Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2002 Honda Accord
1 crash 1 of the 8 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 7 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 timing chain, belt or tensioner failure gets reported
There are 8 reports of timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2002 Honda Accord, 7 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 120,000 miles. It is the 22nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 116,000 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 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 $1,200–$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.
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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 50,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2002 has 8. 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.
Recall 02v226000 concerning timing belt/water pump. Consumer contacted the manufacturer to see if this vehicle would be included in the recall. However, this vehicle was not included in the recall due to VIN. *ak
Tl 2002 honda accord. The air conditioner stops periodically a couple of times a week. It completely failed this weekend. There is an odor and she is worried that there may be a short and catch fire. The compressor was replaced. They also replaced the water pump and on the 3rd occasion it was a thermal coupler was also replaced. The dealer stated that they also checked the timing belt. A complaint was filed with the honda manufacturer and the bbb approximately two weeks ago. The better business bureau stated that they are waiting on a response from the manufacturer. The failure mileage was 90395 and the current mileage was 98463. Rk
My 2002 honda accord lx is at 110k miles. I am having transmission problems. It is an automatic transmission. It never happened before nor did it have a minor problem leading to it. It just all of a sudden this year, 2009, started to jerk between stop and goes, slips out of gear and decelerates, it drops gears when slowing to a stop. I am afraid to pull out of traffic when I know I have enough time and space to pull out due to my car jerking. And also afraid of stopping at red lights and stop signs knowing that my car will jerk, slip, and go then decelerate. I have replaced my timing belt, fan belt, water pump, transmission fluid flushed and refilled, engine oil, oil pan and gasket, spark plugs. I have done all the necessary replacements for my car at 100k mile mark. And I was told if you keep the maintenance my car will always run like new. And it had run like new until this summer when my car started to jerk, slip, shift in and out of gear, and decelerate for no reason. I am not very happy after all the money, time and effort I put in this car and especially for it to suddenly not drive correctly. *tr
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 8 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 8 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 timing chain, belt or tensioner failure happen on the 2002 Honda Accord?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 115,000 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 timing chain, belt or tensioner failure on the 2002 Honda Accord?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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