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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2022 | POWER TRAIN,ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | Merging from west bound I-40 to south bound I-15, there was a slight incline. I accelerated to merge and change lane from 4 to 3, the van suddenly lost power. Engine was running and I could hear it rev up but transmission seemed to not have engaged. The car decelerated to almost 50 mph forcing me to move back to lane 4 in order to avoid being hit by an incoming 18-wheeler. It's most likely an transmission issue of old with Honda. The vehicle regained power after I let go of gas pedal for about 4-5 seconds. It happened again on I-40 near Flagstaff at high speed on my way home to Dallas from SoCal on Jan 2nd. To lose available power to wheels at high rate of speed, it's surely a safety hazzard. I don't feel safe to allow my wife to drive the vehicle. Please help investigate. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | POWER TRAIN | I have had 4 incidents where I was in heavy traffic and acceleration onto a busy freeway from a ramp and when I merged into heavy traffic, my car quit! Suddenly I had no power and was slowing down rapidly. The driver behind me got no warning brake lights and I had no place to go. Needless to say I was greeted with a loud long horn blast and luckily not the expected crash sound I was expecting. It took 3 to 5 seconds for my transmission to get back in gear and generate power. At 70 miles an hour you travel quite a distance in 3 to 5 seconds. The scariest incident was on a crowded four lane divided highway. I pulled out to pass a slow moving semi truck and as soon as I got into the faster crowded lane, the car lost power again. This time I had a semi truck barreling down on me and and one to my right side. Fortunately, the truck was able to slow down and not hit me, but again the long horn blast was accompanied by a rude gesture. If any of these incidents had resulted in an accident I probably would not have survived to even explain the cars malfunction. This is totally unpredictable and not reproducible. We took the car into a Honda dealership and reported the problem and were told they drove it and couldn't reproduce the problem and it was fine. I strongly suspect there have been multiple incidents where people were not as fortunate as I was and the failure resulted in serious rear end collisions. It would be interesting to see if Honda vehicles with this year CVT have seen an increase in rear end collisions. I hope I am not a victim of a fatal collision due to this defect, but I can't help but feel nervous any time I am merging into traffic or passing in heavy traffic. This problem has been reported before by others as a quick internet search confirms. It would be a very expensive recall for Honda, but what price do you put on safety and a human life. Friends have suggested I get a different vehicle. I can't afford this in today's economy. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE,UNKNOWN OR OTHER | After leasing our car for less than 1 year - the power liftgate malfunctioned (which coincidentally there had been a recall in the past on our honda odyssey 2009 for appears to be the exact same issue.) It seems to be exactly the same thing happening again with the 2018 model we have now. So that the trunk won't open by itself. So for the past few years we had too manually lift the trunk and it's extremely heavy to lift and slow and can bang you in the head because it does not lift very high. If this wasn't bad enough a month ago the electrical power/fuse to even accomplish what I just explained electrically shorted for no reasonable explanation. So that my husband has to quite literally climb through the two rows of seats take the plastic off permanently on the manual/nonelectric trunk release from the inside of the car in order to get our trunk door to open at all. The outside of the car electrical button has no electricity running in it at all. This is terrible for a family of 5 children. There haven't been any recalls on this and I'm sure it'll be quite expensive to replace. Please look into this issue for us please. Thank you kindly. Please see below the recall in 2009 that should also be for the 2018 model as well. HONDA IS RECALLING CERTAIN MODEL YEAR 2008-2009 ODYSSEY VEHICLES, THE GAS-FILLED STRUTS THAT HELP TO RAISE AND SUPPORT THE LIFTGATE OF VEHICLES EQUIPPED WITH A POWER LIFTGATE SYSTEM MAY BE PRONE TO EARLY LIFE FAILURES DUE TO A MANUFACTURING FLAW. THE FLAW CAN RESULT IN A LEAK OF THE PRESSURIZED GAS, LEADING TO REDUCED STRUT PERFORMANCE. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Mar 2022 | FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | STRONG ODOR OF GASOLINE. GAS LEAKING ON TO THE ENGINE BY EITHER THE HIGH PRESSURE FUEL PUMP OR FUEL INJECTORS. FUEL INJECTORS WERE PURPORTED REPLACED IN APRIL OF 2021. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | FORWARD COLLISION AVOIDANCE | Four years ago I bought this vehicle, immediately from day one, up until today, the automatic braking system slams on the brake randomly for no reason, sometimes even on highways. I contacted Honda several times and they offered no fix to this. Since the first week of owning the car, up by until today, I need to disable this feature EACH and EVERY time I start the car. The few times I forget, the sudden braking reminds me. I am shocked NHTSA has not investigated this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | STRUCTURE | The driver side sliding door will open automatically but will not close. Gives me 3 beeps and doesnt attempt to close. I unplugged the pinch sensor and checked to see if that was the problem but the pinch sensor works as its supposed to. When I plug the pinch sensor back in the motor works to close for a little while but will eventually stop closing soon after. I have repeated this step multiple times and get the same results. The door has done this every now and then up until the last time they did a software update and now it almost always does this. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ENGINE | The engine was making a chirping noise that was heard from within the cabin. The service department of the Honda dealer verified with Honda that the noise was due to a timing belt chirp, per Honda Service Bulletin(SB) 16-054, which applied to the year, make and model of the automobile. The SB indicates that the timing belt idler pulley is too close to the crankshaft pulley, which cause the timing belt to contact the back edge of the crankshaft pulley. This is a 2018 model with less than 14000 miles. The indication is that the belt will fail prematurely, besides making a noise that is quite distracting to the driver. Certainly, this is a design flaw needing the manufacture to recall and fix this well known and common problem with this vehicle. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Feb 2022 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,UNKNOWN OR OTHER,BACK OVER PREVENTION | The infotainment screen went dark during the trip causing loss of navigation guidance, loss of safety features such as back up camera and rear cross traffic warning. It caused loss of climate control as well as every single option related to and/or activated via infotainment display (WiFi hotspot, Bluetooth function, Navigation, etc..) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | STRUCTURE | Passenger sliding doors will freeze in process of closing. Must manually disengage power feature and reset door to fully close. Door will be anywhere from 80% to 95% closed when it fails. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | BACK OVER PREVENTION | Backup camera stopped displaying and cross traffic monitor non functional. No warning or impaired function before system failure. All fuses checked OK. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Jan 2022 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | The Touring and Elite trim levels on the Honda Odyssey have 'rain sensing' wipers, as well as a low, high, and one-wipe function. The rain sensing function cannot be disabled, and takes the place of any intermittent feature. The rain sensing is always on and not disableable, unlike other vehicles that allow the operator to choose whether or not to use the feature, or simply set intermittent wipe speed manually. Honda's rain sensing function simply does not work, making the wipers go full speed in light mist or not work at all in heavy rain. Due to the fact the rain sensing function cannot be disabled, operators are either stuck with wipers off or on continual speed. This is both distracting as operators either must manually flick the wiper stalk for a one-wipe function in light rain every few seconds, or run the wipers continually, causing streaking and difficult visibility in lighter rain or snow events. This problem is well-documented on Odyssey and Civic forums, and I have purchased and replaced the rain sensor with no change in system performance. It's shocking Honda cannot allow a user to simply disable the feature via a software menu like almost every other manufacturer. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | Carry Handle, Shell, Base | I removed the car seat cover to wash and discovered there was a crack in the hard foam of the head piece. It completely separated the two side of the headpiece and the side was coming away from the hard plastic base on one side. When I removed the cover completely, half of the head rest piece fell off. This is the 2nd Chicco MyFit car seat that I have had because the first one was replaced under warranty for this very same problem. The biggest issue is that the foam is breaking and coming loose underneath the cover so I don't know how long it has been like this. This compromises the safety of my child if we were to get in an accident. The head protection is obviously important, especially in a side impact crash but with the hard foam broken in half, it is useless. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Dec 2021 | POWER TRAIN | Car had 60,000 miles when my wife was driving and stopped on a red light the car never moved again, check engine light turned on and the car put itself in park, she couldn't shift to drive or reverse. The transmission stopped working, no prior notifications, no weird noises it just stop working, I got to her and tried everything but I had to eventually tow it to the dealership. After a week of troubleshooting we were told a new transmission was needed, at 60K Miles! Thank god I opted for the extended warranty and only had to pay $800 of deductible, if not it would have been a $8K repair, it is unacceptable that a transmission stop working at 60K Miles! | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | POWER TRAIN | The transmission started shifting hard on November 20th, 2021 while driving 60-70 mph on the interstate. I was on a Thanksgiving trip (Indianapolis, IN to Venice, FL) with my wife and three kids ages 8, 6, and 4. We were on I-75 