17th Sep 2009, 21:27

Went to buy a used 2000 Odyssey. Looked great and ran great, but seller had no service records and CEL was on. Seller (car lot guy) said it was the Cat Conv. light. Didn't buy - came back to research and found this site. VERY helpful. I'm much more worried about the future of the transmission than the CEL. Van has 128K.

19th Sep 2009, 17:54

Have 2000 EX bought in 2000 in California. Now has 140k miles. 4 years ago the engine light came on everyone is talking about. My wife was praying about it and said the Lord told her to keep going on and not worry about it. We were half way through a 2000 mile trip. I went with what she was saying and when we arrived at home took it to the Honda dealer, who said it was a bad CC and $1100 to fix it. 90k at the time.

10 months later I had to get the emissions done on it in Georgia, where you will fail if the light is on. I took it to the Honda dealer who checked the code and he confirmed it was the CC and said there was no way we would pass the smog test. I did not have the money to replace the CC. He told me he had been a mechanic and there was a little trick you could do to help reset the computer settings. Drive up a hill very slowly, and then go down a hill by taking your foot off the gas and let the car coast on its own (keep it in gear). Do this about 4 times. Somehow it resets the computer after having it cleared. Took it in for the emissions test and it passed. Did this the next year and passed again. This last year I decided to have the dealer clear the code and took it right in, and failed the test. I told the guy give me a few minutes, and I did the hill thing again, and re-took the test and it passed.

I am starting to have the car make a garbling noise they said would happen on a bad CC. In listening to all the comments (thank you all) I will try the cleaning efforts and see if that will open the system up a little more.

Hope this helps. God Bless. Dan.

25th Sep 2009, 17:56

I've got the same story on my 2000 Ody. 170,000 having spent $3,000 per year on repairs and maintenance in each of the past three years. Why don't we sell them? I find that amazing that we all keep these cars for so long. I love it. It is big for hauling everthing I need on a trip. It is comfortable and great to drive. When I get rid of it I'll not miss the little light going on, and the money it takes to turn it off, but I'll miss driving it. PCMike.

15th Nov 2009, 16:56

I've been a fortunate original owner of a 2000 Honda Odyssey (bought in March 2000). The PS automatic sliding door went bad at around 74k miles, but I was too cheap to spend $600 to fix it and I've been manually helping it close.

At 94k miles, my transmission went bad and luckily the dealer replaced it at no cost. I had done all my maintenance at the dealer up to the 36k mile mark when the original warranty ended.

Now at 140k miles, I'm getting the TCS light and the flashing CEL. I don't have the codes yet, but when is the next CASH FOR CLUNKERS program coming?

I'm not sure I want to buy another recycled transmission on my own dime that only lasts 40k miles or spend $2k on emission fixes that don't solve the problem.

I paid about $28k for this 2000 EX and it lasted me 9.5 years, so that about $3k per year. Not bad.

I bought my 1996 Toyota Landcruiser in 3/2004 for $12k with 99k miles. I now have 175k miles and it runs a lot better than the minivan. I got a better deal on the Landcruiser and the only major repair on it was changing the radiator that got clogged.

18th Nov 2009, 11:05

Where do I even begin? My 2000 Odyssey EX mini-van (purchased new by us) is sitting at the Honda service center now getting its 4th or is it the 5th new transmission? Hard to keep track.

Fortunately for us, we haven't had to pay for any of them due to the warranty. Today I am paying for a new engine bolt and a transmission bolt to the tune of $350.00. It's about half what they originally quoted when I took the van in last week and said the transmission was giving me problems again. Course they said it was fine and the problems I was experiencing were due to the cracked bolts! Course less than a week later I limped back in with the transmission in ruins just shy of the one year date of its installation. I have one other cracked engine bolt, but am not willing to pay the $600.00 they claim that will cost.

I can't tell you the number of times we've had to have the brakes worked on and replaced over the years... in the beginning almost every year, less as time has gone on, no doubt because we drive it less.

I recently left a dome light on, and after re-charging my battery, I noticed the SRS light was on for the first time. Course the diagnostic is over $100.00, and if nothing is wrong, they'll reset it and send me on my way. If there's a problem, then no doubt the cost will go up from there! I think it just needs to be reset since it's never been a problem before, and no one has mentioned experiencing problems with the SRS light in previous posts. If anyone has a suggestion on how to reset it, I would appreciate it.

I too have had the check engine light problem from 2005 at 78,682 miles, and every time they would check it, they would say there is nothing wrong and reset it. In the beginning it would come off and on sporadically, but in the past year it's been on pretty much non-stop. Recently they claimed I needed a new gas cap and this would fix the problem, which I bought from them (only $20.00). The light came back on 3 days later! Now suddenly it's a catalytic converter problem and it's around $1,200.00 to fix?

After reading these posts... I don't think so! As soon as I get the van back with codes reset, I am heading straight to get my safety inspection done as it's due this month. Wish me luck!

Note: In 2006 they charged us $381.12 to clean the EGR port and installed a pipe, replaced EGR kit and cleared codes. Now it sounds like that should have come under some kind of recall that we weren't notified of and shouldn't have had to pay for. Also my catalytic converter may well have been under warranty back when I first brought the check engine light problem to their attention back in the day. It looks like my service rep and I will have a lot to talk about later today!!!