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Honda Odyssey: Problems & Solutions:(1995-2004 Models)
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Thanks for the info!
I'm not sure if the noise I am observing is the same as yours. It's kinda hard to describe.....
Is it possible that you are hearing snow thrown up against the bottom of the van ?
grplavloff: I was thinging the same thing. I never heard this type of noise while driving my 96 voyager, 98 windstar or 00 windstar, but maybe there wasnt the amount of slush over the past few years as there was yesterday. Actually, last night, I did notice the TC light come on, as I felt the front wheels swerve, and there was no noise as it engaged, so the noises I heard might have been ice and slush just hitting the bottom of the van.
I've owned only one minian thus far, so you're way ahead of me in that department. On the other hand, I live in Buffalo, NY, so I'm probably ahead of you in the driving-in-snow department :-)We've had something like 130 inches so far this year... Anyway, every once in a while when I;m driving through wetter snow I hear a sound that I would describe in much theway that you did: rocks and drumming.
Yesterday in the frozen muck of South Jersey, I also observed the tires to be quite loud. No, not snow being thrown up against the vehicle. Even small amounts of slush frozen on the interstate causes quite a bit of resonance from the tires. So, you might not be imagining things.
We ain't got no extended warranty. If we expected things to break, we would have bought domestic. Biggest problem so far is the sticking sliding doors. Since I park in the garage every night, sticking isn't so bad. I have used Sil-Glyde on the seals and this seems to help. Monthly re-applications helps too. The doors do freeze shut in sleet/freezing rain, but this is common to most vehicles.
No major complaints, just looking to get 8 more years and 160k more miles out of the beast. We like it.
My initial complaint, while driving home the 30 miles from the dealer, is that this vehicle is so quiet, so refined, compared with my Civic, is that it is boring and too competent. I like it.
Paul
When it was finally safe to stop, I checked the tires and found I had a large amount of semi-frozen snow built up in my front wheel wells. The mud flaps had collected a lot of snow the night before (which had frozen solid), and subsequent driving built up more snow/slush on top of it. So every time I turned, the tire rubbed against it and made the strange noise. About a minute of work with ice scraper on each side alleviated the problem. Just my $0.02.
I have noticed that in my 2000 LX, when I shift from say Drive to Reverse, I could distinctly hear a clunk but NOT as loud as the "dreaded" clunk. But in my case, it happens only when I engage "reverse". It does not happen in any other gear though.
I am not sure if this is a good thing or not.
The clunking is happening while driving in reverse as in backing out of a driveway. The clunk sounds more like metal hitting metal.
My 2000 LX has the similar noise when shifting from D4 to R or P as described in my earlier post #395. The noise only occurs while passing through or engaging into Reverse gear from D4, not from P. Although it happened every time I shifted into R, intensity of the noise varied. No noise while the car is moving in reverse, Thanks GOD! The car drive fine otherwise. It may just be a characteristics of Ody's transmission. Perhaps people in this group can check their vans, and post the findings here to see if we all have this mysterious noise.
Here is a description of her many problems: battery died in 6 months; power doors refused to close fully intermitently(got to the point where she kept the damn things off because they were so unreliable, what a waste of money), the doors had alignment problems, the warning beeper would go off continuously for no reason while driving down the road, the right side door actually popped open on its own while reversing out of the driveway (what a great safety feature); the driver side front door rubs on its latch; the passenger side front door requires a hard push from the inside to open because of interference with the sliding door's weatherstipping; but the biggest problem has been a safety issue concerning a loud popping noise that can be felt in the steering wheel. The fact that it causes a kickback sensation in the steering when the noise is heard scares my sister and lowers her confidence in the safety of her van. The noise only occurs when it is cold out and is very intermittent. The dealer kept claiming they found nothing wrong. She finally was able to get the noise to happen consistently by loading down the rear of the van. They finally admitted something was wrong, but they are clueless on how to fix it. They tried lubricating the suspension bushings and than replacing them to no avail. A tech rep was sent from the factory and on 2 occassions has not been able to fix it. This is what she is claiming the lemon law on. It is so ridiculous that she has had so many problems this early on. I wouldn't expect this from a Korean car let alone a Honda. Funny thing is my 2000 Hyundai Accent has been to the dealer only once in 12,400 miles for a squeaky seatbelt buckle. Imagine how pissed she is that my 10K car trumps her 29K van in the areas of reliability and build quality.
From this experience, she has learned to hate power doors and refuses to ever buy them again. They have rarely worked as they were designed to do and are more of a hassle than they are useful. It is so hard to believe that people actually like them. She also doesn't like how heavy and resistant the doors are to being operated manually.
All her problems aside, she still loves the utility of the van and thinks it is still the best one out there. But she has lost confidence in Honda's quality and their customer satisfaction services.
On a side note, I was wanting to ask other Ody owners about something I observed that could be another problem with her van. When my sister turns off the ignition, the gas gauge immediately drops down to E. I have not seen this since the mid 80s. Does everyone else's gas gauge stay up when the ignition is turned off? Thanks for your input.
I can't speak to the door and other problems your sister is having but my gas gauge does drop down to E..
I also had my transmission replaced at 15K for the thumping when going in reverse. I'm beginning to wonder if purchasing this vehicle was a wise move!
Dave Kelsen.
