No, spend that $5k on something with lower mileage that isn't a beater like I linked to before. Yes life is full of risks, but you can minimize them. Funny when I buy a high mileage car but can work on it myself at minimal cost, everybody says you're wasting your money. But when somebody wants to spend $5K to repair a $3200 car, they say it's all good. Go figure.
I think my 05 Odyssey needs a transmission...
- Thread starter Hohn
- Start date
Used vehicles are such a risk. The clean, 130K mile 2005 Corolla I just picked up for my grandnieces threw a P0741 code. Dunno where that will lead...
Our 2006 TSX has 210K and is in excellent condition. I have seen a bunch with far less mileage that are a pretty shakey deal...
Amazing what 5K M1 oil change services will do for a K24.
Our 2006 TSX has 210K and is in excellent condition. I have seen a bunch with far less mileage that are a pretty shakey deal...
Amazing what 5K M1 oil change services will do for a K24.
While I like the quality of Honda Engineering in general, my understanding is that they're 6 cylinders like you have in the Odyssey have a timing belt that is only reliable for 100,000 miles. On top of that it requires a lot of tear down to replace it and of course putting it all back together. So you're looking at about $2,000 worth of Labor to replace that belt. And since it is an interference engine you don't want to get caught with that belt breaking and destroying the engine. When an interference engine has the valves get out of time because the timing belt broke or the teeth on the timing belt were so worn out that it basically skipped several teeth and became significantly out of time, then the pistons slam into the valves breaking them apart and usually some of the pieces of the broken valves managed to find their way to get caught between the cylinder walls and the pistons and score the cylinder walls. And these engines do not have enough metal left on the cylinder wall to hone them out to a larger piston size. So basically the entire block is a right off. Therefore, the timing belt on these engines should be replaced every 100,000 miles , and most people do a lot of other stuff at that time such as spark plugs, valve gap adjustment, water pump, coolant thermostat, serpentine belt and serpentine belt tensioner, and maybe even new hoses and of course coolant. All these other items don't add a lot of Labor to the whole job because you've got it all apart in the first place ( except for the valves adjustments which requires some time).
However, if it were mine there are many other items that I would do at this amount of miles that would add additional labor and parts charge, I would also do coolant temperature sensors (most have two one mounted on the engine and one mounted on the radiator, and be careful not to mix them up because they look identical but they are different) both O2 sensors the reason it's smart to replace the oxygen sensors is because if one goes bad there's a high likelihood that you will damage the catalytic converter and that is expensive to replace), and maybe even the knock sensor ( don't underestimate the importance of a good OEM quality knock sensor , if a knock sensor fails the engine can lean out to the extent that it destroys the engine), clean the throttle body and mass air flow sensor, and mass air pressure sensor, and if the intake air filter for the engine is dirty replace that also, and also always check the cabin air filter because if it gets too dirty you may not have enough air flow to defrost the windshield in the winter, all these parts add up to about another $1,400 to $2,200 or so maybe even more. Spending a lot of time on the internet to do online shopping of genuine Honda parts can save you quite a bit of money on this type of a job. My local Honda dealer has an online setup that basically mimics the pricing of all the other online on the shopping stores. So OP, my question to you would be has the timing belt done, "replaced", recently that you can expect to get quite a few more miles out of it?
By the way Rock Auto Sales genuine NGK spark plugs at the best price you can find.
Doing all these items ads a significant amount of Labor to the job, especially the valves adjustments because while it's not a hard job to do it is time consuming. And adjusting the valve on these every 100,000 is important because if an exhaust valve becomes too tight the exhaust valve may not close completely and the extremely hot gases right after the ignition are way too hot for the exhaust valve to handle and it will melt the exhaust valve and the seat that it sits in. The small metal pieces that are melted off can get blown out the exhaust or may get trapped between the piston and cylinder wall and destroy the engine. So this is something else that should be done with these engines every hundred thousand miles.
This is how I go over an engine with that many miles so that it's good for another hundred thousand miles.
Also, radiators generally are good for about 15 years and then the gasket that they use to seal the plastic to the aluminum starts to leak.
However, if it were mine there are many other items that I would do at this amount of miles that would add additional labor and parts charge, I would also do coolant temperature sensors (most have two one mounted on the engine and one mounted on the radiator, and be careful not to mix them up because they look identical but they are different) both O2 sensors the reason it's smart to replace the oxygen sensors is because if one goes bad there's a high likelihood that you will damage the catalytic converter and that is expensive to replace), and maybe even the knock sensor ( don't underestimate the importance of a good OEM quality knock sensor , if a knock sensor fails the engine can lean out to the extent that it destroys the engine), clean the throttle body and mass air flow sensor, and mass air pressure sensor, and if the intake air filter for the engine is dirty replace that also, and also always check the cabin air filter because if it gets too dirty you may not have enough air flow to defrost the windshield in the winter, all these parts add up to about another $1,400 to $2,200 or so maybe even more. Spending a lot of time on the internet to do online shopping of genuine Honda parts can save you quite a bit of money on this type of a job. My local Honda dealer has an online setup that basically mimics the pricing of all the other online on the shopping stores. So OP, my question to you would be has the timing belt done, "replaced", recently that you can expect to get quite a few more miles out of it?
