Head gasket failure on the 2006 Honda Odyssey
Only 3 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 head gasket failure gets reported
There are 3 reports of head gasket failure on the 2006 Honda Odyssey, 3 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 115,000 miles. It is the 39th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 63,000 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 $1,400–$4,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 4 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2002, at a median of 60,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 5; the 2006 has 3. 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.
2006 honda odyssey bought used w/ approx 61,000 miles and 60,000 mile extended warranty, purchased last week of july 2010, breakdown 10/6/2010. Had shake while driving and was serviced, found to have problem with transmission, transmission fluid changed and problem resolved. Car was driven part way across country, 1200 miles, in the next 10 days, all highway miles. 20 minutes after stopping for lunch, while cruising on highway @ 70 MPH, car had intermittent clicking noise coming from driver's side engine compartment. No warning lights were on @ this time and temp reading was normal. My husband took car off cruise control, noise stopped, he attempted to pass another vehicle, car lost all acceleration, check engine light blinked a couple times, he slowed, started safely moving to shoulder, clicking started, check engine light came on solid, temp gauge spiked to red, caron shoulder, no power. From first clicking noise to engine failure and first warning light was approx 1 minute. Dealer found car to have cracked engine, melted radiator, blown head gasket, no coolant or oil in engine. No original source for breakdown could be found…
2006 honda odyssey bought used w/ approx 61,000 miles and 60,000 mile extended warranty, purchased last week of july 2010, breakdown 10/6/2010. Had shake while driving and was serviced, found to have problem with transmission, transmission fluid changed and problem resolved. Car was driven part way across country, 1200 miles, in the next 10 days, all highway miles. 20 minutes after stopping for lunch, while cruising on highway @ 70 MPH, car had intermittent clicking noise coming from driver's side engine compartment. No warning lights were on @ this time and temp reading was normal. My husband took car off cruise control, noise stopped, he attempted to pass another vehicle, car lost all acceleration, check engine light blinked a couple times, he slowed, started safely moving to shoulder, clicking started, check engine light came on solid, temp gauge spiked to red, caron shoulder, no power. From first clicking noise to engine failure and first warning light was approx 1 minute. Dealer found car to have cracked engine, melted radiator, blown head gasket, no coolant or oil in engine. No original source for breakdown could be found…
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 honda odyssey. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 MPH, the vehicle decelerated to 20 MPH after the engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that there was a blown head gasket. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the yaw rate sensor failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 46,001.
Also reported on the 2006 Honda Odyssey
Other body or interior problem
Other engine problem
Air conditioning failure
Other steering problem
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 3 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 3 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 head gasket failure happen on the 2006 Honda Odyssey?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 65,000 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 head gasket failure on the 2006 Honda Odyssey?
3 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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