2018 Honda Odyssey: doors won't lock, open or latch

Filed Sep 6, 2026 · Body, Electrical · NY

Rear sliding door failure, doors wouldn't latch properly resulting in opening when driving down the road. Took to dealership for repair. Paid $1633.78 they replaced rear latches 3/31/2026. Rear latches failed to open resulting in one Rear door cable breaking and one that will not open at all 9/1/2026. Neither door opens at this point.

Filed Feb 9, 2026 · FL · 1 injury

I am reporting a safety incident involving the power sliding door system on my 2018 Honda Odyssey. Today, Monday, February 9th 2026, my 3 year old child’s arm was caught and compressed by the power sliding door. At the time, she pressed the interior door button while I simultaneously pulled the exterior door handle. The door began to open, my child placed her arm out, and the door then closed on her arm instead of reversing. The door did not release or reverse automatically. I was unable to open it using the exterior handle and had to stretch to the front dashboard, left sliding door open button to stop and reopen the door to free her arm. Thankfully this didn’t happen on the passenger side sliding door! This resulted in redness, swelling, and pain, and she later woke from sleep crying due to increased pain. She is undergoing medical evaluation. The vehicle is equipped with pinch protection sensors that failed to prevent this injury. This appears to be a serious safety malfunction involving a child. I am submitting this report so the issue can be documented and reviewed for potential investigation. I have not seen a recall involving the sliding doors sensors having this issue.

Filed Sep 27, 2025 · Electrical · FL

Like many other people on the [XXX] forums, our Honda Odyssey has a water leak that dripped onto the Tailgate Control Module, causing it to corrode and stop working. Now, our tailgate door will not open or close electrically, nor even manually using the handle outside. We have to crawl through the vehicle into the trunk, open a trim piece with a screwdriver, and stick our finger into the mechanical parts to disengage the latch to allow the door to open. Safety issues: 1) It's hard to know whether the door is fully closed and latched, so it could pop open while driving. 2) In the event of a car crash or other emergency, we may need to rely on that tailgate door being operational, so it being jammed by a widespread and known problem seems like a predictable life threatening issue. Links to some of the forum threads where other people report the exact same issue: [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

Filed Aug 31, 2025 · Body · TN

The sliding doors will not open at intermittent times. Warnings will flash off and on about door error but not consistently. If there is an incident or an emergency, the door will not open. If there were an accident and the driver cannot turn off the power door switch then anyone in the back cannot get the door to open, they would be trapped. We have had one motor replaced already. We opted to do that because we had a newborn on that side and we needed to be able to get to her quickly if she needed us and we were unable to rely on that door. The other door is doing it as well.

Filed May 5, 2025 · Body · CA

Safety Recall #18-128, Power sliding door rear latches was performed on or around September of 2020 on my vehicle. Last week (04/30/2025), my passenger side sliding door would not open. After removing passemger side inner door panel to inspect, found rear latch cable frayed closest to a microswitch found (as of 05/04/2025, it is currently held together by 2 strands of the cable). I also verified the operation between the front and rear latch of the passenger sliding door with the door panel off, and noticed it intermittently touches the microswitch when closing the door, further confirming the issue. My concern is the rear latch cable being frayed. The latches operate normal and as intended, the problem is I cannot purchase the cables separately, only as a complete unit with the latch.

Filed Jan 17, 2025 · Body · ME

Our 2018 Honda Odyssey has continued to experience power sliding door issues that were initially addressed by the federal safety agency campaign numbers 18V795 and 20V437000. Our vehicle underwent the recommended repairs in both campaigns. The vehicle is available for inspection upon request, and the problem was reproduced by a dealer. In short, after undergoing both warranty repairs, the same problems gradually cropped up again. When attempting to close the door with the power-close button, the sliding door would sometimes stop about three-quarters of the way, and then open fully again. This would happen even when nothing was obstructing the sensor. This happened on both sides of the vehicle (i.e., both sliding doors), and eventually the doors ceased working altogether (albeit at different times) and we brought the vehicle to Honda for a non-warranty repair. The dealer was able to reproduce the problem in both doors, and they made the necessary repair in both cases (see attached invoices). Now, very similar issues have cropped up again, and our concern is that the initial warranty repairs may not have sufficiently addressed the root cause of the issue with these sliding doors. Once again the door sounds like it isn't latching completely. It's hard to describe, but everyone knows the sound in a vehicle when a window or a door is cracked just a little bit. The sound is exactly like that. The dealer told us that moisture intrusion and/or a latching issue may have caused this problem, and we also experienced a severed cable. Word for word, these are almost exactly the issues that campaign numbers 18V795 and 20V437000 were intended to address. If these are indeed the same issues that were the focus of the two recalls, then our vehicle is at risk of the same safety failures, i.e., the sliding doors opening while driving, failing to latch, and/or the snapping of the outer door handle cables due to moisture intrusion.

