Problems with 2003 Honda Odyssey ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Ignition switch fails to accept key. key cannot be inserted. the problem begins intermittently and becomes progressively worse. different keys don't help. problem has been repaired by locksmith twice in driveway. locksmith disassembles, replaces bent tumbler and reassembles. fix only lasts 1 -2 years of very light usage. problem has re-occurred for a third time in 6 years.

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated that after driving the vehicle into a driveway and turning the ignition off it continued to roll backwards hitting another vehicle. the vehicle was not inspected by a dealer nor repaired due to a pending investigation. the failure mileage was approximately 144,400. updated 5/24/11 *cn the consumer stated after his wife exited the vehicle, she turned and saw the vehicle rolling down the driveway toward a ditch. in an effort to stop the vehicle, his wife was able to open the driver's side door, only to be knocked to the ground. the door then hit another vehicle. once the vehicle came to a stop, she discovered that even though she was able to remove the key from the ignition, the gear selector was in the drive position. updated 06/20/11*jb

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated the ignition would not turn and the vehicle would not recognize the key when attempting to start the vehicle. the manufacturer was contacted and advised there were no recalls on the vehicle and referred him to the dealer to have a diagnostics test performed. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer nor repaired. the failure and current mileage was 128,848.

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. while the vehicle was parked it rolled backwards and crashed into another vehicle. the contact stated that she had taken the key out of the ignition but was not sure if she put the vehicle in park. the other vehicle had minor damage and her vehicle was not damaged. a police report was not filed. the vehicle was not repaired. she called the manufacturer and was advised that there were no recalls for the failure. the failure mileage was 144,000.

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated that he was able to remove the key from the ignition switch without having the vehicle in park. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure who did not offer any assistance since the vehicle was not included in any recalls. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was 60,000 and the current mileage was 70,618. updated 11/13/12 *cn the consumer stated twice when the failure occurred, the consumer was just stepping out of the vehicle and managed to pull the emergency brake. the third time the consumer was not near the vehicle when it rolled into a wall, no damaged was caused. updated 11/27/2012 *js

The top bracket holding the alternator to the engine block failed again for the third time while my wife was driving the van. as a result of the failure of the top bracket, the stress on the main serpentine belt caused the bolt holding the alternator in place to snap off at the engine block. this caused the alternator to become loose and caused a burning smell to come into the cabin of the vehicle. the alternator loose and un-attached poses a potential catastrophic failure with the pully system and the power steering which may cause an accident. i reported the previous incident of the same problem on october 25th, 2010. my concern is that this is a recurring problem that honda is aware of and not correcting with a recall and addition of a re engineered and strengthened top alternator bracket. i am also very concerned that failure of this part/system while my wife and children are driving the van will cause an accident and injury or death to my family. i have called honda and their solution or recommendation is to replace the part and use proper torque specifications. this has not worked 2 times so far and my mechanic tried to weld and additional piece of metal to the oem bracket to make the bracket stronger, and this did not work.

Top alternator mounting bracket failed for the second time in one month. on first failure at night, headlights became very dim while vehicle was operating causing danger to occupants and other motorists. on second failure vehicle was close to home and no immediate hazard to driver or other motorists. research shows this is a known component failure to honda and nhtsb.

You can remove the ignition key from the ignition switch when the vehicle is in gears other than p (park). *tr

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated thought that the vehicle was in park as the key was taken out of the ignition. the vehicle was actually in drive when the key was taken out and rolled 600 feet into a neighbor's yard causing major damage. the current and failure mileages were approximately 165,000. updated 01/12/11*lj the dealer replaced the lock cylinder which failed. the consumer stated other models that were recalled had the same ignition lock as her vehicle. updated 04/15/11

Tl*the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated that the key could be removed from the ignition without the vehicle being in the park position. when the vehicle was in neutral, reverse, and drive the contact was able to removed the key from the ignition. the manufacturer issued a recall for the ignition switch for the accord and civic manufactured in 2003 and did not include the odyssey. the contact stated that his vehicle had the same column as the other models. the failure mileage was 105,000.

I have a 2003 honda odyssey that suffers from the same issue honda is recalling other vehicles for. my wife has removed the key from the ignition twice while the van was still in drive. she only noticed her error when the car would not start back up. neither time was there an accident involved, as she was parked on a flat surface. *tr

I am the owner of a 2003 honda odyssey. i have been having trouble with the ignition switch. i am able to remove the key without the van being placed in park. i do not have to struggle the least amount to get the key to come out; it slips right out of the ignition whether the van is in park or in gear without hesitation. this has occurred accidentally on a few occasions only to be realized when i return to my vehicle. after the first incident, i tried to duplicate it with knowledge and sure enough, the key came right out while the van was still in driving gear. *tr

Ignition lock failure. in 2007, our driver's side door lock ceased working, but we've worked around it. now the ignition lock stopped working. "wear and tear" according to the dealer. this is the second incident like this on nhtsa's site. *tr

Car will not start. ignition switch remains locked. my 2003 honda odyssey will no longer start. prior to this, i went to honda service to complain about the frequent incidents of my ignition switch failing to unlock. they said that this was due to wear and tear and i will have to spend over $500 to replace the key cylinder. are they putting substandard key cylinders? i understand that other models of honda are being recalled due to ignition switch problems. haven't they done anything to eliminate this problem with the odyssey models? *tr

Have a 2003 honda odyssey ex with rear entertainment system. dvd has had a buzzing noise in headphones intermittently for several months. today smoke came out of dashboard as dvd quit while traveling down highway. *tr

