Purchased 2006 Odyssey new from Honda with 5 yr. extended warranty. Vehicle was just over three years old when AC started pumping out hot air. Took it back to dealer, told them vehicle was under extended warranty. They told me AC condenser had hole in it from rock thrown up from road and that work was not covered under warranty. They showed me where the rock had penetrated the condenser. Dealer said that this was not an uncommon problem.

I checked with American Honda and they confirmed that damage was considered road hazard and not covered by extended warranty. It's easy to see that this is due to a design flaw where road debris can pass through an opening in the front fascia directly into the AC condenser. A screen should have been installed across this opening to prevent this occurrence. I ended up paying to have the condenser replaced.

My husband and I purchased a brand new Odyssey Van in June 2006. Absolutely love the van. We have had no problems until we realized our air conditioner wasn’t working recently in May 2008. Our van only has 24,000 miles on it.

I called our Honda service department, and was told if it is a rock that damaged the condenser it is not covered. I said, a rock and she replied; yes rocks can damage the condenser. My husband and I never have heard such thing. Without Honda even looking at my van, they already knew exactly what was wrong.

So that day I got a phone call from service, and sure enough they said a rock has damaged your condenser, and it would not be covered because that is considered road debris and it will cost you 800.00. The service person said they see this every week, and then he said I mean once a month, so I was curious and got on the internet to see if anybody else had had the same problem, and sure enough, hundreds of complaints with the same problem.

I contacted Honda America Corp and they said sorry it is not covered because it is road debris damage.

It’s not my fault, and thousands of other consumer's fault that they poorly designed the Honda Odysseys and Honda Accords. I noticed on the new 2008 Vans and cars they have a protection on the front now. But that’s not fair for all the people who have purchased a van or car 2007 or earlier. I think that they should have a recall on this matter and fix the problem. I didn’t pay $30,000.00 for a van to have this problem. They need to put some kind of protection on the van so it doesn’t happen again.

I just want to let all other consumers beware of this so they don’t make the same mistake we did. I am contacting the Consumer report, Better Business Bureau all news media and papers until this problem is taking care of. I already have one local TV station doing the story. If we would have known this problem before we wouldn’t have purchased it. I think Honda is treating their customers very poorly on this matter, and should definitely have a recall. Thank you for listening to my complaint, and hopefully we will get this solved.

A/C condenser broke, dealer says not covered under warranty. I got the same story others have got, that it was probably caused by a stone hitting the condenser. Cost for a new condenser= $600. I put in a complaint w/American Honda as I know this is an issue that many Hondas have had and I do not feel that the customer should have to pay for something that is obviously caused by a defect in the design. They called me and told me that they will not cover. I strongly feel that this is a design issue and Honda should fix this

I first noticed a problem on Feb. 4 when I couldn't get my air conditioner to cool. My husband checked under the hood and noticed the compressor was not kicking on. He called our local Honda dealership and asked if maybe it could be a fuse and they told him that if the instrument panel was working that it probably was not a fuse. He told my husband over the phone that this was a common problem that a rock probably hit my condenser and the freon leaked out. He told us that this was not covered under our warranty and that it would be about 800.00 to fix. He said we could probably go through our insurance and file it as a road hazard claim. We called the other Honda dealership which is 40 minutes away and they told us the same thing over the phone. We dropped the van off at the dealership a couple of days later to find out if this was the problem and they confirmed it a couple hours later. They told us the cost would be 973.00 to fix it and this was fairly common. We asked if this was a manufacturer flaw, why this could not be fixed under warranty they said no. We called Honda and that was a joke. They were not covering it and were quite upset that both dealerships stated this was a common problem to us. They said this was not a common problem and there was nothing they would do for us and did not offer any kind of protection from it happening again. They said we could buy something after market to protect it from happening again. We noticed the 2008's have a new honeycomb grill that protects the condenser now! We ended up filing a claim with our insurance and had to pay 516.00 to have it fixed and there is no guarantee that this will not happen as soon as I pull out of the lot. I am very disappointed with Honda's response to this problem. I also have issues with having the brakes and rotars replaced at 12,000 miles.

Ok people... My 2006 Honda Odessy ran out of cold air. I'd told my husband about the situation. He'd recalled that his friend who had the same car, had the same problem. They'd taken it to get repairs and the dealer said that a rock had knocked the compressor out and caused a leak. Quick enough, the dealer mentioned to them to call the insurance company and have them cover the expenses. They did so, filed a claim and got it fixed.

My story..(after researching this problem).

I'd taken the car to the dealer. Left it there, since it was going to be awhile. Ironically, there was a lady in line at the service department with the same issue.

They'd called back at 3:25 pm. The exact words came out of there mouth..."We've found the problem, a foreign object had knocked the compressor and needs to be replaced. This is not covered under warranty, so what we suggest for you to do is to call the insurance company and have them take care of this for you." ..... I thought "OH SH>>>, did they just give me the same story". Oh boy, am I caught up in a bind, am I liable to pay b/c the manufacturer's smart engineers designed the sorry placement of the compressor?????

$650 to get this fix.

I'd told my husband that we did not finance a $30,000 and make payments on the vehicle and be more than willing to have coughed up $700 in repair a month after our year anniversary. I was not willing to put a penny in the repair cost. Obviously we'd bought the Odyssey for it's reliability. Which we were not getting. Out of all the new cars we owned, never once had we gone through this. Needless to say, I couldn't believe this was HONDA!!!

Yes, we went as far as calling the insurance company. They said we had a deductible of $500, and that filing a claim wouldn't be the right thing to do.

After disputing the financial company, the dealer's manager and service department personnel. The conclusion... they will take care of the cost, since we'd been loyal customers. Push comes to shove, we were lucky to have service personnel who was more than willing to go above and beyond their morals.

The issue is that this is a design flaw with all Honda's. I have found that there are many people facing the same problem. Honda designed the A/C condensor to be near the ground and exposed to the elements with no fgrill protection. Honda is stating this is damage from raod debris and is not a covered item under warranty. I can see that point, but my question back to them was are you addressing this in future designs and what are you doing to protect the ones out on the market with the problem. I believe they don't want public to really understand how bad of a problem this really is and could be. i have a complaint in to a regional manager, so we will see where that goes.