Odyssey trasmissions

After doing some research I was about to embark on a search for a 3 year old
low mileage Odyssey (my second choice is a Toyota Sierra).
BUT a friend of my son-in-law is a Honda mechanic and he has warned me off
the Odyssey on the basis of failing transmissions. (He swears by anything
else carrying the Honda brand)
Transmissions are expensive outside of warranty, and I'm now having second
thoughts. This may be an old subject to this group, but new to me.
Any thoughts would be welcome

Regards,

Gerry

 

http://www.odyclub.com

He's right. Things were allegedly fixed with the all-new 5 speed
transmission they used starting with the 02 models, but even a few of
those folks have experienced failures.

Find an 02 model with high miles, you'll be OK.

 

I have 67475 miles on my 01 Odyssey.

Not so much as a burp from the transmission (or anything else).

FWIW.


RFT!!!
Dave Kelsen

 

Gerry,

A couple of months ago a car rental agency employee told me that the
majority of their business was from people that needed "something to drive
while their Honda transmissions were being repaired". Maybe there is some
truth to his statements after all. The thing that made me suspect of his
Honda-related tirade though was that he mentioned the following Honda models
as being problematic regarding transmission issues--in addition to the
Odyssey:

-Pilot
-'03 Accord
-Acura TL

Up until this particular conversation with the car rental agency employee, I
had only heard of transmission problems with the Odyssey.

J. Perry

 

OH yeah. The 98-01 automatic transmissions in the Accords and 99-01
Odysseys had a huge failure rate.

My Honda mechanic (whom I've known for many years) strongly advised me
to do a manual transmission, back when I was looking at a 2000 Accord.
He said at one time his shop was seeing 4 or so transmissions a WEEK.
And customers were paying for them at the time. Imagine the number of
customers who just junked the car and went to Chrysler, figuring if
they're going to dump a tranny they may as well not pay nearly as much
for the car.

 

I have an 04 civic and have had transmission problems with it since DAY 1.
To date, my dealer has not done anything with the problem simply becasuse i
have no "check engine" light coming on, and there computers don't get any
"error codes" when connected to my car. None the less, my transmission
hesitates and mis-shifts.... they have even duplicted the problem at the
dealership, but won't do anything becase of the no error codes and check
engine light. I have done a lot or research since, and it seems that there
are hundereds of people out there with honda transmission problems! Most of
them on next to new cars. My advice.... DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER buy a
honda product of any type.

 

the odessy, accord and pelude have an extended warranty covering
they tranny, depending on model year. the acura's have the same
problems. it's not as widespread as people would have you believe.
the guy with the 04 civic just has a shitty dealer, find a new
one!!
Chip

 

I have had 6 different Hondas in my life- starting with a 1976 Civic, and
currently own a 2000 Odyssey & Civic. All I can say is all the Honda bashing
here is complete nonsense. I have had two domestics if my life-- both of
which have sent me running back into the arms of Honda, apologizing for
straying from the Honda's reliable reputation.
Also, has anybody even BEGUN to consider the resale value issue? The
research has been done many times over!
-chris

 

I've had more Hondas than you--and Honda earned every bit of this
bashing with respect to their 98-01 automatic transmissions. They took
many years of hard work and threw them down the drain, making them the
same joke as Chrysler is with respect to transmissions.

 

Chris,

My comments weren't even close to being of a "Honda bashing" nature. I was
repeating what a rental car agent told me regarding several Honda owners'
transmission woes that he had witnessed first hand. I'm certainly no Honda
basher. In fact, I prefer Asian vehicles ten-to-one over domestics.
Currently I own a 2002 Lexus IS300 with 6,000 miles on it, a 1990 Nissan
300ZX and a 1989 Honda Civic LX. There are no domestic vehicles in my garage
or driveway! And one of the main reasons is indeed the resale value issue
that you alluded to above.

J. Perry

 

Well said J.P., what's with Elmo? He must've neglected his Honda vehicles.
Saying that Honda's are reliable isn't to say you can beat the hell out of
'em.
-chris

 

So, buy your logic... does that mean i must have neglected my honda too
since i have a transmission probelem.... I first noticed this problem on the
second day of owning the car.... had less than 10km on it. How do you
suppose that i abused my car in 10km. It now has 1,200km and the
transmission hesitates and mis-shifts. The dealer i Purchased the car at
won't do anything about it becasue i don't have a check engine light on and
they get no error codes when they hook it up to a computer. Honda Canada
won't do anything about it... they told me in a letter that i should return
to the dealership i purchased the car from as they were the most qualified
to diagnose the problem.... So i tried going to another Honda dealer in the
city and they would not even look at the car. They asked where i purchased
it from, and said that because i had already reported this problem to my
original dealer... that they would not look at it... they said it was up to
the first dealer to fix it.

So, you wonder why people bad mouth honda.... how happy would you be if your
transmission was failing after 10km. ????????

 

Never. In fact, I bought a Civic Si brand new in 92; to this day it
runs very well, had an outstanding report on the oil analysis, and is on
the original clutch.

I've never had a Honda transmission go bad. I'm reporting the facts as
related by a VERY experienced and VERY good Honda mechanic.

You should learn to read.

You might also open your mind to the fact that Honda isn't perfect 100%
of the time, and the fact is they screwed up on their transmissions for
a few years. Their customers paid the price.

