No-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
When no-start or intermittent start failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Toyota Corolla report no-start or intermittent start failure at a median of 70,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 24th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 105,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,000 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.
36% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12,000 miles | 14,309 miles | 70,000 miles | 77,798 miles | 105,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $200–$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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2025, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 17; the 2009 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.
My 2009 toyota corolla has had problems since I bought it in jan. 2009. It was seemed to down shift - they found nothing the horn went out. Fixed two wires that were separated, (they said) after the wires were fixed, it left me in the road, stranded. Would not start, making a terrible noise. Wrecker towed it in. They recalibrated the computer. Then I drove it on a trip for the first time since calibration and when I pressed on brake it would rev and seem to speed for a moment. I took it in and nothing found. Landers in little rock, ar is where I bought it and take it for service. There are recalls on my 2009 corolla for brake problems, and other model cars of the corolla have been recalled for the surging problem while braking. I'm in a situation to where I'm making a payment on a car that I'm absolutely afraid to drive. Please help me. I know they haven't driven the car as I have. They only test drive at their dealership. I'm the one at risk. With them knowing that the 2009 corolla has problems, I feel they are putting me and my family in danger. *tr
I own a 2009 toyota corolla that has had numerous incidents of not starting. The vehicle will not start after sitting for a period of time, however, it will start after numerous attempts to do so. This vehicle was purchased brand new in april 2008. I have had this vehicle in the shop on three separate occasions with this same issue and they tell me they cannot find a cause for this. This has also happened four other times that I did not take the vehicle to the garage since they informed me they could not fix it if it would not repeat the behavior. The occurrence is very sporadic and there is no way to know when it will happen again. The last time it was in the garage they placed a fuel additive in the gas tank to fix the problem... Still no resolve. *tr
Car would not start, kept cranking, some times would sputter. After 10 minutes or so of repeatedly trying finally it started but sputtered severely for about 30 seconds then rev up normally. Drove to dealer. Had to pay for diagnostic fee of $110 + $10.95 for efi cleaner. Learned symptoms were as stated in tech service bulletin tsb-0182-09 where engine control module (ECM) would cause the engine to misfire terribly. Fix was to have program update and reflash ECM. The efi cleaner added because misfires may foul fuel injectors. Dealer said they would be nice and not charge me for the reflash /update of the ECM. There should have been no charges at all. I hear 8 years warranty on ECM-what does that include, only flash updates and not diagnostic fees? Four recalls and now this. What's next for my 2009 corolla with <14,000 miles and just 7 months out of warranty. Shame on toyota. *tr
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
Airbag inflator rupture
Other steering problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
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 no-start or intermittent start failure happen on the 2009 Toyota Corolla?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is no-start or intermittent start failure on the 2009 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