2021 HONDA ODYSSEY Electrical System Problems

The error message “Power Tailgate Problem” appeared on the dash. Following the error message, the power tailgate stopped working. It would not open or close with the remote, the button on the dash, or the button on the tailgate itself. I discovered water had been leaking in the tailgate and the trunk area of my vehicle as well as the back seat that was folded down in storage had gotten soaked. I took my van to the service center and they told me it was the seal above the door and that the leak had ruined the power module controlling the door. They repaired the issues. That was in April 2025. The same thing happened last week (January 2026). After looking into the error message and the tailgate problem, I’m finding that the door may open or close at any time on its own. The water in the electrical module...

the trunk door stopped working due to a leak from the rear left window seal causing the computer to become waterlogged the mechanic that fixed it said its a common issue with the Honda odyssey and should be recalled by Honda, I am therefore requesting the nhtsa to investigate this matter further so Honda should reimburse for the cost of the repair this issue can be a safety hazard in the event of a emergency egress from the trunk as it's not possible to open from the exterior and there was no prior warnings lamps or messages

Power tailgate stopped working. Warning indicator indicated Power Tailgate failure. Dealer found water to be leaking onto tailgate unit from driver’s side roof rail. Recommended replacing and programming new PTG unit and resealing water leak. Repair cost was $1,311.51

My rear hatch for the trunk was filling up with water every time it rained. Took it in to be looked at and they found the door wasn’t sealed during manufacturing and they sealed it. The water damage was already done and buttons for all things no longer lifts or opens the trunk door. My dash displays “ power tailgate problem” and nothing works to open it. I have to do it manually and I’m afraid it will cause further problems to the door.

The main screen went black for 3 mins while driving. Booted halfway back up then crashed again. Booted up again and then worked. Its done this 3 times and I've had van for 6 days. 32k miles one owner. Mint looking

I hear a popping/crackling noise from the speakers then I get complete network loss for my backup camera, my dvd player, my clock, maps etc.System does a report after 5+ minutes. Message displayed before everything goes black is Network Connection Lost and MOST Net Off. This issue is ongoing and seems to happen now every day sometimes multiple times in a driving session. It just started about 2 weeks ago. There is an active recall for this exact issue for 2021 Honda Odysseys but my VIN does not seem to be included.

Vehicle lost power resulting in the vehicle automatically going into park and powering off while driving. This has happened multiple times. In addition, we will get strange electronic codes. Tested battery and systems successfully, but problem persists.

Can has been making a popping noise that can be felt in the steering wheel for 2 years. Honda has told me nothing was wrong after taking it in 4 times. Now my car keeps stalling at lights, sometimes it takes a while to get it to restart, and they can not figure out why. They keep saying the battery is fine and diagnostics finds nothing.

Vehicle applied brakes for no reason. Lost ability to see reverse camera during backing up. Half of the instrument cluster went dim to become barely visible. Radio screen freezes randomly. Engine cuts out or shudders intermittently.

The vehicle's Auto Idle Stop (AIS) malfunctioned. The vehicle stalled and required a complete "shut down" to restart. The vehicle was first in line at a traffic light. The AIS system engaged. When I took my foot off the break to "go" when the light turned green, the car stalled. An error message popped up, indicating that I needed to shift the car into "park". I did so and the car did not start. I attempted to turn the car off several times, while in park and my foot depressing the break pedal. The car would not turn off. After three minutes of attempting to turn off the car and waiting, I was finally able to successfully start the car. I was traveling with my four young children, three of them in child car seats. I was nearly rear ended by one vehicle, despite having my hazard flashers on, because...

2021 Odyssey EXL the Electric parking brake 'issue' warning comes on while driving and collision mitigation warning / lane assist switches off and flashes in console; when this happens the car continues to run but the dashboard warning lights comes up for Parking brake / Collision Warning and or Lane assist. It gets cleared after I turn on/off the car couple of times and drive for approximately 5 miles. Those features had to be turned on manually, once the car is in parked mode, again. The issue started in the car at around 48K miles. Never had any issue with it before that.

2021 Odyssey EXL shuts off completely in traffic stop and go conditions. Happened three times in a 2 week period. Twice in city roads at traffic stop light and once in highway when the cars are in stop / go mode due to heavy traffic. Engine switches off completely and puts itself in "P" mode, all light comes on as if in accessory mode, radio switches off, all doors unlocked. To get going, the driver had to press brake pedal and start the car again (via Engine Start /Stop button). This issue started in the car at 43K miles. Never had any issue with mine before that. But it is scary especially the engine switch off in highway and traffic stop light.

The contact owns a 2021 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated while at a stop light and depressing the brake pedal, the engine turned off; however, once the accelerator pedal was depressed, the Auto START/STOP failed to operate as intended. The contact turned off and restarted the vehicle and the vehicle started to work as intended. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 32,000.

