Parking brake failure on the 2008 Honda Odyssey
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.
When parking brake failure gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Honda Odyssey report parking brake failure at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 75,515 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.
60% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,845 miles | 4,250 miles | 15,500 miles | 59,286 miles | 79,360 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 $250–$1,300 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 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 14; the 2008 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.
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.
New 2008 honda odyssey ex-l minivan / may 28, 2008 took delivery a few days later, in june. Two weeks ago the engine light mysteriously came on for 1/2 a day and then turned off by itself. A week later the tire sensor light came on. On wed ( nov 12, 2008) while driving my 3 year old & 8 year old sons to school, the throttle started to stick. It did it once lightly - did not respond when I took my foot off the gas. I applied the brake & the car stopped. The engine settled down and we set out again & it did the same thing. We stopped but were one block away from school & the engine sounded normal again, so we set off again. This time, while going up a fairly steep hill, the engine took over and the throttle went on full blast - the regular brake would not stop the car ! I applied the brake- mashing it to the floor & we kept going forward ! I put it in neutral & put on the emergency brake which stopped the car right before hitting the parking lot fence but the engine was screamingly high & I thought it might blow. I shut off the engine with the key & it stopped. We had aaa tow it back to the dealership 30 min later. The service dept…
We bought the 2008 honda odyssey new and immediately noticed a metallic scraping sound when decelerating with foot on the brake pedal. It is more pronounced in the rear seat. We had the honda service shop check it,and they told us that it was normal. Also,when braking,there is quite a bit of travel to the brake pedal,and a spongy feel to the pedal,making the driver feel that the vehicle is not going to stop in time. Again the honda service people said that was normal..I feel that it takes excess pressure to apply the brakes. I'd like to know if this complaint has been reported before. *tr
Brakes are too soft. Had accident twice already because brakes dont react like they are suppose to. You have to push the brake down really hard. With that also said transmission has been a problem since day 1. You hear a loud noise when you change gears. Went to the honda dealer and they said its normal. I dont think this should be making loud grunting noise. *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
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 parking brake failure happen on the 2008 Honda Odyssey?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is parking brake failure on the 2008 Honda Odyssey?
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