I owned a 00 Odyssey purchased in Sep '99 with about 19,000 miles on it. A couple of weeks ago I too heard the CLUNK when reversing. The service department replaced the transmission and told me they have had 5 or 6 others with the same problem. Mine also had some of the other problems posted about here, wind noise, "thud" in rear, my speedometer was also off about 4 mph @ 70/75mph reading. Although I am really disapointed in the quality of this HONDA product, I still think it is the best Mini-van available. (I've owned the Caravan, Sienna, and Odyssey) This is written in past tense because 3 days after having the transmission replaced we traded it for a '01 Suburban LT. Not being starry-eyed we also purchased the 6yr/100,000 mile Ext. warranty. The good news is that they gave us $23,300 for our Honda. I wish I would have bought the Extended warranty on the Odyssey, I might still be driving it...
If you have the same lousy Firestone tires on your Ody that I have, not only will they be noisy in snow/slush (get used to it), but the traction will be poor (thnak god for TCS). I only have 21,000 miles on the tires, but I am considering replacing them will some Michelin all-season tires. What a shame to stick such mediocre tires on such a great vehicle. I'm not sure if the noise I am observing is the same as yours. It's kinda hard to describe.....
Sorry to hear your problem with the rolling vans. We have two ody's on our block and have had no such problems. One is a 01 EX and ours is a 00 LX will keep you posted if any such problems occure. Happy sailing.
Jonnyrf: I have the Michelin Symmetry tires, so I was hoping the noise was not from the tires.
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.
"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...."
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.
The Firestone tires make for effective drums. In 36,050 miles in my '99 LX, I have found them to be quite noisy on a variety of road surfaces, especially concrete.
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.
There are reports of a 'transmission clunk' when in reverse. For clarification, does this clunk occur when engaging reverse OR does the clunk occur when the vehicle is moving in reverse (after a certain distance)? My 2001 LX with 2000 miles has what I think is a loud noise from the tranny when moving the gear shift from drive to Park when parking the vehicle - the noise occurs when passing thru reverse. Is this soemthing I should tell the dealer or is it normal?
I've got a 2K EX with Michelin Symmetry and mud flaps. Heard odd noises similar to "bad road" description of previous posts while going through snow and slush yesterday morning. It lasted for a few moments, then stopped and then it did it a few more times. The TCS did not activate during the noise, and I was confused until I finally realized that it did it mostly on the turns. I only have 5800 miles on van so I didn't really think it was NV joints or half-shafts, but it was still strange. 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.
The known issue for 1999 and some 2000 transmissions was while moving in reverse for several feet a loud bang would be heard. This noise would also happen under certain circumstances forward. This noise is very loud as if you ran over a large object or something big fell out of the car.The noise while shifting(sitting still) is a normal noise most likely, but not being there to hear it I can't say for sure. On your next visit or just stop in and have them have a listen.Good luck
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.
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.
My sister is currently in the proces of getting her 2000 EX replaced with a new one thanks to the lemon law. She has had so many problems with the van that its pitiful. Most of the problems have stemmed from the power doors, which seem to be a common problem. In the 13 months she has owned the van, it has been in the shop for a month and visited the dealer at least 25 times. She only has about 14,000 miles on it. Honda has been very difficult to deal with. The guy assigned to her case does not return her calls and forwards her to other customer reps so he doesn't have to deal with her. It has been 3 months since she started the process for claiming lemon law and still no new van. The van has caused her so many headaches and has been nothing but a hassle. 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've been experiencing a shuddering when braking above 40MPH. I had the van in for service at Honda for its 30K maintenance. They replaced the pads and turned down the rotors and said that the problem was fixed. It's still happenning. Has anyone else experienced this problem?
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!
