Wiper or washer failure on the 2004 Honda Accord
1 injury 1 of the 15 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 wiper or washer failure gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Honda Accord report wiper or washer failure at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 66,598 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.
8% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 51,632 miles | 58,500 miles | 81,500 miles | 99,825 miles | 118,230 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 an injury is 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 $120–$800 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 50; the 2004 has 15. 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.
2004 honda accord-ex (cloth); bought new at honda dealership. From the purchase date to present, problems with the following: *air conditioner/heater: water dripping from vents and window area; musty/moldy smell. *driver's seat: only one-way power is up; extremely uncomfortable. *stereo/entertainment: display goes on and off; cd's are burning hot when removed after playing for short time; whole area around system and panels are hot; sound is muffled from speakers. *front driver door: latch not functioning properly; doesn't stay open when it should and closes on person in driver seat when getting in/out car. *brakes: grinding. *trunk: after snow or rain and after brushing off snow from vehicle or after rain has stopped-- when trunk is open, water/snow gets into trunk (not designed well...needs better weather-stripping.) *jb
Dt*: the contact stated when the windshield wipers were turned on in the rain; the front right wiper scratched the windshield. The wiper was turned off and the contact pulled the wiper arm away from the windshield to adjust the blade when the wiper arm fractured. The service dealer and manufacturer were notified.
I have a 2004 honda accord sedan ex, during the tropical storm hanna, I was driving in heavy rain, when my windshield wipers stopped working. Very dangerous situation and this could have been tragic. There is a recall on all 2003 honda accords for faulty windshield wiper motors, but no recall on the 2004. My mechanic has found that it is the same situation as the 2003 cars and will be replacing the motor. This is a huge issue, when they quit working while driving in a bad storm. Honda, should be notified of this and seriously consider a recall. This could have been life threatening.!!! I have reported my incident to them, and would like to see some action taken on this matter. Sarah king *tr
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 15 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 wiper or washer failure happen on the 2004 Honda Accord?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is wiper or washer failure on the 2004 Honda Accord?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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