Other visibility problem on the 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER
1 fire 1 injury 2 of the 25 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 other visibility problem gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER report other visibility problem at a median of 165,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 145,000 miles and a quarter after 175,000 miles, from 18 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 75,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 80,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 215,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 134,912 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.
6% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 78,088 miles | 142,840 miles | 166,000 miles | 173,750 miles | 213,000 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, 1 a fire and 1 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 $150–$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 6 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 80,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 220,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Front passenger side glass "exploded" while driving on the interstate in montana. There were no other vehicles in the area of our toyota when the glass broke. Nothing such as a bird or rock struck the glass it simply shattered! Driver and passenger cut by flying glass, but not badly injured. *jb
Tl* the contact owns a 2005 toyota 4runner. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked, the rear window shattered. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for diagnosis but the contact was informed that there would be no way of knowing the cause of the shattered window. The vehicle was inspected by an independent window mechanic, who discovered a burned circuit board and faulty cables associated with the defogger system. The vehicle was repaired. The failure and current mileage was 50,000.
Driving approx 30-40mph on standard highway. Florida, 0700, 70 degrees, clear weather. Heard a loud almost explosion... By the time I got my wits about me I realized my rear window was broken. I had not been hit, there is no evidence of any projectile, and not near opposing traffic for something to be kicked up. Shortly before that, I had on both my front vent defroster to clear the morning windshield fog, and the rear window defroster. I smelled a sort of rubber burning smell; after 2 minutes, I presumed it was my AC unit, so I shut it off to see if the smell would dissipate. I did not shut of the rear defroster. About 60s later is when the spontaneous burst happened. I have since run the front AC and windshield defroster, and no hot rubber odor. I had just run the rear defroster 3 days ago as well, no problem. I have had no problems with the window rolling up and down. I do find several complaints about the same thing online in the 4runner, but do not find any toyota, or other safety bulletins, formal notices, or liabilities. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER
Other body or interior problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Other suspension problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 25 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 other visibility problem happen on the 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 165,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 145,000 miles and a quarter after 175,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other visibility problem on the 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER?
25 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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