Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2004 Honda Accord
1 crash 1 injury 2 of the 30 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Honda Accord report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 57,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 97,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 66,850 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.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,750 miles | 52,000 miles | 58,500 miles | 75,500 miles | 97,600 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 1 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–$3,000 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2020 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 123; the 2004 has 30. 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.
I have a 2004 honda accord lx with a four cylinder engine. Last year I reported a defect whereby the vehicle was attempting to accelerate while I was in the act of stopping. I had to use both feet on the brake pedal, put the transmission into neutral and kick the accelerator pedal to get the engine to come back to idle. When I put the transmission into neutral the engine RPM's went up to almost 6000. I had the vehicle checked by herb chambers honda, in burlington, mass and they found nothing wrong. However, on dec 8, 2005, I was making a left hand turn into a parking lot at a very low rate of speed and the vehicle did the very same thing! It took both feet on the brake pedal, put the transmission into neutral, the engine sped up to almost 6000 RPM's, kick the accelerator pedal and finally the engine dropped to idle. This concerns me greatly. I'm seventy years old and I recognized the problem, but my wife who is seventy-two and who doesn't use the car too often, may not recognize the problem, be able to think of the solution and handle the vehicle all at once. It could end up killing her or someone else! [xxx] thank you. *nm…
Vehicle air bag sensors are failing. My 2004 honda accord v-6 has had the air bag sensor fail twice within the first 36,000 miles. I'm told by honda this is a common problem. When I asked if the air bag system would still work I was told no and that I should drive carefully and avoid accidents. *nm
I need some help with a recall problem, I own a 2004 honda accord, and the airbag light came on about a month ago, there was a recalled from honda for this problem, but when I took it to the dealership, and I was told that this vehicle was not on the recall. They were refusing to fix it, they wanted me to pay for the sensor. Although it was the same sensor that was recalled by honda, I didn't understand why this vehicle being the same model and same year was not on the recall. *ak
Also reported on the 2004 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2004 Honda Accord?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 57,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 52,500 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2004 Honda Accord?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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