Other powertrain problem on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
4 crashes 1 fire 5 of the 31 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 2009 Toyota Corolla report other powertrain problem at a median of 42,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 92,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 88,532 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.
48% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,468 miles | 23,913 miles | 41,996 miles | 75,000 miles | 92,000 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, 4 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 $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 2009 has 31. 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.
Car parked on dry, level surface. Driver started car normally, put foot on brake, shifted into reverse to leave parking spot, eased onto the gas, and the car went forward. Stopped the car, double checked the gear shift was firmly in reverse, eased on gas again and, once again, car went forward. This forward lurch drug the bottom of the car over a concrete barrier. Car stopped to inspect damage. When car started again, everything functioned normally. *tr
2009 toyota corolla, "s" automatic transmission. The problem was initially identified by me when my car would not catch while on a slope in drive. The transmission would roll back. The dealership said this was normal due to a loss of pressure, however it would do it even if I barley stopped on a gradual incline for a few seconds. This has caused me to roll back unless I had one foot on the brake and one foot on the gas while to keep me steady to start. This happened at from the time I purchased the car. Recently, I my engine has been running really rough and winding at a high pitch while driving. It now intermittently goes between gears and downshifts automatically into gears that are not appropriate for the speeds traveling. This causes a drastic down speed, and example is I will be on the freeway traveling speeds between 50-65 and it will downshift and reduce my speed to 40 MPH or less, then I will try to accelerate and it will redline out, as if I am in neutral and I will have no control to regain speed until it automatically pushes itself back into gear, and then increases my speed at a rapid pace, without me putting my foot…
Transmission slips in and out of gear while traveling at consistent speeds on roads and freeways with little grades. While in commuter traffic where the transmission is constantly engaged the transmission does not grab and engage every time. *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 31 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 2009 Toyota Corolla?
Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 42,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 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 2009 Toyota Corolla?
31 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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