Head gasket failure on the 2002 Honda Accord
Only 4 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 head gasket failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of head gasket failure on the 2002 Honda Accord, 4 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 115,000 miles. It is the 31st most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 91,200 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
Putting it right typically runs $1,400–$4,000 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2000, at a median of 45,000 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 230,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 275; the 2002 has 4. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2002 honda accord. The contact did not notice any failures with the vehicle prior to the failure. She took the vehicle to a nissan dealer for a routine tune-up and was informed that oil was leaking in the cooling system. The mechanic flushed the cooling system and the contact drove to her residence. A few days later, she wanted a second opinion and drove to a honda dealer. The mechanic stated that there was a crack in the head gasket. The vehicle has not been repaired and the manufacturer has not been notified. The contact has supporting documents to confirm the failure. The current mileage was 90,000 and failure mileage was 85,000.
I purchased this vehicle the end of mar 2008 with 83000 miles on it. Approx 30 days after purchase I took it in for an oil change, radiator flush and tune up. A week later my car overheated, the upper radiator hose had blown. A new mechanic looked at it and saw evidence of stop leak and said it did not look like it had been flushed-he took care of it properly. Then, approx 30 days later I took the car in for it's scheduled oil change and he said there was oil leaking into the radiator fluids-right now it is a one way leak, the antifreeze is not leaking into the oil. He recommended a head gasket job. During the repair it was discovered that this vehicle had a recent head job done and he put out a query online. The information that came back was that this was a problem that honda was aware of, but seemed to be keeping quiet about-they had not issued any service warnings, suggestions, or recalls-they were dealing with it on a case-by-case basis...mechanics have determined by trying to fix the problem (head jobs, replacing radiators, etc) and it not being solved that it is a cracked engine block. My mechanic and I agreed to watch it…
My case is very similar to odi id number: 10251868. I was driving on the freeway. The engine overheated and it was found that the upper radiator hose burst. Engine oil leaked into the cooling system also. The honda dealer torn down the engine, and did a series of inspections, leak down test, and pressure test. No visible sign of a blown head gasket. No signs of warping and/or cracks on the cylinder head. The service manager said it is probably due to a very porous cylinder head. The most likely cause for the engine overheating is as follows: the porous cylinder head allowed engine oil to leak into the cooling system. The oil deteriorated the rubber gasket on the thermostat. (this was indicated by fresh engine oil residue found on the damaged rubber gasket of the original thermostat.) the deteriorated rubber gasket blocked the flow of the coolant. Without enough flow rate to cool down the system, the coolant boiled inside the hoses. Pressure built up, and the upper radiator hose burst. Coolant leaked out from the damaged hose, and the engine overheated. This is the first time the car has this problem. It has no major problems…
Also reported on the 2002 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 head gasket failure happen on the 2002 Honda Accord?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 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 head gasket failure on the 2002 Honda Accord?
4 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