We might be in the minority here of people who have been completely aggravated by this issue, but this summer we had an absolutely frustrating time with the sliding doors on the Honda Odyssey. They continuously refused to open all the way, which made for many a maddening moment as we were trying to get our already-screaming toddler into his carseat. And then, magically, once in awhile, the sliding door did open all the way. And that was great, except sometimes it felt all the more frustrating because there seemed to be zero rhyme or reason to this absurdity.
After some failed Internet searches, my husband took to the manual and found this gem:
–If the back windows are rolled down more than a couple of inches (which ours apparently were most of the summer), then the sliding doors will not fully open!–
Something that seemed so incredibly maddening suddenly made sense. It’s a safety issue. And, hallelujah, we now know how to fix the problem!
And then, the opposite issue started popping up. The flipping automatic door on one side would close almost completely, ALMOST–just enough to tease us–then would loudly beep in alarm, and re-open. Obviously, if there was something in the way, then this very important feature makes sense. But, when the area is cleared and we had wiped down door tracks and door sensors and done a whole lot of crossing our fingers, the fact that the door only closed on its own about 40% of the time became really, really annoying, really quickly. (Can’t tell you how frustrating this little hiccup has been in our lives when it’s already such a struggle to get everyone settled in the first place.)
We have yet to find an “official” solution to this one, but what has worked almost flawlessly is to stand by the automatic sliding door as it’s closing, and right as it’s nearing the end of its little journey, we just sort of nudge/gently push the door into the closed position from the outside of the car. Nothing fancy, but has made our outings much, much better.
(Just had to share in case anyone else is dealing with this.)