Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2007 Honda Accord
5 crashes 1 injury 6 of the 18 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 2007 Honda Accord report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 17 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 1,200 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 85,626 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.
35% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,204 miles | 20,000 miles | 48,550 miles | 67,500 miles | 86,830 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, 5 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 2007 has 18. 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.
Brand new 2007 honda accord lx purchased the car on february 16, 2007. On february 19, I started the car and the SRS indicator lamp stayed lit the entire time the car was operating. Each time I started the car later on that day, the SRS lamp did not stay on after the initial start-up. On february 20, I drove to work and did not have a problem with the light staying on, but later in the day when I started the car the SRS lamp came on and stayed on the entire time I drove it. The car has a total of 150 miles and already am having SRS sensor glitches. *nm
While parking my car in my garage, I had put it in park and took my foot of the brake pedal, my 2007 honda accord sedan lunged forward hitting my drywall, solar water heater, washer and dryer then it jumped back and stopped. I was so stunned as I didn't know what was happening here. Instantly the car decided to go in reverse at an accelerated rate down the hill of my driveway hitting the concrete side of my neighbor's garage, their car and bounced forward up the hill to hit my house again and stopped at the crest of the hill. The car is totaled. State farm insurance hired an investigator sea that decided that there are no deficiencies yet they failed to look at the transmission, electronic control module, powertrain only reviewed the brakes, tires, throttle. Can you help me. After reviewing an article of the toyotas and how they and other manufacturers have gone to a new electronic throttle control module which has resulted in the same type of problem, I accelerated as my foot was on the brake the whole time and the shift gear was in park. This needs to be investigated further . Possible new recall. There are several other…
While parking my car in my garage, I had put it in park and took my foot of the brake pedal, my 2007 honda accord sedan lunged forward hitting my drywall, solar water heater, washer and dryer then it jumped back and stopped. I was so stunned as I didn't know what was happening here. Instantly the car decided to go in reverse at an accelerated rate down the hill of my driveway hitting the concrete side of my neighbor's garage, their car and bounced forward up the hill to hit my house again and stopped at the crest of the hill. The car is totaled. State farm insurance hired an investigator sea that decided that there are no deficiencies yet they failed to look at the transmission, electronic control module, powertrain only reviewed the brakes, tires, throttle. Can you help me. After reviewing an article of the toyotas and how they and other manufacturers have gone to a new electronic throttle control module which has resulted in the same type of problem, I accelerated as my foot was on the brake the whole time and the shift gear was in park. This needs to be investigated further . Possible new recall. There are several other…
Also reported on the 2007 Honda Accord
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other brake problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 2007 Honda Accord?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 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 2007 Honda Accord?
18 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