Complete transmission failure on the 2002 Honda Accord
1 crash 7 injuries 8 of the 136 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 2002 Honda Accord report complete transmission failure at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 64,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 116 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 44,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 129,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 84,533 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.
2% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 43,967 miles | 64,250 miles | 85,000 miles | 104,750 miles | 128,500 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 and 7 an injury are 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 2002 has 136. 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.
2002 honda accord is slipping in 2nd gear. Honda says it's an internal transmission failure yet honda's repair shop told me that they have had a large amount of accords come in with the exact same problem. In fact, there was an accord v6 there at that time with the same problem. I called honda's recall dept. But they told me that since there was no direct "safety issue" that there would not be a recall on the transmission. I feel that there is a transmission defect and that is the reason why a large amount of other people are having the exact same problems. Honda said they would pay for 75% of my repairs for a rebuilt trans. I would still have to pay 500.00. This does not seem reasonable to me since all accord v6 models are receiving new (rebuilt) trans. Due to a recall. I have a 4 cylinder and feel it should also be a part of the recall. *la
Transmission failure, at first it was not shifting normally then the check engine and d4 (flashed) lights turned on. Within a week it smelled terrible and was leaking huge amounts of transmission fluid. A local transmission shop looked at the transmission and told me that it was the internal bearings, that this was a known problem on accords and that the dealership should honor an extended warranty. The dealership told me that my VIN # was not covered by the extended warranty only the v6 model even though they share the same transmission. After I complained honda agreed to cover parts only and I was stuck with over $600.00 bill for labor. I find this offensive due to the fact that they were aware of the problem and choose not to cover it on the 4 cylinder model. *nm
December 2004 vehicle jerked while shifting when cold. After warming up, it shifted fine. Took in to dealer, told there are metal shavings in the fluid, needs new transmission. Honda replaced with rebuilt transmission at their cost, I paid labor. *nm
Also reported on the 2002 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 136 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 2002 Honda Accord?
Across 116 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 64,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 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 2002 Honda Accord?
136 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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