I am sorry that you are having this problem and even sorrier that I have no helpful information to provide to you. However, I am delighted to commend you as one of a very select group who understand and properly use the words "shudder" and "shuddering" instead of misusing the words "shutter" and "shuttering." You may still have a problem, but at least you are expressing it in a literate manner. Thanks.... ;-)
I have had this loud problem for the past 20k on my 99 and my dealer has been unable to fix it. They call it a "characteristic of the vehicle" (haha). I am told by service that some people actually hear it when test driving before they sign and refuse the van. For those who don't... There does not seem to be a real fix in sight but there is a quick [fix] by lubricating the top of the struts. I have only experienced about 24 hours of relief when doing this. I would love to hear how many others have this problem.
Anyone else find it odd that the gas gauge drops down to E when the ignition is turned off? Between the cars my family has owned, including a 91 Nissan Stanza, 93 Mitsu Diamante, 86 Accord, 92 Accord, 94 Accord, 95 Integra, 97 Maxima, 00 Hyundai Accent, all of them had gas gauges that stayed up when the car was turned off. Only my 84 VW Rabbit, 88 VW Fox, and 84 Mazda RX7 had gauges that dropped to E. I wonder why Honda did not put this on the Odyssey. It's not a big deal, just an observation.
Here's a way I found to solve the shifting clunk when moving from "D", "N" or "P" into "R" - whenever you park the van, put the parking brake on while the car is still in gear *before* moving it to "P". This prevents the van from rolling slightly and when you come back, there is no clunk!
What kind of resistance does the door have to run into to reverse directions? I tried to push on the door while it was closing and it did not want to stop. I have two small boys (less than 2) so I'm afraid they may get "ran over" by the doors. I want to get it fixed, if it is broken, as soon as possible. Any response would be appreciated.
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 doors do not reverse until the last 18 inches before they are shut. Up until that point they are learning the force needed to close the door at the same speed all the time. Example being that if you are parked up a hill or down hill the door will learn the angle and close force and keep the door speed at the same rate.So up until that point they are hard to reverse. If you are going to test their ability I would use a head rest or something like that just in case you did have a malfuntioning one it wouldn't cost you an arm or a leg ok, so that wasn't all that funny but I could'nt resist.Any how I have not yet seen one not funtion correctly but there is always that chance so be safe.Good luck
Not using the parking brake to park the car is a very bad habit of most automatic car drivers. Beside the parking brake is used to adjust the rear brakes too!!! When rear brake shoes wears, the gap between the brake shoes and the wheel drum increases. Every time the parking brake is applied, this moves the brake shoes slightly and decreases this gap. This is mentioned in the owner manual.
They must have changed the way the rear brake adjusters do their job in the past few years.
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.
Applying parking brake before engaging P is always a good practice; it will make shifting out of P much easier, particulary when parking on a steep incline. However, the method does not prevent the transmission from emiting a clunk noise when engaging into R from D4, as suggested in post#422. I am quite sure now the noise is just normal engagement sound. I just pray that it will not develope into the "dreaded clunk while moving in reverse!" 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!
Are you sure you're at a complete stop when you shift? Maybe that is why you have a clunk? It is worth several thousand dollars if you hesitate to be sure you're stopped before shifting. Take it from someone with experience in the matter.
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.
I was not at all offended and, in fact, laughed (inside -- I'm at work and must limit my outward expressions of joy) at what I took as a friendly gibe. With so many knowledgeable and helpful actual owners here I am reduced to language critiques and other occasional stabs at humor. Thanks for being concerned though! ;-)
Clunk, uh oh, oops, and ouch. 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.
"BTW, according to my official Honda Odyssey service manual, the rear brake is self ajusted by pressing normal brake pedal several times. ..."
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.
kelsen, tell the service writer you want an oil-and-filter change and a tire rotation. Period. Dealer here charges $22 or so for the former. Forgot the charge for the latter.
I find it really hard to believe that TCS is acually off when you press the button and the TCS light stays on all the time, but you guys who responded seem to know what you're talking about. That's not "counter-intuitive", that's stupid. If that's true, the button should say "turn off TCS" or something like that. There should also be two lights on the dash - one to indicate that it's enabled and one to indicate that it's disabled.
