Headlights, turn signals, door locks (via keyless) just stopped working.

Tiny
KEN L
  • MASTER CERTIFIED MECHANIC
  • 43,074 POSTS
Great addition to this thread!. :)

Cheers, Ken
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Wednesday, September 12th, 2018 AT 10:21 AM
Tiny
HADLEY72
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
  • 2003 HONDA ODYSSEY
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 85,000 MILES
Took our 2003 Honda Odyssey to the garage after all of the lights came on in the dashboard, assuming it was the alternator as it went a few years ago and did the same thing. The garage said yes, alternator, and replaced it only charging labor because it was still under warranty. Went to pick it up 3 days after it was done (I was having surgery and couldn't get there the day they finished) and the battery was dead. They recharged it, got it running, but the locks on the doors wouldn't work. I noticed because I tried to unlock it to put something in the back and I couldn't get the doors to unlock. I can use the actual key in the door manually and get the front driver and passenger doors to unlock that way, but the two back doors are the automatic ones and they won't open. If you are in the car and hit the lock button on the door to unlock or lock you can hear a slight, electronic clicking sound as if it is trying to work, but nothing happens. If I reach in and manually unlock the back door it just slides right back locked again. That has never happened before. We've always been able to manually unlock the back door from the inside. The hatchback won't unlock either (and unfortunately that manual key entry is rusted and won't let me turn it). If I use the remote and press the lock button nothing happens. If I press the unlock button, the lights come inside and the flash on the outside the way they always do when the locks were working, but nothing else happens. The garage kept it for two more days and they say they have run all of the diagnostics on it and just can't figure it out. They did say that whatever is wrong with it also seems to be draining the battery as the battery consistently loses a charge while the car is just sitting, not being driven. I've made an appointment with the dealership to look at it next week, but I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts before then. The dealership will charge me $100 just to look at it. I hate to not fix it because it's still a great car with not a lot of mileage for the age, and we can't afford a new one, but I also don't want to dump a lot of money into an eleven year old car.
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Sunday, January 5th, 2020 AT 1:47 PM (Merged)
Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,755 POSTS
11 years and 85,000 miles? My 25-year-old Grand Caravan has over 415,000 miles, just got home from a 1,500 mile round trip, and I would stick a thousand bucks into it if I ever had to just to avoid buying anything newer with all the over-complicated, unnecessary, and unreliable computers. If you like your van half as much as I like mine, fix it.

From what you described, it sounds like one of the lock switches is sticking on. There's a number of things that can happen. One is to have a switch physically stuck, typically due to food or something getting stuck in it. A less-common cause is to have frayed wires between a door's hinges, and two are touching. Depending on the design of the circuit, a lock wire could be touching a ground wire, (or power window wire), or a 12 volt feed wire.

When you have remote keyless entry, you usually will have the driver's door on a circuit by itself because it takes two presses of the remote button to open the other three doors. That means a computer is involved, and therefore, more potential for problems. When you said a rear lock slides back to the locked position by itself, that is a major clue. A power lock motor will typically overheat when it's left energized too long and a thermal auto-resetting circuit breaker will trip. That means the locks won't be operating all the time, but when they are, they can draw enough current to ruin a good battery in a few days or less.
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Sunday, January 5th, 2020 AT 1:47 PM (Merged)
Tiny
CIMARRONGSD
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
My 2007 touring odyssey has been doing similar problems:
I call it electrical lupus as one item after another stops working.
The first thing to mess up was a parasitic battery drain; 24-48 hrs to drain the battery.
Next thing to go was the driving lights, then the rear camera.
Both high beams stopped working at the same time. Then, not all at the same time, but the rear hatch closer stopped working, wipers only work on fast speed, power door locks briefly screwed up.
Wipers currently may or may not work on something other than high speed.
For the lights, I have done the obvious - replace both high beams, replace both DRL's, replace DRL relay, replace combo headlight switch on steering, replace each headlight fuse, replace DRL fuse.
I disconnect the negative terminal every night due to the battery drain.
I am out of ideas.
Will look into the panel areas to see if there is a moisture problem, but hope there would be more specific info at what I am looking at - maybe pics.
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Tuesday, April 13th, 2021 AT 10:36 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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Sorry but this may have been missed as it was on an old post. Please let us know if you figured this out.

