AtWhatMileage
Transmission · 5 owner reports

Other powertrain problem on the 2011 Toyota 4RUNNER

Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 5
With an odometer reading 5
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $400–$4,500
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other powertrain problem gets reported

There are 5 reports of other powertrain problem on the 2011 Toyota 4RUNNER, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 5 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 9,000 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

Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 190,000 miles.

By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2011 has 5. 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.

Median
  1. 1997 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 132k
  2. 1998 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 245k
  3. 1999 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 192k
  4. 2000 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 125k
  5. 2001 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 100k
  6. 2002 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 100k
  7. 2003 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 91k
  8. 2004 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 81k
  9. 2005 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 102k
  10. 2006 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 35k
  11. 2007 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 35k
  12. 2008 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 19k
  13. 2009 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 20k
  14. 2010 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 18k
  15. 2011 (this one) 9k
  16. 2013 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 97k
  17. 2014 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  18. 2015 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 28k
  19. 2016 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 9k
  20. 2017 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  21. 2018 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  22. 2019 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 454
  23. 2020 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem 1k
  24. 2021 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  25. 2022 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  26. 2023 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  27. 2025 Toyota 4RUNNER other powertrain problem
    no odometer readings given
    —

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.

Sudden rapid acceleration, entering a parking spot, both feet on brakes, still acceleration, put in neutral then park, still acceleration, had to back up, was in a bad position, never touched the gas thru this whole incident. Relined vehicle, still acceleration, put in park and turned it off. Toyota has had it since, 9-2-2011, today is 9-7-2011. What are my options. I pick up my grand kids all the time let alone on the road shopping, errands, etc. The floor mats were not the problem. *tr

6,015 miles NHTSA complaint 878129 filed 2011-09-07

Purchased vehicle new and the 5 speed automatic transmission operated smoothly. Around 9,300 miles the transmission started shifting gears harshly. The harshness is intermittent but happening more frequently. Also, while at highway speeds going downhill, the rpms bounce everywhere from 1500 rpms to 3000 rpms. Its almost as if the transmission is confused and doesn't know what gear to choose anymore. I also feel as if the brakes aren't releasing. When sitting at a red light going down hill, once I release my foot off the brake and before I accelerate, while coasting, I feel a "thud" in the rear end after about two rotations of the wheels. I drive in bumper-to-bumper traffic daily in pittsburgh and this shifting is awful - by far the worst transmission in a vehicle I have ever owned. I mentioned this issue during my last service visit at the toyota dealership and they said a technical service bulletin had not been issued yet. This needs addressed asap. This can't be the way toyota intended for this vehicle to operate - especially since it didn't always operate this way. *tr

9,300 miles NHTSA complaint 893525 filed 2011-12-03

Just as I put my new toyota 4-runner in reverse in a crowded parking lot, the engine races wildly. Fortunately my foot was firmly on the brake, and I was able to get it back into "park" - whereupon the engine raced even more wildly, until I turned off the ignition. I checked to make sure that nothing was against the accelerator pedal - and there wasn't... I checked to make sure the accelerator pedal was in its correct position and working freely - and it was. So I restarted the car, it seemed fine, and drove home - and a little bit yesterday (monday) morning - the day after the incident. All was fine... But, but, this was a very crowded parking lot where the incident took place - literally hundreds of people - including children - walking around, and many hundreds of other cars and trucks nearby... I am a life-long toyota owner - and this will not change this. But, clearly this "uncontrolled acceleration" problem with toyota's of late, still exists and must be corrected immediately!!! *tr

9,000 miles NHTSA complaint 956906 filed 2013-01-08

Also reported on the 2011 Toyota 4RUNNER

Airbag inflator rupture

89 reports median 60k

Other body or interior problem

5 reports median 50k

Other engine problem

4 reports median 73k

Other brake problem

4 reports median 7k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 5 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 5 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2011 Toyota 4RUNNER?

Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other powertrain problem on the 2011 Toyota 4RUNNER?

5 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