was the power doors. Ford simply executed this feature better. The movements and locking were clunky, and they rattled something awful on anything but smooth pavement. I could see them flex and shimmy as we drove. I hope this is an exception - maybe a van built early Monday morning....
Steve
Are you all having uncharacteritic warm weather ? That is because I replced my original Firestone tires about 5 K miles earlier than I had to, so I would have new tires for Winter weather.
The only problem I have had is a truck threw up a stone that cracked my windshield. My insurance covered 100 % replacement cost.The glass repair Co. vacuumed out my defrost vents, cleaned my dash and the glass is so clean it looks almost invisible. It was worth the hastle to get everything so clean.
I have not had a single problem with it. I went 48 K miles on all original equipment.
I would check not only the vehicle but also the associated dealer network for honesty, integrity, and customer service before selecting a particular vehicle. I was leaning towards buying third Honda vehicle (Acura) before this incident happened. Now, I would definitely go to competitor brands like Lexus or Infiniti.
Has anyone faced the similar situation with their Honda dealer?
Did you not ask how much the repair/service would cost? That question should be a normal part of any service operation. I always ask for a written quotation, and write on the work order that no additional work is to be done.
When I do these simple things, I never have a problem.
I typically ratchet mine about a half to full turn after the clicks begin. AFAIK, you can't overtighten it.
Post #1415 speaks to dealer greed. That guy is a saint compared to the dealer I purchased mine from (Louisville, Kentucky in eastern Jefferson county). If my dealer wasn't selling cars, he would be boosting them! Maybe that is why I am down on Honda these days.
Chrysler TC's rule once again. Check out the 2002 model and you will forget about the magic seat. Which is why 62% of the people bought Ody's anyway; just like me.
Your pal,
Larck
Sorry to hear about your problems with Honda, but I have to jump in and say that I am lucky? to not have had any of the problems you mentioned. Of course I only have 12,000 miles on mine so far, only time will tell. When you said that most Ody's are junk, I assume that you have sources backing it up, that the failure rate for Ody's are 50% or higher? Just checking, might want to reword that to "many" or "some".
If you bought the Ody solely for the magic seat, than well it's your own call I guess. We bought ours for the following reasons: Honda reliability, good engine, good cargo space and great crash test ratings, of course the magic seat was kind of neat too. Maybe you should re-examine your decision criteria a little more carefully next time.
Heck, if the T&C shows improved reliability (about 5-10 years worth) AND if my Ody self-destructs AND DC gets better crash ratings then I would seriously consider a DC van. Until that time, it's the Ody for me. Good luck in your future purchase.
Regards,
DTKWOK
From what I've read on this board it seems to me as though Honda is the one that has to show some quality improvement with their minivans, just as Chrysler is doing now. We have 33k miles on our 2000 Town & Country LX and it drives just as it did the day we drove it home. My neighbor has a 97 Town & Country LXi with 75k miles and no problems as does my other neighbor with TWO 2000 Grand Caravan SE models who love their two vans.
Thanks
FWIW, don't buy the kind with the plastic frames - I don't remember which brand that is. The wipers are just too long for the plastic; and, when I had them, the wipers would turn on their sides during use and the plastic frame would clack against the windshield.
This time we are shopping early and looking at everything. The T&C still feels more roomy to me (especially leg room in 2nd & 3rd row), but I am so tired of lugging out seats myself. The magic bench is a huge selling point. Again, I have no real beef with my experience with D-C or Ford, but the Toyota/Nissan/Mazda vans are smaller, and I live in hope that the Ody will be more easy to reconfigure the interior, and overall more reliable. Hey, if I find a made a mistake, I will ditch it and move on........
BTW, nobody has a monopoly on build quality these days. My sister and b-in-law are long time Honda fanatics and had a generation-1 Ody, a '96, I think. When their lease was up in '99 their dealer couldn't get them a new gen-2 Ody quickly enough, so they leased a '99 Sienna. Now for them this was a big jump in space, so they are very happy with this size and decided to stay with it. So this past September the '99 was exchanged for a '02. They had the new van for 2 days when the engine blew. Final diagnosis was a cooling system blockage, but it was in the shop for weeks. She prevailed (NJ lemon law) and got a replacement van in mid-November.
Or maybe it is just them.... The family kidded them unmercifully a few weeks ago at a party. Everyone remembers that they also had to have legal intervention on their mid '90's Accord V6 to get an electrical gremlin exorcised. Car spent 50+ days in the shop in a 6 month period as the engine kept shutting down intermittently.
Steve
Why just the other day we ran out of aluminum foil. My wife grabbed the passenger side door of the Ody (after she got it unstuck) and used it to wrap the turkey leftovers. As a replacement, I plan on using some heavy duty Reynold's wrap or maybe a large pie pan.
By the way, hello to all the Honda engineers who read this forum!
Your pal,
Larck
By the way, we have no dents on our rear hatch so far, that handle on the latch is great for pulling the latch down. Come to think of it, why are you pressing on the hatch in the first place? Yeah, that aluminum foil is really special considering it helped the Odyssey earn its 5 star rating.
I'm now ready to replace the Accord, and I consider the crummy fabric to be a factor in deciding whether to go Honda again, since the LX fabric on the current Accords and the LX/EX fabric on the Civics seems pretty similar to the garbage on my '00 Ody.
