Complete transmission failure on the 2005 Honda Odyssey
When complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Honda Odyssey report complete transmission failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 19 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 113,432 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
11% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32,100 miles | 69,858 miles | 97,856 miles | 132,500 miles | 145,532 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
Putting it right typically runs $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 250,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 231; the 2005 has 19. 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.
Brake and transmission failure of honda odyssey. We leased a 2005 honda odyssey from honda west in las vegas on the 21st of june 2005. This is 2005 model. The VIN # is: [xxx] in a week, we found a defective brake that was causing a significant problem to stop the car. I immediately informed the dealer and it appeared they did not pay that much attention. I myself was very confused as I was under the impression that honda makes one of the safest cars in the world. My wife is the primary driver and she is a 1st year resident at the university medical center, las vegas, nv. After working she was driving the car to home and she tried to stop the car at red light and the car did not stop. She ran red light and by the grace of god a disastrous accident was avoided. This is a matter of life and death. So, she went to the dealer immediately and they were not polite and were not in a position to look into the problem. However, she forced them to look into it and after two days of investigation they found that the brake was not installed properly at the manufacturing plant. The transmission also has the similar kind of problem, when trying…
I purchased my vehicle new and vigilantly maintain it. With fewer than 43,000 miles, the automatic transmission fails to properly "lockup" at 45 MPH on level grade when warm. The dealers scan tool indicated absence of any detected abnormality, but their test drive confirmed the symptom--pulsing power to the drive wheels. They told me the torque converter is failing which they don't replace nor repair so they said it needs a new transmission. They said it was ok to drive. They never acknowledged a history of transmission problems nor any related service campaigns or technical service bulletins. I am, like I said, vigilant about service, so I will take care of this before it becomes an issue, but others may be at risk if the transmission fails rapidly due to improper design. *tr
Our 2005 honda odyssey ex-l dvd nav is experiencing the same "shutter" issues being reported by numerous other owners. As speeds between 20-40 MPH, the vehicle will stutter or shutter, specifically on inclines. This appears to be a very common, and expensive problem with honda. We took it to the local dealership and they charged $50 for a transmission update. Same issue, so now they have advised that we need a new transmission at $3,000-$4,000. Are you kidding me? I placed a call to a friend that owns a transmission shop 3 hours away and was stunned to find that they have to rebuild the transmission on this style honda odyssey 3-4 times a month. Pay a premium price and get ripped off by a company you think you can trust. This can cause serious accidents on our highways. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Honda Odyssey
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Air conditioning failure
Other brake problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 19 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2005 Honda Odyssey?
Across 19 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2005 Honda Odyssey?
19 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