AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 17 owner reports

ABS module or sensor failure on the 2010 Toyota Corolla

5 crashes 5 of the 17 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.

Reports of this failure 17
With an odometer reading 17
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 76%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 5
Typical repair $500–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 16th

When abs module or sensor failure gets reported

Owners of the 2010 Toyota Corolla report ABS module or sensor failure at a median of 5,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 400 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 136,050 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

Percentiles of the 17 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
350 miles 1,000 miles 3,500 miles 10,200 miles 136,400 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, 5 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 $500–$2,400 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 110,000 miles.

By volume the 2010 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.

Median
  1. 1996 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  2. 1997 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  3. 1998 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 65k
  4. 1999 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  5. 2000 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  6. 2001 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 108k
  7. 2003 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 105k
  8. 2005 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 6k
  9. 2007 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 99k
  10. 2009 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 12k
  11. 2010 (this one) 4k
  12. 2011 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 45
  13. 2013 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 76k
  14. 2014 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 16k
  15. 2015 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 8k
  16. 2016 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 79k
  17. 2018 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 17k
  18. 2020 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  19. 2021 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  20. 2022 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure 9k
  21. 2023 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —
  22. 2026 Toyota Corolla abs module or sensor failure
    no odometer readings given
    —

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 have a 2010 toyota corolla that I have recently purchased and been driving for approx 8 weeks. It has approximately 2400 miles on it. I have had several occasions since purchase where I have experienced my brakes locking and resulting in failing to stop. I have almost been rear-ended on several occasions, as well as almost rear-ending a vehicle in front of me. This mostly occurs when I go over a small bump or a pot hole. I have taken my car to the dealer to check this problem. No problems were found, and they were unable to duplicate the issue. However, within an hour of leaving the dealer I had the same problem where the brakes locked up when I went over a small bump in the road. I have heard about a similar problem with the toyota prius. My vehicle is a 2010 corolla. I have driven many cars over the areas where I drive my current vehicle with no similar braking failure issue. I am very concerned about the safety of driving this vehicle. Thank you. *jb

100 miles NHTSA complaint 758422 filed 2010-02-04

It was in a snow storm. I felt I had been keeping a safe distance from the car in front of me (I never had an accident prior). Cars ahead slowed down suddenly. I depressed the brake pedal, could feel ABS was activated. But it could not stop the car soon enough, hit the car in front of me at the right tail light. Bumpers and tail light damaged. *jb

1,000 miles NHTSA complaint 758510 filed 2010-02-04

I drive a 2010 toyota corolla. There is something wrong with the antilock brake system; especially if I am trying to apply the brake to slow the car and am making a right turn(even slightly turning right). It's like the brakes lock up and the steering gets like a mac truck. This also happens when I go over a bump and/or pothole. It most recently even happened when I was driving down the highway and there was a slight right curve in the road and I wasn't applying the brakes. I took the car into the dealership today and they could find nothing wrong. Within an hour of leaving the dealership; it happened twice yet they couldn't duplicate the problem. I have a brand new car and am afraid to drive it. Supposedly my car wasn't recalled for the gas pedal because it was made in japan but feel like the gas pedal is sticky at times. I am very upset because I just put all this money out and I have an unsafe vehicle to drive. My daughter and I were going to try and drive across country this summer and now we cannot possibly for we donot feel safe in this car. Toyota should have to buy back the vehicles. I believe there is a much bigger…

350 miles NHTSA complaint 766034 filed 2010-02-23

Also reported on the 2010 Toyota Corolla

Other steering problem

342 reports median 1k

Airbag inflator rupture

300 reports median 85k

Other speed control problem

153 reports median 6k

Other brake problem

119 reports median 4k

Other electrical problem

51 reports median 60k

Other body or interior problem

39 reports median 30k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 abs module or sensor failure happen on the 2010 Toyota Corolla?

Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is abs module or sensor failure on the 2010 Toyota Corolla?

17 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