2021 Honda Odyssey Reliability Report

Automatic emergency braking brakes hard with nothing ahead, sometimes over speed bumps or metal plates, and the gas pedal cannot override it. One false stop in an intersection ended with a bus hitting the van from behind. Dealers often cannot reproduce the problem. A second pattern is a Radar Obstructed warning after rain or light snow that stays on after the grille emblem is cleaned. While it is on, automatic braking and adaptive cruise control do not work. One dealer quoted $1300 to replace the radar unit.

Stalling at stops is the main pattern. When the idle stop feature shuts the engine off at a light, it sometimes fails to restart as the driver lifts off the brake, and the van has to be restarted by hand. For some owners, the software update in bulletin 23-008 and a new battery did not fix it, and the problem can return years later. A separate report describes losing power with a flashing check engine light while accelerating onto highways in cold weather, which Honda addresses in service bulletin 24-085.

The van hesitates for a second or two when accelerating from a stop, then lurches forward. One owner reports this at 14,000 miles. Others say the van shifted itself into neutral on the freeway or died at a light after weeks of electrical glitches, such as total power loss and sliding doors stopping halfway. Another van would not shift out of neutral in a car wash. In one case of sudden power loss with smoke, the dealer found a failed air conditioning compressor, clutch, and drive belt.

Rear coil springs break, sometimes with a loud pop and a jolt, and can leave the rear tire sitting up in the wheel well. One owner found both rear springs rusted and broken at 57,000 miles and struggled to find replacement parts. Another pattern is wear on the inside edge of all four tires, which can go bald by about 23k miles while the rest of the tread still looks fine. This wear is hard to see without removing the wheel. One owner also reports a popping felt through the steering wheel.

The interior rearview mirror comes loose from the windshield and hangs down, so it cannot be adjusted. Dealers have tried three or four times without a lasting fix. In one case the driver backed into a parked car in the dark while the mirror was down, and the parking warning did not sound until impact. Separately, driver side mirrors replaced under a recall show distorted, wavy, or double images that make lane changes and merging hard. For one owner, the second replacement was also defective.

Power sliding doors cause injuries. One door closed on a child's hand and cut off a fingertip. Another hit or startled a passenger, who fell and broke a bone, and the owner says the door needed more room than expected. A separate report describes a power tailgate that failed and would not latch at all, so it could not be closed for driving. Days later, both sliding doors also lost power.

The rear camera misses stationary objects directly behind the van, such as parked cars or people, while still picking up movement off to the sides. One report describes a driver running over a child sitting in a driveway who could not be seen from the driver's seat. That owner wants parking sensors added to all Odyssey models. Only two complaints are on file, but one involves an injury.