On three different occasions, different wheels locked-up, suddenly and without warning, while I was driving forward and with no application of the service brake pedal. The third time this happened the front left and both rear wheels locked-up while I was driving 65 mph on the interstate highway causing me to lose control and have a serious accident (see Attachment 5, Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report). (Please note on page 3 of the Crash Report that the officer wrote "when mechanical malfunction locked front wheels causing driver to lose control as vehicle skidded" and he entered the code for "Defective or No Vehicle Brakes" in the field for "Vehicle Defects Contributing") During this event, the VSA Activation Indicator illuminated as well as the ABS Indicator. Attachment 4 is the Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) Report from the vehicle's computer identifying the specific wheels that locked-up.
After the first two events, the dealer paid to have the vehicle towed to the dealership and they repaired the parts that were damaged as a result of the wheel lock-up. (They also paid for me to drive a rental car during the time the vehicle was in their shop.) Mr. Cody Davis, Service Manager at Honda of San Marcos, kept saying that "this was mysterious, that brakes aren't rocket science and that he hoped the problem was fixed this time." I am not a mechanic and had no reason to doubt his diagnosis that this was a brake problem and that the problems had been repaired.
On March 28, 2007 the dealership called to tell me that the van was ready to be picked up after the second set of repairs. That very day the wheels locked-up for the third time causing the accident referred to above. I then strongly suspected that the cause of the problem was computer related because it never seemed to happen under the same circumstances, the ABS and VSA lights came on and the dealership service department had twice replaced all of the rear end and brake parts that the dealership kept assuming or insisting was simply a brake problem.
As soon as the accident happened, I naively expected that Honda would want to take this vehicle off of the road and diagnose it to prevent this from happening in any of their other vehicles. All we wanted was for them to give us a new van, take the old one and diagnose the problem and we would have walked away grateful that we were safe. This was not to happen.
Upon this third event the entire tone and attitude of the dealership changed drastically. Now, instead of appearing helpful and concerned, Honda of San Marcos took a very offensive position. They did not offer to pay for the towing this time, but they asked for the opportunity to inspect it. We paid to have the van delivered from the wrecking yard to the dealership and authorized any and all investigations they felt were necessary. The van was put on a lift, all wheels were removed, photographs were taken (according to Cody Davis) and the dealership service department inspected it. The dealership wanted to call in the manufacturer to take a look, so they called Mr. Ralph Rickey, District Parts and Service Manager for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and he performed his inspection. After their investigations, I was told that there was no apparent cause for the wheel lock-up and, therefore, they were not taking responsibility for the repairs. As instructed in my Owner's Manual, I called the American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Customer Service Department. They had access to all of my service history and to the information gathered by Mr. Ralph Rickey and they, too, are taking no responsibility (attachment 7 is a copy of the letter from Elizabeth Clogg, Automobile Customer Service, American Honda Motor Company, Inc.).
After we received Honda's letter, we began looking on the internet to find what information might be available. We found the NHTSA Campaign Number 04V536000 recalling defective wheel speed sensors on 2004 model Honda Odysseys. It seemed plausible to us that our wheels might lock-up if the wheel speed sensor sent the incorrect wheel speed to the computer. Another important concern to us is that neither the Honda of San Marcos Service Manager or the District Parts and Service Manager ever considered the wheel speed sensors as a possible cause of the problem, even though the recall was on model years only 2 years prior to our model year. Perhaps if they had been diligent in their job, the problem would have been detected after the first incident and we would still be the happy owners of our 2006 Honda Odyssey.
We feel that either Honda and their employees are incompetent or that they actually know that there is a defect and are trying to cover it up by making it so difficult for us to get satisfaction. Fortunately for us, no one was injured in the accident. However, should someone have been hurt or killed, we know that this problem would have been remedied much more respectfully and quickly.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
On three different occasions, different wheels locked-up, suddenly and without warning, while I was driving forward and with no application of the service brake pedal. The third time this happened the front left and both rear wheels locked-up while I was driving 65 mph on the interstate highway causing me to lose control and have a serious accident (see Attachment 5, Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report). (Please note on page 3 of the Crash Report that the officer wrote "when mechanical malfunction locked front wheels causing driver to lose control as vehicle skidded" and he entered the code for "Defective or No Vehicle Brakes" in the field for "Vehicle Defects Contributing") During this event, the VSA Activation Indicator illuminated as well as the ABS Indicator. Attachment 4 is the Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) Report from the vehicle's computer identifying the specific wheels that locked-up.
After the first two events, the dealer paid to have the vehicle towed to the dealership and they repaired the parts that were damaged as a result of the wheel lock-up. (They also paid for me to drive a rental car during the time the vehicle was in their shop.) Mr. Cody Davis, Service Manager at Honda of San Marcos, kept saying that "this was mysterious, that brakes aren't rocket science and that he hoped the problem was fixed this time." I am not a mechanic and had no reason to doubt his diagnosis that this was a brake problem and that the problems had been repaired.
On March 28, 2007 the dealership called to tell me that the van was ready to be picked up after the second set of repairs. That very day the wheels locked-up for the third time causing the accident referred to above. I then strongly suspected that the cause of the problem was computer related because it never seemed to happen under the same circumstances, the ABS and VSA lights came on and the dealership service department had twice replaced all of the rear end and brake parts that the dealership kept assuming or insisting was simply a brake problem.
As soon as the accident happened, I naively expected that Honda would want to take this vehicle off of the road and diagnose it to prevent this from happening in any of their other vehicles. All we wanted was for them to give us a new van, take the old one and diagnose the problem and we would have walked away grateful that we were safe. This was not to happen.
Upon this third event the entire tone and attitude of the dealership changed drastically. Now, instead of appearing helpful and concerned, Honda of San Marcos took a very offensive position. They did not offer to pay for the towing this time, but they asked for the opportunity to inspect it. We paid to have the van delivered from the wrecking yard to the dealership and authorized any and all investigations they felt were necessary. The van was put on a lift, all wheels were removed, photographs were taken (according to Cody Davis) and the dealership service department inspected it. The dealership wanted to call in the manufacturer to take a look, so they called Mr. Ralph Rickey, District Parts and Service Manager for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. and he performed his inspection. After their investigations, I was told that there was no apparent cause for the wheel lock-up and, therefore, they were not taking responsibility for the repairs. As instructed in my Owner's Manual, I called the American Honda Motor Co., Inc. Customer Service Department. They had access to all of my service history and to the information gathered by Mr. Ralph Rickey and they, too, are taking no responsibility (attachment 7 is a copy of the letter from Elizabeth Clogg, Automobile Customer Service, American Honda Motor Company, Inc.).
After we received Honda's letter, we began looking on the internet to find what information might be available. We found the NHTSA Campaign Number 04V536000 recalling defective wheel speed sensors on 2004 model Honda Odysseys. It seemed plausible to us that our wheels might lock-up if the wheel speed sensor sent the incorrect wheel speed to the computer. Another important concern to us is that neither the Honda of San Marcos Service Manager or the District Parts and Service Manager ever considered the wheel speed sensors as a possible cause of the problem, even though the recall was on model years only 2 years prior to our model year. Perhaps if they had been diligent in their job, the problem would have been detected after the first incident and we would still be the happy owners of our 2006 Honda Odyssey.
We feel that either Honda and their employees are incompetent or that they actually know that there is a defect and are trying to cover it up by making it so difficult for us to get satisfaction. Fortunately for us, no one was injured in the accident. However, should someone have been hurt or killed, we know that this problem would have been remedied much more respectfully and quickly.
- kimharrell, Wimberley, TX, US