NHTSA Complaint #11690111 — 2018 HONDA ODYSSEY

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)