Airbag inflator rupture on the 2008 Honda Civic
5 crashes 2 injuries 7 of the 64 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 airbag inflator rupture gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Honda Civic report airbag inflator rupture at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 80,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,000 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.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,000 miles | 79,500 miles | 110,000 miles | 138,000 miles | 160,000 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, 5 a crash and 2 an injury 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 $0–$0 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 2,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 220,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 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.
Takata recall - I searched my VIN number to determine any potential recalls on my vehicle to find that mine is included on the airbag recall. I called my local dealership, and they informed me that they would order the part and it would take roughly a week to ship in; it would take about 45 minutes to fix once the part was in. I was utterly shocked that she wasn't surprised or even wanting to verify any information on my vehicle. I never received any notice as to the issue on my vehicle, and only found out from being proactive. This recall has been out since may of 2016, and its july and I still have yet to receive any information from honda? This seems like gross negligence should something have happened if I was in an accident; I wouldn't have known that my passenger and possibly myself could be killed due to metal fragments being released when the airbag ruptures. Is it not required that this information be made aware to the owners of the vehicles by the manufacturers? Why did I have to go out of my way to find out that there is a problem that is of their doing? Where are the repercussions against the company for failing to be…
Takata recall - heard the airbag might be on recall about a month ago. Daughter drives this car to college. Looked up civic online and it met the recall for takata airbag. Took to dealership but they said they have no part for replacement until fall. This is unacceptable. Our 4 seat car is now a 'limo' as no one can sit in the front passenger seat. Also my daughter must return to college without the repair completed as the parts are not expected until after she must return. Her college is over 6 hours away. This is beyond inconvenient. And very unsafe. You need to supply the repair much sooner.
Takata inflators: the following is concerning my 2008 honda civic and honda's failure in their recall campaign: 23 may 2016: honda issues recall concerning vehicles in my model year and suggest I check my VIN against their database of recalled vehicles to see if my specific vehicle is affected. 27 may 2016: I contact honda with VIN to see if my vehicle is affected. I am told that it is not. 27 july 2016: receive letter in mail saying a recall was issued on my vehicle on 23 may. 28 july 2016: I contact honda again and they confirm that there is a recall on my vehicle. I was told that their system had not updated the new information when I called 4 days after the recall was issued. In the days immediately following a recall issue is most likely when consumers are to check to see if their product is affected. If databases are not updated to reflect current information, many consumers, like myself, may have been driving around for the past two months with dangerous air bags even though they did their do diligence to research their vehicles. Honda's suggestion to check your VIN against their recall database was an insufficient solution…
Also reported on the 2008 Honda Civic
Other visibility problem
Other engine problem
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
Overheating
Paint peeling or clear coat failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 64 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 inflator rupture happen on the 2008 Honda Civic?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 140,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag inflator rupture on the 2008 Honda Civic?
64 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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