I bought a Honda odyssey van 2002 and am very disappointed with the TRANSMISSION FAILURE AT 83260MILES and TOTAL LACK OF CONCERN ON PART OF HONDA after reading all the forums and HAVING TO PAY $3500 FOR REPAIRS FOR A MANUFACTURING DEFECT WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM HONDA. I AM DEFINITELY NEVER BUYING ANYTHING HONDA EVER AGAIN AND SO IS MY ENTIRE FAMILY. From today onwards i will strive to spread the message (OF HONDA'S POOR PRODUCTS AND LACK OF CONCERN FOR PEOPLES SAFETY AND FAILING TO HELP PAY REPLACE ATLEAST THE DEFECTIVE PART )AT MY WORKPLACE ,IN PUBLIC , IN THE ENTIRE CITY, PROVINCE AND COUNTRY AT EVERY POSSIBLE OCCASION I GET SO THAT THE PEOPLE ARE AWARE OF HONDA'S PROBLEM AND DO NOT LOOSE THEIR HARD EARNED MONEY BUYING THIRD RATE HONDA PRODUCTS.

We purchased our 2002 Honda Odyssey ESL in October 2001. At 56,000 miles Honda changed out the transmission on a recall. At 140,000 miles the check engine light comes on. Honda says I need a transmission. I said, "fix it." They said, "We don't fix them, we replace them." The cost $4500. After talking with the local dealer and Honda USA, I was frustrated beyond words. There was no relief offered to cover the costs. There was no consideration given even when I asked about some relief from the costs. Oh, did I tell you, Honda service people are on a commission plan. That's right the more they charge you, the more they make in commission. We have owned several Hondas over the years. Thank God someone ran me off the road in my Odyssey in October, and I rolled it over three times and destroyed it! No more transmission problems. VW and Ford are looking real good right now.

Gear indicator lights started flashing suddenly and then transmission started slipping at 110,000 miles. Independent transmission shop said that it was probably a sensor based on the P0740 code. After two days, they determined the code meant that the tranny need to be replaced for about $3000 with 12 month warranty. I did not want to spend that much for only a 12 month warranty. Took it to Honda and their diagnosis was the same. $3000 for remanufactured tranny plus $800 for PCM, with 3 yr warranty. Asked Honda for help and they would not do anything due to the mileage and because they did not service the vehicle. Ended up having Honda complete the work due to the longer warranty, however, I will not return to Willett Honda for service ever again.

The car had been really great. We did all the scheduled maintenance and we were very happy with it. Out the blue the transmission failed. I looked it up on the Internet "2002 Honda Odyssey Transmission failure" and there are over half a million results! Called Honda, I would have to get a computer also. Because they were such sports, they were going to take $700 off and it would only cost 4,100. So in other works, blue book on my car is around 6K and I would have to spend 4k to get it to run!?

I called Honda and got the run around from Sergio. They don't accept E-mails by the way. What?! Basically he told me there wasn't much they could do. I told him that it was unfortunate because I run a blog that consists of 750 web pages (Cyberpueblo) that are getting 600,000 visits and over 5 million page views a month. So, they haven't decided what to do about me and I will probably have to pay a fortune (elsewhere) to fix their mistake but as a consolation I will be able to share my experience with all those people so that they know what kind of a company Honda is and the higher ups may come to wonder why Sergio didn't just do the right thing in the first place. What's nice about that is that for once people will be warned BEFORE it is too late. Most of us found out that is was a common problem after it happened to us. The other thing of course is that until I dump it, there will always be a sign on the back of my Odyssey that reads "Unhappy Honda Owner".

We bought our 2002 Honda Odyssey new from the local dealer (have since purchased another Odyssey - 2009 model year). We did this because overall we had good luck with our first one and it was a very flexible vehicle. Now out of the blue, driving to work, merging onto I40 in Raleigh, the engine screamed when I pressed the accelerator, the drive letter indicator started flashing, the TCS light came on and so did the check engine light. I got it home (stuck in 2nd gear on the 5 speed auto trans) and hooked up an OBDII test unit to it and got code P0780 (shift malfunction). Hoping for a shift solenoid valve or some other minor problem, after having it towed to the Honda dealer in Cary.

I just got word that the transmission needs to be replaced at a cost of around $4K. I advised I had seen a lot of 2002 Odyssey transmission failures on the internet and asked if they could check with Honda to help with this cost. The service manager said he would try but didn't expect them to offer anything. This will probably be the last Honda we buy, transmissions shouldn't fail after only about 90,000 miles! Honda quality and reliability are now big question marks for me.

