Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2003 Honda Accord
3 crashes 4 injuries 7 of the 12 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Honda Accord report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 32nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 127,926 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,056 miles | 6,000 miles | 109,500 miles | 127,985 miles | 131,982 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, 3 a crash and 4 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 $700–$2,600 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 220,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 81; the 2003 has 12. 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.
2003 honda accord I bought drifts to one side. Braman honda is unable to fix the problem. Now braman has said that this is an normal drif for these cars. This is a new vehicle and the only milage place on this car has been at the dealership.
Steering rack. I bough my car in october 2003, and have about 6000 miles now. Back in december, for couple of days in the morning, when it was really cold, ~18-20f, car's steering got tighter and once steering wheel was turned even a little, would not come back automatically back but I had to pull it back. Later in the day, when it got warmer, it got better(although not perfect) . Again this happenened at higher sppeds as well. Couple of days later I was driving at about 50 miles an hour, steering wheel got extremely hard and I was not even able to change lanes which really scared me. When I took the car to the dealer, they agreed that at was a problem and put it up on a lift. When they noticed couple of scratches on the plastic nose skirt and plastic trims by the door, which got there due to minor pebbles etc. Striking the car when in motion. They told me that te problem was due to an accident, even though there is no other sign on the steering components or any other visible signs. I absolutely disagreed that it was due to an accident. Only remedy they told me was to get the steering rack changed. Well, they changed the steering…
Faulty power steering rack in my 2003 accord v6. Power steering fluid leaking from my car. The first time this happened was a 6000 miles. I took it to the dealer and they said I have a "faulty rack" that also caused damage to my pump. Both rack and pump had to be replaced and car re-aligned. Dealer said sometimes these things just happen, "parts can even be damaged during shipping." same thing happened at about 14,000 miles - "fauly rack that damaged pump." and dealer said same thing "parts can even be damaged during shipping." I wish dealer would stopping installing "faulty parts" but I think the problem is with the actual steering system. I am almost to 16,000 miles, I expect another leak soon. Guess I can't take any long road trips in my vehicle. This is not what I expected from a brand new car!*ak
Also reported on the 2003 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2003 Honda Accord?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2003 Honda Accord?
12 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