Complaint volume
940 consumer-submitted complaints are matched to this model year. Treat the count as a research signal, then read the actual summaries for repeated symptoms.
Complaint records
2018 Honda Odyssey Complaints
940 consumer-submitted complaints on record for the 2018 Honda Odyssey, grouped by component category.
940 Total complaints
13 Crash reports
3 Fire reports
18 Injury reports
Complaint data reflects consumer-submitted reports. A complaint is not proof
of a defect, recall, or manufacturer fault. Enriched severity fields come
from official bulk records when the complaint can be matched by ODI number.
Buyer interpretation
How to use these complaints before buying
Complaint records are most useful when they turn into inspection points, seller questions, and comparison checks against nearby model years.
Pattern to inspect
The most common categories are engine, electrical system, power train. Use those categories as a test-drive checklist instead of judging the vehicle from the total count alone.
Severity flags
Enriched records include 13 crash reports, 3 fire reports, 18 injury reports, and 1 fatality report. These fields come from complaint records and should be read in context.
Mileage clue
Mileage is available on 260 complaints, with an average reported failure mileage of 40,559 miles. Compare that with the mileage on the listing.
Questions to ask the seller
- Have you had any problems related to engine, electrical system, power train?
- Can I see recent maintenance and repair records?
- Has the vehicle ever been towed, involved in a crash, or repaired for the same issue twice?
- Can we also check the recall record for this 2018 Honda Odyssey?
Used-car checklist
Use these complaints before the test drive.
Build a buyer checklist to turn these issues into questions and inspection points.
2018 Honda Odyssey
Build buyer checklist Compare with other years Sends year, make, and model to pre-fill your checklist.
How severe are the 2018 Honda Odyssey complaints?
13 Crash
3 Fire
18 Injury
1 Fatality
24 Towed
7 Medical attention
What are the most common 2018 Honda Odyssey complaint categories?
ENGINE 88
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 87
POWER TRAIN 81
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE,LANE DEPARTURE 65
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 62
STRUCTURE 57
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 33
FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE 31
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE 22
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE 22
940 total complaints on record
Latest complaints
| Date | Component | Summary | Severity | Mileage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 2023 | STEERING,SERVICE BRAKES,LANE DEPARTURE | ALL the warning lights came on, including brakes, power steering, lane keeping assistance, lane departure warning, and others, indicating the car should be stopped immediately regardless of traffic or conditions. I do not know if the functions were also impaired or if was simply false alarms. I understand this is typical of this auromobile. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES | The contact owns a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that upon opening the driver’s side sliding door, the cable inside the door snapped which rendered the door inoperable. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer to be inspected. Upon investigation, the contact discovered NHTSA Campaign Number: 20V437000 (Latches/Locks/Linkage) which she linked to the failure. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and the contact was informed that the vehicle was not under recall or warranty. The vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 74,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 74,000 |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN | I was on a road trip with my family and stopped at a gas station. When we were ready to leave I attempted to place the vehicle in drive but it was stuck in park (vehicle has a push button shifter) and multiple warnings started to show up including transmission disabled, blind spot monitoring disabled and one other warning that I can't recall. There were no prior warning signs and we did all of the recommended services. There were prior issues with the transmission not seeming to engage. You would press on the gas and nothing would happen (It almost seemed as if you were just cruising) and then, after a lengthy delay the transmission would suddenly engage. There was also some issues with the transmission slipping. We brought this up several times with different dealers and were always told that they couldn't replicate the issue and that there were no recalls on our vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The auto idle on my van has cause problems for over three years. I have reported this to our Honda dealership numerous times. The car dies when I am stopped and I try to take off. Everything in car shuts off - dashboard, A/C, radio, etc. When it does not all the way die when I try to go from a stop, all my collision mitigation warnings start flashing and a few times my car has braked itself. They have blamed it on my battery twice - once they replaced and the next time they made me pay for the battery. Then, they