2013 Honda Accord9th gen (2013–2017), first year

Updated 2026-09-01NHTSA counts read on this date — 1417 complaints. They rise over time.

514 Steering Complaints on the 2013 Accord. None of Its Five Recalls Is the Steering.

Owners filed more about the steering than anything else on this car — 514 filings. 324 of them name the power steering or the EPS — Honda’s electric power steering — outright. 138 mention a warning light, and 91 say the wheel went hard, heavy or stiff.

Five recall campaigns cover this model year. One for the fuel system in 2013, one for the battery sensor, two for the driveshaft, and one for the fuel pump. None of them covers the steering.

Owners have filed 1,417 complaints with NHTSA about the gasoline 2013 model year. Honda sold 353,204 Accords in calendar year 2012 and 366,678 in 2013 — that figure covers the whole Accord line including the hybrid — and 2013 cars were sold across both of those years. 1,417 complaints against a few hundred thousand cars is not a failure rate, 1,417 filings are not 1,417 owners, and the number is only worth anything because every other year in this series is counted the same way.

One note on scope: the hybrids are out. NHTSA files the Accord Hybrid under separate model names, and asking for “Accord” alone does not reliably separate them — on the 2017 car, 50 hybrids come back under the plain name. Every filing on this page was checked against the VIN, and hybrids were removed. On this model year that removed exactly one.

The basics

First year of the ninth generation. Two engines: a 2.4-liter four and a 3.5-liter V6. The four comes with a CVT or a six-speed manual, the V6 with a six-speed automatic or, in the coupe, a six-speed manual.

Specs

Displacement and cylinder count are from NHTSA’s vPIC catalog, which holds what the manufacturer submitted. Fuel economy is EPA, city / highway / combined, in mpg. EPA rates two automatics for each engine, so both are here.

What owners filed

Sections below are sorted by count. Each complaint is counted once, under a two-step rule. Step one: if a filing names a specific failure — the power steering, a head gasket, a fuel pump, the collision mitigation system, the daytime running lights — it goes to that section. Step two: everything left over gets sorted by NHTSA’s own component labels, in a fixed order — driver assistance, steering, brakes, fuel, engine, transmission, electrical, lighting, air bags, body.

The same rule applies to every year in this series. The cross-year table on the model page uses NHTSA’s labels alone, so a section here can come out bigger or smaller than the matching row on that page.

The sections below add up to 1,225. The remaining 192 are spread across the smaller categories, and the last section below breaks them out.

Engine type comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing. 1,262 of the 1,417 decode to one of the two engines this car was sold with — 923 are the 2.4 and 339 are the V6, so the V6 is 26.9 percent of the record.

This is not a failure rate by engine. Nothing here divides failures by how many of each Honda built, because the complaint record does not contain that. What the sections below show is how far each section sits above or below that 26.9 percent.

Steering — 514

Counted as filings that name the power steering or the EPS, plus those NHTSA tagged steering.

Thirty-six percent of everything filed on this car, and the largest steering section in this series by a wide margin — the 2014 has 161 and no later year passes 90.

324 name the power steering or the EPS. 138 mention a warning light — the EPS light, a steering warning, or the dashboard lighting up. 91 say the wheel became hard, heavy or stiff.

ODI 11699034:

“the power steering suddenly doesnt work. luckily appeared and noticed upon starting the car. the dashboard sensor light appeared as well at that time. did minor troubleshooting that was suggested by articles read such as tested battery, was fine. looked for lose connections and corrosion, none seen. became aware also that this is a known problem.”

Of the 479 filings here that decode to one of the two engines, 34.9 percent are the V6. The record as a whole is 26.9 percent. Eight points above. On the 2014 car the same math comes out 2.4 points the other way, so the lean is here and not in the year after it.

What the record does not say is why. Engine type is not something owners write about — it comes out of the VIN.

Electrical — 258

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged electrical system.

