Other brake problem on the 2003 Toyota Corolla
10 crashes 2 injuries 12 of the 20 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota Corolla report other brake problem at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 180,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 149,465 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31,535 miles | 49,751 miles | 80,000 miles | 120,000 miles | 181,000 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, 10 a crash and 2 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 $300–$1,800 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 24 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1998, at a median of 15 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 80,000 miles.
By volume the 2010 carries the most reports, with 119; the 2003 has 20. 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.
Engine replaced at 55874 mls dealership said "vehicle was not mantained". Even though oil was changed every 55 to 7500 mls. 3 weeks later while driving on hwy car suddenly started accelerating on its own, when I tried to slow it down the brakes did not work. After about 5 miles & 3 near collisions I was able to get off hwy and pull into a parking lot. The brakes were still locked up and the engine was still accelerating, car would not stop! I then threw car in park and cut engine off in order to avoid injuring someone else or myself . Smoke poured from under hood. Had towed to dealer could not duplicate said their was nothing wrong! 2nd incident 3 days after getting car back took to dealer again and they once again said could not duplicate and that they found no problem!this car almost killed me and is very dangerous!!!!*ak
On january 7, 2006 at about 2:30 a.m. My daughter, [xxx] drove back home to san mateo from santa cruz in a toyota corolla le of 2003 with a[xxx] and [xxx]. As she drove on highway 17 near san jose she tried to step on the foot brake to maintain safety control at the speed limit of 35 miles per hour while going down the winding slope. However the car seemed to have no brake and started spinning with the left side of the front first hit the central concrete divider then the tail also hit the divider and the car finally stopped. No third party was injured and no property was damaged with the exception that my daughter got some bruises on her left thigh and the car ended up with a total loss. My daughter then unbuckled herself from the car seat and called the police with her cell phone through which she was advised to call a tow truck. When the tow truck arrived at the scene the driver said to my daughter that the car got no brake and he had to put additional chains and stoppers to secure the car while towing. Surprisingly none of the airbags in the car was deployed in the accident. According to my records, the car was fully serviced…
I bought a 2003 toyota corolla from a certified car dealership, and was sold a car that was involved in a major accident and was not reported. The whole front of the car has none of the original parts to the car which depreciated the value of the car, but it was still sold to me as slightly used in great condition,low mileage and suppose to have never been in an any accidents, I also found out the this car did not pass inspection at the time of purchase, I had to bring the car back to the dealership numerous times starting five days after I bought it. I tried giving the car back and they said that there is nothing that they could do because the contract is already signed, and because of the extensive damages to the car they will only give $6,000 for the car when in fact they sold it to me for over $15,000. *nm
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota Corolla
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other powertrain problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 brake problem happen on the 2003 Toyota Corolla?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 120,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other brake problem on the 2003 Toyota Corolla?
20 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