Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2009 Toyota Corolla
When steering rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Toyota Corolla report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 3 miles at the tenth percentile to 45,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 43,997 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
55% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 miles | 4,000 miles | 14,000 miles | 44,000 miles | 44,000 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 $700–$2,600 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 5 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 2 miles, and latest on the 2006 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
We have taken in our corolla (purchased in january 09) to the dealer twice for the electronic power steering (eps) problem. The car is very difficult to drive on the highways. It refused to keep a straight line and we constantly have to over correct to keep a straight line on a flat road (driving on ice or in high winds comes to mind). We have noticed that even at slow speeds in parking lots that if the wheels are turned and the steering wheel moves back to center the wheels will not straighten up and you have the turn the wheel in the opposite direct to correct the wheels. The dealership has performed an alignment and they replace the steering rack. The issue has not gone away and they found that testing three other corollas on the lot all have the same eps problem and they are stumped. They have filed a tech case with toyota about the eps issue. I have also opened a complaint ticket with toyota tms in california 1-800-331-4331. They have been in contact with us and a toyota representative is going to inspect the car next week. If they are unable/unwilling to give us a resolution we are going to contact a nc lemon law lawyer. We…
The car is hard to control the power steering and I luckily have been able to get control of the car without a accident but I have been close to being slammed in the side of 18 wheelers, other cars and concrete barriers. This issue needs to be resolved asap. My dealership keeps telling me there is nothing wrong with my car. As a consumer and a parent of small kids this is not right. Toyota needs to address this issue or take the cars back and fix them and quit telling us there is nothing wrong. *tr the consumer noticed the vehicle had excessive play in the steering wheel and drifted from side to side in the travel lane. Updated 05/24/10
The car is hard to control the power steering and I luckily have been able to get control of the car without a accident but I have been close to being slammed in the side of 18 wheelers, other cars and concrete barriers. This issue needs to be resolved asap. My dealership keeps telling me there is nothing wrong with my car. As a consumer and a parent of small kids this is not right. Toyota needs to address this issue or take the cars back and fix them and quit telling us there is nothing wrong. *tr the consumer noticed the vehicle had excessive play in the steering wheel and drifted from side to side in the travel lane. Updated 05/24/10
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 steering rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2009 Toyota Corolla?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod 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