tried to blame it on the master computer switch because my door locks would just lock and unlock as I would drive down the road. They ordered the chip in February 2022 and finally replaced it in August 2022. The van has started locking and unlocking again, collision mitigation warnings go off for no reason, and auto idle is starting to kill the van again when I try to take off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN | The PowerTrain in my car has been giving me nothing but headaches since I purchased it in January 2022. Multiple times at intersections, the car stalls and starts going backwards, causing me to put the car in park and restart it to go forward. The problem is so severe that it happens almost every time I come to a stop. It's not just inconvenient, it's downright dangerous. I can't even begin to describe the feeling of helplessness when my car starts reversing in the middle of a busy intersection with oncoming traffic heading my way. I have taken my car to the dealer multiple times and they have attempted to fix the issue by replacing the transmission and a camera, but these repairs have not resolved the problem. I even had to have my car towed back to my hometown after it stalled in Dallas. The dealer assures me that the problem has been fixed, but it continues to happen, and it's getting worse. Yesterday, on January 18, 2023, the issue occurred again while driving in slow traffic, nearly causing a collision with the car behind us. My family and I were put in a very dangerous situation, all because of this faulty PowerTrain. I have been to the dealer over 5 times and they have yet to fix the issue. I am beyond frustrated and disappointed with this car and the dealer's inability to resolve the problem. I am a loyal customer, and I expect better from a brand that I trust. This car needs to be recalled, and I demand that the dealer and the manufacturer take responsibility for their faulty product and take immediate action to rectify the situation. I should not have to continue living in fear every time I get behind the wheel of my car, and I should not have to continue to waste my time and money taking it to the dealer for repairs that don't work. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE | GOODMORNING, I bought my car honda Odyssey 2018 model, on August 20th, 2018, from Honda of Clearlake, in League City, TX, the day they opened new location, this car has been giving us trouble since then. when under warranty the sunroof motor became faulty. I agree that they repaired it but took more than a week to get repaired. The car has less than 30000 miles now, last year November when I was driving car started showing up multiple warning lights, and tail gate not closing and locking and took the car dealer service center and without proper multi point inspection they ruled out its poor battery and changed it. Within a week again the same problem started appearing, took the car to dealer service center and took almost more than week to do inspection and stated that, there is a faulty weld and leak on back tail gate hinges in car and water is seeping into electrical system which is on driver side rear in between plastic trim and main body. this caused a short circuit and multiple warning lights turning on. electrical system and carpets were damaged, and they recommended to change whole harness and electrical components which will be more than $6000.00 After a week they stated that it has a faulty caulk on roof were water seeping through, Honda of clear lake service advisor [XXX] agreed that he have come across multiple cars (3 or 4) in same dealer ship with same problems. nobody knows how many dealers service centers had same problem. This is clearly manufacturing defect and Honda corporate don't want to make this issue a recall. they agreed to replace components, but we have to pay the labor which we agreed, but it's been more than a month which they can't repair and give back our car. now I think this leak issue and the issue, I mentioned earlier (faulty sunroof motor) is somehow related. I would request you to probe an enquiry into this issue which, can be an electrical and fire hazard and rule out to be a recall from Honda side. Thanking you INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6). | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2023 | POWER TRAIN,LANE DEPARTURE | Own a 2018 Honda Odyssey Touring w/10 Speed Transmission just outside the powertrain warranty. The current Mileage is 115,863 miles. On 1/2/2023, while my wife was driving, she experienced severe jerking and gears slipping in Drive. The car continued to drive, but there was hesitation in gearing. The following day (1/3/2023), hesitation rapidly turned into the complete failure of the van to go into reverse. The car would not engage reverse, started blinking R, and was freewheeling like it was in neutral. Suddenly, the dash indicated transmission system failure + blind spot warning failure. All modes, Drive, Sport, Neutral, and Reverse, were flashing. Wife was able to get the van home, and I immediately took it to the dealership. The following morning, 1/4/2023 (today as of this writing), the dealership notified me the tech observed what he called “a death code,” indicating the transmission must be replaced. $11,000 repair is underway as of this writing. The problem is exactly similar to this reported and others in Odyssey Consumer Forums. It appears to be a Transmission Manufacturing Defect by Honda Car. Answers to questions: 1) Component Malfunction is Transmission System - and ADAS/Blind Spot. 2) Car was slipping and jerking on the motorway in the middle of high-speed traffic and trucks, endangering our safety. 