Fixing a Honda Odyssey Automatic Sliding Door

by Michael Sheehan on January 17, 2007

in Family, General

I’m going a bit away from my usual tech talk on this one but still, it points to how truly information packed, the Internet is. We had a deep freeze last night, rain and then below freezing temperatures. Most of the Country is experiencing that now…but here in California, it is a bit rare to go below freezing (especially in my area). Anyway, as my wife was trying to get the kids off to school, she discovered that our 2001 Honda Odyssey (the “mommy mobile”) power sliding doors decided not to work anymore. The “door” light was lit, indicating an error of some sort.

Armed once again with the power of Google (as well as “unrelatedly” telling my kids that on the Internet, “you can find out anything about anything”), I searched for “2001 honda odyssey doors won’t open” and the first hit had the answer. Here is what fixed it, and I will quote (with a little editing):

1.) Disable the power door switch on the left dashboard.
2.) Remove fuse #13 for 30 seconds or more from the passenger side fusebox. This will reset the door and the clock. Fuse box is located under the front passenger leg area.
3.) Manually open and close both sliding doors.
4.) Restore the power door fuses located under the front passenger leg area.
5.) Enable the power door switch on the left dashboard.
6.) Try opening the sliding doors.

I must admit that I did skip step #3 (which I think is just there for you to do something while you wait the 30 seconds. Anyway it works flawlessly! I probably saved myself a couple hundred $$$ at the dealer for a “diagnostics.” But more importantly, I saved my wife a lot of inconvenience and got the school drop-off routine back to norm.

For those interested, the thread where I found the fix is here.

If this tip saved you some money, I would really appreciate a minor donation to offset some of my hosting expenses. Thanks!

HTD says: There is always a fix out there, you just have to find it and share it with others!

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Tagged as: door_switch, Family, fuse, General, google, honda_odyssey, sliding_doors

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  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Ah yes, this is a built in safety feature of the Odyssey to prevent the door from opening when you are fueling the van. Makes a lot of sense actually.

  • Joel Taylor

    Amazing!!! I have a 2000 Odessy. I sware I spent a couple of hundred dollars on that repair a couple of years ago. I just reset both doors and they work great. You are amazing and so is the internet. I love being alive right now. Especially with my doors working and my kids able to get in and out the way they were meant to in this vehicle.

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Glad that it worked! Yes, I was amazed when I found that forum post (I
    must admit, I can't take any credit for this “fix). I just wanted to
    be sure that people know how to do it and share this information (and
    save some $$$ in the process).

  • Marcel

    NICE fix! I have a 2002 Odyssey and only one door would not open/close via the power button. I found this thread and now all is well!:) One funny issue though … I removed the power door fuse (a 20 amp fuse) only to discover the one good door still worked. After removing all the fuses on the top row, the one good door no longer worked which told me I hit the right fuse. I slowly connect each fuse one at a time and eventually discovered the power doors are connected to a 7.5 amp fuse (I do not recall for what though – clock?). Nonetheless, both doors are now working – THANKS!:)

  • al

    i did try it but , do not worked on my 2000 odyssey, does anyone know why?

  • http://dumbassdesigns.com/ Chuck

    My door had stopped working due to a broken gas door sensor. http://dumbassdesigns.com/2009/07/10/the-van-door/

  • Bridget

    THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS INFORMATION! I READ THIS YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, WENT HOME AND TRIED IT AND AFTER ALMOST 2 YEARS OF MY PASSENGER DOOR NOT WORKING…IT DOES NOW!!

  • http://www.fast-pix.com/ Rodney LeBoeuf

    Damn I love the internet. This quick fix worked for me too. My passenger door on my 2000 Odyssey hasn't worked for 2 months. The dash light showed it was open and I had to turn the automatic door power on the dash 'off' while driving otherwise it would constantly alarm. Thanks so much!!!!

  • tekeni111

    I have an 2005 Odyssey and the passenger slider would close, latch and 3 seconds later unlatch and slightly open. I read these and though they were for a 2000 and 2001, I tried removing my fuse (#3) in the under the hood compartment, left it out for a while and replaced it, and it worked.
    This seemed to happen after a passenger who was unfamiliar with the door tried to pull it open instead of just pulling the handle.

  • Julie

    Our mechanic quoted my husband $900.00 to fix this problem on our 2002 Odyssey. We didn't think this tip would work since our doors worked, but the problem was that they just would get to almost closed and then open back up again- a problem which has been getting progressively worse. We just got in from going through these simple steps and guess what? Our doors work perfectly now! Yay!