After my van sit at home all day while it was raining. I went out side to put something in the back of the van and the tail gate wouldn't open had warning symbol on the dash board. I only have 61,729 miles on my van and no accidents

Tailgate would not work (electronically or manually) Other Odyssey owners have had similar problems, some included tailgate opening on its own There were no problems until it just wouldn’t open one day Dealer replaced module for $700+

It started that all the sensor in our car started to go off. We were told we had a bad battery, even thought we had replaced it new just last year. Once we had the battery checked and alternator. The sensors started to act up again, out tail gate started to malfunction. Wouldn’t automatically close. A few weeks ago driving down the road the tail gate opened and the anti theft system started going off while the car was running and still going. Come to find out there is a water leak in the rear that has gotten into the rear fuse box and has cause substantial corrosion. The latch to the tail gate is broken. Honda is telling us our extended warranty doesn’t cover any of this, even though it is common knowledge, that the water leak is a known problem from 2018-2021. We just found out a few...

Auto Idle Stop not restarting after shutting the engine down.

Car has completely shut off when the auto start/stop engaged after coming to a stop at a red light/stop sign on multiple occasions. Everything shut completely off, no radio, lights, etc. Had to push the start button multiple times to turn the car back on. Please investigate as I have read of this happening to many other people with 0 solution from Honda. This is a defect and should be recalled/fixed.

All of my assist lights just came.on one after another saying there was a malfunction with the emmision light continues to go.on go.off even after I paid 580 to have the car serviced for the assist lights. Now the lift gate stopped working three weeks ago yesterday with all the rain that poured now the lift gate is open and will.not latch.

contacted dealership in Newburgh NY for recall. The rep pushed back making me wait 8 weeks. Dearlership in Middletown NY did not return call.

This happened twice to us. While stopped at the red light the car suddenly shuts off and won’t start. We had to press and hold the start button for 5 seconds for the van to start. It appears that on both times the car just stalled.

On 1/31/25 our rear tailgate automatically opened upon parking the car in our garage. Later that day, the tailgate would no operate properly and had to be manually opened. The key fob was functional and could operate all other doors in the car, except the tail gate. Later that day, while the car was parked in our garage, the tailgate started operating by itself, without pressing any buttons on the remote control key fob. It would open and close by itself and repeat the entire sequence over and over again. Upon turning on the car, the display identified a Power Tailgate Problem. The problem was reproduced by the Olathe Kansas Honda dealership. We took it to the dealership today and they diagnosed the problem, stating it is a Gate Control Unit failure (error code P1378 and P1379). Dealer confirmed what we experienced. We documented the safety problem via video. We...

On 28-Dec-2024 I noticed the power tailgate stopped working on my 2021 Honda Odyssey. I tried to press the power tailgate button on the key fob, the button on the driver's side control panel, and the button on the tailgate itself, but none of them works. I did some research online and found out it's a common problem in 2018 to 2021 models and the cause was the failed Power Tailgate Control Unit due to water leakage through the cracks on the vehicle body. I opened mine and found there was water in the control unit box which might have caused short on the circuit board. I bought a new control unit a week later and it fixed the issue.

Drive side rear power door stopped working. Upon using handl to opperate as usual the door stopped only a few inches open. A gentle shove got it open and opperational. The next day it did the same thing this time refuding to eithe ropen completely or re-latch. My children were in the car with me on the way to school and the door could not be opened to let them out or closed to safely proceed on our route. We began diagnositcs and found that the door continued to be problematic; opening just enough to be unlatched but nor going further, opening only half way and locking in place, or openeing completely then refusing to close... the door being in manual mode or power mode makes no differnece. after complelty disasembling the door/panel to check calbles and motor, checking fuses etc we put it all back to gether and suddenly...

After the PGM-FI update was put into our car, the engine cuts out entirely while at stop lights and will not wake back up. The Honda dealership is saying that there is nothing they can do.

1. Incident: I was driving and stopped at a red light, took my foot off of the brake and the car completely died, leaving me stranded at the intersection. The car started back up after 4 minutes. Note: This incident happened after 2 months of weird electrical things happening to the car, such as the radio turning on after the car had been turned off, car not starting, sliding doors losing power when they are halfway closed, coming to a stop and putting the car in park then the car completely loses all power/interior lights, and more... 2. My safety was put at risk by having a non-functioning car in the middle of the road. Someone could have rear-ended me. Also, it was over 100 degrees outside which added to the panic I was feeling. 3. The car has been inspected by Spreen Honda multiple times and by an independent...

1. While I was driving on the freeway, my radio turned off and my car put itself into NEUTRAL! I was able to safely pull over and put it back in drive. Note: This incident happened after 2 months of weird electrical things happening to the car, such as the radio turning on after the car had been turned off, car not starting, sliding doors losing power when they are halfway closed, coming to a stop and putting the car in park then the car completely loses all power/interior lights, the car turning off while stopped at a light and more... 2. Had there been more traffic I would have been in major danger. I could have easily been rear-ended or hit someone in the process of trying to get off of the freeway. It could have caused a multiple car collision. Grateful my children were not in the car...

