Transmission Woes Compounded by Collision

Maintenance/Repairs
1

I own a 2000 Honday Odyssey with about 130K miles. About 1 month ago, the check engine light came on. I took it to my mechanic, and he said the diagnostics showed internal problems with the transmission. I did some research, and I found a long history of Odyssey transmission problems. I have never noticed any problems (e.g., slipping) with the transmission, and the mechanic turned off the light. A few days agao I was rear-ended while in a dead stop waiting for traffic to turn left. I had the break on, and the car was in gear. The engine light came back on after being hit.

The rear bumber is damaged along with the rear hatch back door. The vehicle has been assessed by both my agent and the agent of the vehicle who hit me. I have not yet been able to get the car to a mechanic to have diagnotics run on the check engine light, but I’m guessing that it will be the transmission again.

I’m seeking advice on what to do? The car is in relatively good shape and the bumper and rear door damage will be covered by insurance. Due to Oddyssey’s transmission woes, I doubt the insurance company will cover any damage to the transmission, both because the light had come on before and because of the Oddyssey transmission history.

I’m trying to figure out what to do next. Fight to get the transmission fixed, let it go, trade it in, pay for the fix and try to squeeze a few more years out of the car… Seeking advice.

Thanks for you time.

2

There are hundreds and hundreds of reasons that the light will come on. So make no assumptions about it. You must have it fully evaluated because something else might have been damaged in the collision that resulted in the error code being stored. If you do ever have these codes read, btw, write down the exact code so that you can report it if asking for help. They look like “P1234”

As you now know the Odyssey transmission woes are legendary. You can go ahead and let the insurance companies & mechanics do their thing, but the fact is that there’s no way you should expect to have a transmission issue folded into this accident claim. You just have to take that as a separate thing. Honda has been known to help customers out with these transmissions on a “goodwill” basis. If it was me I’d check in with the local Honda dealer to see how likely it is that they would help out.