Other engine problem on the 2006 Toyota Avalon
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 47 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Toyota Avalon report other engine problem at a median of 57,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles, from 43 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,475 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.
23% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,336 miles | 41,000 miles | 57,650 miles | 76,913 miles | 95,811 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 and 1 a fire 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 $300–$4,000 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 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 900 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 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.
When stepping on the gas for a quick acceleration, there is almost a gagging sulfur smell inside the car. This happens when entering the freeway via an on-ramp or just passing another car. *nm
I have a 2006 toyota avalon with ~15,000 miles on it. Intermittently, the car will hesitate on acceleration. This is extremely dangerous as I have almost been rear-ended several times and have had to slam on the brakes, at times, to avoid a side-swipe collision. The delay in input to the accelerator pedal to actual acceleration is 2-4 seconds at times. This is a problem known to toyota. The service department is aware of the problem but describes it as a "characteristic" of the drive by wire throttle system. This is a very dangerous "characteristic" and I'm certain will result in accidents. There are many examples on the "forum" on edmunds.com where owners have expressed the same problem/concern. *nm
Tl*the contact owns a 2006 toyota avalon. While driving 35 MPH, the vehicle began accelerating without warning. The contact was unable to slow the vehicle down by engaging the brakes or neutral. The engine shut off on its own. The contact confirmed that the driving mat wasn't the cause of the vehicle accelerating. On three occasions he spoke with lexus, toyota and the dealer. The dealer attempted to diagnose the failure from august 11th to august 13th and could not duplicate the failure. The contact read an article re: lexus 350 es experiencing the same failure. The failure mileage was 6950 and the current mileage was 7295.
Also reported on the 2006 Toyota Avalon
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
Cruise control failure
Other brake problem
Steering column or shaft failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 47 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 engine problem happen on the 2006 Toyota Avalon?
Across 43 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 57,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 77,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2006 Toyota Avalon?
47 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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