I have read your question 5 times now. You must be new to the forum. Most of us read more than one topic associated with the Odyssey. Maybe you could try to post your in one topic and see what happens instead of posting everywhere.
The old style always adjusted a star wheel for spacing when using the normal foot brake in reverse.
I just looked up the Parking Brake adjustment procedure in the shop manual (mine needs it). Adjustment is made with a screw in the parking brake foot pedal assembly under the left front dashboard.
BTW, according to my official Honda Odyssey service manual, the rear brake is self ajusted by pressing normal brake pedal several times. To adjust parking brake, you have to adjust a screw under the parking brake pedal as described by post#428. Happy driving!
I had to tell my wife to *please, please* come to a complete stop before moving the shifter, in her case, from R into D4! I would cringe and tell her the damage to the transmission occurring and she always insisted she was stopped. Yeah, right. She is the same wife (1st & only) who has also worn out three clutches in 100K miles but I'm still keeping her! Hole in my pocketbook, though.
This hasn't been a good experience.
1. transmission replaced w/in 6 months
2. '99 EX doors intermittently won't open
3. fuel door intermittently won't unlock (great on a long distance trip!)
4. telltail 'clunk' started at 20k
5. driver-side sliding door opened while refueling!
Despite being the best conceived full-sized van on the road - it just doesn't work! I was complacent when the Honda replaced the transmission within 6 months. I have been aggravated that even after many attempts, the sliding doors often and intermittently fail to work. I have four toddlers that haven't been able to use the driver's side sliding door for the most part of owning this van. I was frustrated when I couldn't refuel during a vacation because the fuel door failed to open. And recently, we have been startled when backing up by the infamous 'clunk'. It sounds like you just hit or ran over something. But the worst of it happened recently.
I was refueling when one of my kids hit the door handle and the door advanced OVER the fuel door while I was still dispensing gas. I was able to push the door back and remove the nozzle. Major problem! I had a van full of kids and a serious problem that involved gas. Drove straight to the dealer where they pronouced the van a piece of **** and said to bring it in for service. H of No. Am. wasn't much help. Said to have the dealer fix the problem.
Don't get me wrong. This van has been in the shop extensively and would have been in even more except for the fact that my family of six NEEDS a van. Was I supposed to have another van as a backup for a new van?
My biggest problem now is the ethics of selling this van to someone else. At this point I paid too much to own these types of problems. If I wanted problems I would have bought a Chrysler or Ford.
Does anyone have any positive experience with Odyssey trade-in at the Honda dealership (assuming of course that a more recent Odyssey van would not have these problems). After all, I think Honda should accept some responsibility and cost for this van.
That has been the standard way of doing it for many years. Sometimes something more drastic is needed if the brakes are totally out of wack. Years ago, when I worked in a service station, I would "adjust" brakes that I had just replaced by
getting on a nearby sidestreet, accelerating to 60 mph or so, then jamming on the brakes. Two or three rounds of this was usually enough.
I don't want a bright yellow light on my dash warning me everything is OK. When something lights up on my dash, it should be warning me something is wrong. TCS activated is normal, deactivated is abnormal. I only want the light catching my attention when something unusual is happening like when it has been overridden and is no longer protecting me, or when I'm slipping and it's activating the ABS. Just my opinion.
There's an item in the owner's manual about the Ody's ignition sensor being fooled when you have metal around the ignition key at the time the chip is being read and I've wondered if some of these "ghost" starting problems are the result. Just a guess.
The garage checked again, and said that they still have the same error code; and he's now recommending some kind of proprietary ($120) decarbonization purge of the channels in the intake manifold through which the recirculation gases flow. He says that they must be plugged up with carbon deposits. The car runs just fine with or without the lights being on, so I haven't made a lot of effort to go back.
Please advise what your service department says and does as specifically as you can get them to tell you. TIA!
Job 1: owner reports that the check engine light is on please check and advise. vehicle ran rough this morning after about 5 mins the idle evened out.
verified concern. found DTC P0301, P0302, P0303
MISFIRE IN CYLINDERS 1,2,3
RESET CHECK ENGINE. TRIED TO DUPLICATE PROBLEM WHEN THE VEHICLE HAS SET OVERNITE. STARTED THE VEHICLE IN AM. LIGHT DID NOT REAPPEAR. INTERMITTANT FAILURE.
JOB 2 TCS LIGHT WAS ON
AT THE TIME VEHICLE WAS BROUGHT IN TCS WAS NOT ON.LIGHT WILL COME ON IF THE FRONT TIRES SLIPPED. NO REPAIRS MADE.
rep said at this time he did not think there is a problem. I asked him (rather sarcastically, i admit) if it was normal for cylinders 1,2,3 to misfire causing CEL to come on. He said no, to which I said " Then there is a problem". I asked him if he pulled the plugs to see if they were fouled. He said no, that would have to be a separate job order resulting from another incident causing the CEL to come on.( he said Honda would not pay for 2 separate job procedures covering the same incident. As long as service was unable to duplicate the problem and CEL remained off, then "there is nothing wrong"
FWIW, the service manual very specifically states that the TCS light can come on to indicate other problems than wheel slippage. The list of possible problems is really quite long, and includes a whole bunch of problems tied to the fuel management system.
Keep me posted on developments, and I'll do the same.
http://www.delphi.com/HondaOdyssey/start
Neil Galli
99 Ody LX
00 Civic Si