Looks like "dejavu all over again". Bought vehicle new in June, 2002. (had to order it, none even in stock to test drive, but had such a GREAT reputation!) Stopped at my mailbox on Saturday, Feb 20th. Put car in park to get out, got back in, put car in Drive, and wouldn't move for several seconds, then engaged into drive. Didn't think too much of it. Monday AM, backed out of garage, put car in Drive, and nothing happened - wouldn't engage. Tried to shift to a lower gear, but couldn't. Turned car off and on a couple times, finally - after about 4 minutes, the car went into drive. Took van to dealer, and while it was there, I was home googling transmission problems (that's what I suspected), and sure enough - appears to be a major problem.

Dealer's original quote was $3,840 to fix. I told him we need to do much better than that, and let him know about all the transmission issues I saw online, not to mention, the class-action lawsuit going on in the East Coast area. They called back later that day, and offered to fix for ~2,000, which we had no choice but to do it. (Final bill was $1,969). I'm not done - I shouldn't have had to pay anything on this.

The options given to me by my Honda dealership to deal with the 'catastrophic' event that led to transmission failure were: get a new tranny for $9000; get a Honda factory remanufactured tranny for $5000; get a rebuild through a garage that Honda dealt with for $4100; get a used one for $3100! I researched on-line for any info I could use to deal with this problem. I found out that a class action lawsuit out of a firm in NYC was in the works for owners of 2002 Honda Odysseys. When I relayed this info to Honda, the price of the factory remanufactured tranny came in (with some good will) at $2600.

Drive indicator light began to flash on my 02 Odyssey. I checked fluid and added a little, thinking this would fix it. A couple of weeks later, transmission began to slip. I took it in to my independent mechanic and was told I needed a new transmission with only 95k. I found this web page and did some research. Some Odysseys have an extended warranty of 7 yrs. and 8 mo. You must call Honda and give them your VIN to see if yours qualifies. Unfortunately, mine did not. I was told I could take my van to a licensed dealer and if they said I needed a new transmission I could ask Honda for assistance, but nothing was guaranteed. After calling Honda for a price on a replacement transmission I was given a price 1200.00 more than my independent mechanic. I purchased the Odyssey because of the Honda name and my belief Honda meant quality. I was badly mistaken and will never purchase a Honda again. Make sure you call Honda USA and let them know how you feel if you have this problem. Best Wishes.

Where did we go wrong? Purchased a 02' Honda Odyssey for all the reasons the rest of you went to Honda....quality, longevity, etc. Boy! If I only knew my transmission was going to fail after 83,000 miles. Was told by Livermore Honda that it needs to be replaced at a cost of $5,224.00. Honda informed us they would be of no assistance in the repair until Shannon made another call to the customer service department. Got a call back today saying they would agree to pay for 33% of the repair costs. It just doesn't seem right. If I was only one of thousands of Odyssey vans out there that was having a rare transmission problem....maybe then. If I abused my car and didn't have it serviced regularly...maybe then. But none of that applies to us. Now I am having to go without my car, going on a week now, and negotiate the cost of the repairs with numerous phone calls to American Honda. Unless they pay for total cost, Honda can consider us "no longer customers." It's a damn shame Honda doesn't stand behind their automobiles and admit their mistakes.

Got the flashing "D" a couple of years ago on our Odyssey. Until then, our van had been pretty much problem free (except for stuck automatic sliding doors). Then, at 90k miles, we brought it in to our local Honda dealer and they dropped the bomb about a bad tranny. They told us that there was "good news" though. Seems a higher-up Honda rep was there that day and he allowed them to replace the tranny for free. Since it was there we opted to replace the timing belt and perform other maintenance that cost us something like $700 but, we figured that it was time to do all that stuff anyway. They made sure to rave how lucky we were that the rep was there that day. We were very grateful to save the $3000+ replacement cost so I didn't complain at all. Later, I researched the tranny issue on-line and found out that this was a very common problem. Disappointing.

Now, our van has 182,000 miles on it. (Wife drives A LOT) The "New" tranny is now beginning to exhibit slipping and missed upshifts that allow the engine to race. Apparently, these things are built to last exactly 100,000 miles.

Guess we need to dump it before it dumps us.

I bought this van new from a local dealer, because I wanted something reliable for my wife and kids. I dropped big bucks and actually waited on a list to get this van because of the demand. No real issues for 92K miles and yesterday my wife tries to go somewhere and it won't go into drive. Had it towed to the dealer and WHAM, hey "total failure, need to replace the whole thing along with the control module". The reason I bought a Honda was so that I wouldn't have to worry about it until 150K. If I would have expected to throw it away (as I'll basically do now) I would have bought a Caravan! I just figured I got the one bad one, until I saw all the complaints on this web page. It really fires me up to know that Honda had a problem with this transmission and did nothing about it!

