Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER
3 crashes 3 injuries 6 of the 39 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 control arm, ball joint or bushing failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER report control arm, ball joint or bushing failure at a median of 105,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 87,500 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles, from 36 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 108,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 65,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 205,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 140,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 65,000 miles | 88,000 miles | 105,500 miles | 165,000 miles | 205,000 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, 3 a crash and 3 an injury are 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 $400–$2,200 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2009, at a median of 80,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 190,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 carries the most reports, with 52; the 2003 has 39. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota 4runner. The contact stated that while having maintenance performed on the vehicle, the technician found that there was a hole on the subframe near the rear passenger side wheel. The technician added that the frame had corroded from the inside out and stated that the failure was caused by a manufacturing defect. As a result, the frame needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and offered to assist with the replacement of the frame. The approximate failure mileage was 110,380.
2003 toyota 4runner with excessive frame rot on rear of frame. Rear control arm mount is compromised with extreme rust perforation. Bump stop over axle is missing because of 2"-4" hole in outer frame rail. Car is deemed unsafe to drive.
2003 toyota 4 runner was brought into dealership on saturday august 29, 2015 to inspect the frame rust. The rust was verified by the dealer, and was sent on my way, with no warning that it was unsafe. Monday august 31, 2015, the vehicle experienced a frame failure that could have been catastrophic. The driver side rear control arm mount broke free from the frame at approximately 30 MPH. The rearend started to shake, wobble and vibrate and was immediately pulled off the road. Talked to dealer, no recalls on said vehicle. Talked to toyota corporate, they said there is nothing they can do. Tacoma's and tundra's have a recall, but not the 4runner. A complaint was filed here on july 5, 2015.
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER
Other body or interior problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Other suspension problem
Other brake problem
Radiator or coolant leak
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 39 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 arm, ball joint or bushing failure happen on the 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER?
Across 36 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 105,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 87,500 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control arm, ball joint or bushing failure on the 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER?
39 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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