2003 Odyssey DRL relay location

[maddawg]

Thanks for the links and pics...successfully resoldered my joints and now DRL is working again.

[Vanguard]

I brought my van in to Honda yesterday for an oil change and asked about fixing the relay (already knew what the problem was due to research here). Honda wanted $150 for the relay and $100 labor...almost $300 after taxes!!!

I am fairly experienced with a soldering iron, so I just asked the mechanic exactly where the relay is. He told me it was on the wall by the driver's left leg, near the parking brake.

I want to give it a go tonight, but this seems contrary to what I have heard here. Is the relay found in the dash above the glove compartment, or is it by the parking brake?

Thanks!

[William Wiles]

The DRL CONTROL UNIT is behind the glove box. The DRL RELAY is on the driver under dash left side.

[Seeker]

I accidently picked auto cruise control box and disconnected the plug, so I reconnected it back. Now my cruise control and drl is not working.... help.

[jcf57]

Thank-you Thank-you Thank-you!!!!!! My problem was exactly as you described (2003 Odyssey). It took me like 20 min to remove the module, re-solder all the pins to the two relays on the board and reassemble. My head lights are back to normal and functioning properly! (My DRL light did flicker with the relay chatter)

I have to mention that the relay chatter noise was coming from the drivers side but when I wrapped on the module (the gray box behind the glove box) and the noise went away I knew the problem was just as you described. I did see stress lines on the solder joints to the two relays in the module so I just resoldered them all. I'm sure this module controls the relays on the drivers side making them chatter. Thanks for the great pics and the link showing the fix, made this job a piece of cake!!!!!

[dabernster]

Hey there! Thank you so much for this incredibly helpful solution! I had asked my mechanic to track it down but being a fairly honest guy, he said it wasn't as simple as changing headlights (which had seemed to work the first couple of times the DRL dash light came on). Anway, long story short, I followed your hints, re-soldered all the relay connections, and voila! the DRLs work again as designed. Thanks again. (yes, mine is a 2001 Odyssey as well. BTW, other than the transmission which was under warranty, nothing, repeat nothing has gone wrong in this amazingly well designed vehicle.)

[Nitro]

So I should look for cracks in the solder that connects certain components to the board & resolder those? Occasionally I get this sick buzzing sound from under the driver's side footwell but if I understand this thread the relay located behind the glovebox is the culprit, is that correct?

[Vanguard]

Indeed, the cause of the sick buzzing sound is the relay behind the glovebox. If you open the glovebox about half way and look just above it, you will see the grey relay box bolted to the wall behind it. I was able to remove mine with a socket and extension going right over the glovebox. No need to drop or remove the glovebox. Once you have the relay out, disconnect the cables. The box opens very easily. The cracks in the solder were pretty obvious. I re-soldered about 9 spots in all...very simple as far as soldering goes. I had the unit out, re-soldered and reinstalled within 15 minutes.

Easiest repair I've done on my Ody.

[Kamshaft]

I own a 2003 Odyssey. Basically, what I did is, took a solder sucker and removed all the suspicious solder joints. And re-did them with new solder. And yes, the box you want, is the one the the photos above is behind the glove box and you may need a 10mm socket to remove the box.

The bad solder joints are VERY obvious!

Very useful thread, Thanks! This is NOT that difficult to do. Here's a Youtube video.



My control box looked exactly like the one in the video, I'm sure they are all the same.

Here's a link to a step-by-step tutorial too.
http://www.nyx.net/~smanley/hondadrlfix/index.html

[thenemos]

Is it just the 2003 Canadian versions that are equipt with DRLs, or do American models have them too?

[davedrivesody]

Only the Canadian 2003 models had DRL's. They were added to American models a few years later, 2008 or thereabouts.

[Sched]

Hey Man,
I am having some gremlin issues with my lights too. It began as having to toggle the headlight switch repeatedly to get the high beams to come on (this was my quick fix at any rate). Without taking this action I was running with one high beam (right side) and no left side light. This worked for a while til about November. Now the high and low beams work fine, but the DRL's are always off. Been damn cold lately, but need to fix this, at least prior to inspection. Would love to see what you did, thinking the module is the likely culprit here too. Not sure what a PM is...(?personal message?) Anyone else with insight or advice for this issue, bring it on.