Other powertrain problem on the 2004 Honda Accord
7 crashes 1 fire 3 injuries 11 of the 199 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Honda Accord report other powertrain problem at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 79,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 179 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 47,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 159,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 112,390 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.
7% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46,800 miles | 79,000 miles | 105,000 miles | 125,300 miles | 159,190 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, 7 a crash, 1 a fire and 3 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 $400–$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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 532; the 2004 has 199. 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.
When parking the car in a parking lot, as I was turning into the parking space the car jumped (went very fast forward and hit the wall in front of me) even though I had my foot on the brakes I felt I had no control of the car and the engine turned off on it's own. I also noticed it jumped gears, it was no longer on d but d3. This incident caused damage to the bumper of the car.*ak
I took delivery of a 2004 honda accord ex with leather on june 25, 2004. Its been exactly a week. I have driven about 580 miles in a week. I have encountered the following problems and I did'nt see any recalls on the manufacturer's website. I am very disappointed after spending $24000 on a brand new car. *ak 1) the check engine light came on and the 'd' light on driver side dashbaord is continually flashing. 2) I can hear some sliding noise from left to right and vice versa when making sharp turns (happens all the time). The sounds seems to be coming from under the glove compartment 3) after driving about 60 miles in one go in warm weather(temperatures in 80s), I hear a rubbing/squeaking noise when making turns. Becomes more audible when windows are rolled down. Sounds more like tires rubbing against the body. 4) passenger side floor is soaking wet and I assume it is water. I can hear water sloshing sound under the glove compartment when making turns.
Bought a honda accord 2004 v6 ex 3 weeks go. About one week after I had the car I noticed a humming noise from the transmission. Robertson honda is jerking me around telling me they don't hear one. Now I find out from your web site there is a tsb about this very issue with at least one complaint from the prior year with the same issue. Last honda car I buy.*ak
Also reported on the 2004 Honda Accord
Complete transmission failure
Other electrical problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other steering problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 199 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 2004 Honda Accord?
Across 179 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 79,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2004 Honda Accord?
199 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 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