Seat belt or retractor failure on the 2003 Toyota Avalon
8 crashes 7 injuries 2 deaths 17 of the 18 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 seat belt or retractor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota Avalon report seat belt or retractor failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 107,000 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.
27% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,000 miles | 57,000 miles | 99,000 miles | 123,000 miles | 129,000 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, 8 a crash, 7 an injury and 2 a fatality 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 $200–$900 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 9 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 240,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 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.
2003, toyota avalon, backing up, sudden acceleration, pole stopped car, brakes didn't stop racing engine, put car in drive, shot forward into golf course, brakes wouldn't work, put car in park, didn't stop car, hit trees, utility pole, tried to steer, little or no response, turned key off, car finally stopped, car totaled, airbags did not deploy, seat belt on, but impact made head hit left side of windshield, received concussion, overnight hospital stay. Reported to toyota, they wanted car, we refused to let them have it. Toyota sent inspector he refused to open hood, or put auto on hoist to examine, refused to examine, just took pictures. Then toyota attorney sent letter saying they couldn't see from their examination that the car failed. Had 3 wittiness that toyota inspector refused to inspect car. My automobile insurance totaled auto and settled, they took auto. *jb
2003, toyota avalon, backing up, sudden acceleration, pole stopped car, brakes didn't stop racing engine, put car in drive, shot forward into golf course, brakes wouldn't work, put car in park, didn't stop car, hit trees, utility pole, tried to steer, little or no response, turned key off, car finally stopped, car totaled, airbags did not deploy, seat belt on, but impact made head hit left side of windshield, received concussion, overnight hospital stay. Reported to toyota, they wanted car, we refused to let them have it. Toyota sent inspector he refused to open hood, or put auto on hoist to examine, refused to examine, just took pictures. Then toyota attorney sent letter saying they couldn't see from their examination that the car failed. Had 3 wittiness that toyota inspector refused to inspect car. My automobile insurance totaled auto and settled, they took auto. *jb
Tl* the contact owns a 2003 toyota avalon. While parking the vehicle the accelerator pedal engaged without warning. The contact was driving 5 MPH. The contact depressed the brakes and the vehicle would not stop, and it crashed into a parked ford pick up truck. The road conditions were not a factor. The vehicle was towed ,and the contact was unable to drive the vehicle. The contact sustained a shoulder injury due to the seat belt. The passenger in the front seat stated due to the airbag deployment she was having hearing problems and experienced discomfort to her teeth. The passenger in the back seat experienced chest pains. The vehicle has not been inspected to determine the reason for the unexpected acceleration. The current and failure mileage was 35,000. *ak the consumer stated that they received vehicle back but are concerned that this incident will happen again. Update 5/3/07*tr the consumer stated they had an accident caused by rapid acceleration and caused over $13,500 in damages. The consumer further stated they escaped the accident with minor bruises and they have retrieved via website 9 other cases with same make and…
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota Avalon
Other speed control problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Airbag inflator rupture
Other electrical problem
Other brake problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 18 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 seat belt or retractor failure happen on the 2003 Toyota Avalon?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is seat belt or retractor failure on the 2003 Toyota Avalon?
18 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