Two problems related to brake disc pads have been reported for the 2003 Honda Odyssey. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Honda Odyssey based on all problems reported for the 2003 Odyssey.
A scraping noise in the front brakes as well as poor braking prompted removal of the tires for inspection. I found that the inside brake pads on both wheels were worn down to 1mm while the outside pads still had 5-6 millimeters of pad material left. This is the same issue I had with my rear brakes a while ago. Ever since we have had this van, we have had brake problems of glazed pads and bad rotors. I had replaced stock pads and rotors with high end products. This seems to be a brake system issue that Honda has neglected.
A scraping noise in the rear prompted removal of the tires for inspection. I found that the inside brake pads on both wheels were worn completely away, despite the fact that the outside pads still had 3-4 millimeters of pad material left. Now, the outside pads can be easily inspected through the wheel spokes, and since both pads should wear at similar rates, visual inspection should have provided a reasonable indication of the condition of both pads. Well, the wear indicators are on the inside pads, but they were silent because the wear indicators had broken off on both inside pads, leaving no indication that the inside pads were worn out. Clearly there are two defects here: pad wear should be reasonably balanced to both pads, not biased such that the pads that cannot be inspected without removing the wheel wear much faster, and second, the wear indicators should have been designed so that they did not break off on both pads, leaving no other warning of excessive pad wear.