Other electrical problem on the 2004 Toyota Avalon
1 crash 1 of the 8 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.
Only 6 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.
When other electrical problem gets reported
There are 8 reports of other electrical problem on the 2004 Toyota Avalon, 6 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 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 120,000 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 crash is 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 $250–$2,000 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 800 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 200,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 20; the 2004 has 8. 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.
I was alone in the car and had driven into my driveway (after opening the garage door) to enter the garage. The car suddenly took off and before I knew, I had crashed into the side of the garage and went through it. The car smashed into gardening tools, snow shovels, lawn mower, leaf blower, trash cans, and flowering pots. It came to a stop partly by the coat closet wall that protrudes into the garage and partly by all the stuff that got caught under the car. The garage door railing was damaged and the door was hanging a few inches above my car. I heard things falling above me. I thought that the roof would collapse. I realized that the car was still revving and I shut it. I sat for a few minutes and then I opened the door and ran out into the house. The car, the garage, and garage contents were damaged. The airbags did not deploy. I think it was caused by unintended acceleration. I was driving at about 5 MPH in the driveway and I have been doing this for the last 10 years. It appeared that the car just flew and I had no control over it. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 toyota avalon. The contact received a recall notice for NHTSA campaign number 14v147000 (air bag, electrical). The contact noticed an intense burning odor in the vehicle and the air bag warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken the dealer who stated that the part for the repair may not arrive until two months. The manufacturer was notified. The approximate failure mileage was 63,000.
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 toyota avalon. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 15v043000 (air bags) however the part to do the repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 35 MPH, the air bag warning light was flashing intermittently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the mechanic reset the warning lights but the failure was undetermined. The failure mileage was 153,320.
Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Avalon
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Other speed control problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Steering column or shaft failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 electrical problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Avalon?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 120,000 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 electrical problem on the 2004 Toyota Avalon?
8 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