By the way Rock Auto Sales genuine NGK spark plugs at the best price you can find.
Doing all these items ads a significant amount of Labor to the job, especially the valves adjustments because while it's not a hard job to do it is time consuming. And adjusting the valve on these every 100,000 is important because if an exhaust valve becomes too tight the exhaust valve may not close completely and the extremely hot gases right after the ignition are way too hot for the exhaust valve to handle and it will melt the exhaust valve and the seat that it sits in. The small metal pieces that are melted off can get blown out the exhaust or may get trapped between the piston and cylinder wall and destroy the engine. So this is something else that should be done with these engines every hundred thousand miles.
This is how I go over an engine with that many miles so that it's good for another hundred thousand miles.
Also, radiators generally are good for about 15 years and then the gasket that they use to seal the plastic to the aluminum starts to leak.
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Nick1994
$100 site donor 2024
You buy cars to flip.
That's different than someone just trying to survive.
$5k buys a crap car these days. I'd rather have a 200k mile car with a rebuilt transmission for $5k than an unknown Craigslist flip with 100k for $5k that the guy might have filled the motor with motor honey to get it to stop smoking, 2 quarts of Lucas in the transmission to stop slipping, and a spacer on the O2 sensor to stop the CEL from bad catalytic converter.
So OP, if you're into doing big mechanical jobs on your own going over an engine and doing all that stuff to it might have the vehicle down for a significant amount of time but doing it yourself will save you a lot of money. I generally like to get all of the things involving the cooling system done at one time that way you only replace the coolant once.
I wouldn't be concerned about dumping $5,000 into a vehicle like that for a transmission if I knew that the engine was going to be reliable for quite a few more years also. That is why I posted all the stuff about the engine because that would be my big question.
You do have to put some effort into finding good ones. Like searching Facebook or Craigslist twice a day or more. Or not waiting until the weekend to go look at it. All the genuine good deals are sold within 48 hours. Many in 24. You can still find a good vehicle under $5,000, but it won't just fall into your lap.
A $5k minivan is probably not going to be a great vehicle? So either repair what you've got, or if you can drive manual and seating for 6 is good enough, have a look at a Mazda5. The manual ones are cheap and the chance of having transmission trouble drops a lot!
I have essentially all this van’s history. I’m the second owner but it was a year old when purchased and only had 22k on it. We strapped my daughter into this for the first time just after her first birthday. We dropped her off at college with the same van this fall.
I weigh that history very heavily.
Definitely love the manual, not sure wife would.
Having personally performed every oil change for the last 180k miles with synthetic oils of good reputation, I find that scenario very unlikely. Not impossible, just improbable.
It sure sounds like the carrier bearing...you are lucky they oil seal is still doing its job ..
Moves too fast for me. I was spending hours on the weekend looking. Eventually I had better things to do. And I’m not signing up on FB, signed up on too many places, and it has the same junk that CL does. After a year of looking I called it quits. Wanted to fly south but the logistics of doing that wasn’t working out (not buying sight unseen, so I have to go down with a wad of cash and hope & dreams? sounds like a bad plan).
While I have flex time at work, it’s not that flexible…
You have a $3200 van,
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that needs $5,000 in repairs. Dump it now. If it still drives, list on Facebook for $2000 and mention the CV axles clunking. Take the first offer over $800. Then buy something in good shape for $5,000.
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What a terrible way of looking at a vehicles value in the grand scheme of things. 
The OP has a $30,000 vehicle that now, after 200k miles of use, needs a new transmission. Spending $5,000 dollars to fix said 30k van is perfectly reasonable, if the overall condition of it is MINT and can easily last another 100k for the owner. 5k well spent and it will STILL be worth the same $3,200 in 5 years at 300k miles, if maintained at the same level.
Who cares about the resale book value?
You can always find an AMAZING DEAL for that same $5,000 if you look hard enough and shop around but who cares about that? Some people just want reliable transportation and nothing more. Nobody cares about that $80,000 used Benz that you can now buy for 5k because it’s a complete TURD.
Option 1
Hi Jim, thanks for your reply.
I've already done the timing belt on this van once before at the 100k interval I of course did the water pump and tensioner and all that at the same time. I know people gripe about timing belts needing replacement, but once every 100k is pretty reasonable for a quiet drive that lasts as long as it does. Especially with the heavy crank socket and a big impact, the job isn't too hard.
Keeping this van also means doing the timing belt and such again as it just got to 200k last week. It's not super urgent (Honda is uber conservative about the life of the belt--they will well past the service interval without snapping) but it is important.
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