Heater core failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V
Only 7 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 heater core failure gets reported
There are 7 reports of heater core failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V, 7 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 105,000 miles. It is the 15th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 23,000 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 $700–$2,400 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 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 25,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 27; the 2013 has 7. 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.
The weather turned frigid after a unusual warm spell. As we were driving down the road we started to get some precipitation on the wind shield that the drivers side defroster was unable to keep the driver side windshield safely clear. Had to pull over several times to manually clear the windshield. Also there was virtually no heat on the driver side of the vehicle. We took the vehicle into the dealer we bought it from new. They told us the driver side heater core was plugged. I was astonished as to the low mileage on the vehicle (15,659), and it being out of warranty by 2 weeks. I believe this is a dangerous condition because of the rapid rate at which it occurs. Imagine this happening every 12-15k miles. Apparently after searching on line I found this to be an ongoing problem with certain 2012-2013 models. Honda also has a bulletin out on how to temporarily repair this design flaw. (bulletin #14-063). I know heater cores can plug up without the proper maintenance and considerable mileage on the vehicle. This in my opinion is a safety hazard due to the few miles driven before this can occur.
Bought car fall 2015 w/21000 miles. First very cold day (below 0 f), I noticed the heating system as well as defrost barely worked after driving 8 miles on a country road. This repeated itself several more times before I discovered tsb 14-063 where they discovered sand had been inadequately washed from the blocks after the casting process was completed. It then settled in the heater core blocking the system from adequate defrost and heat. My dealer app't was disappointing in that they essentially told me I was lying and nothing was wrong with the system. They claimed the temp probes showed a 1/10 degree between the 2 vents - of course, I never saw the results. My warranty expires in less than a month when it will then be my responsibility to flush it myself or pay them to do it !! It's now spring so I feel that waiting for a recall could possibly put me in jeopardy as visibility during cold weather will be and has been an issue. I have a copy of the tsb and see it's supposedly a 3 12 hr obligation, but the flat rate they show is 1.1 hours which encourages their techs to do haphazard work. Dealer was buerkle honda, st paul,mn and…
Bought car fall 2015 w/21000 miles. First very cold day (below 0 f), I noticed the heating system as well as defrost barely worked after driving 8 miles on a country road. This repeated itself several more times before I discovered tsb 14-063 where they discovered sand had been inadequately washed from the blocks after the casting process was completed. It then settled in the heater core blocking the system from adequate defrost and heat. My dealer app't was disappointing in that they essentially told me I was lying and nothing was wrong with the system. They claimed the temp probes showed a 1/10 degree between the 2 vents - of course, I never saw the results. My warranty expires in less than a month when it will then be my responsibility to flush it myself or pay them to do it !! It's now spring so I feel that waiting for a recall could possibly put me in jeopardy as visibility during cold weather will be and has been an issue. I have a copy of the tsb and see it's supposedly a 3 12 hr obligation, but the flat rate they show is 1.1 hours which encourages their techs to do haphazard work. Dealer was buerkle honda, st paul,mn and…
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 7 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 7 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 heater core failure happen on the 2013 Honda CR-V?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 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 heater core failure on the 2013 Honda CR-V?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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