2004 Honda Odyssey Cupholder Tray Mod

The stock cupholder tray between the front seats of the Honda Odyssey is a well-known spill hazard.
It is possible to modify the stock cupholders to make them less prone to spill.

This instructable gives you step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

Please note that this modification is designed to accommodate medium sized cups (16 - 20 oz) with tapered sides, and straight sided 12 - 16 oz bottles. It does not work well with small cups. You need to determine for yourself whether thhis modification will meet your beverage needs.

Step 1 Cupholder tray base

The cupholder tray base is attached to the front passenger's seat. 

Comments

[keelytm]

What an awesome, practical modification. I love my Honda but I was really relieved to see that I have an option to make it so the cup holders don't spill so often. I would always knock my water with my elbow on accident and it would get that area of my car so wet! I will have to try this tonight.

[sgross3]

Did this this afternoon...took about 2 hours. The hardest part was finding the nylon strapping material. I ended up at Michael's craft supplies and used 1/2" wide Velcro strips. It was the two-sided stuff and one roll did all four cup-holders. It was also a good chance to clean the gunk that had accumulated in the nooks and cracks on a 2001 Odyssey.
I didn't have a sewing machine so I just folded the ends over and stapled them with a heavy-duty office stapler. For the center connection, I used a pop-rivet with a couple of small flat washers on both sides.
Works great and my wife is happy now. Happy wife...Happy life!

[bonanno.mark]

I saw this and had to try it on my wife's 2002 Odyssey. Worked like a charm! A spectacular 'Ible! I just wish I could do the same thing to my Camry!
.
The only difference was that I used an industrial strength stapler in lieu of sewing. Worked for both the ends and the cross.

[Drink Docker]

Nice problem solving, but for those that don't have the mechanical skills might want to check this out. www.drinkdocker.com

I designed , patented and manufactured these for all makes and models.

Odyssey owners have been very pleased. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ati3utJQUf0

[sticksnpicks]

This is a great workaround!  I just wanted to find out how to remove the tray to clean out the grunge, but now the cupholders will actually be usable. Thanks!

[abadfart]

2nt gen legasys have realy bad cup holders

[porcupinemamma]

Great minds think alike! (only you actually did the project and wrote an excellent ible! ) Why oh why can't Honda get their act together? I'm on my 2nd CRV and this flaw really bugs me. Send your design to them and ask to be reimbursed big bucks :0)

[BuangAyam]

Truck Parts---Wow..That was great and nice modification .I wiil definitely try it to..It's useful specially if you have kids..

[timmy1234s]

Ha! My mom owns a 04 or 03 odyssey too. I think it is ok. But my whole family doesn't have a problem with the cupholder. Also, we have leather seats.

[jangelj]

I have an 06 Odyssey. I just got some PVC tube from Home Depot that fit snuggly into the cup holder. It fits into the top of the cupholder, and sits on the lip (does not go all the way to the bottom of the cupholder). I cut the PVC to the desired height (about 2 inches is enough to stablize a bottle of water of coffee mug), painted it with spray paint to match the tray, and glued it in place. It works so well, I even did a similiar thing to my 97 Explorer. All you need is about 1.5" to 2 " of additional height and you're good to go. Sorry, no pics.

[cprocjr]

great idea! my suburban has the same problem. i wish it could be fixed like that but i can't.

[GorillazMiko]

Wow, nice idea! Very original idea!

Anyways, getting a little off track, haha, just kidding, but ANYWAYS.... nice job, the pictures are great, especially the one in step 11, that's very cool! Nice job. +1 rating.

[jaded1]

Step 11 If you don't have a lot of tinkering experience, all those little screws can look alike. I'm sure that the Honda engineers use different screws for good reason. Thanks for the comment!

[tiuk]

Great idea. I can't believe they'd release cup-holders like that in this day and age. My sister's '96 Camaro has a single one inch deep cup holder, and it's basically worthless.

[jaded1]

An emergency stop that dumped 3 full cups of coffee off the stock cupholder was the inspiration. Thanks for the comment!

[canida]

This is genius! Great mod.

[jaded1]

Thanks!

[alex-sharetskiy]

Honda!

[Da_Fudge]

awesome