Other brake problem on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
29 crashes 1 fire 10 injuries 40 of the 78 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 2009 Toyota Corolla report other brake problem at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 35,000 miles, from 59 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 78,931 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.
76% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,269 miles | 6,350 miles | 16,200 miles | 34,325 miles | 80,200 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, 29 a crash, 1 a fire and 10 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 2009 has 78. 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 driving straight on the mass pike in framingham, ma, and my car began to lose control. I neither hit anything nor did I lose control of the car. The brakes stopped working and I could not turn the steering wheel. This resulted in my car swerving out of control, hitting the barrier and flipping over. My car landed directly on top of 2 of the 6 air bags I have in my car, and not one airbag deployed after barrel rolling my car. My car is now totaled and I am undergoing physical therapy for severe whiplash to my back and neck. My insurance company has considered the accident a human error, yet I did nothing to cause the accident. My friend who has been a car mechanic for over 20 years feels that it was a mechanical flaw on the vehicle, and does not see how the accident could have been caused by me. I would like to talk to someone regarding a possible manufacturer's error on my new but totaled 09 toyota corolla. *tr
Dear sirs, I had a mechanical failure caused vehicle collision where two safety hazards should call public alert. On aug. 24, 2009 as I traveled on highway 93 south, I saw the vehicle in front of me took a sudden slow-down or stop, about 30 feet in distance, even as I floored the brake pedal, my 2009 toyota corolla did not have any brake function at all, even not a resistance force at the pedal. My vehicle reared another vehicle inside the tunnel of 93 south, under normal travel situation: road surface and lighting. And then before the deployed airbag from the driving column could have blocked my body movement forward , it exploded, the inside of my vehicle filled with smoke and funny smells. Fortunately, nobody got serious injured in the collision. Since my corolla is a new car under 4900 miles, this was the only time I experience the sudden mechanical failures. My insurance company, metropolitan property, has inspected the vehicle, but did not specify any mechanical failures. Toyota north america also had their personnel inspected the vehicle upon received my report to them, but they may not take any responsibility to pass the…
Tl*the contact owns a 2009 toyota corolla. The brake pedal displayed minimal resistance and moved another inch when the vehicle stopped. The dealer stated that the issue was very common for some vehicles. The contact is concerned that the safety risk could result in a crash. The current mileage was 1,700 and the failure mileage was 1,243.
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
Airbag inflator rupture
Other steering problem
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 78 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 2009 Toyota Corolla?
Across 59 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 35,000 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 2009 Toyota Corolla?
78 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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