3) Problem was reproduced 100% of the time personally and by the dealership personnel. 4) The dealer indicated a “death code” and that the transmission must be replaced. 5) Transmission system failure + blind spot warning failure, all modes, Drive, Sport, Neutral, and Reverse, were flashing the letter associated with the gear/mode selected. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE | The vehicle has a very significant delay in accelerating from a stop or slow roll. Often the delay is up to 2 or 3 seconds and has caused several near misses when attempting to cross traffic. It's inconvenient and more important, a safety problem. Upon research I have discovered it is a wide spread issue among Odysseys in this generation. It seems to be an issue with cars equipped with either the 9 speed or the 10 speed transmission. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | Our van regularly hesitates when to accelerate from a stop. Example, when turning left across traffic, depressing the accelerator will provide some speed to get into the intersection, then it becomes unresponsive. Letting up and pushing the accelerator will cause the van to move again after about .5 to 1 seconds. Often the accelerator has to be pushed all the way to the floor, which causes the van to move aggressively once it does start to respond causing the tires to spin out. This has been happening since the vehicle was under warranty, however, the dealer wasn’t able to find an issue. While the performance issue is annoying, this becomes a safety issue when stranded out in traffic. There are no service lights on before, during or after the incidents. It seems to happen more in winter, but we have experienced it throughout the seasons. It also occurs whether eco mode is on or off. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | STRUCTURE | Power rear sliding door will not close properly. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN | The transmission does not accelerate properly from a rolling stop. When at a stop and slightly depressing of the accelerator to get the vehicle moving prior to making a turn (for example), if you take slight pressure off the accelerator pedal the vehicle will not accelerate until the engine RPM's fall below 1,000RPM. This causes a slight delay in acceleration as the vehicle is rolling but unable to accelerate. This poses a collision risk from oncoming traffic. I reported this issue multiple times with my local Honda dealership and was told each time that there was no issue, this is normal for a Honda and "this is a known issue with no fix". Three times with three different excuses. This has been occurring from around 30K miles and continues today with 72K miles. There are no warnings or lights. The dealer has reprogrammed the transmission computer and I have paid for a transmission fluid change hoping for improvement but nothing has worked. I have sent a message to Honda Motors about 4-6 months ago and has not heard a response from corporate or the dealership. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The contact owns a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, a collision mitigation system message would flash on the instrument panel without incident. Recently, the contact stated that while his wife was driving the vehicle, the warning message repeatedly flashed on the screen before the entire instrument panel went blank. The contact called multiple dealers about the failure but had not yet schedule an appointment for the vehicle to be diagnosed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 80,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 80,000 |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Vehicle suddenly shifts to Nuetral when driving forward at approximately 30mph to 55mph. The Collision warning system and the Emergency Braking system then shows falt/inoperative on the information display. This is an extremely dangerous situation that causes the vehicle to suddenly lose forward power. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,SERVICE BRAKES,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Both the dashboard and the computer shut down randomly, different warning signs pop up intermittently and the wheel locks up for a short time. It happens while driving at unpredictable times. It happened on the highway at the speed of 65 mph. and the vehicle is temporarily is not under driver’s control. Yes, I took the vehicle for repair 3 times. Yes, the certified car dealership had identified different issues but none of them had fixed the problem. No, not by insurance or the manufacturer. No, no warning signs prior. First it happened in July, 2022 | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN | The transmission has intermittent harsh or jerky upshifts with steady acceleration, or the MIL comes on with DTC P0716. Abnormal TCM adaptation values or a miscalculation in the TCM software causes the MIL to come on with DTC P0716. The harsh upshifts cause a momentary driver distraction which may cause an accident. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN,SERVICE BRAKES,LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES | The contact owns a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and depressing the accelerator pedal, the transmission failed to operate as needed and was shifting hard. Additionally, the vehicle would hesitate to respond and there was an abnormal loud mechanical sound coming from the engine compartment. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who performed a Transmission Control Module (TCM) software update. However, the failures persisted. The contact also stated that the vehicle would jerk and would shudder when depressing the brake pedal. The contact stated that the rear driver's side and passenger's side sliding doors would reopen independently after being closed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failures. The failure mileage was 50,000. | Crash: No Fire: No | 50,000 |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN,LANE DEPARTURE,FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | While attempting to cross a road the vehicle suddenly stopped accelerating. This happened after entering the roadway with heavy traffic and my family in the vehicle, I pressed the accelerator pedal all the way down nothing. Then after a brief 5sec of fear the vehicle jerks into gear making everyone slam back into their seats. This has been reported by many owners on various forums, some of which were in accidents. This will not end well for a few drivers and their families. Honda technicians try and diagnosing this with no luck, said” I’ve never seen this issue, 64K miles great condition no damages to the transmission core unfortunately we are 4K miles over warranty!? At here is a recall for very similar issues same VF 9 speed transmission but my vin didn’t fall under the recall, American Honda said they weren’t going to help because I didn’t have “customer loyalty” I’m asking the technician to dissemble the transmission and take a bunch of pictures to try and help explain how this happened and how to avoid this from happening again because next time we may not be so luck. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | UNKNOWN OR OTHER,LANE DEPARTURE,BACK OVER PREVENTION | The rear view camera on this car is defective. Honda and the dealership appear to be playing games with customers stating that they will get this dealt with but no ETA has been forthcoming the whole of 2022. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL | When the pedal is pressed, there is a delay in acceleration. This has happened several times over the past couple of months. It seems to happen mostly when trying to make a left-hand turn, typically at low speeds or from a stop. I will have time to make a safe left turn, but the unexpected delay in acceleration has created dangerous situations and has almost caused accidents. I'm not sure what's causing it because I can't re-create on-demand. The car has been well maintained and no error codes or warning lights are on. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | STRUCTURE | After having the odyssey repaired for the recall rear passenger door latches, the rear passenger door still continues to open randomly, it has happened on multiple occasions while the vehicle is parked (at a park) with no one near the vehicle, at least twice since the repair while the vehicle is going between the speeds of 35-45 mph the rear passenger door on the driver side slides open. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | Auto idle system engaged when the car was stopped waiting for a train to pass last night. When I took my foot off the brake to move forward, the car completely went dead. No engine start up after auto idle, no electrical system available for emergency flasher lights. No response from the van at all. This put us at considerable safety risk when we could not process through traffic, at night, on a dark country road. A kind passerby attempted to jump start the car for us and while the electrical system came back on momentarily, the engine would not turn over. After five attempts to jump start the van, we stopped trying. There was zero response from the van after that. We purchased this vehicle brand new in December of 2017. It has had electrical issues ever since the day we bought it. We have reported this to our Honda dealer several times over the course of the past 4+ years. Initially, the auto idle never worked. Then the sliding doors wouldn't shut all the way, reliably. They continue to cause issues and won't close all the way, without popping back open, about 60% of the time. The radio and entertainment center has malfunctioned. The collision warning has malfunctioned and alerts at times when there is nothing in the way of the vehicle. It has been several electrical issues after another. We have had multiple new batteries installed over the past 4+ years. Last night was the absolute greatest risk to our family's safety. The vehicle has experienced this "black out"/stall another time in the past year, but was temporary and came back on after a full restart of the engine. Last night, however, there was no hope to restart. The