1997 Honda Odyssey: what breaks, and at what mileage
What breaks on the 1997 Honda Odyssey
On the 1997 Honda Odyssey, the failure owners report most often is ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure, with 5 reports on file. Across every failure mode on this year, half the dated reports were filed before 120,000 miles. Overall it scores 59 out of 100, elevated risk for a 1997.
Elevated risk for a 1997 — 202nd riskiest of the 243 1997 vehicles we can rate. 24 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork.
What owners report breaking
Owners have reported 13 named failure modes on the 1997 Honda Odyssey, and the three most-reported carry 50% of everything filed.
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure leads with 5 reports and about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles.
Other electrical problem follows with 5 reports, median 90,000 miles. 1 of those report mention a fire.
Cruise control failure follows with 2 reports.
By system, the reports fall mostly into electrical (11), adas (4) and brakes (2).
The mileage the reports cluster at
Too few of the reports on this year carry an odometer reading to describe the timing: 5 of them do. The mileages quoted elsewhere on this page come from the modes that have enough of them.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
Showing the 12 most-reported failure modes of 13. The full list is in the table below.
How reports accumulate
Every report with an odometer reading, cumulative, from 0 to 200,000 miles. A curve that climbs early is a car with early problems, whatever its total.
- Line share of reports filed by that mileage
What happens when these parts fail
Across the named modes, 2 mention a crash, 2 a fire and 2 an injury. Those are the words owners used in their own complaints, and NHTSA does not verify them, but they are the closest thing in this data to a measure of what a failure actually did.
The average severity weight across every report on this year is 5.42, where a stalled engine or a failed airbag weighs many times more than a rattling trim panel, and a figure this high means the reports are dominated by failures with safety consequences rather than annoyances. The weighting is set out in full on the methodology page.
What the top failures cost to put right, as editorial estimates for an independent US shop rather than figures from NHTSA: ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure at $250–$1,500, other electrical problem at $250–$2,000, cruise control failure at $200–$1,400 and other speed control problem at $250–$2,000. Dealer labour, a seized bolt or a part that is no longer made can push any of these past the top of its range.
4% of the reports on this year sit in the engine, transmission, drivetrain or cooling systems — the four where a repair bill is usually four figures.
Every reported failure mode
| Failure mode | System | Reports | With reading | 25th | Median | 75th | Per 1,000 | Typical repair | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure | electrical | 5 | 2 | — | 150k | — | 0.1 | $250–$1,500 | High |
| Other electrical problem | electrical | 5 | 1 | — | 88k | — | 0.1 | $250–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Cruise control failure | adas | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $200–$1,400 | High |
| Other speed control problem | adas | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $250–$2,000 | Critical |
| Harsh or jerky shifting | transmission | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $600–$4,000 | Moderate |
| Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure | fuel | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $250–$1,800 | Moderate |
| Wiring harness or short circuit | electrical | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $400–$3,500 | High |
| ABS module or sensor failure | brakes | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $500–$2,400 | High |
| Wiper or washer failure | glass | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $120–$800 | Moderate |
| Other brake problem | brakes | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $300–$1,800 | High |
| Other steering problem | steering | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | $350–$2,400 | High |
| Other suspension problem | suspension | 1 | 1 | — | 5k | — | 0.0 | $350–$2,000 | Moderate |
| Other wheel or tire problem | wheels | 1 | 1 | — | 120k | — | 0.0 | $200–$1,500 | High |
| Unclassified problem | other | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 0.0 | — | Moderate |
Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound. Repair costs are typical independent-shop ranges for the failure, not figures from these reports.
How often, against how many were built
Scaled by an estimate of how many of these cars exist, the 1997 Honda Odyssey draws about 0.5 per 1,000 vehicles, which puts it in the 69th percentile of complaint rates among 1997 vehicles we can rate.
That denominator is the weakest number on the page and it is fair to say so plainly. Rate per 1,000 uses a fleet-size estimate derived from recall paperwork for this exact model year. It is a lower bound.
The working figure is 47,619 vehicles. If the true number is twice that, every rate on this page is half what it says; the ranking against other 1997 vehicles, which is what the risk score uses, is far more robust than the rate itself.
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The odometer reading is the one the owner gave.
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Faulty ignition switch causes the engine to spontaneously shut off while the vehicle is in motion. Since the engine cannot be restarted while not in park, this requires coming to a complete stop without the aid of power brakes or steering. This has happened multiple times and various speeds and conditions. It is very similar to the situation in recall 05v025000. *tr
Faulty ignition switch causes the engine to spontaneously shut off while the vehicle is in motion. Since the engine cannot be restarted while not in park, this requires coming to a complete stop without the aid of power brakes or steering. This has happened multiple times and various speeds and conditions. It is very similar to the situation in recall 05v025000. *tr
Recalls on the 1997 model year
NHTSA has issued 3 recall campaigns covering the 1997 Honda Odyssey, affecting an estimated 54,994 vehicles. A recall is a different kind of evidence from a complaint: it is the regulator and the manufacturer agreeing that something has to be fixed, and the fix is free for as long as the car exists.
