Software fault or failed update on the 2013 Honda Accord
When software fault or failed update gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Honda Accord report software fault or failed update at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 30,000 miles. It is the 27th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 78,240 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.
46% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,360 miles | 20,000 miles | 39,900 miles | 68,000 miles | 81,600 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–$600 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 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 30 miles, and latest on the 2018 at 60,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 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.
Since I bought my 2013 honda accord ex-l in january 2013, I have had issues with stereo system. At times, the stereo will not turn on or it will turn on but the display screen is blank. Other times, "no disc" appears on the display when I turn the car on. I don't listen to cds, therefore, I never changed the source to play a cd. I only listen to xm. The dealer stated they cannot do anything to fix unless I bring the car in while the issue is happening. The issue is intermittent and never happens while near a dealer. I did receive a recall in april 2013 and took my car in for the stereo software update. Did not solve my issues. *tr
Since I bought my 2013 honda accord ex-l in january 2013, I have had issues with stereo system. At times, the stereo will not turn on or it will turn on but the display screen is blank. Other times, "no disc" appears on the display when I turn the car on. I don't listen to cds, therefore, I never changed the source to play a cd. I only listen to xm. The dealer stated they cannot do anything to fix unless I bring the car in while the issue is happening. The issue is intermittent and never happens while near a dealer. I did receive a recall in april 2013 and took my car in for the stereo software update. Did not solve my issues. *tr
The car has lost power steering on three occasions over the past one and one half weeks. The first time, 8/19/2015, after waiting at a red light to make a left turn, I could barely turn the steering wheel to make the turn. I forced the turn and could smell a burning smell. I turned the car off, read the manual, then turned the car on and drove the less than a mile to my home with no problem. On 8/26/2015, after driving less than a half mile from home at not more than 20-30 miles an hour, the car lost steering power again. I pulled over, turned the car off, then turned it back on. I returned home and drove the car less than 20 miles to the honda dealership in wesley chapel florida. They kept the car. When I picked it up on 8/27/2015, I was told that a software update had been done. On 8/28/2015, I drove the car approximately 50 miles around town doing errands. When I started the car to back out of a store parking lot, I noticed the steering symbol was lighted and found that the car would not steer. I turned the ignition off, then right back on and returned home. I am now going to take the car back to the honda dealer in wesley…
Also reported on the 2013 Honda Accord
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
Other engine problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 software fault or failed update happen on the 2013 Honda Accord?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 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 software fault or failed update on the 2013 Honda Accord?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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