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I bought a 2005 Honda Odessey touring back in Aug 2006, it had less than 10,000 miles and according to carmax(where I bought it from)it was one of the best out there, there was never any mention of the limited service and expensive cost to replace the PAX tires, all that was mentioned was the "safety" factor of the pax tires. now, after only 30,000 miles, I have a slow leak in my left front tire.I now find out it will cost Me $330.00 to replace one tire.what I am steamed about is:
A. the lack of choice in tire and rim.
B. the lack of qualified installation shops(in Salt Lake only select honda authorized dealerships can replace the Pax tire NOT any Michelin tire stores).
it seems outrageous that We are held hostage by not only Michelin,but by Honda too.
what happens if I want to go to vegas???? or Wyoming? or anywhere for that matter.
this is rediculous.  

I have an 06 Honda Odyssey Touring and had similar issues with those costly, heavy pax tires. With only 22.5K miles on the van and there were almost no tread left. Then I heard all the not so good thing about the PAX and decided to change out with some after market wheels but worry about those quality of after market wheels so I was little hesitate.
Then on a trip to home depot I saw an Ody Touring with some really nice look wheel on it and those rims  are 18", they also have Honda logo center caps too. So I waited half an hour for the owner to come out and ask the guy about it. He said those rims are original Honda rims, they came off from an MDX, he said bought them as De-PAx set from the guy name Mike here locally in San Jose, then he gave me Mike contact number.
So I contacted Mike and bought a set from him after waiting for one week and I'm now super happy with my van, the van drives great, better handling too, you would notice that right away. Rims were made by Honda, so the sensors, tires are 235/55/18. Mike also gave me instruction how to buy the spare tire kit too. I'm now Pax free and love our Ody more and more everyday.
That guy Mike also told me he been selling quite a few sets on Ebay too, his Ebay store name is Acurahondaoem. I also read his feedbacks on Ebay and found out he did sole many set of 17" and 18" De-Pax set on Ebay using only OEM Honda/ Acura rims for quality assurance. Mike is trustworhty  

could you please elaborate on the instructions how to buy the spare tire kit?  I've got the new wheels and tires, but my Honda dealer only sells the spare rim, not the tire, and the tire stores say to go to the dealer...Frustration is very high.  Thanks...  

I've appreciated the info on this site and want to give back my own experience

I bought some MDX wheels and tires off eBay for $200. Despite all the info about how they will not fit I just bolted them one and have yet to scrub. Maybe if I load the van down for a family trip they might start scrubing on the rear tires, but I'll worry about that when I have to.

After a couple hundred miles, I'll say the van rides much better than before and I feel much better about having a good set of tires under me. I'll be following up though on the best way to get a spare tire.

Overall, the biggest frustration is the TPMS. I feel like I'm still at the mercy of the local Honda dealer with this. I wish I could recalibrate/reset without them.  

Just last week I dumped PAX from my 2006, with less than 35K miles. I went through the local Tire Kingdom. I got aftermarket wheels, and now have CONVENTIONAL tires!! They salvaged the TPMS from the old tires and installed in the new. One of their techs did the reset on the sensors and they work just fine. Tire Kingdom even looked up the (convoluted) procedure to clear the PAX warning from my display (Yes, I ended up driving for several days on the run-flat - noisy!!). It was $1500 to do what I've done - I expect maybe a couple hundred more to aquire and install the spare (in the works right now). I'm SOOO glad to be rid of PAX!!! Although in all fairness, we bought the vehicle used and knew about the cost of tires, so just planned to "upgrade" instead of replacing PAX. We DID NOT realize at the time how short the tread life was. And a couple of months ago it took two visits to the dealer, $85 and a 2 hour wait to repair a nail in the tire!!!!  