When I first got my Ody I thought the same thing as you. I now think the way Honda designed it is correct.
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.
Hello, I was born in Alabama but now live in New Jersey. As far as the final word on fluids the way it works here is, any oil can be used as long as it is changed at recomended times, any trans fluid that is compatable(however the Honda stuff is best),coolant they want Honda(but if it is atleast green in color, I don't think anyone is going to have it tested), brake fluid any DOT4,power steering only Honda. The Honda stuff is worth the money because it is better(more directly) designed for your car and is worth the peice of mind when it comes down to failure. If you use OEM then you will never have to guess if your problems are related to non- OEM parts..Good luck
Hello, this is my first post and I must say I'm impressed with the technical knowledge and the willingness to to share this with others. 3 Days ago I started my 8 day old ODY in 30 degree weather (typical at this time of year) and noticed that the engine "chugged" or acted as if it was not hitting on all cylinders. After about 5 min. it evened out and seemed fine the rest of the day.The day before Yesterday the same thing happened but the CEL and TCS lites came on and stayed on.It's now at the dealers and I'm waiting for a response.Any thoughts?
I am experiencing an intermittent buzzing noise from somewhere behind or in the insterment cluster on my 01 EX. It only begins after 2 or 3 hours of driving at interstate speeds. Sounds like a mechanical tach or speedometer cable laying against a piece of plastic and causing the noise. I assume the tach is electric but I don't see a speedometer cable going through the fire wall either. Both the tach and speedometer work fine. Any thoughts on where or what to check? Since it won't make the noise if I take it to the dealer, I would like to pinpoint the source of the noise first.
Does anyone else have this problem?: My '99 Odyssey LX starts fine 99.9% of the time. But, three times within the past two months it has refused to start (twice with a cold engine, once with a warmed up engine). When the problem occurs, the starting system "turns over" strongly, but the engine just won't start. I've tried the owner's manual instructions (peddle half depressed, peddle completely depressed) but it still won't start. However, after 30-45 minutes of just letting it sit, it starts fine again. So far my local Honda dealer can't find the problem. What's going on???
Do you have a lot of metal items hanging from your keyring?
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.
Steve, Please tell us what the Service Department says. My 99EX started doing this a few weeks ago at about 75,000 miles. The local garage indicated that the Error Codes were indicating a faulty EGR valve. I replaced the valve, but the TCS and CEL are still on, even though I can reset them off. They come back on.
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!
I picked up the van this afternoon. Here is what the service ticket says verbatim: 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"
Thanks for your detailed response. Looks like your Honda dealer is like so many others. No more mechanics, only instrument readers; and poor ones at that.
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.
I might also suggest discussing the excessively-rigid attitude of the service rep with the Service Department Manager. If the Manager turns out to be the source of that attitude, then do you have a second Honda dealer where you might go for service? My experience (extremely limited, I admit) with Honda service gave me every indication that at least some Honda Service Departments actually do have a policy of caring about their customers. Yours doesn't seem to do so. If you are absolutely stuck with this dealer, you have my sympathies (FW little IW)....
Just got my '01 EX a week back, wife complained that the drivers right side arm rest seamed low. I got to looking at it and put a level on it and sure enough it does tilt forward. Now I know the angle of the arm rest would depend on the angle of the seat back but both the drivers and passengers seat backs were approximately at the same angle, but yet the passengers left arm rest was level. Anyone else have this problem? I would think this is something that should be covered under warranty, any comments?
Yes I also had an arm rest that was different than all the others. The dealer replaced it under warr and it looks fine now. BTW check out another forum at:
Over in the main thread they are saying that the Odyssey requires 5w-20 rather than 5w-30...is this correct? See the previous posts over there and verify if you would be so kind. If I am not mistaken(I have to check my receipts) my dealer has been using 5w-30.
Comments
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