The campaigns cover exterior lighting, electrical system:ignition:switch and suspension:front:control arm:lower ball joint. Whether the work was actually done on the car in front of you is a question only the VIN can answer, and the manufacturer or NHTSA will answer it free.
One caution about reading these together: a recall usually raises the complaint count for the same part, because owners who read about it go and file. The mileages stay informative; the counts get noisy.
EXTERIOR LIGHTING
16,270 vehicles 2009-04-07- Defect
- Sabersport is recalling 16,270 combination corner and bumper lamp assemblies of various part numbers sold for use as aftermarket equipment for various passenger vehicles. These headlamps fail to conform to the requirements of federal motor vehicle safety standard no. 108, "lamps, reflective devices, and associated equipment." these lamps do not contain the required amber side reflectors.
- Consequence
- Decreased lighting visibility may result in a vehicle crash.
- Remedy
- Sabersport will notify owners and offer a full refund for the noncompliant combination lamps. The safety recall began on may 11, 2009. Owners may contact sabersport at 1-909-598-7589.
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:IGNITION:SWITCH
1,000,000 vehicles 2002-05-16- Defect
- On certain sedans, coupes, hatchbacks, and sport utility vehicles, electrical contacts in the ignition switch can degrade due to the high electrical current passing through the switch when the vehicle is started.
- Consequence
- Worn contacts could cause the engine to stall without warning, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the ignition switch. Owner notification began june 14, 2002. Owners who take their vehicles to an authorized dealer on an agreed upon service date and do not receive the free remedy within a reasonable time should contact honda at 1-800-999-1009 or acura at 1-800-382-2238.
SUSPENSION:FRONT:CONTROL ARM:LOWER BALL JOINT
124,875 vehicles 1999-05-10- Defect
- Vehicle description: passenger vehicles. Certain vehicles were manufactured with ball joints that can prematurely wear out and, in the worse case, the ball joint would separate causing the front suspension to collapse.
- Consequence
- This condition would result in vehicle deceleration and a sudden loss of power. Also steering controllability would be reduced.
- Remedy
- Dealers will replace the front suspension lower ball joints.
Recall work is free at a franchised dealer regardless of the car's age. Check the VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls before assuming it was done.
How it ranks in the 1997 field
The score at the top of the page, placed among its peers. The zones are the same thresholds the scorer applies, read out of the scorer itself, so the picture and the band word cannot disagree.
Scores are ranked within the model year, never across years, because an older car has had longer to accumulate reports.
- Left fewer and less serious reports
- Right more, or worse
- Marker this vehicle
Better and worse years of the same car
Elevated risk for a 1997 — 202nd riskiest of the 243 1997 vehicles we can rate. Because the ranking is against the same model year only, age cancels out of it.
Across the 31 model years of this car that carry enough reports to score, 1997 comes out best at 59 and 2018 worst at 79, with 1997 itself at 59.
No other year of this model scores meaningfully better than 1997, so if this generation is what you want, the year is not the lever.
Within the 1996–1998 generation specifically, 1997 is the strongest year at 59 and 1996 the weakest at 66.
Scores compare each year against other cars of the same model year, so a low number on an older car is a real result and not an artefact of age.
Shorter is better. Years with too few reports to score are shown without a bar rather than as a zero, because no data is not good news.
Within the 1996-1998 generation, 1997 Honda Odyssey scores best at 59 and 1996 Honda Odyssey worst at 66.
What this page cannot tell you
24 owner reports; fleet size estimated from this year's own recall paperwork. Every count on this page is therefore a floor: it is the number of owners who went to the trouble of filing with a federal agency, which is a small and self-selected fraction of the owners who had the fault.
Of those 24 reports, 5 carried an odometer reading, so the mileages here describe 21% of the sample rather than all of it. Owners also round: readings pile up on multiples of ten thousand, which is why this site publishes "about 90,000 miles" and not "91,438".
The failure modes are assigned by software reading the owner's own words, which is accurate in bulk and wrong in individual cases. A mode with a handful of reports may contain a misfiled one.
And nothing here predicts what one car will do. These are other people's complaints, filed years apart, on cars maintained by strangers. Read the page as a map of where this model year has previously gone wrong, then have the specific car in front of you inspected.
Questions this page answers
What are the most common problems with the 1997 Honda Odyssey?
The most-reported failures are ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure (5 reports, median 150,000 miles), other electrical problem (5 reports, median 90,000 miles) and cruise control failure (2 reports). Counts come from owner complaints filed with NHTSA, which are voluntary, so they show what owners bothered to report rather than every fault that occurred.
Is the 1997 Honda Odyssey reliable?
It scores 59 out of 100 on our risk index, which is elevated — 202nd riskiest of the 243 1997 vehicles we can rate. The score is a comparison against other 1997 vehicles, not a prediction about any individual car, and it is built from complaint rates, severity and how early failures appear.
Which year of the Honda Odyssey is best?
Within the 1996–1998 generation, 1997 scores best at 59 out of 100 and 1996 worst at 66. Same body, same engines, different luck.
Where this comes from. Every figure above is computed from NHTSA owner complaints and recall records for this exact make, model and year. Complaints are voluntary and self-selected, so treat counts as a floor. The methodology page writes out each formula, and the same numbers are available as JSON.
What breaks at my mileage Compare with another car
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed