Overheating on the 1997 Honda Accord
1 fire 1 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 5 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 overheating gets reported
There are 7 reports of overheating on the 1997 Honda Accord, 5 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 102,000 miles. It is the 20th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 230,000 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–$3,500 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 230,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 18; the 1997 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.
I have had my 1997 honda accord lx 4cyl for about 4 years. I have searched this problem just about everywhere, and while I've seen the problem reported in hundreds of honda owners, I have yet to see a solid solution. Problem: car shutting off while driving, strong fuel/gas smell when this happens, dash lights shutting off and going black, door locks jumping up and down my car is shutting off while driving - whether I'm on a residential street, or going 75 MPH on the highway. I have been blessed not to be hit by another car when this happens. It sometimes starts right back up, but after a few times, it takes about 20 minutes to be able to start. The engine will stir around, but it won't fire up and actually start. Twenty minutes later or so, it starts.. And then we may make it to our destination without stalling again. Oh, and I can't forget the strong scent of fuel in the air when this happens. It started as a sporadic thing that happened whenever I drove long distance (an hour or more) or whenever I was at 1/4 of a tank. More recently, I can hardly drive at all. I tried to leave today, and I didn't make it down the street without…
I have had my 1997 honda accord lx 4cyl for about 4 years. I have searched this problem just about everywhere, and while I've seen the problem reported in hundreds of honda owners, I have yet to see a solid solution. Problem: car shutting off while driving, strong fuel/gas smell when this happens, dash lights shutting off and going black, door locks jumping up and down my car is shutting off while driving - whether I'm on a residential street, or going 75 MPH on the highway. I have been blessed not to be hit by another car when this happens. It sometimes starts right back up, but after a few times, it takes about 20 minutes to be able to start. The engine will stir around, but it won't fire up and actually start. Twenty minutes later or so, it starts.. And then we may make it to our destination without stalling again. Oh, and I can't forget the strong scent of fuel in the air when this happens. It started as a sporadic thing that happened whenever I drove long distance (an hour or more) or whenever I was at 1/4 of a tank. More recently, I can hardly drive at all. I tried to leave today, and I didn't make it down the street without…
This car randomly shuts down as I am driving have taken it to numerous places and nothing is found. Shut down 6 times in a row last time with my child in the car on a dark highway cold and raining. Very dangerous!!! The inside lights flash on and off all of the time mostly turning curves, wasting battery. Noise in the front wheels/tires/axles like something is waiting to break off as you are driving. Overheated last year for no apparent reason costing ton of money. I have replaced the compressor twice and still the air conditioner doesn't cool. I leave the "air" button on to keep the fans running so it doesn't overheat as I'm driving. Not to mention in the summer it is blowing out heat and all the windows do not roll down. This car is a mess and I will never purchase another honda. Thanks-
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
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 overheating happen on the 1997 Honda Accord?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 230,000 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 overheating on the 1997 Honda Accord?
7 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