Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2008 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
There are 3 reports of control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2008 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 92,000 miles. It is the 35th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 27,900 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–$3,000 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 12 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 105,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2008 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.
On 4/28/08, the vehicles throttle stopped responding while in motion in traffic and then had to be pulled over to the side. While this happened the check engine light and the vsa lights came on. The vehicle slowed down all of a sudden due to this in traffic. Similar problems have happened in the past for 4 other times. Here are the dates and description of each event. 1.on 12/30/2008, the check engine light and the vsa lights on the vehicle came on with weird engine noise and I called the dealer (auto west honda) immediately to notify them of the problem. Dealer requested to bring in the vehicle to their service center. Vehicle was taken into the dealership on 01/02/2008. 2.on 01/13/2008, the check engine light, vsa light and slide door lights came on and the rear right side sliding door stopped working. Vehicle was taken into the dealership. Dealer performed repair attempts and replaced the relay unit. 3.on 01/26/2008, the check engine light, vsa light and the slide door lights came on and there was no engine response to the throttle, vehicle was towed into the dealership the same day. Dealer attempted a repair and said ECM was…
Brakes automatically applied during acceleration from 20-50 while entering busy highway slowing vehicle nearly to a stop. Managed to avoid approaching traffic and limp off the highway at the next exit. Problem recurred as I took side road back home. Problem also recurred as I took vehicle to dealer to diagnose the following morning. Dealer was unable to recreate the problem or provide solution. Problem persisted and vehicle was returned to the dealership two more times in 2011 with no resolution as well. Now 2013 with over 40,000 miles on the vehicle (out of 36,000 mile warranty), problem persists. Driver has learned to pull over and turn engine off to reset electronics necessary to temporarily overcome the issue. Still no diagnosis or resolution by dealership or honda. This is not an issue caused by warped brake rotors, worn brake pads, or air in brake lines. Ecm/PCM software updates in apr and may 2011 were fruitless. I suspect that the problem is in either a sensor, a primary control unit, or software operating such. *tr
Brakes automatically applied during acceleration from 20-50 while entering busy highway slowing vehicle nearly to a stop. Managed to avoid approaching traffic and limp off the highway at the next exit. Problem recurred as I took side road back home. Problem also recurred as I took vehicle to dealer to diagnose the following morning. Dealer was unable to recreate the problem or provide solution. Problem persisted and vehicle was returned to the dealership two more times in 2011 with no resolution as well. Now 2013 with over 40,000 miles on the vehicle (out of 36,000 mile warranty), problem persists. Driver has learned to pull over and turn engine off to reset electronics necessary to temporarily overcome the issue. Still no diagnosis or resolution by dealership or honda. This is not an issue caused by warped brake rotors, worn brake pads, or air in brake lines. Ecm/PCM software updates in apr and may 2011 were fruitless. I suspect that the problem is in either a sensor, a primary control unit, or software operating such. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Honda Odyssey
Other brake problem
Liftgate, tailgate or trunk failure
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Other electrical 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2008 Honda Odyssey?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2008 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