Filed Nov 16, 2024 · Engine, Fuel system · CA

My 2018 Honda Odyssey stalls or hesitates when I go from a stop to accelerate. The vehicle will lose all power for 3-6 seconds and when the engine catches up to the pedal, the vehicle accelerates hard, spinning the tires and jerking the vehicle. I've had the vehicle inspected at my local Honda dealership and they've said the vehicle has no open recalls. This includes the fuel pump recall and the engine recall, neither recall has been issued for my vehicle. The results of the inspection was the technician explaining that "the vehicle just does that." My vehicle has not produced any warning lamps for the engine. My vehicle has produced several warnings lamps and warning messages on the infotainment screen about the side doors being open. I've had several instances where the door will not close and or will not open properly.

Filed Apr 11, 2024 · Driver assistance, Electrical · MN

It is available for inspection on request. Lost blindspot info, lost use of turn indicators, rear door hatch malfunction, several warnings flash up while driving. I was in a busy area and didn't have a way to signal my movements, screen flashing warnings was terrifying, the van felt like it might turn off at any moment. Before the most recent incident, we had brought the van to Honda dealer for repair, for similar issues that occured at start-up, they found water in the power control unit in rear left area of van that caused corrosion and short-circuit. No body damage or alterations to vehicle. Replaced unit and after rainy weather problems recurred at start up and power down, then while driving, they tested the battery and it was almost dead (the battery was only 1 month old) replaced battery. Problems recurred and water found again. significant leak suspected but not found yet as the service department won't evaluate the seals, and told us it's a body-shop task. summary: intermittent left-side passenger door and rear hatch door malfunction, blind spot system warnings/loss, loss of turn indication, brake system warnings, other system warnings, difficulty starting the car and turning the car off, brand new battery drained while the car was parked and turned off. This manufacturing defect should be addressed by Honda, seals should not fail when exposed to regular conditions. Water should not enter the vehicle and short out an important component leading to several malfunctions that could cause loss of important systems and rear-door latch while driving.

Filed Mar 26, 2024 · Electrical · PA

Right Power door will not open or close with buttons or key fob. Must open/close manually. The doors are too hard to open manually for smaller children and even some adults making it a safety concern in case of emergency. This started intermittently a year ago and is now a constant. Tailgate has been opening and closing on its own, even when locked while parked as well as when the idle stop is activated while in drive. This is a concern that someone can get in the vehicle when unattended. It also shuts (and didn't stop) when someone was standing in the opening while removing something when it occurred. This started about a month ago. I was told to take it to a dealer and pay them to diagnose it. The dealers have a wait list and it's also not in my budget. These are real concerns and I feel Honda isn't taking ownership of the dangers.

Filed Jan 28, 2024 · Body · AR

Power tailgate problem. Middle both passenger side door did not latch. Power tailgate cannot open automatically. It happened recently, and happened every year as far as I remember, when raining season, or winter time. It just happened few days ago. Passenger side door did not latch. I was driving with baby in car seat, on freeway, when door latch did not lock properly. My wife had this incident as well, and called Honda dealer, and they may or may not repaired the latch, and we rarely have this incident anymore after my wife called Honda dealer, cause she freaked out door was open loosely while driving. But on left side, occasionally cannot open or closed, not as extreme as before we complained to dealer.

Filed Oct 10, 2023 · Body · OH

Both of my passenger sliding doors failed, resulting in both of them opening while driving with my children in the back seats. In August 2022, my driver side passenger door swung wide open while I was driving the car, with the error on the dashboard showing door open. Took the car to Honda Dealership, who stated that the door latch failed and replaced the door latch. Now, a year later, in October 2023, the same issue happened on the passenger side. The door swung wide open while driving, with the same error appearing on the dashboard. This time, Honda refused to fix it and demanded that we pay $800 for the fix. How do latches on both doors fail?

Filed Sep 15, 2023 · Locks · 88,000 miles · WI

The contact owns a 2018 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that the passenger’s side sliding door failed to latch and lock securely. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and was diagnosed with a failed door latch actuator. The contact was informed that the two latches and actuators need to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The contact stated that after researching the failure, she discovered the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 18V795000 (Latches, Locks, Linkages) however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 88,000.