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829 owners have filed defect reports on this one. That's not a small number. 3 active recall campaigns on file.
Average for the segment. Some recurring trouble spots worth knowing about.
Repair exposure runs above average — only with money set aside and eyes open.
Our read of the federal NHTSA complaint and recall record for this exact year and model — not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection. How we score.
If you bought a 2003-2007 Odyssey, Pilot, or Accord V6 thinking you were getting a 250,000-mile family hauler, the engine probably held up its end of the bargain. The transmission probably didn’t.
For two decades Honda built one of the best small-engine reputations in the business. The 4-cylinder Civic and Accord, the K-series engines, the bulletproof 5-speed manuals — all earned. Then came the 5-speed automatic behind the J-series V6 in the 2003-2007 Odyssey, Pilot, Acura MDX, Acura TL, and Accord V6, and Honda owners learned that one bad transmission can trump a generation of good engines.
If you’ve got one of these vans or SUVs and the transmission still shifts crisp at 150,000 miles, you got lucky. Most didn’t.
The BAYRA, B7XA, and MDKA family of 5-speed automatics had two related failure modes:
Torque converter and 3rd-4th clutch pack. The third clutch pack runs hot, the fluid breaks down, and clutch material shears off. The shavings circulate through the valve body and torque converter, glazing the converter clutch and causing converter shudder under light throttle. By the time you feel the shudder, the third clutch is on its way out.
Differential bearing. Inside the case, the differential rides on a bearing that wasn’t sized for the torque output of the V6. Bearing fails, differential gets sloppy, you get a whine that grows into a growl. Often heard before any shift problems show up.
The combination meant that by 100,000-180,000 miles, a huge percentage of these transmissions were either slipping, shuddering, or whining — sometimes all three.
Honda extended the powertrain warranty to 7 years/100,000 miles on most affected models when the lawsuits started piling up. They issued a software update intended to “smooth” the converter clutch engagement and reduce heat. They also issued a service bulletin recommending an external transmission cooler upgrade — and on some Odysseys, the dealer would install one for free.
Translation: they knew. The fix was always external cooling and aggressive fluid changes.
Honda’s official position was 90,000-mile fluid intervals. Real-world: change ATF every 30,000 miles, no exceptions. Use Honda Z1 or DW-1 (whichever your year specifies), no substitutes. The drain-and-fill is a 20-minute job — there’s no transmission pan, you pull the drain plug, drop about 3 quarts, put the plug back, refill through the dipstick tube. Do it three times in a row spaced over a week of driving and you’ve effectively done a full fluid exchange without paying a shop $300 for a flush.
Add an external cooler if you tow, live anywhere south of the Red River, or both. ATF temps over 220°F kill these transmissions. A B&M or Hayden universal cooler, $80, mounted in front of the radiator, will drop your operating temp 30-40°F and add years to the unit. I’d put one on every Odyssey in DFW if I had my way.
You’ve got a small window. If you act on the first sign of light-throttle shudder:
You might buy yourself another 30,000-50,000 miles. Maybe more.
If you ignore the shudder and let it progress to slipping, flaring, or hard shifts, you’re looking at a rebuilt or replacement transmission.
On a 2005 Odyssey with 175,000 miles worth maybe $4,000 running, you’re looking at a transmission job that costs as much as the van. That’s why you see so many of these in the salvage yards. Owners do the math and walk away.
A 2003-2007 Odyssey or Pilot with the V6 and 5-speed auto is a buy only if:
Otherwise, walk. The 2008-plus Odyssey with the 5-speed (and later the 6-speed) is a substantially different and more reliable transmission. The V6 itself is fine — the J35 is one of the great minivan engines. It’s just married to a transmission that doesn’t deserve it.
If you already own one: the cheapest insurance is a cooler, a fluid change every 30,000, and easy driving. That trio has saved more of these transmissions than Honda’s software update ever did.
2005 Honda odyssey ex-l - around 50k miles, the power steering was intermittently hard, especially in parking lots. Very little assist. Around 64k, our mechanic purged the p/s pump of fluid and the problem remained. Mechanic replaced our p/s pump which seemed to work…
This issue is related to the electric sliding doors for a 2005 Honda odyssey ex. The right passenger electric sliding door stopped working when the odometer read 99722. At the time it stopped working, the van was parked in a parking lot. When the button was pressed to open the…
Rolling side doors - and rear hatch struts massive problems. Bought car in jan 2006, new. In 2007 one of the side doors quit rolling. Had to have the roller replaced - cost over $700. Then a year later, the other side rolling door went out. Then, the rear hatch struts totally…
Right front brake makes a grinding noise when braking. Car is under warranty, but dealer refuses to remedy the issue as they are stating a remedy is being supplied by Honda without commitment as to when it will be addressed. This is a safety issue.*jb
Drag to your current mileage. Numbers are derived from this vehicle's complaint history.
Injury may result from a power liftgate closing unexpectedly when a person is within the closing path of the liftgate.
The driver could experience a loss of brake force and a crash could occur.
Front impact sensor failure could cause a delay in, or loss of, frontal air bag deployment, which can increase the risk of injury in a frontal crash.
It's got known weak points. With a reliability score of 6.2 out of 10 based on 829 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the 2005 Honda Odyssey has a higher-than-average rate of reported issues. The areas to watch are listed above. Whether it's worth owning depends on price, condition, and how much repair exposure you can absorb.
The 2005 Honda Odyssey is a higher-risk ownership prospect. Repair exposure runs above average — only with money set aside and eyes open. The record behind that call: Body: 112 complaints, classified severe, failures cluster 54,000–138,000 mi; Brakes: 62 complaints, classified severe, failures cluster 7,594–35,000 mi; Reliability score 6.2/10 — around the segment average; 3 recall campaigns on file. This is our read of the federal complaint and recall data — not a substitute for a pre-purchase inspection.
Based on NHTSA records, the most-reported issue is engine, with 122 complaints filed. Typical failure occurs around 80,490 miles. Average repair cost runs about $3,100 at an independent shop.
The engine is one of the costlier repair items. Average repair cost runs about $3,100 at an independent shop. Typical failure occurs around 80,490 miles. Catching early warning signs can sometimes extend life by 20–30,000 miles.
Paste your VIN into the decoder at the top of this page. We pull live from NHTSA, so you'll see exactly which campaigns apply to your vehicle and whether the dealer has logged the fix. Recall repairs are always free regardless of mileage or warranty status.
Math is straightforward: a quality service contract runs $1,800–3,500 over 3 years. With 829 complaints on file and the costliest repair averaging $3,100, one major failure more than pays for it. The catch is reading the contract — many providers exclude wear items and require pre-authorization, so cheaper plans are not always better value.