Honda Odyssey 02 Trans slips, any others?

[Jane Wojciechowski]

Hi, I became a member because I'm mad as hell and someone needs to put an end to corporate greed. I purchased a Honda Odyssey 2001 used, I'm the second owner. I experienced the"transmission problem". When I brought the car to the Honda dealer (who incidentally had sold the car originally to owner # 1) informed me that Honda was offering an extended warranty for the transmission problem BUT NOT TO OWNERS OF VEHICLES ASSEMBLED IN CANADA. I feel this is outrageous. The dealer originally brought from Canada to increase the profit margin at the time because of the strong U.S. dollar in Canada. Honda wanted to discourage their dealers from this practice so this is their way of punishing their dealers. I guess that makes me the "whipping boy"! I want to hear from people who have this problem and want to do something about it. BRuth816@Charter. net

[FlyingTiger]

After 64k miles, we started having 2nd-3rd shifting delay. This went on for about a month before I brought it in for service. call me lazy, DONT DO THIS, If you experience the shift delay at any time, My advice is to BRING IT TO A DEALER ASAP !
One afternoon in heavy traffic for 2 hrs of bumpertobumper stopandgo under20mph driving, we had the D, CEL and Maint light lights come on. shifting was an issue. We limped home. Brought it in to dear dealer and they gave us a rental (taurus) for 10 days and replaced the txmssn at no cost to us. I bought the extended 100k warranty on our used 2002 when I bought it in 2003. Good thing, because it was all covered. The bill says $3685 (US) $695 of that is labor.
This was dangerous and fortunatley a bump in the road logistically for our family, and I am glad Honda took care of it.
As far as the Canadian issue, That sounds fishy to me, You should speak with dealer owner and then Honda America.

[FlyingTiger]

I just read some failing tranny posts and found lots of happy owners with warrantys and lots of unhappy owners without warrantys.
I have a related story with my Sony camcorder I should share.... In 2001 I purchased a $700 Sony camcorder from BestBuy. I did not extend the warranty. In 2004 it stopped working. I spent almost $400 in 3 separate repair bills to Sony Service. Then just 3 months ago it died again. I got pretty pissy with Sony over the phone once I got to Level 2 support. My argument was that I have spent $400 on a $700 camera and it still aint fixed...anyway, they agreed to fix it again for free and if this doesnt work they will replace it.. even though its out of warranty, mostly because they have tried to repair it before.
Any way, This experience tells me that even giant companys like SONY have humans that understand your issues and when there is a series of related issues with your car, if you talk to the right people you may get soe traction.
This "tranny odyssey" is the same thing.
If you have a Ody that is experiencing the issue, the fact that you didnt pay for an extended warranty should not deter Honda from offering to pay for $3000 in the parts and YOU can cough up the $695 labor WITHOUT complaints, since those that already ponied up for the $extended$ warranty have ALSO suffered an added cost when they swallowed hard and wrote the check when the car was still new.
I wish you

[lad104]

Had my car at the honda dealer yesterday because the D was flashing and the check engine light was on last week , but has since gone off.. The van drove perfectly as far as I could tell , so was I surprised to hear from the service mgr. that I needed a new tranny and it would cost me $3500 plus labor at $105 per hour.My SRS light was also on and that would be $495 plus 2 hours labor. So I told them to put my van back together and I would pick it up . I called North American Honda and told them my concerns - an odyssey with 38000 miles on it should not need a new tranny. Received a call today back from a rep. and they said I would get a new tranny at no cost to me and that the srs light might also be covered by some type of extended warranty. So Honda is standing behind their product BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK the dealer did not offer me any info. except for how much everything would cost. This website was very helpful as was the internet . Good luck to all.

[shaquel]

Hi,
I have a same issue in my 2002 Honda Odyssey at 41000 miles as you had in your Van. I got lot of information from your email. I called Honda company to bear the cost of the new transmission if the dealer had to replace the transmission. My Car is not under extended warrantee. Why should we buy extended warrantee as we have already paid lot for the Honda goodwill. Instead, I would have bought Kia Sedona which give 10 years powertrain warrantee for Free.

If In case Honda denies to get me this fixed free of charge then can you give me your case# so that they can refer your case and help me? I don't know yet If I will need this.
Do you have any other information that could help me?

Thanks,
shaquel

[shaquel]

Can anyone explain me what is a difference between replacing and rebuilding Tranny. What is better?

[Tiger]

Honda customer rep called back and after reviewing my maintenance records offerred to cover $1000 for the tranny replacement. I would have to go through a Honda dealer to get a re manufactured transmission for this deal to go through. Rep told me to check other transmission companies to compare - think about it and give a call back.

Are these remanufactured trannies any better? I will still be out 3000 if I accept the offer.

Pondering

[jeanc57]

I also have a '02 Odyssey, purchased Dec 01. At 54K miles I had periodic problems described by others and took it into the dealer multiple times but they could not reproduce it. It got worse and I learned how to best trigger the failure to get it to fail at the dealer. They replaced the transmission with a rebuilt one at no cost to me and paid for my rental car. I was impressed with Honda server and after owning Hondas and Toyotas for 30 years thought that this was a fluke as I had never experienced a problem before.

Today I was driving on the freeway and suddenly the transmission went out completely. I was able to coast over to the side and was towed to the dealer. There was nothing left - not even park. I have 109K miles on the car total, 55K on the rebuilt transmission. I also recently spent 2K on the major service, brake job and new tires. I was not happy at all when I got to the dealer and told them that at this point my next stop was going to have to be the Toyota dealer as I drove a Previa to 190K miles with no problem. The current response is they will replace the transmission and cover the cost of the the parts but I will have to pay 1K for labor. I supose I should be happy as they are paying for a lot but why are these problems happening and does this mean I have another 50K miles to get this car sold and buy a Toyota? I think the problem can't be the transmission alone - something is causing the transmission to fail and it appears it will happen again and again.

[cameronc]

Thanks to the information in this thread, my wife found out that the transmission problems she has been encountering for months were a widespread problem, not just a problem with our particular vehicle.

Our 2002 Honda Odyssey had 71,812 miles on it when we took it in. We did not have an extended warranty. The regular warranty ran out quite a while ago. We bought the car new in the winter of 2002. It was made at a factory in the south (New Orleans?), not in Canada.

My wife had taken the car to the local dealer in Annapolis several times. On the first occasion, she was in a parking lot and discovered that the engine was racing uncontrollably. Having no idea what was wrong, she called for AAA to tow her Odyssey to the dealer. He could find nothing wrong with the car.

She experienced the problem again a couple or three months later. Still the dealer could not figure out what was wrong.

Scouring the internet for information, she found this thread. She called American Honda customer service at 1-800-999-1009 and described the problem to them. They said they would note the problem so that if it arose again they would have a record of it.

Four days later the engine warning light came on. She pulled over, shut the car off, and restarted it: the light came on again.

She drove the car to the dealer. Now they were able to diagnose the problem: we needed a new transmission.

I went in with her the next morning. The service manager at Annapolis Honda said that he had called the factory. Honda would pay for the parts but we would have to pick up the $690 labor costs.

I called American Honda several times over the next few days to ask why we had to pay the labor when it was clear from the postings on this thread that the company was paying for all the labor in other cases. It took a few days before I was actually able to speak to the case manager. The way the systems works is that a service representative takes the information. It seems that only the regional case managers can make decisions that involve money.

The case manager had the impression that the local dealer had agreed to pay for the parts. I quizzed her on this and she finally conceded that probably it was American Honda, but it would have resulted from a conversation between the local dealer's service representative and a factory representative. She had not been involved in the decision at all and, in fact, the case opened when my wife first called had been closed immediately thereafter, before the engine warning light ever even came on.

She seemed to be firm in not agreeing to pick up the cost of the labor. However, she did agree to call the local dealer and talk to him.

Meanwhile the dealer was replacing our transmission and we got a call to pick it up. Only when we got to the dealer did we discover that American Honda had decided to pick up half the labor costs. Under the circumstances, I guess I'm happy.

I tried to find out why American Honda pays the full costs for some customers and not others. The case manager stated repeatedly that each case was considered on its own merits. About all I could squeeze out of her was that if you take your car to the local dealer for service, they will look on you more kindly than if you take it elsewhere or---God forbid---you don't do maintenance at all.

The case manager also said that if Honda paid for all the costs, including the labor, then there would be no warranty. I doubt the legal accuracy of such a statement. However, since we paid for half the labor, $345, we now have a further three-year warranty on the transmission.

The local service manager told me that the transmission has an old case but that all the internal parts are new. In contrast, he said, a rebuilt transmission often will have one new part and many old ones. If this is correct, then I think the new transmission should last.

We also were charged $27 for waste removal and supplies. I feel mildly stung, but getting a $3000 transmission for a grand total of $374 is considerable compensation.

Thanks to all here who shared their stories. It saved us a lot of money and---touch wood---our transmission is as good as new again..

[jdskycaster]

This is rediculous. I have complained about the transmission in our 2002 several times since we purchased it new in August of 2002. Needless to say I was even less happy when the recall came in and my local dealer installed the oil bypass "fix" saying there was no damage to the 2nd gear at this point.

Well, we were driving the van this weekend and it started to slip shifting from 2nd to 3rd gear just like everyone here has described. We happen to have 113,000 miles on it now so I feel honored to have gone beyond the 100K mile mark. Unfortunately I am not smiling since we also purchased the Honda 100K mile extended warranty which will now do us no good at this point. After reading the posts here and on the Odyssey forum my first call in the morning will not be to my dealer who has ignored my complaints to this point. I will open a case with American Honda and see what they say.

I understand that many of you are happy that the company has fixed your vehicles for no charge or in some cases for only the cost of labor but doesn't anyone here feel that everyone who has purchased one of these vans has been completely ripped off? Why should each and every owner have to plead their case when this appears to be a clear case of defective manufacturing? Does someone have to be critically injured to get the ball rolling and get Honda to come clean about this serious and widespread issue?

Some of you also seem to believe that this problem is rectified in the replacement units. I for one do not believe this for second. A 3yr/36000 mi warranty on a known defective part is not worth squat when it relates to safety and reliability of a vehicle. As you can tell we use this vehicle for long trips and would easily run through a new 36k warranty within a year. Other than the warranty has anyone been given a true response regarding the technical resolution of this problem? I have read many owners situations where the transmission has already been replaced several times in the same vehicle.

JD

[Derek_Thompson24]

Can anyone explain me what is a difference between replacing and rebuilding Tranny. What is better?

getting the tranny replaced would include you getting a rebuilt transmission from the dealer. Rebuilding the transmission would include you getting that very tranny rebuilt. They would take it all apart and build it from the ground up again and possibly give you some new parts. The dealer may tell you that you are getting a new tranny if you go with replacing.. but it will most likely be a rebuild.

[cvk90]

Hello JDSkycaster, any further updates on your tranny failure ? I have 02 odyssey , which shifts bit bumpy from 1 to 2 and 2 to 3 gear. Runs fine after that. It has 101000 miles on it. I bought it at 98500 miles and it has had the recall work done on it. I flushed the transmission as well and the problem still persists. I am not sure if I am heading to failure like everyone else has been.

since you had 113000 miles, I would appreciate if you could share how honda handled your situation. Thanks.

[decaturjulie]

Thanks to all of you for sharing your woes related to the 02 Odyssey. Mine died this past Sunday on the way home from vacation. We have 84,000 miles on it. My mechanic happened to have an office manager with a 01 Odyssey that had the same problem and she told me about all the transmission issues and even called Honda for me. My car is being towed up to the dealer this morning. The Service Manager said that Honda would be willing to work with me and that I might just have to pay service costs. After reading all of the posts here I will definitely be approching them to pay the entire cost. Information is a powerful thing. I will let you all know how it goes and I will be telling my many friends who have Odysseys about this blog. You think you are picking a safe family car and then you have transmissions locking up on the highway.

[elbloch]

hi all-
i have a 2002 honda odyssey with 43,000 mi. and have recently noticed transmission slip after extended highway travel. anyone else experiencing similar issues?

[decaturjulie]

Well the dealer got back to us and said American Honda would pay for the parts and that we would be responsible for the labor which was a whopping $900. We said no way and that in good faith we bought this car and ethically they should pay the total cost. After a few phone calls back and forth we are finally at $0 due to fix the transmission. American Honda is paying for all of it however they are saying we have two broken engine mounts that need to be replaced. Anyone have info on this? My mechanics office manager said she was told the same thing when her tranmission was replaced. I sense a shell game here. Would an engine mount be damaged by the transmission problems?