The second-largest section, and it stays large through the generation — the 2014 has 241 and the 2015 has 161, on years with about half as many filings total.

One of the five campaigns is here: 17V418000, the battery sensor.

Engine — 143

Counted as filings that name a head gasket or overheating, plus those NHTSA tagged engine or engine and cooling.

One filing names a head gasket. On the 2018 car, the first year of the next generation, 352 do.

Transmission — 108

Counted as filings that name the CVT, the transmission or a driveshaft, plus those NHTSA tagged power train.

Two of the five campaigns are here, and they are the same defect five years apart. Both are below.

Brakes — 62

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged service brakes or parking brake.

23 of the 62 name the ABS modulator — the modulator, the ABS module, the ABS pump, the VSA module. 91 filings on this car name that part, spread across brakes, driver assistance and steering, because when it fails several warning lights come on together. 17 of the 324 filings that name the power steering also name it. They arrive late: 75 of the 91 were filed in 2023 or after. No campaign covers it.

Fuel system — 42

Counted as filings that name a fuel pump or fuel in the oil, plus those NHTSA tagged fuel system or fuel and propulsion.

10 name a fuel pump. The campaign that covers them arrived in December 2023, ten years after the car was built.

Air bags and belts — 39

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged air bags or seat belts.

Driver assistance — 37

Counted as filings that name the collision mitigation system, lane keeping or adaptive cruise, plus those NHTSA tagged forward collision avoidance or lane departure.

Small, and it should be. Honda Sensing does not arrive on the Accord until the 2016 car. NHTSA tagged these forward collision avoidance or lane departure. 24 of the 37 are about stability control, ABS or traction control and 22 name the ABS modulator, and 18 filings are in both. Four name the cruise control. Not one names the backup camera.

Body and structure — 14

Counted as filings NHTSA tagged structure.

Exterior lighting — 8

Counted as filings that name the daytime running lights, plus those NHTSA tagged exterior lighting.

Eight filings. On the 2016 car the same section is 116.

The rest is thin

192 filings. The largest groups are 72 that NHTSA tagged unknown or other, 44 seats, 20 tagged visibility/wiper, 13 vehicle speed control and 9 tagged visibility.

The seats are worth pulling out of that pile. 28 filings on this model year mention the head restraint, and 25 of those describe pain, a posture problem or the restraint sitting too far forward. This is a complaint about how the car fits people, not about something breaking, and counted the same way it fades across the generation: 28 filings here, 11 on the 2014, 4 on the 2015, 1 on the 2016.

Recalls

Five campaigns. NHTSA files this model year under “Accord,” and asking for the hybrid names returns nothing extra here.

The driveshaft, twice, and only in certain states

20V769000 — December 2020, covering 2013–2015 Accords with the four-cylinder engine and the CVT.

25V422000 — June 2025, and this one narrows to the 2013 alone, same engine and transmission. Owner letters went out August 11, 2025.

Both carry a condition this series has not seen before. They apply only to cars originally sold, or ever registered, in one of twenty-three places that salt their roads: Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Honda says the driveshafts were assembled with a lubricant that degraded their protective coating, which left them open to road salt.

“A broken driveshaft can result in a loss of drive power, or a vehicle rollaway when the vehicle is in park without the parking brake applied.”

Whether this campaign is yours depends on where the car has lived, not only on its VIN. A 2013 Accord that spent ten years in Michigan and moved to Arizona last year is still covered. The reverse holds too: a car that has only ever lived in Arizona is not, even though it is the same part. The dealer reads that from the registration history, not from the car.

15 filings on this model year mention a driveshaft.

The fuel pump

23V858000 — December 2023, and it is enormous: 2013–2023 Accord, Civic, CR-V, HR-V, Ridgeline, Odyssey and most of the Acura line. The fuel pump can fail and stall the engine while driving. Owner letters went out September 6, 2024.

It is the only campaign that reaches all seven model years from 2013 to 2019. Every other one stops somewhere in the middle.

The other two

13V297000 — July 2013, the fuel system, and the only campaign here that arrived while the car was new.

17V418000 — June 2017, and it is a fire risk rather than an electrical nuisance. The case around the battery sensor can let water in, which Honda says can cause an electrical short. It covers 2013 through 2016 Accords.

What doesn’t show up in the complaints

NHTSA gives the 2013 Accord sedan five stars overall, four in the frontal test, five on side impact and five on rollover. The coupe scores five across all four.

Nothing in the complaint record argues with that. Owners do not file about crash ratings.

The 2.4 with the CVT returns 30 mpg combined, five better than the V6 automatic and the best number in this generation.

What the complaint curve says

2012    7     2017  133     2022   75
2013  124     2018  135     2023   88
2014  106     2019   97     2024   87
2015  125     2020   87     2025   70
2016  100     2021  154     2026   29

The seven in 2012 are the earliest cars, filed before the model year was a year old.

There is no spike here and no collapse. The line moves between 70 and 154 for thirteen straight years, and the tallest year is 2021 — eight years after the car was built.

The total is flat. What is underneath it is not. Sort the filings by the year they were filed and count how many are the steering:

2013  10%     2017  18%     2021  65%
2014  32%     2018  22%     2022  68%
2015  51%     2019  21%     2023  49%
2016  26%     2020  33%     2024  47%

In the first year this car was on the road, one filing in ten was the steering. By 2021 it was two in three. The line stayed level because everything else fell away as the steering rose.

The steering is the largest single piece of the record at 36 percent overall. No campaign covers it, so there is nothing to complete and nothing to close.

Complaint databases collect complaints. Nobody files to say the steering was fine. You cannot compare these numbers across models unless both sets were counted the same way. What this data supports is the ranking inside this car and which engine shows up most in the largest section.

If you’re looking at one

Ordered by what it costs you if it goes wrong, not by how many people filed.

Drive it long enough to feel the steering at low speed and again on the highway. 514 filings are about the steering, and 324 of them name the power steering. 91 describe the wheel going hard. There is no recall, so a repair sits in the service records as a customer-pay job, never as a completed campaign.

Ask where the car has lived, and check 20V769000 and 25V422000 by number. The driveshaft campaigns cover only cars sold or ever registered in the salt states. A car with a northern history carries them even if it is being sold in the South.

Ask whether 23V858000 and 17V418000 were done. The fuel pump and the battery sensor case, and Honda’s stated consequence for the second one is a fire. It covers this car and every other Accord in this series, and the stated consequence is an engine stall while driving.

Sit in it for longer than a test drive. 28 filings on this model year mention the head restraint, and 19 of those say it caused pain. It is not a defect that will strand you, and it is the one thing on this page you can check for yourself in five minutes.

If it is a V6, the steering section leans your way. 34.9 percent of the steering filings that decode to one of the two engines are V6s against 26.9 percent of the record. The record does not say why.

Numbers worth writing down

The 2014 car is next, and the steering section falls from 514 to 161.

Sources

• NHTSA complaint database — 1,418 complaints for the 2013 Accord, of which one decodes as a hybrid and is excluded; quoted above by ODI number
• NHTSA recall API — five campaigns, quoted from the campaign summaries and consequence text
• NHTSA vPIC — engine and electrification, decoded from the VIN attached to each filing
• NHTSA safety ratings — 2013 Honda Accord
• EPA fuel economy — city / highway / combined
• GoodCarBadCar Honda Accord sales figures

Complaint counts and quotes come from NHTSA’s public database, retrieved September 1, 2026; each quote lists its ODI number so you can look it up. Engine comes from decoding the VIN attached to each filing — 1,262 of the 1,417 decode to a 2.4 or a 3.5. Recall applicability depends on the VIN and, for the driveshaft campaigns, on where the car has been registered — check yours at nhtsa.gov/recalls. This summarizes what owners reported. It isn’t buying or repair advice.