Generally the front and rear jack point locations on a vehicle is clearly provided to the owner. Either the owner’s manual, repair manual, and/or service manual will give you all of the locations on the vehicle where it is safe to use a floor jack or jack stands. For the 5th generation Honda Odyssey (years 2018-2023), you do have the jack stand locations outlined in the owner’s manual. But, when you are trying to find out where you can safely use a floor jack, this information is unavailable.
The owner’s manual doesn’t have any information on where you can safely use a floor jack. As for finding this information in a repair manual, these newer vehicles simply don’t have repair manuals available (e.g. Haynes, Chilton, etc.) anymore. The only other reference is the service manual, which is only available via subscription on the Honda Service Information System (SIS) online. If you reference the service manual on the SIS website, it only gives you a front jack point, but does not give you a rear jack point.
I researched to see why there was no rear center jack point given on the Honda Odysseys for the 2018-2023 model years, and could only come up with one theory which is that this information was removed indefinitely due to some issues on other Honda models. Some newer year Honda Pilot owners have tried using a floor jack on the rear jack point and have had the jacking bracket catastrophically fail. If you look at the service manual for the 2016-2022 Honda Pilot, there are specific front and rear center jack points called out on the service manual.
If you get underneath the 5th generation Honda Odyssey and look in the rear, you will see a jacking point via a bracket where you would use a floor jack to jack up the rear of the car. But, the service manual does not give you a rear jack point, only a front jack point. In fact, the service manual even explicitly states that the rear should not be lifted with a floor jack.
My suspicion is that Honda is looking into the failures of the rear jacking bracket on the Honda Pilots (and potentially other models as well) to determine the root cause of the failures. They’re probably okay doing this because the 5th generation Honda Odyssey is still pretty new, so most of the maintenance done on these car is predominantly still being done by shops where they have access to hydraulic lifts (and therefore can lift by the four side jack stand locations.)
Also, since the service manual can simply be updated online as there are no paper manuals to update, they can take their time to determine whether or not it is safe to use the rear center jacking bracket. They can then electronically update the manual if they determine it to be safe to use.
Personally, I believe that the rear center jack point on the 5th generation Honda Odyssey is intended to be used for a floor jack to lift up the rear of the vehicle before placing it on jack stands. From inspection of the rear center bracket, it appears to be more substantial than the ones we see on the 3rd generation Honda Pilots. Furthermore, we don’t know the exact circumstances for the collapsed Honda Pilot brackets. Were the wheels chocked? Was there already damage to the bracket from the past? Why type of floor jack was used and is it possible it wasn’t lifted properly?
These are important questions to consider. In my own opinion, the rear center bracket on the 5th gen Honda Odyssey looks substantial enough to handle jacking it up with a floor jack. I always chock my other wheel (one in front and one behind) to ensure there is no rocking movement of the vehicle while lifting the vehicle, and you should too. The floor jack should have some type of lifting pad to ensure there is no slippage during lifting. And lastly, you should inspect the bracket to see if there is any damage that may have occurred in the past. So proceed at your own risk, but these are the reasons why I use the rear center bracket with a floor jack to lift the rear of the vehicle.
Tools for Safely Lifting the Honda Odyssey
There’s nothing out of the ordinary for the tools needed to safely lift and support the 5th generation Honda Odyssey (model years 2018-2023.) The vehicle weighs about 4,500 lbs (or just over 2 tons) so most floor jacks and jack stands will do the job.
Since floor jacks are only lifting the front/rear (so lifting half of the 4,500 lbs) and jack stands support at the sides of the vehicle, the tools below will be sufficient. Finally, wheels chocks are a must to keep the vehicle from rocking back and forth and causing the vehicle to rock off of the floor jack and jack stands.
Floor Jack: Torin Low Profile Aluminum & Steel Floor Jack 1.5 Ton (3,000 lb), Black
Jack Stands: Big Red Torin Steel Jack Stands: 3 Ton (6,000 lb) Capacity, Red, 2 Count
Wheel Chocks: MaxxHaul Solid Rubber Heavy Duty Black Wheel Chock 2-Pack
Location of Front and Rear Jack Points – 5th Gen Honda Odyssey (2018-2023)
If you follow the instruction by the service manual, there is a jack point in the front center of the vehicle that you can use to lift via a floor jack.
On the rear of the vehicle, there is another center jacking bracket that is located closer to the center of the vehicle. The picture below shows underneath the vehicle looking at the jack point from the rear. Although the service manual doesn’t call out this location as a rear jack point currently, it looks like a substantial enough bracket to lift from.
I’ve personally used this bracket with a floor jack and know that others have as well. I don’t see a problem lifting it here, assuming that the bracket is not previously damaged, the wheels are properly chocked, and you ensure that there is no slippage from the floor jack. Still, proceed at your own risk as Honda does not explicitly state that this is a rear jacking point.
Jack Stand Locations – 5th Gen Honda Odyssey (2018-2023)
Once the vehicle is raised by the floor jack, the jack stand should be installed to safely support the vehicle at the jack stand points located at the front and rear sides.
For reference, here are the four jack stand locations for the 5th generation Honda Odyssey. This is an excerpt from our 2019 Honda Odyssey owner’s manual, which applies to all years 2018-2023 as well.
