15th Dec 2008, 18:48

December 15, 2008.

We have a 2001 Odyssey, purchased it used with just under 100K about 18 months ago. It currently is getting close to 140K.

Our transmission went out about 1 year ago with around 107,000 miles on it. I did some internet research, and found that there were problems with the transmissions and Honda had extended the warranty to 100K. We were expecting the worst (thinking $3,000 to $4,000 for a new one. But we took it to our local dealer, (which we had not even purchased it from) and to our pleasant surprise they replaced it at no charge and also gave us the 36,000 miles warranty. We have had very good luck with our local Honda dealers.

We are currently having a problem with our power sliding doors freezing and not opening, we live in Indiana, so its going to be cold for another 3-4 months. Anyone have any suggestions?

22nd Dec 2008, 10:00

I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey that has 160,000 miles in it and it is running very well. If the check engine light comes on, try adding gas treatment additive in your fuel. Fill up your tank and add 1 container of additive. STP brand works well with mine and cost less than $2. This works if the oxygen sensor is the problem.

9th Jan 2009, 18:56

Hi.

I am second owner of 2001 Odyssey. Bought it at 89000 miles at odometer. Had it serviced at dealership. They also did transmission service.

A thousand miles later I had to replace the transmission at 97 000 miles. Honda replaced it under warranty. I did not have to pay anything. And I was happy for a while.

Now, 2 years and 60 000 miles later, I have had transmission replaced 4 times. Honda has replaced it 4 times under warranty. Now, at 5th time, they are refusing to replace it under warranty. My mileage now is 152 000. They offered me to pay 20% of a cost last time in order to get the new warranty for 36 000 miles for new unit. I paid $500 something dollars for it. Since when I have traveled for about 25 000 (warranty is good for 36 000) miles and they simply refuse to pay for it. Called Honda USA today. Got case number and waiting for their decision.

Extremely unhappy with my Odyssey. I use it for my work. I have not been able to work for almost 5 months in 2 years because my car has been in dealerships for changing transmissions and for numerous other issues. I have paid over $1000 dollars for towing fees to get my car to dealerships (Honda has sent me check for $100). Been stranded for hours on highways with smoking transmission waiting for towing truck to pick me up. Never had offered free rental while they keep my car at dealerships for weeks.

I hope my review will be helpful for people thinking to buy an Odyssey.

11th Jan 2009, 12:55

I too have a 2001 Honda Odyssey. The car is on its third transmission, all done in its first 4 years. Today, the check engine and TCS lights came on again. The dealer has replaced the trans both times, and I'm hoping that they will do it again, since it's on 82,000 miles. From what I understand, they will keep replacing them up to 100,000 miles? At what point can we apply the lemon laws?

12th Jan 2009, 14:31

For the person in Indiana with trouble with freezing doors. I assume you have the LX power sliding doors (if you specified, I missed it). I live in Vermont and have had this problem every winter for five years with my 2001 Oddyssey LX. One of the doors will open just a crack, then stop. Then it will neither open fully nor close fully again. If you try to drive without switching off the power to the doors there's an annoying alarm. If that's your problem, I have found that if you thaw the doors by driving or by waiting til it gets warmer, then detaching the battery briefly and then reattaching it, the doors reset and you can close and open them again.

23rd Jan 2009, 00:58

For those with sticking auto-doors, remove fuse #13 in the passenger side foot fuse box for 30 seconds and put it back in. This resets the door motor without having to disconnect the battery. I am driving an '01 Odyssey that I just purchased, and according to Carfax, it has never had a transmission replaced. All other dealer service showed up on the report (the previous owner did all maintenance at the dealer). I am hoping that if the vehicle has made it this long without a transmission problem, that it will last. Something like 36% of the transmissions have had problems, and I hope I am in the other 64%.

5th Feb 2009, 14:25

We purchased a 2001 Odyssey EX back in June of 07 with about 76k miles on it. We have had to replace some parts on the cooling system due to leaks. I have also had to reset the power doors 3 times using the fuse trick... (I am soooo glad I checked out the issue on-line. It saved me trips to the dealer and most likely an un-needed motor.)

This last weekend the transmission started "acting weird" when my wife was driving home from a trip. She made it home and I took out the van to find out what "acting weird" meant. When taking off from a stop sign or slowing down and then speeding up the engine would rev... and then all of sudden gears would engage and lurch the car forward, spinning the tires. So bad in fact that it overheated the TCS, shutting it down. I did my research and found out there was a severe problem with the 99-01 Odyssey vans and Honda extended the 3 year, 36,000 mile warranty to 7 years, 100,000 miles because of this problem. And a class action lawsuit extended that to 93 months (7 years, 9 months) and 109,000 miles. We were lucky that we had a late 01 model (manufacture date was 08/01 and I found out later the delivery date was 10/01) so we were covered under the class-action, but not the original Honda extended. Also we have 100,900 miles on it... again, covered under the class-action, but not the original honda extended warranty. I put our VIN in the lawsuits website to see if our VIN was covered and it was.

I took it to the dealer armed with these facts the next day (Monday 10am) It was fixed by 1PM on Wednesday. No charge... it would have been quite a bit more than $4,000 otherwise. Also we now have a 36 month or 36,000 mile warranty on the new transmission. I am very happy! The dealer did a great job, never tried to pass any cost to me (probably because I had a clue as to what was going on) plus they washed and vacuumed the car for us. Too bad it took a lawsuit (I hate frivolous lawsuits... but this does not appear to be frivolous).

Like I said... very happy how this turned out... but we will be selling or trading the van off before we reach 136,900 miles believe me. These problems seem to repeat and I am not going to take a 4k gamble. Then we will probably buy a Toyota Sienna. Previously we had 4 Hondas. (93 Del Sol S, 95 Accord EX, 97 Accord LX, 00 CR-V EX, all bought new) But right now we currently own 4 toyotas and most likely will be sticking with that brand...