My 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring edition has had an intermittent start problem for several years, and it's gotten worse and worse. I finally discovered a solution and wanted to pass it along. (Try replacing the neutral safety switch - about $70)
About two years ago, my wife complained that sometimes, it just wouldn't start -- nothing under the hood, not even a click. The dashboard lights came on, but that was it. I was able to get it started just by turning the key again and again, and typically on the 3rd or 7th or 10th or 15th try, it would work fine and continue to do so for months.
We had everything checked out by the dealer (Schomp Honda in Highlands Ranch, Colorado) -- battery, alternator, key recognition -- everything came up fine, and there were no codes indicating the error. They couldn't replicate the problem, even though I had brought them a video showing every dashboard light that came on during this problem, so they sent us home and told us we'd have to wait until it became more frequent.
After a year or two, the problem was happening 3 times a week, and my wife no longer wanted to drive the car. In desperation, I took it back in, and they still came up empty-handed. They had their master technician look at it, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Out of frustration, the next time it wouldn't start, I pulled the gear selector into drive, and then popped it back into Park, and it started right up. Stunned that this simple solution worked (the same way it had worked on my 1968 Chevy Impala), I wondered whether it was the neutral safety switch, and did a little bit of internet searching.
The neutral safety switch is designed so that you can only start the car in park or in neutral. Obviously, you wouldn't want to start the car in drive or reverse, so this mechanical switch is designed to prevent that from happening. The switch is directly connected to your transmission, so when you change the gear selector, the neutral safety switch tells the electronics in the car what gear you're in.
They sometimes call it a range detector or something along those lines, and it's just a very simple set of switches -- when you put the car in park, some electrical contacts are connected, and the car's electronics know it is in park; when you put it in neutral, others are connected. In reverse, for instance, there is a set of switches that turns on your rear lights. Because the neutral safety switch is located right beside the front left (driver's side) tire, dirt and corrosion set in and the contacts may no longer work properly.
If you check out this video on YouTube, it shows you the exact problem at about minute 22: The title of it is "2006 Honda Odyssey -- Intermittent No Crank, No Start, No Codes!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejYKn7MwaM
(I will rant here: the two guys in the video are actual mechanics who know how to diagnose an electrical problem, unlike the "master technician" as Schomp Honda! Okay, end of rant...)
I ordered a replacement part for $70 on Partsgeek.com (I couldn't find the OEM Honda part available online) and paid a mechanic $80 to install it for me. There are other videos online showing you how to replace it yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejYKn7MwaM
The reason I didn't replace it myself is that it looks like if you don't position it exactly right, the car won't properly read what gear it is in, and that concerned me. My mechanic indicated that he just used a sharpie to outline its previous position, and then installed the new one so it would be at the exact same angle as the original.
There are some Odyclub postings indicating that some people took apart the neutral safety switch and cleaned up the contacts with simple soap/water/very fine grit sandpaper, and put it back on and never had a problem again, so it is possible you might be able to do this with an hour or two of your time and nothing more.
To reiterate, if you are experiencing an intermittent start on your 2006 Honda Odyssey, the next time it won't start, move the gear selector in drive and then back into park, and if it starts up perfectly on the very next try, there's a very good chance it's just the neutral safety switch. Don't assume it's the starter or key recognition or ignition switch -- those are all expensive repairs -- but instead consider switching out this relatively cheap part first.
We replaced it about a month ago and have not had any problems since. (It was getting to be a 3-times-a-week issue, so the fact that nothing has happened in 4 weeks tells me we really did fix it!)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
My 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring edition has had an intermittent start problem for several years, and it's gotten worse and worse. I finally discovered a solution and wanted to pass it along. (Try replacing the neutral safety switch - about $70)
About two years ago, my wife complained that sometimes, it just wouldn't start -- nothing under the hood, not even a click. The dashboard lights came on, but that was it. I was able to get it started just by turning the key again and again, and typically on the 3rd or 7th or 10th or 15th try, it would work fine and continue to do so for months.
We had everything checked out by the dealer (Schomp Honda in Highlands Ranch, Colorado) -- battery, alternator, key recognition -- everything came up fine, and there were no codes indicating the error. They couldn't replicate the problem, even though I had brought them a video showing every dashboard light that came on during this problem, so they sent us home and told us we'd have to wait until it became more frequent.
After a year or two, the problem was happening 3 times a week, and my wife no longer wanted to drive the car. In desperation, I took it back in, and they still came up empty-handed. They had their master technician look at it, but they couldn't find anything wrong. Out of frustration, the next time it wouldn't start, I pulled the gear selector into drive, and then popped it back into Park, and it started right up. Stunned that this simple solution worked (the same way it had worked on my 1968 Chevy Impala), I wondered whether it was the neutral safety switch, and did a little bit of internet searching.
The neutral safety switch is designed so that you can only start the car in park or in neutral. Obviously, you wouldn't want to start the car in drive or reverse, so this mechanical switch is designed to prevent that from happening. The switch is directly connected to your transmission, so when you change the gear selector, the neutral safety switch tells the electronics in the car what gear you're in.
They sometimes call it a range detector or something along those lines, and it's just a very simple set of switches -- when you put the car in park, some electrical contacts are connected, and the car's electronics know it is in park; when you put it in neutral, others are connected. In reverse, for instance, there is a set of switches that turns on your rear lights. Because the neutral safety switch is located right beside the front left (driver's side) tire, dirt and corrosion set in and the contacts may no longer work properly.
If you check out this video on YouTube, it shows you the exact problem at about minute 22: The title of it is "2006 Honda Odyssey -- Intermittent No Crank, No Start, No Codes!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejYKn7MwaM
(I will rant here: the two guys in the video are actual mechanics who know how to diagnose an electrical problem, unlike the "master technician" as Schomp Honda! Okay, end of rant...)
I ordered a replacement part for $70 on Partsgeek.com (I couldn't find the OEM Honda part available online) and paid a mechanic $80 to install it for me. There are other videos online showing you how to replace it yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pejYKn7MwaM
The reason I didn't replace it myself is that it looks like if you don't position it exactly right, the car won't properly read what gear it is in, and that concerned me. My mechanic indicated that he just used a sharpie to outline its previous position, and then installed the new one so it would be at the exact same angle as the original.
There are some Odyclub postings indicating that some people took apart the neutral safety switch and cleaned up the contacts with simple soap/water/very fine grit sandpaper, and put it back on and never had a problem again, so it is possible you might be able to do this with an hour or two of your time and nothing more.
To reiterate, if you are experiencing an intermittent start on your 2006 Honda Odyssey, the next time it won't start, move the gear selector in drive and then back into park, and if it starts up perfectly on the very next try, there's a very good chance it's just the neutral safety switch. Don't assume it's the starter or key recognition or ignition switch -- those are all expensive repairs -- but instead consider switching out this relatively cheap part first.
We replaced it about a month ago and have not had any problems since. (It was getting to be a 3-times-a-week issue, so the fact that nothing has happened in 4 weeks tells me we really did fix it!)
Good luck and I hope you save money!
- Peter J., Littleton, US