2008 HONDA ODYSSEY — Complaint #1053922
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STRUCTURE:BODY:TAILGATE:HINGE AND ATTACHMENTS filed April 6, 2014
NHTSA complaint #1053922 (ODI reference 10577807) concerns a 2008 HONDA ODYSSEY and was filed on April 6, 2014. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 29, 2014. The vehicle had 55,300 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Virginia based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as structure:body:tailgate:hinge and attachments, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HONDA ODYSSEY cohort independently describe similar structure:body:tailgate:hinge and attachments failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2008 HONDA ODYSSEY shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
RE: TAILGATE/ STRUT FAILURE I WAS OUT SHOPPING AND AT MY LAST STOP THE TAILGATE WAS SUDDENLY VERY HARD TO OPEN. I HAD A LARGE CART OF GROCERIES AND IT WAS RAINING, SO I RAISED IT UP WITH ONE HAND, BUT WHEN I TURNED TO GET MORE GROCERIES, I EXPECTED IT TO STAY AND IT DROPPED DOWN. FORTUNATELY, I DID NOT HAVE MY CHILDREN WITH ME, SO I COULD PUT THE REST OF THE GROCERIES IN THE SEAT AREA AND DEAL WITH IT LATER. IT HAS NOT RESOLVED, SO IT WAS NOT A "RAIN" ISSUE. IN THE WEEK THAT HAS PASSED, I HAVE DONE SOME OF RESEARCH. I FOUND THAT HONDA DID INDEED HAVE A RECALL ON THIS PROBLEM HTTP://WWW-ODI.NHTSA.DOT.GOV/ACMS/CS/JAXRS/DOWNLOAD/DOC/UCM416791/RCAK-12V062-3793.PDF HOWEVER, WHEN I CALLED MY HONDA DEALER, *MY* VEHICLE IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS RECALL. I'M HAVING A HARD TIME FIGURING OUT WHICH MODELS ARE BY THE OFFICIAL NOTICES. THEY QUOTED ME $276 TO FIX IT. I HAVE DISCOVERED THIS IS VERY EASY TO FIX - $50 FOR THE STRUTS, A FLATHEAD SCREWDRIVER, AND LADDER TO PROP OPEN THE TAILGATE AND EV
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1053922 |
| ODI Number | 10577807 |
| Date Filed | April 6, 2014 |
| Failure Date | March 29, 2014 |
| VIN | 5FNRL38438B |
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Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.