Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2013 Honda Accord
4 crashes 4 of the 81 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Honda Accord report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 62,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 32,500 miles and a quarter after 97,500 miles, from 38 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 12,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 107,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,729 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.
26% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,760 miles | 31,500 miles | 63,000 miles | 97,275 miles | 107,489 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, 4 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 $700–$2,600 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 220,000 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 honda accord. The contact stated the steering wheel failed and became difficult to turn to the right and could only be turned with force. The steering warning light illuminated when the failure occurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing which confirmed that the failure was located within the steering rack. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 1,400. Updated 06/28/13 *bf the consumer has since traded the vehicle. Updated 07/02/13
The power steering malfunctioned on the new jersey turnpike exit 9 highway entrance ramp. *trupdated 06/03/14 *bf on 9/30/13, the steering wheel had locked (technically the electrical power steering, or eps, malfunctioned and stopped working) on a highway as I was changing lanes at high speed (and the steering system proceeded to move the car in the direction of the highway median) and I had to force the wheel as strongly as I could to turn it back onto the road- all less than two months after purchasing the car brand new. 10/30/13, the eps stopped working while I was on a sharply bending on-ramp to a highway and veered the car into the median on the ramp.updated 9/15/2014 by sc the consumer stated the vehicle was totaled. The electronic power steering system indicator appeared after the steering malfunctioned. It is unknown if the warning appeared on 10/30/2013. The vehicle first failed on 9/30/2013 then again on 10/30/2013. The power steering was repaired after the first failure. The steering rack was replaced. Updated 06/09/2014 *js
Tl* the contact owns a 2013 honda accord. The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH, the power steering assist malfunctioned as the wheels seized and the power steering warning lamp illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technician diagnosed that the rack and pinion assembly needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 3,000 and the current mileage was 6,000. The VIN was not available.
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
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 81 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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2013 Honda Accord?
Across 38 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 62,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 32,500 miles and a quarter after 97,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2013 Honda Accord?
81 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