Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2008 Honda Civic
When control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Honda Civic report control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 59,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
57% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,800 miles | 20,000 miles | 22,500 miles | 72,250 miles | 73,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$2,200 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 83; the 2008 has 18. 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.
I had my tires rotated according to schedule. I left the dealer and immediately heard a very loud roaring sound from my tires. I returned to the dealer and was told the tires were not wearing evening. My vehicle only had 12,000 miles. I was later told that other honda civics had a control arm problem which caused the same problem but was told my vehicle was not included in this service bulletin. However, my vehicle is displaying the very same symptoms. *tr
A roaring noise from the rear tires started while on a road trip. When I got home, I took the car to the dealership to have it looked at. Before I went in, I had done quite a bit of research about this problem so I was pretty sure it was the control arm defect that many other people are having. I told the people in the service department about service bulletin 08-001 which says that 06-07 civics have defective control arms. As expected, they told me that the rear tires were cupped and that I needed an alignment which is not covered under the warranty. First off, honda does not do anything about the service bulletin unless you print it out and give it to them. They know it is a safety issue but wont do anything about it until they get sued because someone loses control of their car and gets hurt. *tr
2008 civic ex coupe. Had to replace both rear tires at around 20,000 miles due to a slightly visible flat spot on the tires that was causing a progressively loud roar. On initial inspection, the tire dealer advised me the tires looked fine as they still had plenty of tread and appeared to be even wear. However, on closer examination I was able to point out the flat spots visible on the center of the tire. Tire dealer could not explain cause. When I had replaced the second rear tire, the tire dealer thought that the belting had slipped. I just assumed I had a bad set of tires. The wear did not look like typical damage caused by misalignment. The same problems has again appeared with about 25,000 miles on the new rear tires. I now have discovered that honda has service bulletin 08-001 which describes my exact symptom and requires the upper control arm to be replaced.. Honda has not issued a recall on this. Honda should notify owners and tire dealers of this possible failure so consumers are aware on how to correct the problem. Besides, the extremely loud noise that eventually appears, the vibration will ultimately lead to complete…
Also reported on the 2008 Honda Civic
Other visibility problem
Other engine problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other suspension problem
Other body or interior problem
Overheating
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 control arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 2008 Honda Civic?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 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 control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2008 Honda Civic?
18 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