Other powertrain problem on the 1997 Honda Accord
1 fire 1 of the 20 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 1997 Honda Accord report other powertrain problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 80,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55,000 miles | 61,750 miles | 80,000 miles | 109,000 miles | 135,000 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 $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 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 532; the 1997 has 20. 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.
While driving transmission would slip when changing gears. Had taken vehicle to dealership, and mechanic indicated that oil was leaking onto the transmission which caused the gears to slip. *ak
I removed ignition key , thinking transmission was in park, and exited from car. The car rolled away. I discovered it was in drive. Honda has a recall # 03v423000 for this identical problem. The problem on my car has been verified by the dealer. I am being told that the recall does not include 1997s , only 1998-1999. I am hereby informing you that the problem also exists on 1997s (demonstratable on my vehical with 59k miles.) 1997's should also be included in the recall. My case number with honda is no12003-12-1000057. I would like to get this resolved immediately so that I can get a fix to a potentially dangerous situation. Thank you.*ak
On 7/27/03, sunday the check engine light showed up, I decided to take the car to my mechanic right away the next day, but on monday morning, I couldn't even get out to the main road from my development and the car just lost the gear. This happened without any warning sign, and the incident could have turned fatal at highway traffic and speeds. Car just has 58k miles and honda refuses to help in any way, even though they have history of such problems and they even have an extended warrenty for such problems on newer honda and acura branded vehicles. The reason for refusal is that they don't provide goodwill assistance to vehicles more than 5 years old. But the bottomline is that I have maintained this vehicle well and generally the usage habits affect manual transmissions not the automatic ones. We have driven other cars to death and nothing had happened to their automatic transmissions, so this is a manufacturer defect. There is certain quality and durability that is expected from any product, and the manufecturer should be held liable for any product that fails, even if it happens outside of warrenty. The fact that they provide…
Also reported on the 1997 Honda Accord
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other electrical problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 1997 Honda Accord?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 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 1997 Honda Accord?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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