Overheating on the 2002 Honda Odyssey
1 fire 1 of the 10 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When overheating gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Honda Odyssey report overheating at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 102,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 42,224 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48,012 miles | 62,000 miles | 81,000 miles | 89,000 miles | 90,236 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 1 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 27; the 2002 has 10. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
As reported by many other honda odyssey 2002 owners, the automatic transmission would pop out of 2nd or 3rd gear and into neutral. Engine would rev up when given gas but with zero acceleration. About 6 times this happened over a 2 month period. By manually switching to a low gear and then back into automatic drive the transmission behaved properly. A few days ago the engine check light lit up, as well as the maintenance light. We took into dealer and were told an error code of p0730, incorrect gear ratio, was being reported by the vehicle's diagnostic circuitry. This is a very dangerous failure. Dealer said a new transmission was needed, for some $4,500. After complaining that it is not acceptable for a 2-year old car's transmission to fail, even if our mileage was over the 36,000 mile warranty, dealer called honda and offered us a reconstructed transmission if we would pay $1,028 for the labor only. We accepted before reading all these similar complaints on the internet. We were also told that the onboard computer had to be replaced, since that is always done when the transmission is replaced. A reconstructed transmission, was…
My '02 honda odyssey is now on its third transmission in 86000 miles the first was replaced at 3000. Last failure occurred on interstate while going through hills of chattanooga, tn. Traction control came on and brakes started to fail due to the large amount of transmission fluid ejected from vehicle. Luckily was able to control van and move off of roadway. Honda replaced entire transmission but has not reimbursed for other expenses. This vehicle has a significant overheating problem in the transmission causing failure.*jb
Our 2002 honda odyssey ex is canadian manufactured. We purchased it from a oregon honda dealer 12/2001 with only 38 mi. On it. We were not told about the "grey market" or it's implications, and have never received any recall /safety information on this vehicle. The dealership said they couldn't get it for me. I contacted the dealership owner and finally the service dept. Got information on a transmission problem recall, and performed the service in sept. 2005. The canadian honda campaign number is k16; NHTSA bulletin number is 04v176000. The dealership service dept. Told me replacement of a lubricant part for second gear was needed. I never saw the bulletin itself until yesterday when I found it online. Now I know that the bulletins suggested replacing the part for vehicles with under 24000 km (15000 miles) and for vehicles with more kms/miles- ours had over 60000 miles -doing an inspection to see if there was discoloration on the gears from overheating, and if so, replacing the transmission. The explanation on both bulletins is that heat buildup occurs between the counter shaft and the secondary shaft second gears eventually…
Also reported on the 2002 Honda Odyssey
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does overheating happen on the 2002 Honda Odyssey?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 90,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is overheating on the 2002 Honda Odyssey?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
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