[jayrey300]

Greetings.
In my story. My wife and I bought a 2nd hand 01 ody ex back in 2004, i think. just last year we had the tranny replaced because of a TSID and a letter fro honda america. intresting on this van is that it was purchased by the first owner in antioch,calif and i guess she moved the the midwest and moved back down to the bayarea. we were kind of worried when we bought it because different climates that the van experienced. overall, the van works flawlessly with the new transmission that autowest honda replaced for free and including the labor. only thing that they charged me was a new front engine mount. i forgot how much they were going to charge me, but i told the servicetech that i can buy the part elsewhere for cheap (oem part =) )and install it myself. he then said that he'll just charge me the part for what they get it for. so i said to myself and to him 'cool' - 'go for it'. this saved me the time to orderit my self and get charge for tax and shipping
anyways, sad to say, my wife was rear-ended by a jeep cherokee and as the van was pushed forward into the rear of a yukon denali.( it was raining and also my wife was 30weeks pregnant, but baby is fine as my wife). it turned out that the van was totaled at $13,000 and we only owed 10k.
since this happened, we had to find another van (i'd prefer honda ody again) and we saw an 02 exnavleather. pretty nice with dvd and half tank of gas =). we decided to buy it.
Now the interesting story on this is that I checked the vin and carfax and the title is clean but it didnt show any recalls on vin. i went to honda website and added the vin to ownerlink and it said that there was a recall done to the vin /van but the recall wasnt a tranny replacement, but rather an oiljet kit that they installed. i forget who said that within a certain miles the van has, they will install an oiljet kit and for those who has a different mileage they will do something else. anyways, i did some research to where the van was sold from and it was down somewhere in the greater LA area (power honda i think). my worry was that i dont know how the last owner (lease) drove the van. but i did know that they have children. and in LA there is a lot of stop n gos here and there. but we dicided to buy the van.
As my family and my inlaws took a trip to Ontario, the worse thing happened to us. on our way back home (left around noon time in mid june06) to the bayarea, the van started to smoke (white in color) and i then started to get to torque as i tried to accel. i then pulled over 10minutes past the Kettlemen city exit and 15miles south of panoche exit. we were all stranded. i notied that the fluid, by the smell, was the ATF. i didnt know what actually happened to why the ATF leaked out. we werent overloaded and the AC was set low. well to make a long story short. we got the van towed to the panoche exit (cost us $65.00 instead of 175 i think and the towtruck driver charge my AAA classic for the 5miles. now i have to wait next year to get the AAA plus. anywho.. our good friend from church picked us up and took us home. (the cost to get it towed is more that 1k. but we found SaveTow (really nice) and charge us 425 i think). the used carlot tech said the the oiljet was loose (hmm honda dealer...) and they went ahead and retightened it and test drove. so all is well until my wife and my daughters and i were on our way to sacto and the the tranny started to slip 2miles before the west capitol exit. we decied to pull over and proceeded to do a visual of any leaks, cracks, loose screws,nuts etc.. nothing.. the ATF level was ok. so we decided to let the van cool for 20mins. it actually helped a little until we reached our destination (16 more miles). as we decided to leave our destination, we were already back on the freeway as i experienced the slipping a few times, esp inclines and stop-acel. we are okay if we keep the speed steady at (60 or 65 or 70). but if i kepted on changing speeds, the tranny will misbehave =(.

I am now at the point to contact american honda and explain the situation(s) and head to the dealer where i bought my first odyex01 from (even though i didnt buy it from them. i just dont want to go the used car lot dealer and deal with them, even though the owner is an ex-master honda tech). i will post more info when they come.
Note: i might just temporarily install a 16 or 20 GVW 6pass tranny oil cooler because my family and i will be going to clearlake this coming weekend
-jason

[CarolB]