2003 honda odyssey ignition switch: we can remove the key without putting the vehicle in park problem has existed for at least 1 year. vehicle does not appear to be covered by a recall for this problem (per honda recall lookup by vin), but npr reports that honda has recalled some 1.4 million vehicles for this problem, including minivans (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=129085652 ) it seems likely that our vehicle model & year should be included in the recall, but is not. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 honda odyssey. the contact stated that while the vehicle was not in park when it began to roll backward as the contact was exiting. a passenger was still in the vehicle when the failure occurred. the contact was able to jump back into the vehicle and stop the vehicle from rolling. the contact stated he had experienced the failure at least six times. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnosis of the failure. in addition, the key would intermittently become stuck in the ignition. the contact was able to call a locksmith and remove the key from the ignition. the approximate failure mileage was 106,000 and the current mileage was 110,000. updated 12/01/10. *lj the consumer stated the passenger had barely exited the vehicle when it rolled backwards. the vehicle hit a fence and caused minor scratches. updated 12/14/10

2003 honda odyssey smoke coming out of the cd player. consumer states that she smelled burning plastic. dealer stated they could find nothing wrong. she found 6 service bulletins for this problem on the internet. *kb

Dt*: the contact stated the radio controls worked intermittently. while on vacation, the cruise control suddenly stopped working. the dealership determined this was a common problem with vehicles of the same year, make and model. the defective part also affected the proper operation of the horn assembly, the steering wheel, air bag sensor, cruise control and radio controls. the dealership replaced the cable and reel assembly. the repair only corrected the problems with the radio controls and the cruise control.

Dt: 2003 honda odyssey. the consumer stated that the horn did not blow and the srs light was on. the consumer had an appointment on thursday to have the vehicle looked at. the srs light came on september 30, 2005, and the horn quit working on september 19, 2005. the consumer stated that the vehicle had the cruise control switch replaced. this did not help the problem. *ak the alternator was replaced, since the consumer purchased the vehicle a metal on metal sound had been present, the keyless entry has never performed properly, the cruise control was inoperative, the srs light stayed on, the horn had gone out, the windshield wiper was inoperative, the alarm had gone off for no reason, there was a wind noise coming from the driver window, the remote was intermittent, the dash lights would illumnate while the vehicle was in motion, and the alternator bracket had broken. *sc

The radio in the consumer's 2003 honda odyssey shorted out shortly after the vehicle was purchased. *nm the cd player was replaced. the consumer detected an electrical problem form the beginning. there were problems with the electric slide doors, tail gate displayed a constant chime while the vehicle was in motion, as if it was not closed. the dealership never find anything wrong with the vehicle. the consumer requested her money back. *sc

Summary: wiring problem that could potentially cause air bag deployment when turning steering wheel. the wiring inside the cable reel assembly in the steering column of my 2003 honda odyssey came apart inside. this wiring include srs wiring as well as horn, lighting, and cruise control wiring. upon removal of this part all copper contacts to all wires were exposed and any wire could have shorted to any other wire -- this could potentially cause the steering wheel srs/air bag to be deployed while driving. contacts were constantly being tugged at whenever the steering wheel was turned. because the car has 42,000 miles and honda would not say they would pay to fix it, i repaired this myself in accordance with the honda service manual. i have pictures of the part, and have save the part in a zip-lock bag so that it can be analyzed. *jb

While driving vehicle stalled. consumer noticed that all electrical compliances failed. consumer was able to restart vehicle fifteen minutes later. drove vehicle to the dealer for inspection, and mechanic determined that the problem could not be duplicated. consumer informed mechanic that this problem occurred more than once and had not been resolved. *ak

New 2003 honda odyssey ex-l van caught fire while i was driving. the fire started in the stereo/cd player. earlier in the day, the radio stopped working, shut off and would not turn on. later that evening as we were driving, we smelled an electrical fire. a few minutes later, the cd player burst into flames. the fire began inside the cd slot. blue, yellow and orange flames were soon jetting out of the player. as we pulled off and evacuated the car, the flames were licking up the dashboard, within minutes touching the windshield. emeryville ca fire department put out the fire. *ak *scc *jb

American honda motor co., inc. honda automobile customer service 1919 torrance boulevard mail stop: 500 - 2n - 7d torrance, ca 90501-2746 claim number: [xxx] dear honda, we are writing to you in order to put you on notice of a potential vehicle defect with my new 2003 honda odyssey, vin: [xxx]. after having the vehicle just 6 weeks the vehicle experienced the following problems: 1. brakes began to get softer and would not engage till almost to the floor 2. while waiting at a signal the car engine appears to be revving up and shaking 3. rattling noise emanating from the muffler linkage 4. low fuel warning light comes on when gage is still at tank. of grave concern is an incident that occurred last friday, august 8, 2003 while my wife was taking my son to celebrate his 6th birthday at summer camp. this is what happened: after making a turn on a steep hill my wife proceeded down the hill. while going down the hill the brakes completely failed to operate and the following lights illuminate on the dash , battery, oil, door open warning lights. the engine was still on and she had to use the emergency brake to stop the vehicle. we were very fortunate that there was no accident, the vehicle was not going fast and we were able to bring the vehicle to a stop. my wife was extremely frightened and upset by the incident. she was almost in a very serious accident! we had the vehicle towed to beaverton honda who advises us thus far they could not duplicate the problems. you can surely understand our concerns with this vehicle, especially if there appears to be nothing wrong with it. we would like honda of america to take the following steps to protect our family and it's brand: 1. provide us with a loaner odyssey until& (2) 2. exchange our odyssey with the same exact vehicle from a different factory or fully refund our purchase. *nlm information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr