AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 10 owner reports

Other brake problem on the 2003 Honda CR-V

1 crash 1 of the 10 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 10
With an odometer reading 8
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 75%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 1
Typical repair $300–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 15th

When other brake problem gets reported

Owners of the 2003 Honda CR-V report other brake problem at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 400 miles at the tenth percentile to 115,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 116,047 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.

75% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 8 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
353 miles 7,250 miles 29,420 miles 49,650 miles 116,400 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 a crash 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 $300–$1,800 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 600 miles, and latest on the 2022 at 130,000 miles.

By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 124; the 2003 has 10. 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.

Clunking noise from front brakes, when brake is applied. Dealer says this is a normal sound, no other car makes it only the honda crv. It appears to be the brake pads that are not securely fastened.

500 miles NHTSA complaint 419786 filed 2003-07-23

When you make turns and the engine is cold the right brakes create a clicking sound. This is not hear in any other car. This is a sound that only comes from honda crv. Other people who own the same model have the same problem, and honda is yet to institute a recall for this problem. *la

10 miles NHTSA complaint 444128 filed 2003-12-06

My mom's 2003 honda cr-v ex AWD automatic transmission has this clicking sound whenever we drive it around. On occasion the clicking is loud, but it can get very annoying. The automatic, when starting and putting in reverse has a very un-honda like noise with a jolt. When we took it for the NHTSA recall for the automatic transmission they did the service. After a couple of days the clicking went back. Took it back to the dealership and the honda certified mechanic said that it is normal because the brakes are adjusting itself. I want to know do any other honda owners of cr-v's built from 2002-2003 model years have this same noise problem? *ak

9,500 miles NHTSA complaint 460805 filed 2004-03-15

Also reported on the 2003 Honda CR-V

Other body or interior problem

46 reports median 70k

Other engine problem

44 reports median 54k

Other electrical problem

36 reports median 100k

Air conditioning failure

34 reports median 73k

Headlight failure or clouding

31 reports median 130k

Other speed control problem

21 reports median 81k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 brake problem happen on the 2003 Honda CR-V?

Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other brake problem on the 2003 Honda CR-V?

10 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