Stressful couple of days in dealing with our 2002 Honda Odyssey
Posted By RichC on September 23, 2025
Don’t get me wrong, I love having an older Honda Odyssey as our Florida car. We leave it outside in the condo parking lot most of the time and the hot sun, tree sap and “sitting” do take their toll on cars (photo below from a couple years ago). So last year we decided to drive it back (as I have done for years) so we could haul a few bigger items back with us (like remodeling projects) and I thought I would take care of some overlooked maintenance on it while it was home.
Fast forward: As the drive south creeps closer … and after I postponed the entire summer what I thought would be a simple couple of updates, it gets a little more complicated. I put off replacing the front struts and waited until time grew too short to do it myself, unlikea the rear a couple years ago. Instead, I took it to a local franchised repair shop that I’ve used for minor things before (first mistake: it was not either of my favorites, Mr. Godwrench or Academic Automotive). Anyway when removing the front suspension parts, they broke a part (to be fair, it was rusty) and that required additional replacement parts and a higher bill than initially expected. It was also time to rotate the tires (replaced in 2021), one which has a slow leak and has been bothering me … so I asked them to take a look at it while they rebalanced them. They did and didn’t find anything unusual … but did they really look? As is custom, 
they dinged my credit card with all the extras, shop towels, disposal fees, etc. Irritating, but nothing unusual. Still irritating.
I then drove the car EXPECTING the ride to have improved, but there was a terrible shake when I hit 65 mph. Something wasn’t right. I had to wait to call them back until Monday and they indicated that it was likely due to rubber bushing that were degraded in a couple of the suspension parts that they did not replace … and quoted an additional $700 on top of the struts which were $1200. Yes .. steam came out of my ears. I explained to them that something likely wasn’t right when they balanced the tire and rotated them to the front. A blank nothing on the phone. Obviously they are only in business to replace more parts.
So instead of taking it back to them, 
I took things into my own hands. I noticed that the suspected wheel they moved to the front had been balance with an excessive number or wheel weights … as if perhaps a wheel … or more likely a tire was bad. Unfortunately there is no way for me to check this in my home garage. I decided to take the morning off and headed down to Pick and Pay Junkyard with my battery powered Impact wrench. After paying the $2 to roam through the three old Odysseys they had listed, only one had wheels left. I pick up the best of the matching aluminum wheels with a halfway decent tire.
I swapped it out for the suspected bad front tire and crossed my fingers just to see. In my option, it seemed like a logical move — and it was a much smoother ride. The older unmatched tire and wheel (photo left) smoothed things out … although it is not perfect.
I’m hesitant to replace the old unmatched tire with the one that might have a leak (even if it is newer), but also dislike making the drive to Florida with a worn tire from the junkyard? The decision now is: Do I buy one more new tire to mix with those that have 15,000 mile on them or buy TWO new tires and put them on the front? The later sounds like the best solution … but I’m still not happy about the repair shop that put on the new struts.
Have you priced tires lately? I did at Costco, Walmart and a local discounter and … wow … they have gone up. Thankfully I was able to get a semi-reasonable quote for budget all-weather tires at Firestone (which are currently the tires on the van).
Oh .. and to top it all off, the “replace rear brakes” sensor has been triggered on my BMW X5 35d (I did ceramic pads on the front in 2016 and 2021 … but we do drive it a lot more so suspect they are due).
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