Differential or transfer case failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When differential or transfer case failure gets reported
There are 6 reports of differential or transfer case failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 110,000 miles. It is the 18th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 8,393 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 $900–$4,200 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2009 at 195,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2013 has 6. 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.
Just before coming to a full stop or accelerating from a stop a grinding noise coming from the rear of the all wheel drive vehicle. Dealer identified problem and is to replace the rear differential. *js
I purchased a 2013 crv in the beginning of 2013 with VIN # [xxx]. With about 6,000 miles after the first oil change, the vehicle starts making a creaking noise when pushing and releasing the brake. I went to the dealer on 11/11/13. A technician was able to duplicate the problem. The second visit to the dealer is on 11/25/2013. A master technician was able to duplicate the problem and identify the noise does not come from the braking system but from the rear differential system. The dealer made a phone call to honda tech line and was told to hold on the fix and wait for honda to do more investigation. The dealer said honda will send me a letter in the near future. I waited for the response from both dealer and honda for more than a month and heard nothing. The dealer told me to contact honda directly. I called honda in end of december 2013, and heard back from them in 1/3/2014, a honda representative named [xxx] in 1-800-999-1009 [xxx] called me back and told me that honda is not going to fix the problem and replace any parts but will do more investigation. He mentioned that the investigation will last for 2 to 3 years. Also honda…
I purchased a 2013 crv in the beginning of 2013 with VIN # [xxx]. With about 6,000 miles after the first oil change, the vehicle starts making a creaking noise when pushing and releasing the brake. I went to the dealer on 11/11/13. A technician was able to duplicate the problem. The second visit to the dealer is on 11/25/2013. A master technician was able to duplicate the problem and identify the noise does not come from the braking system but from the rear differential system. The dealer made a phone call to honda tech line and was told to hold on the fix and wait for honda to do more investigation. The dealer said honda will send me a letter in the near future. I waited for the response from both dealer and honda for more than a month and heard nothing. The dealer told me to contact honda directly. I called honda in end of december 2013, and heard back from them in 1/3/2014, a honda representative named [xxx] in 1-800-999-1009 [xxx] called me back and told me that honda is not going to fix the problem and replace any parts but will do more investigation. He mentioned that the investigation will last for 2 to 3 years. Also honda…
Also reported on the 2013 Honda CR-V
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
Other electrical problem
Headlight failure or clouding
Other body or interior problem
Other lighting problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 6 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 6 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 differential or transfer case failure happen on the 2013 Honda CR-V?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is differential or transfer case failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V?
6 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