Premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2013 Honda Odyssey
When premature brake pad or rotor wear gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Honda Odyssey report premature brake pad or rotor wear at a median of 25,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 45,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 45,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 31,950 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
63% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,750 miles | 18,557 miles | 23,500 miles | 40,875 miles | 44,700 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 $300–$1,400 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2007, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 35,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 11; the 2013 has 8. 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.
After repeated problems with car shaking when braking, rotors & pads had to be replaced at 40,500 miles. Had similar rotor problems years ago with and accord and a honda station wagon. Never had problem with chrysler town & country that I drove for 167,000 miles. Husband has never had this problem with several toyotas driven to high mileages. Honda has a serious problem with rotors. I love the odyssey, but won't buy another honda for this reason! *tr
1st service since new (7500 mi)oil, tire rotation. Immediately noticed shimmy upon braking. Returned to dealer after 2 months. Diagnosis: warped rotors. Turned. Problem solved. Questioned as to why, they stated water puddle, agressive driving, etc. No mention of a problem with the rotor heat dissipation. All was fine until recently, about 30,00 mi. Now same problem. Should this problem worsten, and it will, controling a vehicle on a long mountain hill will be disastrous. This is a known problem documented by numerous people on forums on the internet, as far back to at least 2006. Why hasn't this defect been addressed. I'm calling honda america today, as if it will do any good. I have one honda civic in my driveway now that has 136,000 mi. On it and the pads have never been replaced. Dealer said pads are good. 136,000 miles. Much less the brake rotors. No I'm not hard on the brakes as the dealer insinuated.
At approximately 15000 miles my steering wheel was vibrating violently when braking. I brought it to the honda dealership and they stated that the rotors were warped. I was also told by the service advisor that the odysseys and pilots were having this problem. I asked him to replace the rotors and he stated that the replacement was the same type of rotor. He machined the rotors without charging me and the braking problem was solved temporarily. In about 20000 miles, the problem started again. I waited until about 46000 miles, when I had an oil change due, to notify the dealer and they refused to stand behind the issue. I believe this rotor problem is known by honda and potentially very dangerous to consumers especially while driving at higher speeds.
Also reported on the 2013 Honda Odyssey
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Misfire or rough idle
Other body or interior problem
Other steering problem
Excessive oil consumption
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 premature brake pad or rotor wear happen on the 2013 Honda Odyssey?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 25,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 40,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is premature brake pad or rotor wear on the 2013 Honda Odyssey?
8 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