2001 Honda Odyssey EX from North America - Comments

At 79000 miles I had the trans replaced on my 2001 Odyssey.

At ~117000 miles we have been having an ongoing issue with our 2001 Odyssey, where the check engine light has been coming on along with the TCS light. When we brought the car in 2 months ago this year the error codes indicated a faulty EGR valve and catalytic converter - which we had repaired. However the problem has re-appeared where the check engine light comes on with the TCS light coming on after the car is put into gear. We brought the car into Honda and the mechanic read out a P0325 code indicating open knock sensor circuit, and he claimed that a rodent of some kind had chewed through the wiring harness. I can't be skeptical with physical evidence - an open circuit is an open circuit. They broke the knock sensor trying to replace the harness, and now they have to replace at no cost to us and they have to provide a free rental. So if they are playing games, this one is on them. This will be a free repair for us. I fully expect our problems with this Odyssey to continue judging by the amount of customer complaints.

I will buy a Chevy and Ford next time. My philosophical reasons are that Honda has rested too long on their laurels as top in quality and customer satisfaction, and have gotten a pass by Edmonds, consumer reports and the like while putting some horrendously engineered products on the market - the 2001 Odyssey case in point. But the problem is that when so many consumers run out and buy Honda products, they fully expect they are getting quality; their expectations are set high to begin with. And then you learn that Honda is putting poorly engineered transmissions in their vehicles that eventually lead to a class action lawsuit; it is jarring. You would not expect this from Honda. In the meantime Ford and Chevy are busting their chops to win customer loyalty by earnestly building quality automobiles. So if you are thinking of buying a Honda as a safe bet, do some research not from Edmonds or Consumer Reports, but from real Honda owners at sites like this - your next car may be a GM or Ford.

I too have 2001 Odyssey, where the check engine light and the TCS stays on. Currently, it is still running, but it is about to die on me, very, very soon. The constant gear shifting every time I press on the gas pedal. I don't have any other car to take me to work and back, so I am forced to drive it until it is dead on me. Call me dumb and stupid, but money is a problem right now.

I to have a 2001 Honda Van, which I purchased new. Sadly on our way home from Myrtle Beach, the TCS and Check Engine light came on driving up the interstate. We called the Honda dealership and they told us to come in and they would do a test for 75.00.

I called a Honda mechanic that I know, and my brother in law borrowed a computer and ran a diagnostic test on my van, and got the following codes; PO740 and PO420. I gave these 2 codes to my friend; he told my to trade the van, that the transmission was going out.

Honda had a recall on these vans up to 100,000 miles. I have loved my van and had no intentions on trading it anytime soon. I never received anything in the mail regarding mine, which I think is strange. I can't afford to buy another Honda van, and had planned on this one lasting me until my child was grown. (which will be a while).

I plan on contacting Honda and letting them know about the little recall that I was never informed of, and now has hit me in the face. This is not the first vehicle that Honda has had transmission problems with; we all remember the Passport. My friend says they stayed in the shop all the time.

I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey, the TCS light and check engine light has just come on, after about 1 month the van is completely undrivable. We planned on having this van for at least 180k miles. I have a case open at Honda now, they have not offered to pay since the "extended warranty" is only to 109k, we have 117k. But seemed to be somewhat sympathetic to our situation. If this is not taken care of by Honda we will never buy one again!!

We too have a 2001 Honda Van, which we leased new. We had problems from day one too. First, we heard a high pitched noise that sounded like Morris code. I took it in and was told the seal around the windshield was the cause. They replaced it at no charge due to warranty. I took it in again and was told the same thing. When I told them the sound was not coming from the windshield but the driver and passenger side front windows, they said no it was the windshield. Funny how vibration could be felt on both door windows toward the top and if you just lightly tapped the window button to ever so slightly open the window, the noise stopped. The sound was never corrected because the Honda service department would not listen to me.

We have also had problems with the sliding doors sticking to the point they failed to open. Again, the dealership failed to fix the problem, they just treated the symptom.

We finally hit the 100,000 mile mark and replaced the timing belt. We have a trusted mechanic that we have used for 20+ years. A week after they replaced the timing belt, the TCS and Check Engine light came on.

I took the van to our mechanic and they said that the solenoid was testing with in range, so they reset the codes. They came back on and we were then told that the repair manuals say to remove the part and test it. Usually when this is done, a new transmission is needed.

It never fails, no matter how much research we do before buying a car, we always seem to buy the ones that end up needing the most maintenance.

Living through the same issue as many on this thread. I have an Odyssey 2002 with the engine light and TCS on, slipping gears from 1st to second. Dealership said that the transmission has to be replaced. I have already changed the transmission oil and it has not helped. The dealership has already fixed the so called recall issue back in 2004.

I have called Honda and their response was they have already fixed the issue, and cannot do anything more, even if it is related.

Now I am shopping for the best way to get the transmission fixed. Can't afford to buy a new van. Talk about the Honda quality - a dying transmission at 90K.

I bought my 2001 Honda Odyssey new from a local dealer in December of 2001, since then I have only had minor problems with my van, doors sticking and the rear window motor going out, but all in all, I love my van. It has been loyal to me until recently. I have never towed my van and I have always brought it in for routine maintenance. I just hit 78,000 miles and I am experiencing much of the same problems many of you have, transmission slipping, weird sound when I go into reverse, check engine light and the TCS light. The problem started even before the check engine light turned on but it was subtle, once the light came on it was more noticeable.

I brought it in to the shop before the light came on because I did not want the problem to escalate, but the mechanic told me that the computer was not spitting out anything because the light had not turned on yet, so I waited cautiously. It finally turned on, took it in, but the code was not definite, the mechanic told me that it was a 50/50 chance that a trans flush would help, if that doesn't work to change out the torque converter solenoid, but that too was a 50/50 chance because they have seen transmission problems with the 2001s and was hoping I wasn't going to fall victim to having to overhaul or replace the trans. I had my fingers crossed, got the trans flush, that didn't work, replaced the solenoid, that didn't do it either, the shop guys said the only other alternative is to overhaul or change out the trans. Oh no! I am expecting to pay between $1500 to $2000! I'm already out $900 from doing everything else! HELP! Does anyone know if Honda is still covering trannys up to 7yrs/100,000 miles? Help needed all the way out here on Guam.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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.

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%.

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...

I have a 2001 Odyssey. Engine light is on and the TCS light is on. Did the EGR valve and injector cleaner. Still no change. You are all saying 100,000 mile warranty. I got a letter about 2 years ago and they told me that I have until 108,000 miles, so I am going to Honda and bring in all your comments and going to try to fix this problem. I want to thank you for all your talk about this problem. But I will buy a new Honda again. Never will buy a American car again. NO good American cars...