2018 HONDA ODYSSEY — Complaint #1785938
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY/WIPER filed January 1, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1785938 (ODI reference 11445795) concerns a 2018 HONDA ODYSSEY and was filed on January 1, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on December 20, 2021. The report was geocoded to Indiana based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility/wiper, 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 visibility/wiper 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 2018 HONDA ODYSSEY shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The Touring and Elite trim levels on the Honda Odyssey have 'rain sensing' wipers, as well as a low, high, and one-wipe function. The rain sensing function cannot be disabled, and takes the place of any intermittent feature. The rain sensing is always on and not disableable, unlike other vehicles that allow the operator to choose whether or not to use the feature, or simply set intermittent wipe speed manually. Honda's rain sensing function simply does not work, making the wipers go full speed in light mist or not work at all in heavy rain. Due to the fact the rain sensing function cannot be disabled, operators are either stuck with wipers off or on continual speed. This is both distracting as operators either must manually flick the wiper stalk for a one-wipe function in light rain every few seconds, or run the wipers continually, causing streaking and difficult visibility in lighter rain or snow events. This problem is well-documented on Odyssey and Civic forums, and I have pur
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1785938 |
| ODI Number | 11445795 |
| Date Filed | January 1, 2022 |
| Failure Date | December 20, 2021 |
| VIN | 5FNRL6H92JB |
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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.