This Odyssey was a replacement for 2001 LX that was totalled by some poor driver who turned left in front of us at the very last moment in a intersection. I can't get over the difference between the 2001 and 2002. We had no problem with the 01, but the 02 has been crappy. How could Honda screw up a good design? Are troubles started with a small lag in the tranny on shifting, two months after we bought the van second hand. Thinking the transmission fluid was old, i had it changed. this didn't stop the problem but made it worst. The tranny started to slip, the lags start to be longer. I toke the van into the local Honda dealer, after finding out that this tranny had a major design problem. Honda wouldn't help, perferring to do nothing. No goodwill, No "it's our crappy design and we will stand up and take care of the problem. What a shame, to see such a good car company screw it customer base. I think i will trade the van in and buy a local car. Ford ,GM

My husband and I are previous Honda lovers. We expect to keep them for 12+ years and upwards of 150K miles. We have owned three Accords: a 1985, 1989, and 1996. The '89 was our favorite. We had to get rid of it in late 2001 because we were expecting our third child and they all still needed car seats. We went for the Odyssey. Loved the van and the space and convenience it provided for our family.

Over the past several months we have had isolated problems that seemed like missed shifts or slipping transmission. How could this be in a Honda with 89K miles? In September I brought it to our local dealer, said I thought the transmission was slipping, and was told that they couldn't get it to repeat the problem. I tried to explain that this was an intermittent problem. They replaced some switch (about $300) that they said came up as an error code on the computer. I wish I had done my research then. About a monthe later the transmission completely failed. Luckily, I was not far from home. I could drive it to the dealer at about 30 mph max. Monday, stuck home without a car & waiting for the dealer to call, I Googled '2002 Odyssey Transmission'. Wow! I could not believe how many people had the same problem and that Honda knew they had a major design flaw on their hands. I was furious that the dealer failed to mention this when I brought it in in September. There were so many problems with the 2001 that the warranty was extended to 100K miles! Ours is a 2002 and we were told, "Sorry, the warranty is only for 3 years/36,000 miles." The dealer "went to bat for us" with Honda and got Honda to pay some of the repair. It cost us $2,500 for a rebuilt transmission and a new control module. I know it could have been more, but it should not have happened! Ten days later I have my van back. The new tranny has a 3 year/36,000 mile warranty, and I will not keep it one mile or day past that warranty. Another real headache is that the warranty on the repair is not transferrable. I am sure that no one will buy it and the trade in will probably be low. Toyota here we come!

We too had done a great deal of research prior to purchasing. The vehicle was pre-owned with a recall on the tranny which was documented to be "fixed" by the dealer. That was not quite 5 yrs ago and now we are in this mess... do we fix it or just dump it? We have driven Honda vehicles for about 20 yrs now and will never buy another. What a let down. I'm all for a class action the only caveat is that once the lawyers take their fees there will be nothing left which to apply to fixing the transmission problems we are all encountering!!!!

Original owners' letter to Honda, They won't reply - don't buy their vehicles! This is their scheme to profit again on sales! American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Honda Automobile Customer Service Honda Consumer Affairs Department Mail Stop 500-2N-7A 1919 Torrance Blvd. Torrance, CA 90501-2746 Fax 310 783 3023

Re: Honda Special Adjustment Program (N012009-08-1800974)

Dear Honda Consumer Affairs,

I write regarding Honda America’s warranty Special Adjustment Program copied below and request the failed third gear of my transmission be replaced free of charge.

This third gear should be replaced free of charge because the recall performed on October 12 of 2004 at 35,531 miles to install a second gear oil jet kit robbed the third gear of pressure needed for lubrication and cooling and it has now failed well before its intended design life. I am a degreed mechanical engineer with failure analysis experience and can attest that such ‘duct tape’ fixes for which the transaxle system was not designed have consequences such as this. A company with a reputation for quality and reliability like Honda will take responsibility mistakes even when they were ‘well intentioned’. I continue to refuse to believe this to be a deliberate profiteering scheme. As the car ‘go-to-guy’ for friends, family and coworkers it is my hope ‘we’ can remain loyal Honda customers, however I have been disappointed with Honda’s responsiveness thus far. Please have a Honda America senior manager contact me to discuss Honda’s special adjustment program and next steps to replace my failed third gear clutch pack due to inadequate lubrication caused by the second gear recall.

Thank you, From your owner's manual:

Some Repairs May Be Covered Beyond the Limited Warranty Introduction 7 Honda may cover, under a special adjustment program, some or all of the cost to repair a problem that is not covered by your vehicle’s limited warranties. If your vehicle develops a problem you feel should be repaired by Honda at no cost, discuss it with your dealer. If you are not satisfied with your Honda dealer’s decision, call or write the Honda Consumer Affairs Department (the address and telephone number are on the inside front cover). Please provide this information about your vehicle: year, model, Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), mileage, maintenance history, a detailed explanation of the problem, and why you think Honda should be responsible for the repair. Your request will be investigated, and you will be informed of Honda’s decision.