Hello,

I have a 2006 Honda Odyssey Touring Model with Michelin Run flats. At about 20,000 miles (around April 2007), I spent $1700 to replace all four tires (and wheels) which blew my mind. Only 20,000 miles on a set of tires? Come on. I replaced my original tires on my 2002 Suburban after putting 58,000 miles on them and they never gave me any problems. Needless to say, the run flats on my Odyssey and giving me trouble again. Now after 45,000 miles on my 2006 Odyssey, one of the run flats is almost completely bald. I took it to a Honda dealer and they wouldn't replace it and said, "come back in a couple months and we'll replace two of the tires." Anyways, I've pretty much have had it with these Michelin run flat tires. I can't stand paying about $1600 - $1700 every 18 months for all four tires (and wheels). This is ridiculous. I'd like to be part of any lawsuit against Honda and Michelin. I had contacted both Honda and Michelin and neither of them would hep me (both the first time I had to replace the tires and wheels and now this second time). There is definitely something wrong with the combination of the run flat tires and wheels and both Honda and Michelin just won't admit it. Basically they're poorly designed and I should be able to get more than 20,000 miles out of a set of tires. The Honda dealer told me it's because I live in Pennsylvania and the roads are bad (wow, now why didn't i think of that). I live in a suburban area of Philadelphia.

By the way, I was really ticked off finding out The Odyssey touring model (the 2006 model with the run flat tires)  doesn't even come with a spare tire. What a rip off. Come on Honda and Michelin, admit you made a mistake. Yeah, OK, I can run up to about 125 miles on a flat tire with the run flats until I can get to a Honda dealer to replace the tire but what it you're out touring the Grand Canyon region. I can tell you there's o close Honda Dealers to get to for replacing the tires.

Honda and Michelin offered no assistance to me whatsoever. Like some of you all, I took digital pictures of the worn down tires . I was even ready to send back the worn tires to the CEOs of Honda and Michelin but couldn't afford it.

mac  

i have a 2006 odyssey touring model and I know i will need new tires in the next 6 month.  is it possible for you to send me Mike's full contact information as I would be interested in doing the same thing you did with your touring?   thank you.

Steve  

Then how the flip did you get the tire pressure dummy light to go off. I found that you can’t even adjust tire pressure without going to the DEALER to get it reset. Honda = empty wallet, bald back tires even for standard tires because of there engineering I have recently learned from others which coincides with the rear suspension problems. Dont tell me that I havnt rotated my tires. This Odyssey has only been inside a Honda Dealers shop, everytime. The tires wear out early especially if you carry ANYBODY  or do any Touring. Grinding front brakes, a hidden recall, but the fix is only to put in inferior brake pads that don’t stop as well as original equipment. The poor structural engineering under the front end of the car for supporting the body. Or the Poor towing capacity that subtracts each passenger's Weight from their lowly 3000 lb limit. The alignment of the rear wheels that is never aligned unless you drive your car with nothing in it. Excessive engine noise which is not warranted and still makes the noise after spending 500 bucks to fix it, I spent 40,000 dollars on an Odyssey and the bills just keep coming. In fact every two months on the average. Replacement of a Battery that missed the warrantee by a week. When I had been complaining about having to be jumped several times and the H-Dealer claiming my battery was in perfect order, I suspect the only way it could have passed is that they turned down the Amp setting of the battery tester. Honda has engineered faults into this car, and we are paying the price for their imperfection. The PAX system and the Honda Odyssey car is a LEMON. And the US government has anti lemon laws.  

Can someone please go over the how/where to get the spare tire?  I'm in the process of ditching those PAX tires for my 05 Odyssey.

Also, here's my funny story.  My wife took the van to the local Honda dealer in Kansas City (we bought the van in Dayton when we lived there) for an oil change.  I knew we needed tires.  KC Honda guy recommended we conver to the EX tires.  So, I called to schedule the switch and the service guy said it could be done, but they've never done it before.  He sent me to the parts department, who gave me the website of a Honda parts place.  He told me to order the de-PAX kit and bring it in so they could do the switch.  De-Pax kit could not be found on the website, so I called the customer service number.  Website really belonged to a Honda dealer in Massachusetts.  They told me they no longer sold the de-Pax kit because Honda made them pull it last week.  Called my old Honda dealer in Dayton, they told me NOT to switch to the EX tires/wheels.   Went to a local tire guy in KC and he knew exactly what I wanted to do, made a couple phone calls, and gave me a price.  Honda is really dropping the ball on this one.

