Other steering problem on the 2004 Acura TL
1 fire 1 of the 18 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 steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Acura TL report other steering problem at a median of 150,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 180,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 195,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 133,000 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60,000 miles | 101,500 miles | 150,000 miles | 179,500 miles | 193,000 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, 1 a fire 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 $350–$2,400 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2012, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2004 has 18. 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.
The vsa (stability control) system on my 2004 acura tl malfunctioned. The system would cause the right front brake to activate by itself, causing the car to severly swerve to the right. After a half-second or so, the vsa would disengage and the fault indicator would lite up on the dashboard. The acura dealer was unable to diagnose the problem because vsa fault codes are not stored in the vehicle's memory after the car is restarted and the system automatically resets. This resulted in having to continue to drive the car until the fault re-occured. Eventually, when it happened again, I was able to take the car directly to dealer and they were able to diagnose the car (because we left it running so as not to clear the code). The problem was traced to a yaw rate sensor in the vsa system. Acura should make this information available to dealers. This poses a serious safety problem at highway speeds and there is nothing a driver can do to predict or prevent when this problem will occur. Since my sensor was replaced, the problem has not happened again.*ak
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 acura tl. While changing the oil in the vehicle, the contact noticed that the seal on the power steering was damaged. It appeared as if the fluid was leaking. The dealer stated that although the failures were identical, the VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign id number 08v091000 (steering:hydraulic power assist:hose, piping, and connections). The manufacturer and dealer would not provide any assistance. The vehicle is currently being repaired. The failure and current mileages were 101,000.
My vehicle is experiencing power steering leaks and there is a very loud whining noise when the car is started in cooler weather. I went to an acura and honda dealer and they noted there were no problems and the previous recall issue has already been fixed. This vehicle has had similar complaints and related recalls in the past as well as many other safety related issues and it seems acura and honda are simply unwilling to fix problems with their product unrelated to normal wear and tear. It would benefit consumers if this vehicle especially this year and model were more thoroughly examined by an independent third _party. *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Acura TL
Other body or interior problem
Other wheel or tire problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Other suspension problem
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 steering problem happen on the 2004 Acura TL?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 150,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 100,000 miles and a quarter after 180,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2004 Acura TL?
18 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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