1998 Honda Civic problems
Owners have filed 502 complaints with NHTSA about the 1998 Honda Civic. Air bags is the most reported problem area, at 19% of complaints. Next are electrical system (19%) and engine (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 502 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Air bags 19% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 92 and 3
- Injuries and deaths
- 60 and 1
- Typical mileage
- 97,000 miles 126 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 12 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 7 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 17 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 15 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 13 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 13 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 9 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 12 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 9 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 9 |
| 200k+ miles | 10 |
What the data shows
Of the 126 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 97,000 miles. For air bags specifically, the median reported mileage is about 140,000 miles (19 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 92 complaints mention a crash; 3 complaints mention a fire; 60 injuries reported; 1 death reported. Its complaints are more severe on average than those of 85% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1998 ranks 16th most-complained-about out of 37 model years of the Honda Civic with enough data (278 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 4 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Drive and passenger side airbags did not deploy when vehicle was involved in a rear end accident. The entire front end of the vehicle was destroyed.
While driving flames shot up from right floorboard, fire quickly spread to left floorboard, vehicle burned totally.
Vehicle was involved in a frontal collision at about 70 MPH . Upon impact, the airbags did not deploy. The passenger, who was restrained was knocked unto the rear behind the driver. Driver and passenger sustained minor injuries. The dealer has been notified.
My daughter set the cruise control at 65/67 MPH and the car continued to accelerate. After attempting to tap the brakes and turn the cruise control button off, the car was traveling at 90 MPH. When trying to stop the vehicle she had to desperately press on the brakes using two feet to bring the car to a stop. After the car was stopped, she put the car in neutral with rpm's racing at 7500, she then disengaged the power.
In compliance with NHTSA campaign id number 02v120000, a technician in the service department of an authorized dealer replaced the ignition switch in 2003. However, due to worn contacts, now this switch causes the engine to stall without warning and thereby increases the risk of a collision.