FUN!  

In KC too - whose your local tire guy? I have two replaced tires and two bald tires - my car is vibrating on the highway and I need them replace NOW! I gotten the run around from Honda and Michelin too many times.  

After spending coupe of hours resarching the PAX tire problem for my 06 Odyssey, I came accross this web site:

http://www.diyhonda.com/2008/07/podcast-episode-131-honda-odyssey-depax.html

This info was just posted today.  I called CollegeHills Honda to verify the info and yes, they have an official solution for de-PAX.  They even posted pricing on their web for basic kit and you can download the episode showing how it is done.  Great, I think this will answer all you questions.  

Guys enough already!  If you had all done your consumer research prior to purchasing your vehicles you would not have this problem.  I purchased a 2005 Odyssey Touring, the first year with PAX and the current body style and knew exactly what I was getting into.  I talked to the service department back then as well as Michelin and was quoted $325 per tire.
My wife and I decided to move forward with this costly option for one reason.  When your wife is driving your 6 and 4 year old, God forbid they get a flat tire on a busy freeway, questionable neighborhood or in inclement weather.  
Dad and Mom would rather know his family can get home safely and worry about the tire then.
The premium you are paying for these tires is safety and peace of mind.  No dollar amount can be placed on that.
That said, we did replace the tires at 30,000 respectable miles a cost of $1,000.  If you maintain your vehicle, rotating the tires every 10K you should get this mileage out of these tires.
Our van now had over 40K without a hiccup.  Yes we’d do it again.

As a note my brother has a 2007 BMW 325 also with run-flat tires.  He got 20K out of these tires and replaced them to the tune of $1250.  This is the price of piece of mind.  

I went to Burnett Automotive at 14857 Metcalf in Overland Park.  Talk to Greg Horton at 913-851-9229.  My Odyssey is there right now having all this work done.  Greg spent a ton of time putting together the right package for all this.  Its going to run about $1800, but I'll make it up next time I need to replace tires.

Aaron  

I have a 2005 Odyssey, and recently replaced the PAX system at my local (DFW) Honda dealer.  The ride is better, less noise, no steering wheel shimmy, no pulling to one side (without doing any realignment), just straight, smooth and quiet.  A much better and safer handling vehicle (and one I feel better having my wife and kids in.  If driving on low traction, uneven wearing tires gives you piece of mind then stick with PAX). So much better than I had hoped for.  We just drove it from Texas to the Colorado Rockies and back, no problem.  
I bought 4 new wheels from the Honda parts department and had the service department install them with normal tires.  TPMS sensors transferred over from PAX wheels with no problem.  All Honda parts, installed by Honda service, and no warranty issue.  Total cost 4 wheels/tires/install just under $1700.  Spare is a bigger pain ITA - Honda parts catalog sells the wheel, but not the tire.  Tire stores say get it from the dealer.  Local Honda parts guy worked through the Tire Rack folks - the typical Odyssey size is backordered and expensive (135/80-17).  But they can get similar 155/70-17, and cheaper.  Difference is about 0.8 inch wider, and essentially same diameter (+0.040 inch), and it is supposed to fit in space available.  Tire Rack folks did balk a bit about it being for a PAX-replacement car because Honda Corp. has warned them not to replace PAX systems, but since this is just a spare (and not the specific size anyway) they are able to do it.  Total cost is $225.  

I just placed an order online through College Hills. On a side note, I was able to call my local SD dealer and ask for a price quote for 4 EX-L wheels, TPMS, and spare tire mounting kit. I told him I had an EX-L and he was going to place the order no problem. It was about $50 more than College Hills, so I went with them. I have RFTs on my BMW and they are not quite as much of PITA as these. Any wheel will fit on my 18 inch rim as well as any other 18 inch RFT if I don't like the Bridgestone. These Honda PAX wheels piss me off.