Other powertrain problem on the 2001 Acura MDX
4 crashes 1 injury 5 of the 64 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Acura MDX report other powertrain problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles, from 52 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 162,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,822 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65,000 miles | 79,850 miles | 110,000 miles | 138,047 miles | 162,822 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 4 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 20,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 200,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 72; the 2001 has 64. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Because the original transmission has been worked on and has aftermarket parts, acura is denying the vehicle to qualify for a recall on the transmission. Provide further details. *la
The vehicle would shake and rattle between 1500-2000 RPM's. *nm the dealer was unable and unwilling to correct the problem. The hesitation in the gears prevents the vehicle from performing maneuvers which could prevent or even cause accidents. *tc
I was driving in a center lane about 45 MPH in my 2001 acura mdx when the front wheels locked up and the car went into a skid and came to a complete stop. Within seconds, the lady behind me ran into me causing damage to the front of her vehicle and the rear of my car. Neither of our airbags went off. The other women said her knee was hurting, but she did not request any medical attention at the scene of the accident. There were no other injuries. There was no warning, no strange noises, no jerky actions - the front wheels just stopped. The car was taken to the local honda dealer and acura was contacted. The transmission had broken and acura arranged to have the vehicle transported to the closest dealership which was oklahoma city. The dealership replaced the transmission (and the front wheels after I inquired about a flat spot because of the skid) and transported the vehicle back to amarillo to have the body work done. Acura has not assumed any responsibility for the damage done by the accident. They were good about assisting in the replacement of the transmission and tires. They have also agreed to pay for a rental vehicle while…
Also reported on the 2001 Acura MDX
Complete transmission failure
Torque converter failure
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Strut, shock or spring failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 64 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other powertrain problem happen on the 2001 Acura MDX?
Across 52 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 137,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2001 Acura MDX?
64 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed