Complete transmission failure on the 2004 Honda Accord
2 crashes 4 injuries 6 of the 111 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 2004 Honda Accord report complete transmission failure at a median of 99,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 81,000 miles and a quarter after 122,000 miles, from 110 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 74,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 145,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 71,230 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.
2% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 73,700 miles | 80,500 miles | 98,784 miles | 122,264 miles | 144,930 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, 2 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 $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 2004 has 111. 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.
My vehicle began to experience transmission problems on february 14th, 2005: the gears would engage harshly when accelerating on city streets and on freeway on-ramps. There were a few instances when the engine "over-revved" on the freeway because of a shifting problem. I experienced total transmission failure on february 14th, 2005, while driving on city streets. The vehicle was inoperable, and had to be taken to a mechanic. I was told by the mechanic that the transmission underwent extensive damage and had to be rebuilt. The mechanic advised me to contact american honda and try to get them to repair or replace the transmission free of charge, since my vehicle may have been recalled under NHTSA bulletin 04v176000. Honda would not honor my request, as it the vehicle was manufactured after the dates specified in the bulletin. However, the vehicle had an odometer reading of only 42,200 miles when the transmission failed; nevertheless, american honda refuses to act upon my request for service and repair. I believe bulletin 04v176000 should be amended to include more-recently manufactured 2004 v-6 accord sedans. *nm
Transmission on 2004 accord stopping at light would not move. Had dealer tow car. Needs new transmission with only 19,000 miles on this . This is a problem and can cause injury or death. *jb
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 honda accord with a current and failure odometer reading of 63,000 miles. The contact had the transmission serviced, and the next day when she drove the vehicle the transmission failed. The contact took the vehicle back to the dealer , honda of clear lake, and they told the contact that the pc clutch failed, output shaft was stuck, and the counter shaft had no signal. The dealer told the contact that she would have to replace the transmission. *ak
Also reported on the 2004 Honda Accord
Other powertrain problem
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 111 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 2004 Honda Accord?
Across 110 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 99,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 81,000 miles and a quarter after 122,000 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 2004 Honda Accord?
111 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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