Vannin' Home Forums Thread Like Summary - 8 Piece Box - $800 Honda Odyssey

I'll change the title of the thread when she gets named, but for now that should suffice. I've been using my 2005 Silverado crew cab Z71 as a daily driver for a couple years now, and the beast is just too darn hard on gas getting around 15mpg on a good day. It's also getting harder to load/unload Saga (the service dog) as she's growing fast and getting quite heavy now. So I was sitting browsing the online marketplaces for a cheap used minitruck and just happened across this sweet little Honda Odyssey on a local online estate auction sitting at $400 bid with a couple days left.

Ended up winning the auction last night for $790 (rounded up to $800 because of tax) and brought it home this morning. It's a 2006 Honda Odyssey EX-L with 215,000 on the clock. Seems to have been taken decent care of, but she's a little rough around the edge. Will suffice just fine for my needs though. Needs a good deep cleaning, front right corner has a little carnage on the bumper. Driver side slider only sort of works, and there's a gnarly oil leak from the front valve cover. Overall though, for the price, I'm really digging this thing. Rides like a dream.

I think what scared most folks off from bidding on it was the auction comments said "Has timing issue, runs rough" and they had a video where you could hear all sorts of clacking and stuff. I assumed it needed a timing belt tensioner which is common on these 3.5L J35 motors, but when I picked it up this morning the sound is nowhere to be found and it runs great. I'm guessing their camera/phone was picking up on the slight ticking from the fuel injectors and amplifying it to the point it sounded horrible in the video.

First things first, I'm heading outside to clean, scrub, and detail the hell out of this thing. I'll update this thread as the thing progresses. No major plans for right now, but the day dream machine is in full throttle, so I'm thinking up all kinds of neat crap I could do to her down the line to make it a little cooler.

How it looked on the auction site.






Threw some farm use tags on and brought her home about an hour ago.


The guys were giving me a hard time about being a soccer mom now, so I had to whip up a quick sticker design, I'll probably get one made for the back glass eventually.


Sure feels nice to be back in a van of some sort for a daily driver.

Thanks man, it definitely has it's quirks, but I'm stoked. Should suit my needs much better for a daily.

Got it cleaned enough to not feel grossed out sitting in it, but still needs a lot more work.

So I picked it up this morning, drove it home and it ran GREAT for the 6 mile trip home. No overheating, no misfire issues, nothing out of the ordinary. Battery was 5 years old, so we had to jump start it, but I was amazed. Interior was disgusting though, so I spent most of the day spraying, scrubbing, vacuuming; and picking up 50lbs of sequins, crayons, beads, buttons, peanuts, and even some free honey mustard packets from McDonalds. There is even a handful of glitter glued inside one cupholder which I can only assume the glue is old honey mustard... YUCK!

Picked up a new battery from Autozone, positive cable cracked at the clamp bolt while installing it, and that's where things started to go downhill. So I broke out the hillbilly ingenuity and rigged the clamp on tighter with some aluminum foil until I can grab a new clamp or cable. Got it fired up and it has a misfire until it gets to operating temp, all cylinders misfire codes P0300-P0306, a bit of smoke and horrid smell out of the exhaust. Once it gets up to temp, it runs much better, but still smoking a bit and stinky. I know for sure the front valve cover is leaking oil pretty bad, but I spent so much time cleaning today, I didn't have enough light to diagnose anything else.

I'm pretty sure it hasn't had the valves adjusted in a long time, so that's probably part of the problem. I know VCM is an issue on these engines as well. I'll just start going through parts, testing as I go, and replacing a little here and there as I can afford it when I find bad parts. Can't wait to start enjoying it. Room for days and Saga the service dog seems to enjoy the ride as well.

The broken battery clamp complete with aluminum foil temp repair



Interior pics don't really look any cleaner, but in person it's a HUGE difference. Still a long way to go though.