 

Ron,
Sure you can "buy" my logic...but it's costly...perhaps you meant "by."
At any rate, once again your comments typify those taking a most miniscule
shred of what I had written, and practically making a federal case out of
it.
Please go back & read Elmo's comments; his timeline was significantly longer
than 10 kms, and that reflects the context with which I made my comments.
I empathize with your situation, and would be upset with transmission
failures at only 10 kms. I would have to wager that your vehicle represents
Honda's one-in-a-million.
Good Luck with your repairs,
-chris

 

Hi Folks,
Just wondering if anyone has considered the world's only unbiased authority
on new & used vehicle ratings-- Consumers Reports...
http://www.consumerreports.org/main/home.jsp?bhfv=6&bhqs=1
When looking at their data for model years 1995-2002 ('95 is the earliest
year they show), there is only solid red circles under the transmission
categories (not to mention nearly all the rating criteria) for both my
vehicles (Odyssey & Civic): solid red
indicates a rating of "much better than average" which is C.R.'s top rating.
When I did the same for Chrysler transmissions, solid black was the result,
which means "much WORSE than average." So this allegation that Chrysler
transmissions were as bad a Honda's is complete & utter nonsense!
If Honda transmissions were so bad, how did this data escape the ever
watchful eyes of C.R., and the tens of thousands of consumers who've
submitted their ratings? Hmmm?
Gerry, this post originated with you. Have no fear- you can go buy an
Odyssey in complete confidence that it will safely & reliably take care of
your vehicular needs for many years to come.
And no, I am not professionally affiliated with Honda in any way.
-chris

 

Honda has had some transmision problems that are quite serious. I guess
the most affected was the 2000-2002 V6 Accord, with the Japanese
transmission with exceptional failure rates. The problem is
well-acknowledged, with Honda having extended the warranty for all of
these models (I can't rmemeber how long but a long time). SUPPOSEDLY,
all of the V6 auto transmissions (e.g., new Accords and Odysseys) are
made in the same way and may also have the problem.

I can say for sure the tranmsission also kind of sucked. I had a2001 Acc
EX V6 Whcih I loved but I hated the tranny. It had retarded shift
points (one which caused it to dodge between 3 and O/D right at 59 mph
cruise), was unresponsive and generally ill-behaved. I have the new
5-speed auto in my '04 Odyssey and it is definitely a much better
behaved transmission but who knows if it will last long (I don't care
anyway since it is a 3-yr lease car).

My guess is if problems emerge, Honda will take care of it, like they
did with the Accord warranty extension. Still, this is not the Honda
quality you expect, and it probably would not happen with a Toyota.
Honda has very good quality and more usability in my mind, but my
Toyotas had fewer problems. My Hondas usually have 1 problem in their
lifetime (My Accord EXV6 had a few before 27k miles, though), Toyota's
none.

Here is what went wrong with my Accord. Luckily, I got rid of the car
before the tranny failed:

At 10k miles, the brakes developed a serious shimmy. This was from
warped rotors (all 4 rotors!! obviously a manufacturing defect!!!).
Honda initially didn't want to fix this under warrranty (cost of $290)
but eventually relented and paid for it. I had complained about the
problem at 7.5k, actually, but by 10k the car was almost undrivable
since it would shimmy even if you were not using the brakes. I am also
concerned that I had to have the rotors turned so early since it would
reduce both their usable life and the brake pads (my understanding is
that thinner rotors = more heat = quicker use of pads). Honda assured me
this was not a problem:::

At 26k miles, the REAR disc pads WORE out. I was pretty surprised since
my experience with rears has always been that they last like 60k miles.
I mean that is a long time but 26k seems very premature to me. This was
mostly highway miles and I am very docile driver. Cost was $300. The
front discs had less than 1k miles left when I turned the car in at 27k
miles (although this is not the reason I turned it in, new babies
require more space!!!)

The car also had certain paint defects that emerged over time. These
appeared as cracks in the clear-coat (looked like scratches but they
were not, they also had the shape of the way paint would crack). They
appeared here and there (like maybe 5 in total about 1-3 inches long). I
should say I live in SoCal and the car was garaged both at work and at
home so this was surprising and certainly unexpected.

BUT, I can say in terms of drivability this was the best car I ever
owned. I loved it. And it didnt leave me anywhere, these were sort of
problems that were more like nuisance premature wear issues, but not the
sort of quality you might get from Toyota.

 

Well, they're not perfect, either. Lexus ES300 transmissions have their
own share of problems. Granted, that's at around 125K miles or so...

But then there's the engine oil sludge problem. Toyota can't make me
believe that all of the sudden people stopped taking care of their cars
and didn't do oil changes. No, too many people have reported this;
where there's smoke, there's fire.

Toyota has its share of problems, too.

And then there's the bad programming in the new Lexus ES transmission
controllers.

Good for you! I had my certified used 2000 Accord for about 6 months
when my BRAND NEW brakes (including resurfaced rotors) did the same
thing. I think this is a Honda feature....

That absolutely should not be. On my 92 Si, the rears went for 75K.
Most people would have them go longer.

 

Hi SA,
I have read about your issues, and I guess what my original comments were
referring to is that I have never had any premature wear/quality/reliability
concerns with any of the Hondas I have owned.
Example: In May of 1988, I purchased a new '88 Civic and kept it for 7
years. I did literally NOTHING to the car except oil changes + regular
maintenance (i.e. wear items).
I did NOT do the periodic Honda-recommended maintenance checks (at 6000,
12000, 24000 miles, etc.), as I have always felt these are just a dealership
cash-grab. The car performed flawlessly throughout this period, was real fun
to drive, and is largely why we continue to drive Hondas to this day (2000
Civic + 2003 Odyssey).
As you have said, Toyota's are a fine choice as well.
-chris
P.S. I wish I still had that '88 Civic, but it was a tad small with the
birth of our first-born!

 

I think if you do the oil changes and maybe the 15K checks, CERTAINLY
the 30/60/90K services, a Honda should run forever.