AtWhatMileage
Glass · 14 owner reports

Other visibility problem on the 2002 Honda CR-V

3 fires 3 of the 14 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.

Reports of this failure 14
With an odometer reading 11
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 9%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 3
Typical repair $150–$1,400
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 10th

When other visibility problem gets reported

Owners of the 2002 Honda CR-V report other visibility problem at a median of 150,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 170,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 180,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 121,812 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.

9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 11 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
58,780 miles 59,960 miles 150,000 miles 170,000 miles 180,592 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, 3 a fire 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 $150–$1,400 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2023, at a median of 20 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 150,000 miles.

By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2002 has 14. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

My 2002 honda cr-v has had a cracked windshield twice in two years. The impact point was nearly the same in both cases - lower left corner. The first case occurred on I-95. The impact point was nearly invisible to the eye. I went to two dealers who each found the point by tracing the now huge crack with the tip of a pen. It could be found. Both denied warranty coverage. The second case occurred on rt 1 approaching the trenton train stn exit from pennsylvania. This time I looked on the internet to see if their was a known problem with cr-v windows. It appears there is. A problem honda has acknowledged with a little advertised, goodwill warranty. I will follow up. I am wondering if the dealers were aware of this policy, but denied anyway. It was suggested I document my issue through your web site. *nm

15,000 miles NHTSA complaint 500548 filed 2004-10-07

Air conditioner system failure. A safety concern in that this locks up the compressor pulley and possibly the entire engine belt. Also, defroster not working properly. Replaced by honda.*ak

58,780 miles NHTSA complaint 620195 filed 2007-04-12

I have a 2002 honda cr-v with 84,000 miles on it. This vehicle has been well maintained & has had all manufacturer recommended services completed and I have the records to prove it. The A/C compressor exploded last week circulating metal filings into the vehicle's system. This is a safety hazard because the engine could seize as a result of the presence of metal filings therefore not having any power brakes, power steering, etc. Also, I cannot use the defrost which creates limited visibility in cooler temperatures which also creates a safety issue. This is a common, widely known problem often referred to as "honda black death". *tr

84,000 miles NHTSA complaint 854238 filed 2011-05-02

Also reported on the 2002 Honda CR-V

Other electrical problem

53 reports median 116k

Other body or interior problem

49 reports median 96k

Headlight failure or clouding

41 reports median 134k

Air conditioning failure

34 reports median 81k

Other engine problem

34 reports median 76k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 other visibility problem happen on the 2002 Honda CR-V?

Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 150,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 170,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other visibility problem on the 2002 Honda CR-V?

14 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