We have a 2000 Honda Odessey minivan EX. with 155,000 miles It has already had one transmission replaced after a recall by Honda. The transmission failed at 86,000 miles. Honda replaced it for free. Now the second transmission has failed at 70,00 miles and the dealer says it will cost approximately $3,500 and they will offer no assistance or customer satisfaction consideration regarding the transmission replacement. Do we have any recourse to address the seemingly faulty transmissions? What other options might we have? With this tight economy we need to hold onto this van a few more years. Thanks for any help. Familyvan
Are You Sure There Was A Recall?
And this is an automatic, right?
I see there was a class-action lawsuit settlement and Honda extended some transmission warranties to 93 months or 109,000 miles.
You’re way beyond that extended warranty, now. I believe they’ve met their obligation. Hey, they gave you a transmission and a better warranty! Now You are probably on the hook for any repairs needed.
I’d usually recommend a used transmission, but not with the history on these.
The only two options I see are:
- pay to fix it.
- junk it.
CSA
Yes, it is an automatic. The second transmission according to the dealer is only waranteed for 12,000 miles or 12 months. Does this mean that Honda can’t build a transmission that can go beyond this? I bought the car new because of its excellent maintenance record. If the class action has the dealer replacing or waranteeing up to 109,000 miles for the first transmission why would they not expect the second transmission to go for 109k? Just disallusioned…
Just out of curiosity, what happened to the second transmission?? Whats it doing??
transman
Honda’s are good, not perfect. The Odyessey has had transmission issues. Perhaps the unit is simply not made strong enough for the weight and wind resistance of a van over the years. They honored the warranty with one transmission replaced. You can’t expect the 2nd one to outlast the 1st one. And you can expect Honda to pay for the 2nd one too, but your car is now 10 years old and has 155K miles and they aren’t going to help you now.
If you are upset with Honda, you can take your business to another car mfg’r. So far in my life with cars I’ve never had to replace or rebuild a transmission, I can appreciate your frustration. But them’s the breaks. Someday I might have a tranny go on me and I won’t be happy about it either.
Honda Builds Lots Of Transmissions That Go Beyond, Just Not As Many In The “99” Through “01” Odysseys. People Complained. A Warranty Extension Was The Settlement.
I have never owned a Honda car and have no plans for one. I get excellent reliability and economy from my domestic badged cars. I am not disillusioned.
Every manufacturer of cars has certain vehicles or certain vehicle components that turn out to be “problematic”, all of them, some more than others. Often, the majority of the problems surface while the vehicles are under warranty and usually they are “remedied” and the vehicle becomes “normal”. Sometimes that’s not the case, both time-wise and/or remedy-wise.
You can complain to Honda, but with 155,000 miles I can’t imagine anybody taking it seriously.
Besides that, how do we or how does anybody know if the failure was the same type that precipitated the warranty extension? Poor maintenance, abuse, severe service, environmental damage, wear and tear, or something else possibly caused it to go belly-up.
Hondas and other foreign cars are not exempt from defects, in fact from what I see they generally have more than what I have experienced with my vehicles over the last several decades.
Sorry for your loss and sorry you were disillusioned. This was an eye-opener for you.
CSA
Any Recall or PR Campaign is a one-shot deal and Honda is under no obligation at all to do anything more for you. Nor could you hold them to anything else legally because once the obligations of the Recall were satisfied originally it’s a done deal and the Feds are on their side. True of any car and Recall.
Unfortunately, you have discovered that Hondas break just like anything else.
Thanks to all who listed comments. We’ve owned several different models and makes of cars over decades. We’ve had both new and second-hand, so we’re no strangers to maintenance and repairs. It is helpful to read everyone’s ideas. familyvan