Loss of braking on the 2008 Honda Accord
5 crashes 3 fires 2 injuries 10 of the 38 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Honda Accord report loss of braking at a median of 17,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles, from 37 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 300 miles at the tenth percentile to 35,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 35,732 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
89% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 300 miles | 8,000 miles | 17,000 miles | 26,000 miles | 36,032 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, 3 a fire and 2 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–$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.
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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2016 at 225,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 honda accord. Two weeks after the vehicle was purchased, the contact heard a screeching sound when she applied the brakes at 15 MPH. The dealer stated that the noise was normal due to the material used for the brakes and that the sound would eventually go away. The brakes and pads on the vehicle were completely worn out at 8,000 miles; however, no brake failure has occurred. The screeching noises coming from the rear of the vehicle never ceased. The contact can currently hear the noise even when the brake pedal is not being depressed. The dealer stated that the rear brake lining on the rear passenger side was down two millimeters, which meant that new rear brakes were needed. The contact also believes that the brakes were stuck on the calipers, causing the brake pads to wear more quickly then they should. This would mean that the failure was due to a manufacturer defect. The contact believes that the vehicle should not be experiencing brake issues at such a low mileage. She spoke with the manufacturer and they refused to acknowledge any failure or provide assistance with the repairs. The failure mileage…
I purchased my 2008 honda accord on 10/16/07. At 412 (10/30/07) miles I had severe brake squeal that only occurred under light to medium braking. I took the car into the dealership and was informed that the rear rotors were glazed over (as if the parking brake was on - which we do not use). They machined the rotors and replaced the pads. At 1441 (11/30/07) the rear brake squeal was back. The dealership then replaced the rotors and scuffed the pads (per honda's direction). Again at 2332 (1/22/08) I took it in for brake squeal. They informed me that the squeal was not load enough to determine where it was and that they did not have a fix even if they could find it. They told me to continue to drive the car until it got louder. I continued to drive the car and it continued to squeal with every braking attempt. At 16589 (2/20/09) I took the car in again to see if they had a fix. At that time I was told that the rear brakes were worn down to the metal (only the inner pads on both sides), the rotors were gouged and the dust boots had melted off allowing dirt to get into the pistons and leak brake fluid. This was not detected during my…
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 honda accord. While taking the vehicle in for service, the contact noticed that the brakes were wearing down too quickly. The dealer stated that the parts on the vehicle were faulty. The contact feels this is a safety issue because the brake failure could lead to a crash. The current and failure mileages were 20,000.
Also reported on the 2008 Honda Accord
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other lighting problem
Excessive oil consumption
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 38 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 loss of braking happen on the 2008 Honda Accord?
Across 37 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 17,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2008 Honda Accord?
38 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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