Other steering problem on the 2002 Toyota Avalon
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 13 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 steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Toyota Avalon report other steering problem at a median of 120,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 170,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 133,864 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.
22% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 33,932 miles | 92,000 miles | 122,000 miles | 143,000 miles | 167,796 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, 2 a crash 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 $350–$2,400 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 35,000 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 23; the 2002 has 13. 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.
While driving on the massachusetts turnpike (route 90) my toyota avalon suddenly turned to the left (driver's side) and struck the highway median. I had no control of my avalon and the vehicle was unresponsive to turning the wheel and to braking. *tr
On 14 june 2010, while driving in fairly heavy traffic, there was a loud noise in the front end of my 2002 toyota avalon. The wheels immediately jerked to the left. I regained control and moved thru the intersection when the action repeated itself. I immediately pulled over and had the car towed to findlay toyota in henderson nv. After extensive testing, they found nothing wrong nor did an independent repair shop. Following the 29 july news release from toyota, I e-mailed toyota for information regarding avalon's problem. On 30 july toyota responded "at the present time, toyota has not identified a remedy for this safety recall." in your 2 aug release, NHTSA states the problem is "due to improper casting of the steering lock bar". Nhtsa goes on to state that "dealers will replace the steering interlock device free of charge". My question is, why is it that NHTSA has identified a remedy for the problem and toyota has not? *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 toyota avalon. The contact stated that he received notification of NHTSA campaign id number: 10v345000 (steering). The dealer was contacted and stated that they have not received the part needed for the recall to be performed. The dealer stated that they would contact him when the part became available. The contact had not experienced a failure. The current mileage was 127,000.
Also reported on the 2002 Toyota Avalon
Other speed control problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other engine problem
Master cylinder or brake booster failure
Cruise control failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 steering problem happen on the 2002 Toyota Avalon?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 145,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2002 Toyota Avalon?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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