Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 1998 Honda Civic
37 crashes 19 injuries 1 death 57 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.
Only 7 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 failed to deploy in a crash gets reported
There are 38 reports of airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 1998 Honda Civic, 7 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 72,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 72,000 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, 37 a crash, 19 an injury and 1 a fatality 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 $1,000–$5,000 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 23 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2017, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 135,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 55; the 1998 has 38. 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.
In a severe head-on crash that totaled my 1998 honda civic ex both the driver's and passenger airbags failed to deploy. According to the police, body shop and other witnesses along with the supplemental restraint guide provided with the vehicle, the crash fit the exact description and criteria of one where the airbags should deploy. In investigating this problem on the NHTSA website, I came across a recall for this problem (dated october 97 - 3 months before I leased the car) I have all documentation for the vehicle and can find no reference to either this recall being performed nor receiving notice of said recall. *jb
On feb. 10, 2008, I was driving my honda civic lx on highway 400, junction 89, my car lost control, and because there were snow on the ground, I cannot stop the car, I keep on pumping the brake, as if I used the ABS, I would have slide down to the valley. However, I was not able to have control of the car at all and it hit head on the guard rail, the whole front and engine was completely crushed. With such kind of impact, the air bag should deploy, but it did not deploy, the car was unrepairable and is a total write off. The police and the ambulance took me to the hospital. However, this is not the first time that the air bag did not deploy, as one time a woman came out from a plaza without looking that it is all clear, her truck hit the right side and the right front of my car, the air bag did not deploy either. *tr
I was involved in an accident broadside another car with my front end. The front of my car ended up being totaled and my 1998 honda civic ex airbag did not deploy. I contacted both honda corporate and they referred me to there 2 field specialists. There reply was my seat belt sensor told my airbag sensor it did not need to deploy. Honda said I had no case with them. I think all I got is the run around. I honestly want the answer to this question. Also to know why honda does not stand behind what they make. I believe the airbag failed for some reason!! I have had 2 prior neck surgeries and received several injuries from this accident. *tr
Also reported on the 1998 Honda Civic
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Exhaust leak or fumes in the cabin
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 38 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 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 airbag failed to deploy in a crash happen on the 1998 Honda Civic?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 failed to deploy in a crash on the 1998 Honda Civic?
38 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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