If not, I would start with having the battery and alternator tested as it sounds like this is a low voltage issue. When batteries drain they cause all sorts of crazy things to happen.

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/how-to-check-a-car-alternator

If the battery needs replaced, then I would check the alternator as well since that may be the root cause of it failing.

Let us know if you have other questions on this. Thanks
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Saturday, April 17th, 2021 AT 6:25 PM
Tiny
OPTIMUSA4
  • MEMBER
  • 3 POSTS
I've been getting email updates on this post from 2012. The issue was never resolved and we have moved on from our 2007 Odyssey EX-L.

The car continued to exhibit electrical and mechanical issues up until last year. Ending with the A/C disintegrating, steering rack and tie-rods failing, and finally the alternator went bad on its last use. Put a new battery in and drove it to the dealership. Got $1,000.00 on trade in. Bought a new 2021 VW Atlas SE R-Line. Great vehicle. AWD, three rows, plenty of towing capacity. It was also less expensive than the Current Odyssey.

Again, thanks for all your posts and suggestions.
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Saturday, April 17th, 2021 AT 7:23 PM
Tiny
DANNY L
  • MECHANIC
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Hello, I'm Danny.

Sorry if this is an inconvenience to you. Sometimes people with the same model car and are exhibiting the same symptom or issue will attach or (merge) their question onto yours in hope of learning how to get advice or a solution to the problem. Thanks again for using 2CarPros and we hope you will use our site again in the future when needed.
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Saturday, April 17th, 2021 AT 11:33 PM
Tiny
AARON MCLAUGHLIN
  • MEMBER
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I know this is an old post, but wanted to add something additional and see if it could be part of the cause. I am just now having this issue on my 2005 Honda Odyssey. I really like this vehicle as it has lasted a long time with few problems until now. I am exhibiting the same symptoms; key fob not working, door locks wont work, low speed wipers, outside temp gauge, and turn signals. A while back the automatic doors stopped working and we have just been manually opening them. We looked at the TSB for this issue and also some other fixes regarding water leaks that might be the cause. However, what I found mainly due to finding the battery dead one morning, is that if I disconnected the battery and after cleaning the posts reconnected it suddenly everything started working, including the sliding doors. But then the next morning I found the battery dead and right back where I started.

My question is, could a bad battery be the cause of all these issues? I am planning on having the battery tested today, but wanted anyones thoughts on if I should be looking for something more electrical or it's just a bad battery? Hopefully the battery is the cause as that is a relatively low cost repair.
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Friday, July 2nd, 2021 AT 9:24 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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These systems are part of what is called load shedding when the battery is weak but normally not all at the same time.

Clearly based on this info in this post, the battery is where you need to start. Here is a guide that will help with this testing:

https://www.2carpros.com/articles/car-battery-load-test

Please let us know what you find with this battery. If this is not it, it may be best to get a new post started with your specific issues and vehicle and we can work through it.

https://www.2carpros.com/questions/new

Thanks
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Friday, July 2nd, 2021 AT 8:42 PM
Tiny
AARON MCLAUGHLIN
  • MEMBER
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Thanks for the response. They tested it and said it had a weak charge. I ended up going ahead and replacing it as it was quite a few years old. However, by the time I got home, I found that the problem still persists. I think I am at the point where it is beyond my know how and plan to take it to my mechanic to have a look. Being that it's a 2005, I might opt to upgrade to a newer model and not dump much more money into it. I really don't feel comfortable taking it too far and/or driving it around with no turn signals.

If I do pursue getting it fixed, I will start a new post with any new information.
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Saturday, July 3rd, 2021 AT 9:21 AM
Tiny
KASEKENNY
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Thanks for the update. However, one suggestion that I would make is we should always pay for the charge to get it diagnosed. That is a good investment to know you are making the right choice if you are going to get rid of it.

The last thing you want to do is dump the vehicle when it was a module that you could get for a couple hundred dollars or less.

However, if it is going to be extensive or they cannot be sure what the issue is then it would not be worth putting the money into it.

Thanks for using 2CarPros. Please come back in the future with other issues.

Also, we would like to know what you end up doing with this one. Thanks
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Sunday, July 4th, 2021 AT 9:33 AM

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