[Aclement1618]

We bought our 18 EXL with 24k about a month ago and around 25mph it’ll suddenly lose power and slam into gear. You can hear an audible click when this shifting happens. Also, it wants to lurch forward if you barely step on the pedal. I tried resetting the transmission and drove it for 500 miles and it’s still doing it. I have an appt for Wednesday. I’m running all VLEDs but I was having the issue prior to the LED swap. Thankfully we paid the extra 1400 to get Honda Care for 8 years and 100k miles. I’ll post updates after our Wednesday visit.

 

[Aclement1618]

This is awful. I noticed this 9 speed to be noisy/jerky when particularly cold. After driving a bit it smooths out. Unfortunately all this is coming from the design of the AT. Did you ever get the Software update: http://www.urvi.net/forumfiles/SB/A19-124.PDF
Ask for this at your visit if you didn’t get this yet.

I’m not sure if it has been done, but saved the file and will bring it tomorrow. My harsh shifting happens if the engine is cold or warm and I live in San Diego, so the weather is steady. When you got this update, did it help at all?

Thanks for sharing that TSB!

 

[Aclement1618]

Finally had the dealer perform TSB 19-124 on my '18 EX-L. Drove it about 20 miles and don't notice much of a difference. 0-10 mph shifting seems to be better, 30-40 mph, not so much. The dealer did reset the transmission and I'll have to drive it 500 miles for it to relearn, which will be awhile as we're not driving much these days.

As others have said, it's not a deal breaker for '18 &'19 LX-EX-Ls. The transmission is dependable and hopefully will last as long as the van itself. I got my Odyssey at a steal for $16.6k with 99k miles (KBB had it around $22k when I bought it 6 months ago). Don't pass up on good deals simply because of the 9-speed transmission.

Thanks for sharing the info, curious if you notice any changes after the 500 miles.

 

[Aclement1618]

It’s a mix bag of experience for everyone. What I noticed is that shifting in steady acceleration has improved a lot as in no jerking or clicks. The key is you put your foot down and keep it steady. Any fluctuations at the accelerator the AT won’t know what to do. Down shifts are not as smooth as up shift. I do sometime hear the dog clutch 4-5th and 7-8th (more on 4-5th aka low speed rolling in the neighborhood) The real culprit is at the mechanical design of this thing.

Most people complain about slow speed driving in the 30-45mph range.

This might be placebo or I’m just crazy. During your 500mile learning period drive the van with Econ off and drive it how you expect to accelerate and such. After that learning takes place and complete go back to driving gentle and with Econ. Feel like this made a difference in my van. 🤷‍♂️ Goal is longevity. As long as it doesn’t completely poop out I am ok with it. I’ve done 2 cross country trips and had no issues got great mpg at 29.3.
All best. And keep us posted.

Dropped the van off this morning and the advisor assured me that it was normal - but they are going to do the TSB that you shared. I addressed some other issues, like early signs of warped brakes, sagging rear suspension, and dying battery with 25k. I dropped off some donuts from my local donut shop, and they were eager to help or at least eat the donuts. I’ll update when I get the van back.

 

[Aclement1618]

The van drives so much better after the TSB... it doesn’t slam into gear around 24-27 mph like it used to and I drove it how I knew I could duplicate the issue and had no problems. I’ll post updates after 500-1k miles. Time will tell.

 

[Aclement1618]

Talk about greasing up the works. Perhaps they needed it. It seems the service department where I bought our ODY, they have such a negative view of their customers. I hear other people dropping off and picking up their ODY's saying the similar answers I would hear, that they never heard of that problem and we could not reproduce that problem. It is as though they are little robots running on track mounted rail systems with the same prerecorded messages.

Funny you say that, I had to explain to my wife what greasing the skids meant. I said the same thing to her as we were getting the donuts.

Yah you’re right, our service department here is like talking to a wall. I don’t like their “troubleshooting” either; could not duplicate, system works as advertised yet the something is not working. Yikes.

Happy to report that our van is driving smoothly after the service bulletin and 500 miles in. Will report back if any new transmission/shifting issues arise.