north of Atlanta when the transmission shifted hard up and down around 2000 rpm. After about four hard shifts the van lost the ability to accelerate (no amount of throttle increased vehicle speed); no dash indicators or warnings. At the time we were going around 60-70 mph when we lost acceleration and I had to coast the van to the side of the road through the northern Atlanta traffic. The transmission did come back and I was able to get of the next exit and take the van to the Honda dealer. The transmission continued to hard shift on the approximately 15 minute drive to the dealer. I did leave the van with the dealer, but before I left I tried to put the van in reverse and it would not move. The dash and button suggested I was in reverse but there was no function, and at that time I got a transmission problem warning. Prior to trying to reverse the vehicle I did not get a warning. So while on the interstate when it was a real problem the vehicle did not give any indication of what was wrong; so I’m glad I was driving and not my wife or someone less capable in a dangerous driving situation. Honda looked at the van on Monday November 22nd and told me I needed a new transmission at a cost of $9,300. The van was purchased in March of 2018 and currently has around 69k miles on it. I don’t believe anyone would agree that a transmission replacement at 69k miles is acceptable. This transmission failure is on top of the RES problems that have persisted for multiple years now. If Honda doesn’t contribute financially to the transmission repair, I have no reason to buy another Honda. My van has been nothing but problems. The RES is unreliable for the family and the transmission failure left us stranded 500 miles from home. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE | Car started showing all kind of errors before the milleage waranty went out, one day when car was started, we saw the following errors scroll through the dash: Road Departure mitigation system problem Power Steering System EPS problem VSA Vehicle stability assist problem Hill start assist problem Brake system error Brake Hold system problem Brake system problem I have taken the car in for these issues 3 times at a local dealership and nothing was found as a reason for the issue, they just "rolled" the errors to clear them and that seems to work for a few months. When these errors happen the car is not fully responsive and becomes a safety hazard in my view, not having all the safety features available while driving the car in this error mode is dangerous for me and my family these will happen every once in a while, and the most recent happening was today 11/19/2021. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | When making left or right turns from completed stops, the car some time hesitates to move or to speed up for short 2-3 seconds. This could cause accident between my car and in coming trafic. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | POWER TRAIN | The transmission will occasionally not engage in gear in situations where the driver is accelerating slowly from a stop, and then has to let up on the accelerator as to let a car pass, and then applying pressure on the accelerator again. The minivan will stall, not because the engine died, but because the transmission will not engage in gear. It will then jerk in gear causing the tires to lose traction since the engine is reving. The last times this occurred was Nov. 1 and 2, 2021. On Nov. 1st when I was leaving a driveway, I paused to let a car cross in front on me and then attempted to accelerate onto the intersection in front of a semi. The minivan wouldn’t move since it wouldn’t engage in gear. My daughter was screaming at me since the semi was barreling down. The transmission then slammed in gear, tires screeched, and the minivan accelerated. I took the minivan to a Honda dealer on Oct. 1,2021, but they couldn’t find anything. They checked software and DTC and no codes stored or active. This transmission issue has occurred occasionally since the minivan was new but has become much more frequent in the last three or four months. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Nov 2021 | AIR BAGS | My husband was driving our 2018 Honda Odyssey Van when he hit a deer and the airbags came out and my hearing was permanently damaged. I had taken a hearing test during the year before the accident and have hearing results after the accident. I have been told by two specialists that nothing can be done to repair the damage to my ears. It has been suggested that the air bags shouldn't have come out. Hitting the deer made a bad situation but the air bags coming out made a bad situation much worse. We had hit deer before and it never made the air bags come out which was absolutely not necessary in this situation. My leg was also cut and bruised by the air bag and I went to the emergency room for treatment. | Crash: Yes Fire: No Injuries: 1 Towed Medical attention | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | VISIBILITY/WIPER | Sunroof shattered at highway speed without warning. No previous cracks in the window. All windows were rolled up an closed, conditions were dry, there was no immediate debris that caused the issue. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | POWER TRAIN | The contact's parents own a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that upon starting the vehicle, the gear shifter was shifted to drive however, the vehicle failed to move. Several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the dealer who diagnosed that the transmission software needed to be reset. The contact stated that the transmission software was reset however, the vehicle stalled inadvertently while driving. The warning message "Do Not Drive, Transmission Trouble" and several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The contact stated that the vehicle was towed back to the dealer who reset the transmission software however, the failure persisted. The contact stated that the vehicle was towed back to the dealer for the third time and the transmission software was reset; however, the failure persisted. The contact stated that the vehicle was towed to a second dealer who informed the contact that they could not duplicate the failure. The contact stated that the failure recurred, and the vehicle was towed back to the second dealer who diagnosed that the transmission had failed. The contact stated that the transmission was replaced however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 52,000. | Crash: No Fire: No Towed | 52,000 |
| Oct 2021 | ENGINE,FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM | There is a chirping coming from the engine area with the engine warmed up AND NOW IS RATTLING UNDER NEATH THE VAN | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL,ENGINE | The transmission stalls and doesn’t shift into different gears or takes a long time to shift while letting the car roll (almost causing accidents as I have no control) The van also rolled back on its own down my driveway while I was trying to park and wouldn’t go into gear until I was able to get a complete stop. The speed is also affected as it will not speed up when Pulling out from a stop And then it will speed too fast which makes it hard to not get hit by traffic going at a steady speed. This is not a one time incident, it’s now a non stop issue every time I drive. This happens at all speeds and now can not drive past 50 mph without the engine revving. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM | 1. The battery died after sitting still for 2.5 hours on the inserstate. (A tractor trailer had jackknifed stalling traffic). The van had been turned off after 20 mins. When traffic started moving again, the van would not start. The battery was too drained to even be jumped. People offered to help push it to the emergency lane but there was no way to get it into neutral to move it, because it has gear shifter buttons which were also disabled. 2. It was 10 pm and on a pitch black interstate in the pouring rain. It sat in the moving lane of traffic, which had picked back up to normal interstate speed, for about 25 mins until cops got there to park behind it with their lights on waiting for a tow truck. Before the cops got there, cars, tractor trailers, etc. were coming up on it rather suddenly b/c they couldn’t see it in the lane of traffic, they were dodging it left and right at full speeds. 3. The vehicle was towed that night and then the following day to our local honda dealer where they couldn’t determine why the battery had been drained, and confirmed it was too dead to have even been jumped. We never got an answer as to why it died. My husband had me tell him about the evening and basically re-enacted it. We believe it was the fact that even after the van was turned off after 20 mins of sitting there, that the driver door had not been opened once and that it dying had something to do with the anti theft system. We reported these findings to our local service dept. 4. There were no warnings that it had died because it had been turned off for over 2 hours, the driver door had never been opened. This happened in September, 2018. It was a very scary event and I didn’t want to keep the vehicle knowing there is no way to get it into neutral when it’s that dead. (The service dept confirmed that and when I asked a salesman about it, he was puzzled, also confirmed that he does not know of a way to get it into neutral once dead.) | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,STRUCTURE | Vehicle leaking water on backside and is causing electric issues. One of the issue is rear lift gate malfunctioning. The hatching opening on its own etc which is a safety risk.The dealer repaired this under warranty and they issue came back again almost four times so far. Now dealer is saying the issue is due to leaking water from top which they mentioned after vehicle went out of warranty and asking to contact body shop to identify the leak. The honda dealer not fixing the issue now. Please check if you received similiar issue and help with me regarding the same. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |
| Oct 2021 | STRUCTURE | This is regarding the sliding door recall that happened a few months ago. Honda replaced it via recall. NHTSA RECALL NUMBER:20V-437 MFR CAMPAIGN ID: A88 CAMPAIGN DESCRIPTION:2018-20 Ody Sliding Door Outer Handle Cables Safety Recall RECALL DATE:07/28/2020 After getting this fixed by Honda, now while driving the car at a certain speed, the System would throw error information, that the right slide door has not closed properly. Even the door is locked, The error is not constant, but it gives errors on and off while driving. This creates confusion for the driver while the vehicle is moving. I guess the recall fix has caused further damage to the sliding door. I have a kid and it concerns me the safety of kids who sit closer to the door. Would like you guys to take a look at this ASAP before a disaster occurs. | Crash: No Fire: No | Unknown |