Complete transmission failure on the 2002 Honda Civic
1 injury 1 of the 55 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 complete transmission failure gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Honda Civic report complete transmission failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles, from 53 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 57,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 79,623 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.
4% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 57,977 miles | 83,000 miles | 100,500 miles | 128,000 miles | 137,600 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
Of these reports, 1 an injury 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 $2,800–$8,000 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 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2001 carries the most reports, with 167; the 2002 has 55. 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.
Vehicle started making a whining noise and eventually would not accelerate. Vehicle coasted to a stop on the side of the road where it had to be towed. It was checked by computer and the code p0173 came up (transmission failure). *la
Factory defect of manual transmission on 2002 civic lx. Noticed problem shifting from 1-2 gears at 16k. Service dealer mel rapton honda claimed transmision felt normal. Complained again at 32k about hard shifting felt shift lever popping out of first gear and clunking noise into second.shop foreman claims found no problems. I demanded it be documented. At 47 k same interminant problems returned to dealer to complain.finally problem was duplicated by dealer, $808.in repairs replacing 1st and 2nd synchros-gears,oil seals and link. Intermitant problem continues returned car to dealer 67k .dealer verifies complaint and again$1263. In repairs again replacing 1st and 2nd gears -synchros one additional gear(unknown), oil seals, shift fork for 1-2 gears and part of the transmission case. Sated to me that the problem had been the transmission case causing 1-2 gear failure.81k intermintant problem continues returned to dealer getting run around about duplicating problem etc. Etc. Honda care warranty about to run out. Car is only used for commuting.220 miles a day 4 days a week I am hardly ever shifting in 1-2 gears. I might understand if…
Transmission failed and was replaced by dealer at 50000 miles. That put 2 more in it and the one that is currently in it has leaked ever since it was installed. I have kept fluid in it at the correct level and now it is slipping at 92000. *nm
Also reported on the 2002 Honda Civic
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other powertrain problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other engine problem
Headlight failure or clouding
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 55 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 complete transmission failure happen on the 2002 Honda Civic?
Across 53 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 82,500 miles and a quarter after 127,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is complete transmission failure on the 2002 Honda Civic?
55 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