Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2005 Acura MDX
3 crashes 3 of the 7 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.
Only 7 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
There are 7 reports of control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2005 Acura MDX, 7 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 70,000 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, 3 a crash is 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 $700–$3,000 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 3 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2016 carries the most reports, with 9; the 2005 has 7. 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.
Hello, I am a very frustrated acura mdx owner. I hd purchased 2005 acura mdx brand new. I usd the SUV for 3 years when I started hearing a "vibration" or "judder"noise while cruising between 20-45 miles per hour. In december 2010, I received a recall and was very happy that the issue will be resolved. I took the recall notice sent by honda motors and went to the alhambra, ca acura dealership. The dealership updated the PCM a/t software . The cause in the work order was mentioned as product update - pm update for lock-up clutch function. Software update s/b# 09-037. I got it update within 3 hours and finally felt happy that my SUV will be running fine. To my utter dismay, I found the same problem still exists. It is very frustrating and feel very nervous while driving with my family. I even get scared to drive thesuv in case it will stop on freeway. Nhtsa is a governing body to help such situation. I am pretty sure, this issue has been reported before in NHTSA web site. I earnestly request NHTSA to take this serious and possible life threatening matter with acura and make them accountable and responsible [xxx] information redacted…
My 2005 acura mdx drive train will make a "judder" sound and can be felt in the vehicle all while loosing acceleration at around 30 to 40 MPH. The resulting loss of acceleration leads to serious safety concerns while trying to merge into traffic on ramps. There was a recall regarding this problem from acura. I took the mdx into the dealer and they did a PCM program update. This seemed to fix the problem for about two months but now the problem is back again.
I am writing because I just received a safety recall notice from acura relating to: NHTSA action number : ea13002. My daughter was involved in an accident (she's ok!) where she had to swerve to avoid an oncoming car that had drifted into her lane rounding a left hand bend. Our 2005 acura mdx went out of control despite her attempts to control the vehicle, which she did after it had blown out two tires. Could her braking and swerving result in the subsequent over correction of our mdx and be the result of the vehicle stability assist control module malfunctioning as described in the recall notice from acura. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Acura MDX
Torque converter failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 7 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2005 Acura MDX?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2005 Acura MDX?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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