  • Susan

    THANK YOU so very much for saving us the headache, time and money associated with taking the van to the dealer….just Googled this problem and there was your remedy. It worked, needless to say. Thanks for taking the time to share this with everyone—you are a good Samaritan!

  • shloveru007

    Dear my friend your defiantly the best you know your staff man .I was out my 1 sliding door for wily thank you i did what you wrote on it you finally save lots my money i tell you.I really thank you!!!!!!!!!!

  • doorclosers

    Hi, i think you forget about this situation that some many car's engine, glasses and etc are Jame in freeze but you are so luck that you select it. i was saw this it's comfortable.

  • allanalpine

    I have a 2003 and I had to remove the 7.5 amp clock fuse for it to work. Thanks!!!!!

  • Miguel

    Wow, this was a gem to find!! This morning after struggling with opening the door manually and making a few calls to the Honda Service department I decided to give this a whirl and I too skipped step #3 it as a bunch of other people have mentioned, it works great!!!

    Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us!

  • Miguel

    Wow, this was a gem to find!! This morning after struggling with opening the door manually and making a few calls to the Honda Service department I decided to give this a whirl and I too skipped step #3 it as a bunch of other people have mentioned, it works great!!!

    Thanks for sharing this with the rest of us!

  • topher55

    Just did it. and it worked!!! Great tip and thanks so much…love to save the repair bill money for Christmas presents!!!

  • MA

    I have a 2007 Odyssey and was having trouble finding the right fuse. Disconnected the battery instead and it worked. Make sure you have the radio code.

  • gbn

    This stuff actually works. Thanks for the step by step instructions. Very appreciative of the tip. It saved us a few bucks.

  • Amy

    Thank you so much for this tip !!!! It worked and saved me alot of money !

  • P. Andrews

    This was great and worked like a charm, Thank you!

  • Tim Smith

    I just had the same experience and success. Thank you so much for the tip! My door stop working after trying to open it after a deep freeze and icing over. I took it to the local Honda dealer and the service department charged me $42 to tell me I needed a new sliding door motor. The cost would have been over $800!

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Thanks Tim for the comment. It's amazing how much Honda would charge for something that is pretty easy to fix on your own. I have decided to add a “Donate” button to this post for those people who saved money through this solution. It's obviously not a requirement but does help me handle some of my costs.

  • Pat Smith

    My 2001 Odyssey with 145,000 miles on it had the door buzzing problem. If I hit close on the driver side door to the left of the steering wheel, it stopped temporarily. Changing the fuse worked. Changing the fuse to the wing windows that would sometimes not close also worked.

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Thanks for the feedback. It's amazing that something as inexpensive as a fuse can fix these types of problems.

  • rdtrew

    Had my doubts about something you read on the internet but this work and saved me $500 plus for my 2000 honda Odyssey

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    Glad that it worked! (Don't forget that little “donate” button – shameless plug). But actually, a lot of fixits you find on the net actually do work!

  • savanahdanielle85

    Worked like a charm! My 2001 Honda Odyssey's sliding door hasn't worked all winter..since the first ice storm. Thank You so much!!!!

  • savanahdanielle85

    Worked like a charm!! Thank you so much!

  • alocke1

    I cannot freaking believe this worked. 5 months no power passenger door. 2 seconds on the internet and fixed. little confusing on fuse location. label is confusing. took out wrong fuses initially. take out top clock fuse first. 4th in from feet or seat-same on bottom. 12:17pm. couldn't wait until tomorrow. I am so excited.

  • matchless

    Worked like a charm. On my 2001 odyssey it is fuse #12 (Automatic door locks). Thanks!

  • dacu

    how do i fixed the door lock and unlock 2000 odyssey

  • Christina

    worked like a charm. Thanks so much for the info.

  • Hendra_o

    Did anybody know how to attach the cable that pull and push the automatic sliding door honda odyssey 2002 ???? the one that come out from the sliding motor unit…….. please help ….I try to attach it bye myself and it couldn’t be attach because the cable is design exactly fit……Thank’s

  • Kthl999

    i have 2007 honda odyssey touring i just got acident on slingding door crash and i try to buy new door but dealer very specie ,now i try to buy use 2008 honda odyssey lx ,do you think they can fix the same or not thanks

  • syed

    I went to mechanic and he spent 30 minutes. Told me he had some other work and i would have to leave my car for a day to get doors checked and fixed. Gues what just used the directions as above for 2001 oddyssey and it was fixed in 5 minutes,
    Saved me couple of hundreddollars.
    Thanks

  • http://www.a-door.com The-ozgur

    The innovation and experience of A-Door continues to offer design options and product performance not previously available to the designing and specifying professionals. We offer you all kind of rolling door, industrial door and shutter systems, that we’ve designed for use in bars, reception counters, display areas, serveries, shopfronts, homes, etc.

  • Vwarnick

    An update to the thread, this fix works fine. I took the extra precaution of pulling the fuses for both doors, 1 & 5 in my 01, and 13 (the clock/backup). Left them out for a minute or so, plugged them back and all was well again. One note though, both doors were unresponsive to the remote at first. I opened and closed them using the dash toggles and both worked, Then, after a few minutes the remote worked as well. Guess things are, in effect, booting back up.

  • Sara Clement1015

    WOW! All I can say is WOW!!!! Thank you ever so much. This morning…in 10 degree temps, I went to open the side door to let my big Old English Sheepdog in so we could drop off my husband, and the doors went all crazy due to being STUCK. I listened to my husband rant all the way to work about how stupid electric doors were…I listened politely…what else could I do??? Called a shop and discovered that everything was full until after the New Year. We have 4 boys and I’m pregnant…with a giant dog….and a full calender. All I could imagine was doing all the New Year stuff with the entire clan having to go in and out through the driver door getting ice, sleet, snow and mud all over the seats. I got on line and saw your post here….and went out with a set of plyers and pulled out the fuse. Went to the freezer to pull out a turkey for New Years, put the fuse back in, and VOILA! The doors WORK again! I am SO excited to tell my husband about how handy I am…SO excited to tell my father (who is an electrician who is very disappointed in my un-handiness because I failed to pay enough attention to his work as a child) and the entire world!!! All in all, I have YOU to thank…you saved us a ton of money and time, and you saved me another lecture about how stupid my car is. YAY! Thank you…..THANK YOU! :o)

  • fixitpaul

    Michael, THIS FIX REALLY WORKS; I found the same original original thread that you found and followed all the steps last night on my 2000 Odyssey and now the driver side power sliding door works again. I also pulled the two “power door” fuses as a precaution. I put a copy if the procedure in my owner’s manual. Honda and their dealers have to know about this procedure, it’s a shame they don’t admit it and just perform the procedure and charge a reasonable price . A lot of their customers would gladly pay $75 to get their doors working again and not care to know how the mechanic fixed it.

  • Odyessy blues

    We’ve dad our dependable 2000 Odyssey since Dec 1999, and 11 years and 3 kids later the power sliding doors suddenly stopped working after a typical Canadian December deep freeze (-17 C) just before Christmas.

    Read through the manual and all the fuses related to the power sliding doors checked out ok…so I blamed myself for spraying the door channels and hinges with a ‘rust check’ lubricant spray that’s supposed to help keep things well lubricated so I assumed everything was just frozen….I was ready to spend some Christmas money on fixing the doors and was expecting the worse case of having to replace the motors that operate each door….well after a quick google search and 5 minutes to pull the clock fuse(????) the doors are as good as 11 year old doors work,,, Thanks for the fix :)

  • kl

    Fixed mine too – 2007 Model – 20 Amp for Left side Power Sliding Door in middle row of fuses

  • Mhmmk5

    I tried every thing but my passenger side not working manual or power…..

  • Bill

    Not being a hightechdad, how do you disable the power door switch and I tried to pull out the fuse with no succcess. Do I need to use pliers?? Honda wants 1200 to fix so I will be hitting the donate button if this works.

    Thanks

    Bill

  • bill

    Did not work for us. :( on 2005 odyssey but doors work great in manual mode.

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    What model year odyssey do you have? Some people have said that it is a different fuse depending on the model. Did you follow all of the directions?

  • Rileyadamcarson

    WORKS GREAT!!!

  • Bill

    2005. Should I try disconnecting the battery??

  • Bill

    Yes, followed all the directions.

  • http://www.hightechdad.com hightechdad

    You could but remember that if you have the stock Honda stereo, that you
    will have to know the security code to reset that. They put those codes
    in the glove compartment I believe (but that depends on the year as well).

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