2012 Honda Odyssey: doors won't lock, open or latch

Filed Sep 12, 2021 · Body · FL

The sliding door on the driver's side would open when the handle was pulled even when the lock was engaged. As this is the primary door used, I didn't not know it wasn't supposed to do this. Several years ago, the started sticking, then making a popping sound when it opened. The dealership inspected and found nothing wrong. It progressed to opening a little bit and getting stuck which required closing the door using the electronic controls. Then it started getting stuck in the open position which using the electronic controls multiple times to get it to close. As it is getting worse over time, I don't know if that will continue. At each oil change, I had the door checked. For years it was sporadic so they claimed they could not reproduce. A few months ago, we lost the ability to use the manual door handles. At this point, it was fully reproducible, but the dealership claimed they couldn't find a cause. They can't explain why the door is attempting to open when the lock is engaged.

Filed Aug 7, 2020 · Body, Electrical · 50,000 miles · CA

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 honda odyssey. The contact stated that she had experienced an intermittent driver side sliding door failure. The contact stated that upon pulling the driver side slinging door handle, the door would not slide back as needed. The contact took the vehicle to honda of escondido (1700 auto park way n, escondido, ca 92029) where they failed to duplicate the failure. The dealer was able to replace all the cable wires in the defective door however, the failure persisted. The contact brought the vehicle back to the dealer ten months later where they performed a latch adjustment on the defective door; despite the repair, the failure still persisted. Since the last repair, the failure became more frequent and the dealer had recently suggested that the cables be replaced yet again. The manufacturer had yet to be notified of the failure. The vehicle had yet to be repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 50,000.

Filed Aug 17, 2018 · Body · 140,000 miles · IL

Tl* the contact owns a 2012 honda odyssey. While the vehicle was parked, the passenger side electronic sliding door would not close and remained in the open position. The door also could not be closed manually. The vehicle was driven to the local dealer (napleton honda, 17220 torrence ave, lancing, il 60438), but the cause of the failure could not be determined. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no solution was offered. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 140,000.

Filed May 2, 2018 · Electrical · 75,150 miles · MN

In a store parking lot, the minivan was shut off and parked, my husband took the keys and locked me in the minivan, not knowing I would have no way out of the minivan. I waited in the minivan perhaps 10 minutes. Then, I tried to leave through the passenger door. The door would not unlock, both manually moving the unlock switch nor hitting the unlock button. Instead the car alarm went off. I then tried to lower the power window on the passenger door, but it did not work. I then tried to exit the driver door. It was locked. The manual switch and automatic door unlock button would not work. I tried to open the driver window through the power control button and it did not open. I tried to open the power sunroof. It did not open. I hit the open trunk button, it did not open. I tried the side sliding doors and they did not unlock. I made sure the child safety lock was off and retried all of the aforementioned items and nothing unlocked. I was trapped in my minivan on a warm day. I was sweating. I checked the owners manual and tried everything in it, but none of it worked. The minivan car alarm remained on for a few minutes and no one would help walking by, probably because of the car alarm. After another few minutes, someone came to the minivan and I asked them for help as best I could. They gave a description of my minivan/plate to the nearby store and they found my husband over the store intercom. He came out and unlocked me with the keys. I was trapped in the minivan for around 20 minutes altogether. If no one would have luckily walked by, I would have been trapped longer. I am scared my kids could get trapped in the minivan or I could get trapped again.

Filed Jul 25, 2017 · Electrical · 63,300 miles · IL

I just had to have the passenger sliding door motor replaced on my odyssey. The door would not close. When attempting to close, they door would shut about 3/4 of the way and then stop. Service department at the dealer advised that the motor was bad and had to be replaced. My concern is that the odyssey was designed with a switch where you can disable the motorized feature and open/close the door manually. However, when my motor went bad, I was unable to manually open and close the door. Service department advised that the cable system runs through the motor so when it went bad, the cables would no longer function allowing manual operation. This seems like a design flaw that can pose a safety issue as my door was stuck in the open position unable to close. This occurred after arriving home and while the vehicle was parked.

Filed Jun 6, 2017 · Electrical, Engine · 63,000 miles · CA · 1 injury

The positive battery cable became disconnected from the battery terminal post while driving at full highway speed (75 MPH)!! This resulted in complete electrical failure. I was able to pull off the road, but the door locks were locked and inoperable. Without power I was unable to unlock the doors or roll down the windows. Without power I had no air conditioning. I was trapped in the car on a hot day. The battery cable mismatch (clamp too big to tighten completely on post) is a known odyssey problem that has been discussed on online forums. Door auto-locking problems in a variety of honda models have also been documented. Putting the two together is a deadly mix. Without a cell phone to call my husband and 911, I and my three small dogs would have died in the hot car. This is a fatal design flaw.

Filed Aug 26, 2015 · 42,000 miles · VA · 1 injury

Have had for a long time episodes of the doors locking for no reason both while the car was stationary and while any speed from streets to interstate. Honda re-programmed the locks, but did not fix the problem. Since it only happened about once every 2 weeks and they could not find another problem, I just let it go. The incident of concern happened in a parking lot. The sliding door closed on the hand of an elderly woman who was getting out of the front seat and we were unable to unlock it and get it off her hand or to slide her hand out of the door. The door was completely closed and flush with the rest of the car. After about 12 minutes as 911 was arriving, the door unlocked itself and they were able to open it. I had been using the buttons on the driver's dash, both front doors and the key fob with the car off and turned on and had pulled on the door handle and hammered on the door without success. When the door unlocked itself, I had once again tried the driver's door button with the car running and the response was delayed enough that I had gotten out of the car and was about at the driver's wheel when we heard the unlocking clunk. Can send photos of the location of her hand if it would be helpful. Thankfully only one finger was broken. Honda checked out the car and found nothing wrong with the sensors. They did say that I have a bad cell on my battery, but the car starts fine and I can't see how that would have anything to do with it. The weird locking of doors was happening at my last check-up where the battery tested out ok.