Other powertrain problem on the 2004 Toyota Corolla
1 crash 1 of the 12 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Toyota Corolla report other powertrain problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 119,750 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,900 miles | 74,500 miles | 92,500 miles | 108,750 miles | 136,650 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 $400–$4,500 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 2017, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 42; the 2004 has 12. 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 am having what could be a serious problem with my almost new corolla 2004 with only 8000 miles. If I leave the car parked for say more than a week, I then start it, and try to go into reverse the car takes (lags) like 5 or 6 seconds to sort of engage the gear. At first it sort of like starts to go but not fully (slips) and after that it goes solid in to reverse. I hope you understand my explanation?? Dealer has performed the hydraulic test, reset the memory, and changed the oil. *ak
Summer 2007, with about 65,000 miles on my 2004 toyota corolla s (bought new), I started to notice an unusual sound when I shifted gears--sounded a little like a diesel engine sound but very faint. Sound slowly become more pronounced, until it became a worry. It happened when I used the clutch (it's a manual). I brought it to the dealer to have them listen to it. They didn't hear it, but recommended that I leave it for service. I did. Dealer said they found no problem. Also said they rarely work on manual transmissions any more. Concerned about potential safety issues, I brought it to a local mechanic personally known to me. He immediately identified it as a transmission bearing problem. Thought it was possibly the pilot bearing. He recommend I take it to a transmission place for a listen. The transmission shop came to the same conclusion as the local mechanic. I reported back to my mechanic who called the dealership to check whether there were any service bulletins about transmission bearing problems and they said there weren't. I contacted the dealer to report the findings of the transmission shop and they said that they didn't…
I have a 2004 toyota corolla s 5-speed with 91,000 miles on it. While driving the other day, the transmission locked up on the interstate. I had never had a problem with the car and have maintained it well since I purchased it. I had the car towed to the local toyota dealership and was told the clutch was bad and they gave me an estimate of $1,036 to repair it. After speaking to another mechanic and finding out that the dealership wanted $400 more than average to do the service I had the car towed to my local mechanic. After removing the transmission from the car he informed me that the clutch was fine and the transmission was bad. I bought a toyota for its supposed reliability......what a joke. This is going to cost thousands to repair and has effectively ruined my summer vacation plans. I know there are similar complaints concerning this transmission.....I hope something gets done about it. *tr -bryan shepler
Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Corolla
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other visibility problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Corolla?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2004 Toyota Corolla?
12 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