Twenty recall campaigns — the longest list of any Odyssey year — and a windshield camera that no campaign covers.

Two engine recalls, and they are the most consequential items on the car. Recall 23V-751 covers a connecting-rod bearing that can wear and seize because of a manufacturing error, damaging the engine and potentially stalling the van in traffic; dealers inspect and repair or replace the engine free of charge, with owner letters mailed in March 2024. Recall 19V-298 is specific to the 2019 and covers the timing belt: the teeth can separate from the belt, which stalls the engine. Dealers inspect and replace any affected belt free, and any engine damage caused by a failed belt is also repaired free. Owners in the federal record describe the underlying pattern in blunt terms — engine knock traced to a rod bearing, sudden loss of power at highway speed, engine noise diagnosed as a faulty rod bearing 'which could cause sudden stalling'. Verify both by VIN, and treat a knock or tick at cold start as disqualifying whatever the paperwork says.

Worth knowing before you spend money on a diagnosis. Debris from the high-pressure fuel pump or from the injector machining process can wear or clog the fuel injectors, and Honda's engine software can misread the resulting readings as a failing catalytic converter. The symptom is a check-engine light with fault codes P0420 or P0430 (catalyst efficiency), P0300 to P0306 (misfire), or P219A and P219B (air-fuel ratio variation between banks). Honda's Owner Notification Letter covering the 2018 and 2019 Odyssey states it plainly: 'American Honda is extending the warranty on the fuel injectors to 10 years from the original date of purchase or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first. This warranty extension provides coverage for the original owner and any subsequent owners.' A warranty extension is Honda agreeing to pay for a repair after the normal warranty has run out. A dealership technician who services these vans confirms doing injector work on the earlier fifth-generation vans. If the light is on and the van is inside those limits, this should not be your bill.

The cluster that matters most on a family van. Recall 18V-795 covers power sliding-door rear latch assemblies that can stick and fail to catch the striker, so a door can open while the van is moving; dealers replace both latches free. Recall 20V-437 covers water getting into the outer door-handle cables, which can freeze in cold weather and stop the doors latching securely; dealers replace the cables free. Separately, Honda's own technical bulletin for 2018 to 2022 vans admits a problem it has not solved: the sliding-door windows stop partway and roll back down when you use one-touch Auto-Up, because of a software mismatch between the switch and the window regulator. Honda's guidance to dealers reads 'we are currently working on a fix, but there is currently no recommended repair'; the workaround is to close those windows manually. A mechanic who works on these doors also traces a common complaint — the door closing fully then re-opening by itself — not to the motor but to the pinch-protection sensor strip in the door's leading edge, which he says Honda did not seal properly, so water gets in and the wet sensor reports an obstruction that isn't there. He unplugs the sensor and claims it saves around $2,000 against replacing the motor. Be careful with that: unplugging it removes the protection that stops the door on a child's hand, and he says so himself on camera.

The 2019 uses a nine-speed automatic on most trims. Owner complaints centre on behaviour rather than outright failure: hesitation when you press the accelerator, jerking at low speed, hard shifts, and dropping into limp mode. Recall 19V-299 addresses one specific hazard directly — a loose battery terminal or a degraded battery can make the transmission control unit reboot, and on rebooting it may shift into Park, damaging the parking rod so the van can roll when parked. Dealers check the battery connections, update the software and check the parking rod, free. Honda also has a service bulletin covering a torn gasket that lets the nine-speed's end cover leak fluid on 2018 and 2019 vans. Balanced against that: a dealership technician who services these says transmission failures across both the nine-speed and the later ten-speed are uncommon in his experience — 'maybe three or four, which is not bad at all'. Drive it hard at mixed speeds and judge for yourself.

The rest of the 2019's long list, nearly all free. Recall 18V-664 is serious and specific to 2019: a manufacturing error in the airbag control unit means the airbags or seat-belt pretensioners may not deploy in a crash at all — dealers replace the unit free. Recall 26V-227 covers the opposite failure, software that can deploy the side and curtain airbags unexpectedly, and 26V-332 covers a front-passenger seat-weight sensor that can crack and short. Recall 18V-777 covers rear brake calipers with insufficient piston coating that reduces braking; dealers bleed the brakes. Recall 23V-158 covers front seat-belt buckles that may not latch. Recall 20V-066 covers a third-row power-outlet harness that can be pinched and short out, a fire risk. Four separate campaigns address the rearview camera and instrument panel going blank: 20V-438 (water in the camera mounting holes), 20V-439 (instrument-panel software hiding oil pressure, speed and gear position), 20V-440 (central-network software delaying the camera image), and 23V-431 (a faulty connector on the MOST network, the fibre-optic link between the audio and display systems). A fifth, 26V-423, expands the camera water-intrusion fix. Honda also ran a warranty extension for 2018 to 2020 vans covering MOST-network faults that cause popping and crackling from the speakers. Two fuel-pump recalls apply, 21V-215 and its expansion 23V-858. Finally, two campaigns — 19V-213 and 21V-010 — apply only to vans converted by Braun Corporation for wheelchair access and cannot apply to a standard van.