‘07 Odyssey with multiple problems - what to try first?

Somehow I got volunteered to help some people I've never met with problems on their car that I'm not qualified to help them with. 
 

I'm going over tonight or tomorrow to try and diagnose this, but this sounds like a basket case that they unfortunately cannot afford to replace or repair. 
 

Here is what is going on: it wouldn't start, so they replaced the alternator and the battery. It now starts sometimes, though sometimes they need to charge the battery. If it's running and they turn it off it won't start again. It had about 15 check engine lights on; I don't know what they were but assume they were misfire mostly because they then changed the coils and spark plugs. It runs better, in the way that one cancer is better than another. 
 

It is now leaking antifreeze. I don't know where, as well as power steering fluid. The sliding doors also do not latch - not sure if it has power doors or not.

My thinking, there is a relay bad somewhere. I'm hoping that didn't somehow cause the car to overheat. 
 

Any thoughts on what I should check out first? 

Are the doors power or manual?  Sliding doors not latching causes interior lights to stay on ultimately draining the battery.  Bulbs may be burned out if this is a long term issue-my kids turn on the lights in our Oddity and my wife doesn't notice and then locks the doors.  There is a switch on the dashboard-left of the wheel I believe-that sets the switch for the lights.   The rollers on the sliding doors fail (nylon wheels) then the force required to close the doors increase until the motors can no longer close them fully.  The roller assembly is about $100 per side.  The job is kinda fiddly but YouTube is yer friend here.   First side took me a few hours as I didn't want to damage the paint.  Second side went faster.

The PS leak may be the steel hard pipe on the bottom of the radiator that connects to the cooler.  It can be bypassed replaced with a piece of rubber hose.  The fasteners rust and bind in the plastic radiator tank.

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Flamethrower?

I would start with a complete visual inspection first. Daylight hours with a good powerful flashlight for the hard to see areas. Check all fluid levels, visual check for leaks, check battery connections, fuses, and alternator installation and anything else these persons may have done/altered/touched. Get the history/chronological story about the failures of systems in question and any related symptoms. Good luck

Racingsnake said:

In reply to mtn (Forum Supporter) :

Flamethrower?

Don't tempt me. They sound like the kind of people that will always push off preventative maintenance, so it's now $3k to fix a car worth $3k, and they don't have $3k period. 

Fourteen year old van in Chicago I presume. Do these have galvanized bodies or do they rust away?

if it's an LX model it'll be manual sliding doors. EX will be motorized. 

A couple diagnostic questions for you to consider, both from a wiser man than I.

“Are you doing this dumb schist thing to impress a girl?”

“What the hell is wrong with you?”

Good Luck  

My hipshot guess is the positive battery terminal or power wire.

I recently replaced the one on my '10 ody because battery acid ate it away. 

Most of the time, car would be fine. Occaaionally it would act possessed. Ie wouldn't start, or nav wouldn't work, or radio wouldn't work (but never both!), Doors wouldn't lock, key fob unresponsive, etc. Just possessed.

The entire positive battery harness from honda was like $100 and installs in 30 minutes or less. I'm sure I could have done an autozone clamp terminal if needed.

I once was asked by my wife to help her new friend to get her Jeep started. Ok how hard can this be right? We go to her house & she needs to drive the Jeep because her other car is dead. It was covered in leaves & dirt & had been sitting for @2 years. She says "it has a new battery, we put it in 2 years ago". Has it ran since then? No, it wouldn't start 2 years ago with the new battery. Great
Ok so I put the jumper cables on it & let it charge up running from our car for @ 10 minutes, while I checked all the fluids & explained how the gas is going to be bad even if it did start, it's going to need gas. We hit the key & nothing, no dash lights, nothing. Within a few seconds the problem was pretty obvious. When the person that helped her put the battery in, they didn't remove the red & black plastic caps from the battery terminals when they tightened the connectors. Removed them & it actually started. She tried driving to town but it died on the way while we followed her. It was out of gas. Went & got 5 gallons & it restarted & ran for as long as we lived there which was @2years.

I think something like 90+% of Odys have power doors. Standard on EX, EX-L, and Touring. Very few LX's sold, but they are cheaper, so that may be what they have. There is also a power door on/off switch. Check to see that it is on. (Door motor will still do the final close function if switched off).

Every Honda I've owned has leaked PS fluid. My 10 Ody is leaking bad from the soft line section that runs from reservoir to the rack. It's a one piece unit that turns into hard metal line. Metal fitting is extremely hard to access without a lift and also mine is corroded on.

Very likely the intermittent start is just a loose battery connector. That could also explain why the alternator wore out, if it was running off the alternator not the battery. Could be bad starter or starter connection corroded. Honda starters seem to last at least 200k. Starter change on Ody is a pain.

Antifreeze leak could be from damaged radiator of hose from replacing alternator. Or it was just leaking from corrosion or bad seal somewhere and it then overheated which is now causing drivability issues.

Good luck.

Interfaces of batt terminals to cables

Ground strap from chassis (probably rad support area) to engine

batt terminals, if the stamped steel type, sometimes corrode and split

With that many codes on a Honda, I'm looking at main power and ground 100%

On our 06 I have had the cables come loose as well as the studs/bolts on the top. The terminals also seem to corrode faster than any other vehicle I have ever owned. That being said, follow from there and check all the power and ground connections. 

Scrap it.

Did they use an OEM alternator or aftermarket?  The only aftermarket alternator I have tried for an Odyssey was dead right out of the box.  Check that it actually makes voltage when it runs.

I dont know about the antifreeze leak or the sliding door issues, although sliding door problems are not uncommon.

Power steering leaks are super common on these.  Check the o-rings right at the pump & at reservoir outlet.

Report back with what the actual codes are.  If its running but feels like a misfire sometimes (especially decel), its probably the combo of VCM and engine mounts - get a resistor kit to fool the PCM and replace the engine mounts with the LX model parts.

The spool valve on these like to leak oil onto the alternator, so that's likely what killed the first one.  Odyclub or TouTube is your friend here.

Coolant you'll have to trace down -on our '05 it was the radiator, on our 17 it was the hose that ran off of the expansion tank had a pinhole leak.

O-rings are a common cure for PS leaks.

Doors I'd wait until you eliminate the other electrical issues, then scan the body codes using the trip meter. Odyclub details how to scan the b-codes, if you can't find it PM me.

+1 to OdyClub forums

Forget  the door for now and get it running. Then clear codes and see what comes back. If they need a car that bad the door can be fixed with a bungee cord and duct tape until the other more important things are fixed.