Hello,

I have a 1999 Odyssey that just lost it's transmission at just under 80k. This was a certified used vehicle we purchased from Ourisman Honda in Laurel, MD with 54k. We picked this car because the warrenty was extended to 7 years or 100k. We were 4 months out of the warrenty (7 years 4 months) and the check engine light came on, we also noticed a sproadic racing in the engine while in park and a little noise when shifting into reverse. After 3 days the dealer announced we needed a new transmission, but informed us the it was covered. They then called back and said - oops our mistake your out of warrenty. (4 mths). Needless to say we insisted they cover it. They said they would pick up $3,500. and we would pay $1,500. When I said no, they referred me to Honda Corporation. In 3 days I finally received a call from the "case manager". This women was the rudest meanest you know what I have come accross in a while. Long story short she said Honda will cover all but $750. I still fell I am being robbed! I bought this vehicle rather than a NEW ford or chevy van because I believed it was a vehicle that would last without expensive repairs. After all it was a certified used vehicle! Also, after this happened we learned that all the 1999-2000 Odysseys had a "recall" or extension added to the warrenty on the trans. We were never informed about this from the Honda dealer or the Honda Corp.! Has anyone had any luck getting more out of Honda Corp or the Dealer in this situation? Help me if you can. I simply don't have the money for this!!!!!
Carol

[Mike1234]

I have a 2001 Honda Odyssey with 75K miles on it. The transmission started slipping 2 months ago. I took it to the dealer and was informed that in some cases (mine being one of them), Honda was extending the warranty on the transmissions to 100K miles. Two days later, I had a new transmission, free of charge, provided by Honda!

My suggestion, talk to your dealer and inquire into the situation.

[jrcwik]

I have the same problem. It started happening when I was on holidays in US, just before reaching 160 000 km ( 100 000 miles ) , traveling from Calgary- AB Canada to San Diego CA. We made over 7000 km in 2 weeks , I was 3000 kilometers over the warranty limit by the time I made it back to Canada and checked the car at the service. Unfortunately they declined to pay for anything and my cost would be $6500 CAN.
Of course I refused to pay and decided to take it to Honda Canada- so far no luck.
My argument is that they can read from the computer in the car when it happened and admit that the failure occurred before 160 000 km.

[slforristall]

Has anyone in the Metropolitian Atlanta Area had their transmission replaced by Honda and if so which dealer? Mine is slipping and when I called the Honda 800 number Friday for Warranty Info - their response was that in 2004 a recall was made and the oil jet cartridge was installed thus the problem was resolved and the car was under no other transmission warranty.

[ladybug1204]

I bought a 2002 Odyssey after months of researching mini-vans. I had the van literally 2 months and had barely 2,000 miles. I pulled out of my driveway and all the lights went on, I drove down the block and heard what sounded like a whine and the car just stopped, started smoking and we all jumped out. Turns out one of the main bolts on the gasket had a defect and cracked off plugging up the oil to the engine and siezing the engine, busted all the pistons plus a whole lot more. 75% of the engine was replaced in addition to a bunch of other things I can't remember. Car never rode the same again and I was actually afraid to drive it. Then the water pump mechanism froze and the pump broke and once again busted the pistons and most of the engine had to be replaced yet again. The car drove horribly and the dealer or Honda Corporate was no help. I was so upset. We eventually traded it in and believe it or not, bought another Odyssey, this time the 05 Touring. I figured what's the likelyhood of having two lemons. I have this one a year and a half and absolutely LOVE it.

[lomacol]

I purchased a Honda Odessey 2001 in December 2000. The transmission was replaced in 2004 at 84K miles. The van is now at the dealer, Its needs a transmission. The dealer estimate its will cost aprox. $4500.00 to replace. Its difficult to put 5k in a vehicle that needs a new transmission every 60k miles. I called Honda customer service and is awaiting their reply. I thought that they had gotten a handle on the problems with the transmission. I'm in the market for a new mini van.....any ideas

[dsh]

Wife was driving on highway and trans STOPPED. It was as if she threw it in PARK at 50 mph. It's a 2002 Odyssey with 70K mi on it. Front tires were ruined from them screeching to a stop on the road. Honda replaced the trans and the tires with no cost to us. I did purchase the ext. warranty at purchase so I don't know if it was covered under that or what. I'm still pissed off though, because she is damn lucky she wasn't rear-ended and hurt or killed. I guess I'm stuck with it, don't see any other options.

Yea, I can understand you because I love Honda too. Congrts to your wife because she is ok after such a trouble - full stop on a highway! Hopefully it was just a shock, not any other serious damages.