van was completely seized up and a tow truck had to drag it onto its flatbed truck, assuredly damaging our tires and transmission, potentially. We will have to have the van towed to the Honda dealer Monday morning (this incident happened last night, Saturday Oct 1, 2022.). Now we are without our primary family vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,ENGINE | I have an 2018 Odyssey Touring that apparently has a problem with the auto-idle stop while driving at slow speeds, many times (2 to 6 times a day) for a few weeks now. It starts with a weird noise (like a loud record scratch) through the speakers, then engine turns off, dash and radio shuts off too and immediately everything turns on again. Car don’t go to park, it stays on drive mode. Sometimes I was able to read different messages on the dashboard or radio about “Collition mitigation system” “anti theft system” and sometimes “loading” appears on the radio screen. This messages disappear quickly. Before this problems happened, the DVD rear screen stopped working (it’s completely black) while the DVD can be heard playing on the speakers. Don’t know if the two issues are related. I'm worried this can cause the car to stop at higher speeds and cause an accident, my wife usually drives this car with the kids with her. I took the car to a Honda dealership, they run diagnostic tests and it doesn't show anything. I left the car at the dealership, they will try to replicate the problem to understand what is happening. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | On at least 3 occasions, the "Auto Engine Idle Stop" has caused my vehicle to completely die while stopped at a stop light. When the car shuts off/dies, the system prompts you to shift the car in park and restart the car, but on these occasions, the car did not start, leaving me stalled in active traffic. I felt very unsafe to be stalled with no way to operate the vehicle. The dealership checked the battery to ensure it wasn't a battery issue and found it to be completely fine. At the time we did not realize that it could be a problem with the Auto Engine Idle Stop feature, otherwise we would've had them check that system specifically. Further research from other customer forums online prompted us to turn this feature off, but we have to do that every time we start the car. There is no way for us to turn it off permanently. The car gives you no warning that this will happen. When you remove your foot from the break to resume driving, the car shuts off without immediately restarting, leaving you stranded. I am hoping that Honda will issue a recall on affected models. At this point they aren't offering any help other than to tell us to turn it off, but you have to remember to do that every time you start your vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | ENGINE | engine reves , no forward movement. Happened the first time on 80/94 east bound (traffic slowed @ 34-36 mph). 4 times now in the last two years. Seems that the speed is always the same when it happens. , into Community Honda, Orland Park, IL . They say no problem . No warning signals. Husband with me the last time it happened Sept. 2, 2022 definately something dangerously wrong. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Sep 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | The automatic emergency braking system has failed multiple times. The vehicle is available for inspection. My safety and the safety of others are put at risk when my vehicle executes unexpected emergency braking. The problem has been reproduced and confirmed by the dealer on two different occasions. The vehicle has not been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives of other, except the Honda dealer. No other warning lamps, messages of other symptoms. Around Feb 1, 2019 the car started applying the brakes when crossing slightly raised railroad tracks. The braking action was hard enough to engage the antilock brake feature. On 2/11/19 the vehicle was taken to AutoWest Honda for warranty repairs at 22,853 miles. The millimeter radar was mis-aimed. This corrected the problem. See attached repair order. On 9/21/20 while driving on the freeway at approximately 65 miles per hour the automatic emergency braking system activated as I passed a vehicle on the right. There were no vehicles in front of me. Braking was again hard enough to activate the anti lock brake system. The vehicle behind me just taped my car. Only a tiny nick was put in my bumper. On 9/22/20 i returned the vehicle to AutoWest Honda. The car had 47,655 miles on the odometer. It was found that the millimeter radar was mis-aligned again. It was realigned free of charge and all was well for the next 22,000 or so miles. On or about 8/25/22, with approximately 66,000 miles on the odometer the automatic emergency braking system activated at about 65 miles per hour as I was passing a vehicle on the right. Again the anti lock braking system activated. The vehicle behind me did not hit my vehicle, but was apparently hit from behind as I saw at least one vehicle run off into the ditch as I looked in my rearview mirror. I believe this to be a design defect in the vehicle The mis-alignment of the millimeter radar appears to be an ongoing problem about every 22,000 miles | Crash: Yes Fire: No | Unknown |