The mystery of the Honda Odyssey Shudder

For a few weeks now, my wife has been complaining about the 2007 Honda Odyssey van shuddering when slowly accelerating or cruising between 20-40mph. Time of the day did not matter. I verified her "feeling". Easily reproducible. Thinking it will go away at the next oil change, we ignored the problem especially since it did not seem to cause any problem in driving or stopping.

But, after the Toyota problems, we did not want to take any chances. Registered a complaint and brought it in to the Honda dealership. Their initial result: "could not reproduce it". This annoyed my wife; she took the technician for a ride and lo and behold, she was able to reproduce it. They re-checked, researched and let her know that this is a "known problem" - huh? If it was so "known" why did not they suspect it in the first place. Oh well; Coming home, we found this on a website ( sorry, website owner, we forgot to note your URL ):

Thanks to all for posting problems and solutions on this site. I have a 2007 Honda Odyssey that I have been fairly satisfied with. Current mileage is 36000. For the past 6000 miles or so I've been experiencing a vibration/shudder at 40-45 mph, observing engine rpms fluctuate from 1300-1600 associated with shifting into 5th gear. I have also noticed what felt like an intermittent misfire feeling at cruise speeds. I noticed this more during cold weather, more when the car was cold and more when I had the whole family in the van (600# of people). At 40-45 the problem was regularly intermittent with variations in engine rpm and an engine lugging sound (and associated vibration). Also, the best way of reproducing the problem seemed to be to get it into the sweet spot (40-45mph/1300-1500rpm) and come to a slight incline in the road requiring almost a breath of increase in the accelerator.

On my initial complaint to the dealer I got the "normal condition" line. Doesn't work with me, I test aircraft for a living and know the difference between normal and "interesting". After the first visit I did my internet research, worked on defining the problem and developed my strategy for the next visit. 1st, I needed a dealer who could hook up a computer to take a snapshot during the shudder behavior. 2nd I needed a dealership technician who had seen the problem before (very important). I found both at Scholfield East Honda in Wichita, KS.

The technician, who had experienced two Odyssey's with the same condition in the past, was able to reproduce the problem, take the snapshot and send it to Honda. The solution was to replace the torque converter. The repair took two days, the torque converter was replaced, the engine computer was updated, they cleaned out the transmission cooler lines (I have a towing package) and performed an alignment all on warranty. I picked up the van this evening and it drives "properly" again.

Hope this helps. I would definitely shop for a Honda dealer that has seen this problem before. Search out a technician who knows how to reproduce the problem.

So, the culprit is the torque converter. The part has come in now and our Van is in the repair shop. Once it comes back, hopefully it is normal and we will be able to update the status.
The Van is back and it drives as smooth as the very first test drive - like butter, with a powerful purr and not shudder. So, it was the torque converter replacement that did the trick. The Van was in the shop for less than 24 hours. Kudos to Hopkins Honda : http://www.hopkinshonda.com/ . We are really happy with the service.