Honda supposed to be the best car with the best warranty and the best service. Hehe, I can't agree with that now. Here is my story. I bought my Honda Odyssey 2002 a year and a half ago in Tempe, AZ. It was used certified car, I bought (luckily!) a complete additional warranty to 100'000. When I bought this car one plastic part was seriously scrathed and I asked them to replace it. Nice! They agreed, called me in a week to come and get it replaced. Right now! When I came they told me that they never order the right part, just wanted to take a closer look what should be replaced. So they didn't get enough time when I was buying this car for a few hours of paperwork. Well, one week later I got one more phone call from the same guy, and he told me that the part just came and we're ready to replace it. Well, when I came again it appeared that this part was Green, I needed Gray. Nice work! One week later it was finally done. It was my first experience with Honda. ON the second day after purchase I noticed that one tire has a problem, some kind of bulb. It should be covered as their manager told me. Well, they redirected me to Big-o-Tires, and they happily answered that I'm not the original customer and this warranty doesn't work. Nice again! I'm happy with Honda! When the battery dies in a few months after a complete many-many points test they told that they don't care, it's not even covered. Well, I bought a new battery, btw not from them, they wanted a double price and 1 year warranty because they are HONDA! I bought another battery, much better, cheaper, and with double warranty. OK again. We're moving closer to the transmission. A year ago I was not able to shift from the parking position and we spent with my wife about 2 hours in the middle of the night in front of Wal*Mart in Chandler expecting for a road assistance. When I called they told me like - What do you want it's so far, it's night, etc. Nice working guys! When finally this stupid car was delivered to Mesa Service Center they were not able to reproduce this issue. Nice... So they just returned it back to me without anything fixed.

Finally my original transmission died a couple weeks ago. It was jumping from the second to neutral when I was driving, not to Park like in your case, sometimesI wasn't able to shift it from Parking position, etc. So I visited another Honda Service center in Gilbert, AZ. The manager told me that my Warranty Contract was never included into my purchase so nobody knew that I was having the Warranty Contract and maybe I was charged one time for this reason. The guys from Gilbert are very nice, I'm happy to work with them, they helped me so much ordering a new (?) transmission and computer because the ratios were changed comparing to the original one. OK, it took a week to replace that all. I got my car back two days ago with the replaced trans. I got two signals on this morning and had to visit the same Service Center again. After a computer test these guys told me that this trans is dead and they have to order a new one again, they rented me another minivan, thanks for that! So one more week witout my car. Nice working, Honda!

I'm not talking now about broken sensor in the rear wheel, I had to pay for this service myself almost a year ago because it's related to the brakes - not covered. Maybe I should push them harder because if the sensor was broken then they should recover it, if it's not recoverable then I should not pay for the new part, it's not my problem. Maybe I made a mistake and paid 200 USD for the brake and labor.

I guess you understand why I love Honda more and more.

If I want to lose my time, money and nerves then I'll buy Honda next time.

[Md1977]

Hi there,

I've read about and heard about some 02 Ody owners whose transmissions failed after warranty, and yet Honda paid 100% or pretty darn close for the repair.

How does someone get Honda to pay for the new tranny?
Please send me an email if Honda paid for yours out of warranty.

Thanks so much!

[polliwog]

We bought our 2002 Odyssey new in February of 2002. The summer of 2004 with 53,000 miles on the vehicle our transmission failed -- Honda replaced it without charge. Last week while on vacation the D light started flashing so we took it to a Honda dealer who confirmed that the second transmission had failed and would have to be replaced. Honda, in what they called a good will gesture, paid for the transmission itself, but not the labor. When I spoke with the case worker she said that they had no obligation to do anything for us and we should be grateful that they paid for the transmission -- they were sorry for the inconvenience -- I don't call paying labor, flying my husband home so he could get back to our business, and our children starting school late a mere inconvenience. Honda warranties 2000-2001 transmissions for 100,000 miles regardless of how many times they are replaced because they acknowledge they are defective, but they said there is nothing consistently wrong with 2002 transmissions -- they even went as far as to say it was our fault. I told them that we had bought our Honda because it was supposed to run forever etc. and that we found this unacceptable -- we have driven Fords, Audis, and Isuzus to nearly 200,000k and have never replaced a transmission.
We will not replace this van with another Honda when the time comes.