Airbag inflator rupture on the 2009 Honda Accord
Only 6 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When airbag inflator rupture gets reported
There are 47 reports of airbag inflator rupture on the 2009 Honda Accord, 6 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 99,475 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
Putting it right typically runs $0–$0 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 1,800 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 225,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 137; the 2009 has 47. 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.
Takata recall. I own a 2009 honda accord 2-dr and the recall is applied to the 4-dr only. However, I wouldn't be able to describe my car's issue better than the recall. I was driving on the highway (I-35) with approx. 65 MPH, going straight not turning in any way. I heard a very loud pop noise and my passenger's seat and curtain airbags had deployed. Honestly, it's very hard to tell if I ran over a pothole or if I hit a rock because the loud noise and my shock dominated the moment. Thankfully, I was commuting alone that day and nobody got hurt. I stopped the car to inspect it and I couldn't see anything. I filled a claim with honda customer service and took the car to the nearest honda center for a diagnosis ($120). Honda customer service requested that one of their field engineers inspected the car. After his inspection, he determined that an impact caused the airbags to deploy. When I requested to see the impact signs, they pointed a scratch on the frame rail. They said that the scratch seems minor only because it happened on the toughest part of the car, the frame rail. That scratch is almost underneath the passenger's side…
Takata recall: I received a letter from honda on 07/18/2016 informing me of the issue. I brought the car to the local dealer the next day and they told me to call honda to arrange alternate transportation. I called on 07/19/16 and they told me that my report was received and they would provide alternate transport as soon as possible. I called again on 07/21/2016 and found out that a case was never opened for me and there is no record of my contact on 07/19. Another case was supposedly opened, and I followed up again on 07/22/16, only to find out that again, my case was never created. I am driving a hazardous vehicle and honda is refusing to provide alternative transport. Only on my third attempt was a case opened, and I have not heard a response since. Honda is not allocating appropriate resources to the recall to provide alternate transport to consumers at risk.
Takata recall, I received the notification of the recall in july of 2016, it is now november of 2016 with no sign of a fix. This is inexcusable, my car is not safe to have with passengers. The airbags have not deployed thankfully, but knowingly waiting to put a fix out for this recall is putting people at risk.
Also reported on the 2009 Honda Accord
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other body or interior problem
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 47 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 47 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 airbag inflator rupture happen on the 2009 Honda Accord?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag inflator rupture on the 2009 Honda Accord?
47 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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