Complete transmission failure on the 2003 Honda Accord
4 crashes 2 fires 9 injuries 15 of the 313 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 2003 Honda Accord report complete transmission failure at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 78,000 miles and a quarter after 117,000 miles, from 286 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 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 80,146 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 59,854 miles | 78,000 miles | 95,000 miles | 117,000 miles | 140,000 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, 4 a crash, 2 a fire and 9 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 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Car developed a high pitch whistle noise at 1500 miles. Took to dealer who determined that there was an internal defect in the transmission. Transmission was replaced with a remanufactured transmission per honda's warranty policy. American honda was extremely curt in handling my complaint. Further research has shown that american honda is currently suffering from a transmission failure crisis in its 1999-2003 accord, prelude, odyysey, and acura tl/cl automobile lineup.
Driving along hwy 94 in st. Charles mo and heard a noise from my car and then I had no power train, transmission went out. It was like I was in nuetral. I was able to pull off the highway with no one hitting me. Towed it to ed napleton honda dealer in st. Peters mo 63376.
Car was recalled in 2004 for transmission. At that time mileage was very low and transmission was modified, not replaced. On august 1, 2005 I took my car to baron honda, patchogue ny, due to transmission shifting problems - while accelerating transmission would go into neutral, not second gear. Baron returned the car that evening stating there was no problem. The following morning (aug 2nd), while traveling at 60 MPH, upon easing up on the accelerator the car violent dropped into second gear, slowing it dramatically and throwing me against the seatbelt. At the time I was in heavy rush hour traffic. This occurred several more times as I tried to get to the right and off the highway. After towing, honda city, levittown, ny, diagnosed a complete transmission failure. Honda replaced the transmission (over warranty at 44,000 miles) under their goodwill program. Despite this I feel that I was placed in a very dangerous situation due to both a faulty transmission and the first dealers failure to properly evaluate and diagnose the problem. This car has had numerous problems (recalls, rocking driver seat, catalytic converter failure) and…
Also reported on the 2003 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 313 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 2003 Honda Accord?
Across 286 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 78,000 miles and a quarter after 117,000 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 2003 Honda Accord?
313 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.9 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