 

[Aclement1618]

I'm not a bot, but I do have a 2018 sitting in the shop waiting for a new transmission after it failed at 46,000 miles. Transmission failed on 3/14 while we a were on a spring break road trip. It's 3/23 and it still hasn't been fixed, and we have been stranded for days out of town waiting for it to be completed. Honda refused to overnight the new transmission.
View attachment 161061

Ouch, that’s really unfortunate they wouldn’t at least overnight the trans given the situation. Hopefully it arrives soon and the technicians are able to quickly and correctly install the replacement.

 

[Aclement1618]

Update for you all— View attachment 161145 we said an early goodbye to the Odyssey and are now the owners of a 2021 Toyota Sienna. 😆 We haven't heard from Honda corporate yet or received any sort of reparation (I will add that the dealership has verbally promised that we would).

After we come back from our Hawaii tour, that’s our next vehicle without a question.

 

[Aclement1618]

The shifting issues return post 500mi?

Short answer no, but it seemed to be a two part issue. The first, which was corrected by the software update, would cause the transmission to slam into gear after a complete loss of power during normal acceleration. This would happen around 25-27mph. The second, which is still ongoing, is the somewhat jerky shifting at lower RPMs. If I barely touch the pedal to accelerate at "Prius" speeds, the jerky shifting is barely noticeable. The other alternative to avoid the jerky shifting is to apply my foot to the pedal at a still somewhat slow acceleration but the van wants to lurch forward and take off, even with minimal pressure applied. The pedal response does not match the input. I've driven and owned enough cars to tell the difference. It feels like the van is running a performance chip and it wants to race every time I slightly apply pressure to the pedal.

Hopefully, this makes sense... I haven't updated my response to the poll because I wanted to get more mileage in. I wonder if Honda will come out with another software update to adjust the pedal/acceleration feedback.

When I driving the van I find that I'm sitting in a somewhat tense position (to anticipate the shifting) until I turn on cruise control on the highway. There's almost no consistency with the acceleration.

 

[Aclement1618]

Yup. This. This is what the complaints are all about. Unfortunately this is how this AT behaves... by design... not the answer you want. It’s not the greatest AT. Part of me is like this is just a minivan of all things. Considering $36k hard earned $ this is not acceptable. This gets worse bc you think about it and dwell on on it. This is why I will be buying last year of a particular gen of any make/model. We are beta testers otherwise. No complaints from my van but I do get the dog clutch clicks. I worry as I see more complaints here. Longevity is what I seek over shift quality.

I’m not convinced the issue I’m experiencing is a transmission problem. VCM doesn’t seem to fit either but I’m not sure what it could be. When I accelerate and it lurches forward it’s still in the same gear. I think I’ll bring up the issue again when I hit 30k. Im less than 2k away from hitting that mark.

I do agree that’s it’s frustrating to have some of these issues for a product that you would think is less likely to have these issues... I’ll keep you posted.

 

[Aclement1618]

Dropped my van off at Honda of Mission Valley for 30k. The trans service is $280.74. I’m having them look at a few other items, will update if anything comes out of the trans issue…

 

[Aclement1618]

Just to give a quick update on my end because I've found some resolution with my transmission/hesitation. My issues were: going to pull out in front of traffic and suddenly lose power, barely accelerating then the van lurching forward, and harsh shifting. The latter was resolved from the TSB but the first two issues persisted. I blew off the dealer recommendation for throttle body cleaning because it had around 25k miles, but did their recommended transmission flush. Finally after moving to Hawaii, I dropped it off for the transmission again because it was getting worse and they said it needed a throttle body cleaning. I said I would do it but wanted the money back if the the issue persisted. Having them clean the throttle body actually got rid of my first two problems... It's no longer lagging or taking off after a 1-2 second delay or suddenly losing power, which makes it so much more enjoyable to drive!

The dealer performed this service for around $250; did it without asking me and charged me at the end… I'm assuming you'll pay less if you don't live in HI or CA. You can do this for about 10 dollars if you do it yourself.

 

[Aclement1618]

per their service manager, they hook it up to the “computer” to actuate it to open position, clean it, then do the relearn.

 

[Aclement1618]

Mine still has a jerky shift occasionally from 1st to 2nd and more noticeable going downhill. Had the TSB done and got rid of the harsh shifting. The dealer had no issues performing the TSB.