Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Honda Accord
1 crash 1 of the 20 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 other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Honda Accord report other powertrain problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 500 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 90,548 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.
53% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 452 miles | 2,735 miles | 32,000 miles | 63,993 miles | 91,000 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 a crash 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 $400–$4,500 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 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 532; the 2012 has 20. 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.
Incident date: 12/05/2011, 5:45pm weather/road condition: good, no rain/snow, normal traffic pattern summary: accord 2012 lx had a sudden engine rev for about a couple of seconds and went back to normal without driver intervention. Minor gas pedal vibration noticed for first 500 miles during break-in. Details: I was driving accord 2012 lx on a local main street at about 20 to 25 MPH, entering a normal small slope. I suddenly heard louder engine noise, and noticed tachometer going up from below 2k to 3k RPM quickly. At the same time, I felt gas pedal was moving away from my right foot. Eventually the gas pedal came back and tachometer reading went back to normal as well. This lasted for a couple of seconds. I did not move my right foot away from gas pedal and did not intervene while this was happening. Since this sudden engine rev went away in a couple of seconds by itself, I didn't feel that the accord accelerated a lot during the period. During first 500 miles on the accord, I also felt minor gas pedal vibration frequently on roads that are not perfectly paved and have some minor bumps. I have never noticed any such gas pedal…
On random occasions when accelerating from a stop there is a 2 to 5 second hesitation upon depressing the accelerator. I move forward a few feet then nothing, the engine does not stop but remains in idle mode. Then the power suddenly returns and the car moves forward. This has occurred multiple times, in both rainy and dry conditions; going straight or making both right and left turns. Issue does not cause warning lights to come on, and dealer can not replicate the problem. Diagnostic are all fine. But this 2 to 5 second hesitation is extremely dangerous, I came close to being hit during one of these "hesitations" when trying to turn onto a busy road. *tr
Purchased new 2012 honda accord I noticed on my way home from dealer that at 60 to 66 MPH the steering wheel shakes and shimmys also the vehicle pulls hard to the left regardless of the road crown. The dealer has balanced and roadforced balanced the tires rotated the tires and aligned the vehicle but I still have this problem. After driving 2 other brand new accords from his lot and they all have the same defect at the exact same speed leads me to believe that the accord has a serious safety issue with its steering system. American honda has not made any effort on their part to help me or to correct the problem. This is my 3rd accord. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6). *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Honda Accord
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other steering problem
Other speed control problem
Airbag inflator rupture
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Honda Accord?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Honda Accord?
20 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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