Other than the upholstery, the van has been virtually trouble free in 2+ years.
twist
I think the design and build of this van was a challenge for Honda. And they did OK - they won Edmunds minivan challenge and others as well (although they lost the one heavily advertised by DC a while back where the '02 DC van was comapred to everone else's '01 vans - give me a break!).
There are some very nice design features (magic seat, utility of large size and powerful engine, great handling/ride - both my wife and mother noticed how much better the ride compared to my sister's Windstar). There are, however, some over-the-top features which are nice but not completely necessary and Honda should have done a better job in design (namely power doors). Then there's just the plain old never-should-have-happenned-especially-in-a-Honda problems like tranny problems, numerous recalls in '99 and '00 vans, the emission problems requiring warranty extension...
Many owners have had great luck, and there are posters with many, many miles on '99 and '00 models with nary a major problem. But unlike the legendary Accord and Civic (and recenly CR rated CR-V the most reliable vehicle out there) Odyssey has not consistantly stacked up to be the very best.
If I had to buy a new van today, I do not think there is a clear choice. Every manufacturer has its ups and downs - ?quality, size, resale, options/features... I almost think that if in the market for a minivan today I would capatalize on the depreciation of DC vehicles and purchase a 1 or 2 year old DC van W/O the power sliding doors (as convenient as they are, they do you no god when they are in the shop or frozen shut!). In a used van, if problems surface you are not married to (or fuming at) a $26k machine, and with an extended warranty you should still get a good 5 years out of any modern auto w/o problem.
Just a few pennies on the subject.
Would greatly appreciate any feedback.
Many thanks in advance,
-Keerock
Anyway, I got my '02 ODY EX in October (27190 + tax+ $40 doc fee + cassette player free). I love the van except for one major problem. At low speeds and even SLIGHTLY uneven roads, the back doors sqeak like it is a 10 year old car and it's driving me nuts. I took it to the dealer and he said the doors needs tightening. It hasn't helped. Has anyone out there has similar problems? Or is it common with all minivans?
Thanks,
Stepping out of the van compresses the door side of the driver's seat, allowing my leg to press on the tilt control, causing the seat to tilt backward as I get out.
I've noticed there is a big drop in RPM from 3rd to 4th, and the knock will always be there. It's like 4th is too tall for this engine.
If I take my foot off the gas, it stops. If I downshift, it stops. It is only heard in 4th gear. It is marginally better if I use Cruise Control, but still there.
Anyone else seen/heard this? Known bug? Fix?
I'm taking it in to the dealer tomorrow for the 22,500 service, and I'll mention it, along with the panel door that occasionally beeps when closed, and has (one time) refused to open using the Open button in the car.
- Al
Where can I find a list of Service Bulletins for my 2000 Odyssey? I've heard that dealers sometimes don't tell customers about them unless specifically asked.
Are there a lot for 2000? Any really major ones I should know about?
Thanks and take care.
- Al
A BREAK JOB at 16,000 miles (one year after delivery) THAT SOUNDS ABSURED! Any thoughts? pleasee, reply, I told him not to do anything. I need help.
Try taking it to another dealer for another opinion. Perhaps you can convince someone else to consider this seemingly inappropriate wear and cover under warranty. Unless you do a ton of stop and go driving, this does seem kind of soon. How are the tires wearing?
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/problems/index.html
Odysseys are listed under "Honda Truck".
Your Pal,
Larck
BTW, you wouldn't happen to be a Psychology student conducting some evaluation on this site would you? It is considered unethical and will be cause for explusion from your educational institute. Of course there are some who just thrives on the misery of others. Either way, good day to you too!
DTKWOK
1. Picked up van April 2001, after waiting 7 months.
2. Noticed the thumping sound coming from the rear of the van. Concerned, I went back to dealer. They said it was normal. STRIKE ONE.
3. At about 1500 miles the front brakes started squealing during light braking and while backing out of my driveway. STRIKE TWO.
4. Now with about 4000 miles on the van, I have noticed the sliders are squeaking when closed, especially when going up or down a driveway apron and when traveling on roads that are even slightly bumpy. STRIKE THREE.
I had to wait seven long months for this van. And now I don't even want to drive the darn thing. I mean, if all this has happened so soon, what else am I in for?
Took the van in for the first service last week and told the dealer to check the brakes and the sliders. They adjusted the doors. It was good for about a day, the squeaking is now worse than before. The squealing brakes (oh, you'll love this one) are caused by "condensation" which forms on the rotors as they cool down. I told you it was a good one. I've been working on brakes for 20 years and I know what causes squealing on disc brakes and it sure ain't condensation.
I guess I should have bought a Ford, Dodge or Chevy. At least I would have expected problems.
(1) The thumping problem is most likely caused by the gas sloshing in your tank.
(2)Squeaky brakes? I have 13,000 miles + on van and don't have that problem, I do hear the brake pad shift when going in reverse though.
(3)squeaky sliders can be fixed by quick application of silicone grease, works for about half a year for me.
Please go ahead and purchase a Ford, Dodge, Chevy (insert domestic brand here) and be happy with it. Since you were expecting problems with those brands, are you saying that people who buy domestics expect problems from their vehicles? Didn't you test drive this van before purchasing? Don't give me this story about how there weren't any available to test drive, you just weren't looking/pushing hard enough to get one, and we got our van back in February of this year too (waited 3 weeks in our area, southern California).
So what do you expect Honda to do about all of this? Buy it back? Give you a new one? It helps to know what your goals are and proceed from there, rather than rant and rave (it gets you no where). Good luck with your decision.