I’m inventing a Honda Odyssey meme for personal research and camaraderie.
If you own (or have owned) a Honda Odyssey, you are tagged! And if you DON’T own an Odyssey, but you have experience in these areas, please, join in!
What year is your Odyssey?
2000 (old and paid for)
What’s your mileage?
Approximately 147,500. The windshield sticker says I need an oil change.
How many times have you moved your perfectly adjusted seat on accident while exiting the vehicle because your leg hit the slider controls on the side of the seat?
Approximately 1,460 times. That’s every day for the entire time I’ve owned it.
How many of you can no longer adjust the volume of the radio using the knob and must instead use the volume up and down buttons on the steering wheel?
Been doing that for over a year.
How many of you have replaced the back door springs?
Yep. I think it was a recall.
How many of you got a new, free transmission under recall?
Yep.
How many of you, when using the breaks first thing in the morning after parking outside in the cold, make loud, echoing screech noises as “the dew on your break pads is burned off by the friction.” (That’s what they tell me anyway.)
Yep. My neighbors LOVE me.
And lastly, THE Honda Odyssey question that brings out the stories:
How many times have you had the automatic doors repaired?
Once already, but I need them repaired again. Our current multiple workarounds are holding, hopefully till after Christmas:
1. Approaching the car with all the doors locked, I unlock the car with the key fob . . .
Side note. “fob?” I’ve said that word many, many times before without thinking about it. I have never typed it before and doing so prompted a Google search. Wikipedia says “The word fob may be linked to the low German dialect for the word Fuppe, meaning “pocket”, however, the real origin of the word is unknown.” okay, then.
. . . and turn on the automatic doors. I open the driver’s side auto door with the driver’s door control inside the van.
2. To get the passenger side automatic door open, someone has to open the front passenger door, reach back and unlock the auto door, and THEN pull the auto door handle from the outside of the vehicle – really hard. The door will then “automatically” open.
3. When I start the car, none of the dash lights indicate a door is open. When I put the car in gear, the buzzing begins. I can sometimes stop the buzzing by pressing the driver’s door control for that side to close the door. Lately, that has no effect and the buzzing continues.
4. So I turn off the automatic doors while the car is in gear. The buzzing stops and the doors won’t budge, even when I put the van in Park.
5. When we arrive at a destination, if anyone is sitting in the seat next to the passenger side auto door and wants to exit (Very rarely, these days. NObody wants to sit there.), the driver (me) must again turn on the auto doors with the driver control and sometimes the door can be opened from the inside. Sometimes not, requiring the passenger to climb out the driver’s side auto door or climb up to exit via the front passenger seat.
If the passenger doesn’t want to climb or if someone happens to be in the front passenger seat and has pity on them, they will get out of the van and pull the door handle hard from the outside, thus releasing the trapped passenger.
6. When everyone is to exit the vehicle, and the passengers have escaped using one of the above methods, the passenger auto door must be manually locked by reaching through the front passenger door.
Because this step is often forgotten, I have begun to turn off the auto doors, preventing movement.
7. Finally, I lock the van with the key fob and walk away.
Did I mentioned this van is paid for? That’s what makes it all worth it. I’m singing a little song to myself right now, to the tune of “nanny, nanny, boo, boo”
“I don’t have a car payment. I don’t have a car payment.”
And the back door isn’t broken. It’s just quirky. You have to unlock it 2 to three times with the key fob between trying to open it. Or, as FirstHusband has begun doing – use the key to manually unlock it.
“I don’t have a car payment. I don’t have a car payment.”
What year is your Odyssey? ~ 2001 (also old and paid for)
How many times have you moved your perfectly adjusted seat on accident while exiting the vehicle because your leg hit the slider controls on the side of the seat? ~ I don’t do it while exiting, but ALWAYS when I lean in the driver’s side to get something from the center table or passenger seat!
How many of you can no longer adjust the volume of the radio using the knob and must instead use the volume up and down buttons on the steering wheel? ~ Yeah – that’s been iffy for a few years. It’s fixable, but NOT worth the cost!
How many of you have replaced the back door springs? ~ Nope – never ha a problem here.
How many of you got a new, free transmission under recall? ~ Yep – but never a problem since!
How many of you, when using the breaks first thing in the morning after parking outside in the cold, make loud, echoing screech noises as “the dew on your break pads is burned off by the friction.” (That’s what they tell me anyway.) ~ I park in a garage, so never had that experience either.
And lastly, THE Honda Odyssey question that brings out the stories: How many times have you had the automatic doors repaired? ~ Really? This is a problem? Our doors have been fine. I clean the contacts with a pencil eraser to keep the crud off of them and we get them lubed each fall as they sometimes freeze in the winter if we don’t, but otherwise no weirdness like you’ve had.
What’s your mileage? I have 112,000+ on mine!
I must admit that although I didn’t want to be one of “those” mini-van moms, I would NOT trade my Odyssey for anything and can’t wait for my next one (probably in about 5 more years).
Hmmm… I’m not sure if I like the sound of these answers and everything I get to experience in the future. 🙂
Since my Odyssey is a little newer (2005 with 40,869 miles) we haven’t had any major issues. Wait, I need to go find some wood to knock on.
I had to laugh because my response to “How many of you can no longer adjust the volume of the radio using the knob…” was: there’s a knob? I choose to never use the knob in the first place and now I’m spoiled. When I have to drive my husband’s car I feel annoyed that I have to reach to the radio to change anything!
No Odyssey, but I have a 1998 Ford Ranger whose doors I can no longer lock because when it’s cold, the key won’t work. On either door. Unless I happen to have a match or a cigarette lighter (I don’t smoke) and can heat up the key. This also happens sometimes if I park in the shade in the summertime.
No one has ever tried to steal my truck. I’m sure they figure it’s not worth it.
But–it’s ALSO paid for!
I think my comment to this got eaten the other day. I just wanted to let you know that I laughed so hard at this, I was ROLLING!
I don’t own an Odyssey, but I’ve owned my fair share of problematic vehicles. Never one that had so many idiosyncrasies though, you take the cake on that one!
I did get my spark plug wires replaced once. The next day the car was running horribly. I could hardly keep it running. I limped it to the dealership and they found that all of the brand new spark plug wires had been chewed up. They told me that the squirrels love the new plastic, rubber, whatever it was that was replaced. Sheesh.