A recall has been issued on my vehicle since February. It is now almost May and when I call Honda about the recall they tell me that they do not have the solution as of yet.

Team Honda in Merrillville refused to fix my recall unless I paid for diagnostics.

The contact owns a 2021 Honda Odyssey. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the "Passenger’s Sliding Door Failure" message was displayed on the instrument panel. The contact also stated that the rear passenger’s side sliding door failed to fully open upon entering or exiting the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to two dealers, Honda of Fort Myers (3550 Colonial Blvd, Fort Myers, FL 33966) and Coconut Point Honda (22240 S Tamiami Trail, Estero, FL 33928) and the contact was provided a diagnostic test fee to determine the cause of the failure, but the contact declined. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA Hotline for assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 19,000.

All of the safety system and efficiency systems had failures which made us take to our local Honda dealership for evaluation. After the first visit we were told that they could not find the problem, although they saw all of the error messages. The error messages appeared again 3 days later so we took it back to our local Honda dealership. This time one of the service reps had seen that problem before and said it probably was due to water entering the rear trunk circuit board controller and shorting out the connections. This was confirmed by a service tech during the 2nd evaluation. After research this is apparently a common issue. We had to pay approximately $700 to fix the situation because Honda does not have this issue as a recall. We believe this is a clear design error that allows water to enter the circuit board housing. This...

Upon going to start my vehicle it would not start. I ended up jump starting the car and going to buy a new battery. I replaced the battery even though repair facility stated battery was at 78% and in good state. Two days later I went to start the van again and the battery was again dead. I jumped the car to get it started and have had to continually jump start the car due to no start issue. The alternator is showing a constant 14.3 volt charge when running but the battery continues to die. Has left my family stranded multiple times in the past week. No known cause or fix.

I was driving on I-270 highway in active HOV lane and had to stop because of traffic. The car stopped the engine as it usually does by "Auto Idle Stop" system but failed to start it back when I needed to continue driving. I noticed that the battery light blinked on the dashboard when it tried to re-start the engine. As a result I was in active HOV lane with quickly approaching traffic from behind. We all (me, my wife and 2 kids) were scared. I called 911 immediately for help. This all could end up with a crash and injuries. While calling 911 I was trying to restart the car by pressing the button to turn the car off and on. About 3 attempts failed when a few minutes later the engine started and we continued the drive. This was the worst nightmare to stuck on a highway. Luckily...

The VSA modulator has repeatedly failed. When it fails, all of the safety systems report errors - air bags, ABS brakes, high beams, traction control, blind spot detection, parking sensors, etc. Additionally, the power sliding passenger doors and tailgate will not open, even manually. I have taken it into Honda dealerships on 3 separate occasions. On 6/14/21 (vehicle mileage 7,453) they cleared the error codes and reset the system and reported it was fixed. On 2/26/2022 (vehicle mileage 21,077) it happened again and they reported the VSA modulator as defective and replaced it under warranty. On 7/29/2022 (vehicle mileage 26,916) it happened again. This time the dealership disconnected and reconnected the VSA modulator and it decided it was fixed. At the time of the issue I was driving the van at approximately 30 mph on flat streets through my town. I've expressed my concerns that this defect renders the vehicle...

Honda Odyssey 2021 has major safety issues – the van starts engine on itself, shuts the engine on itself, tail lights are on when the engine is running, the knob for the lights on the turn signal handle was in OFF position when the van was observed starting, running and shutting engine on itself – for no reason. In all occasions key fobs were untouched. Once Honda Odyssey was observed with the engine starting and shutting on itself when both of the key fobs were in 10 miles distance from the vehicle. Brought twice to the dealer, cannot fix it. Contacted Honda on 2/17/22 informed about the problem. Called Honda on 2/21/22 to check on the case, was told that will assign a manager to review this safety concern, but it may take two weeks, possibly two month or maybe more, depending how busy they are. 8 days have passed,...

The 'infotainment" system turned off stating "network connection lost." The speakers then started making a VERY loud crackling sound that could not be controlled with the volume button. It was very distracting to the driver--sounded like rocks hitting the windshield. When the infotainment system was off, the blindspot monitor and back-up camera stopped functioning. This has happened several times.

2021 HONDA ODESSEY LOST POWER WHILE DRIVING 6 TIMES. I ENDED UP TAKING IT TO GET SERVICE AND THE DEALER COULDN'T REPLICATE THE ISSUE IN 3 DIFFERENT OCCASIONS. ENDED UP TRADING THE ODESSEY ON THURSDAY FOR A NEW ONE. HOWEVER THE THE NEW 2021 HONDA ODESSEY THAT I BOUGHT THURSDAY 4/8/21 LOST POWER ON ME TODAY AS I WAS DRIVING.