Complete transmission failure on the 1998 Honda Accord
2 crashes 2 of the 75 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 complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 1998 Honda Accord report complete transmission failure at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 67,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles, from 49 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 47,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 117,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 68,824 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48,376 miles | 67,000 miles | 85,000 miles | 93,495 miles | 117,200 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, 2 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 $2,800–$8,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 313; the 1998 has 75. 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.
Consumer states original transmission failed with only 54,168 miles on vehicle. Mechanic advised that the pump assembly failed causing the torque converter and secondary shaft to overhear and wear out. Consumer had 52,500 mile service performed on vehicle by dealer who did not discover any transmission problems at that time. Ts
I own a 1998 honda accord with 44,000 miles. I purchased the car new in 1998. I am now having serious transmission problems with the car - lurching and bumping. When I presented the problem to honda, they said that I must pay for a new transmission because the car is out of warranty. Can honda get away with this? I can't believe this is the honda car company. I purchased the car because of honda's track-record of reliability.
In 2002, we began having problems with the axle seals leaking on our 1998 honda accord. We have always followed honda's recommended maintenance schedule, and thus took the car to the local dealership. They have seen the car for this problem 3 times, replacing the seals at least once. They now advise us that by diagnosing the symptoms (they cannot dissemble the transmission) they feel the leaking is due to worn differential bearings and the only solution is a new transmission. We have reported to honda north american who advises they can do nothing as this is a maintenance problem. If so, why wasn't this caught during one of the many visits to the dealership? When the problems began, this car only had 75,000 miles on it. With the leak, there has also been clunking and slopping shifting, almost since the first day we owned the car. *jb
Also reported on the 1998 Honda Accord
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 75 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 1998 Honda Accord?
Across 49 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 67,500 miles and a quarter after 92,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 1998 Honda Accord?
75 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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