Air conditioning failure on the 2000 Honda Accord
When air conditioning failure gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Honda Accord report air conditioning failure at a median of 130,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 125,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 28th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 90,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 215,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 125,000 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90,000 miles | 123,900 miles | 130,000 miles | 140,000 miles | 215,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$2,800 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 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 700 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 32; the 2000 has 9. 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 spoke with a customer service representative by the name of [xxx] from american honda motor co., inc. On june 12, 2005 about an SRS related problem relating to their technical service bulletin 06-009 dated february 5, 2008. I was told that the warranty has already expired because the vehicle is more than 10 years old even if the mileage is less than 124,000 miles. I am the second owner of the vehicle when it was purchased from a private party back in 2004. Since these models came without an air conditioning unit, I had one installed the same year (2004) at the closest dealership near our place of residence. Because of this service, they should have updated the ownership record for this vehicle to reflect my name as the new owner. When this bulletin came out, honda failed to furnish me a copy of the tsb since I only found out from them on june 25, 2012 that the said vehicle was still registered with the first owner. When the problem about the SRS unit occurred which was directly related to the bulletin they released on february 5, 2008 they would not honor the bulletin anymore and even told me that my vehicle was not covered…
I spoke with a customer service representative by the name of [xxx] from american honda motor co., inc. On june 12, 2005 about an SRS related problem relating to their technical service bulletin 06-009 dated february 5, 2008. I was told that the warranty has already expired because the vehicle is more than 10 years old even if the mileage is less than 124,000 miles. I am the second owner of the vehicle when it was purchased from a private party back in 2004. Since these models came without an air conditioning unit, I had one installed the same year (2004) at the closest dealership near our place of residence. Because of this service, they should have updated the ownership record for this vehicle to reflect my name as the new owner. When this bulletin came out, honda failed to furnish me a copy of the tsb since I only found out from them on june 25, 2012 that the said vehicle was still registered with the first owner. When the problem about the SRS unit occurred which was directly related to the bulletin they released on february 5, 2008 they would not honor the bulletin anymore and even told me that my vehicle was not covered…
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 honda accord. The contact stated that while driving 5 MPH over a road bump, the front frame became fractured. The vehicle was taken to a local mechanic, who inspected the problem and stated that the water from the air conditioning hose leaked onto the frame and as a result, the frame had become severely rusted. The vehicle was not repaired. The current and failure mileage was 250,000.
Also reported on the 2000 Honda Accord
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 9 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 air conditioning failure happen on the 2000 Honda Accord?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 130,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 125,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is air conditioning failure on the 2000 Honda Accord?
9 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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