Fuel pump failure on the 2010 Toyota Corolla
Only 3 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When fuel pump failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of fuel pump failure on the 2010 Toyota Corolla, 3 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 32nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 74,000 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 $600–$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 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2013 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 25; the 2010 has 4. 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.
2010 toyota corolla first experienced problems june 2010 (car purchased march 2010) on a warm day I.e. 90 degrees the engine shut down, coasts to a stop. Still able to steer to get off the road. Wait 10 to 15 minutes and car will restart. The first time this occurred my son was driving the vehicle, totally shocked him. The next time I was driving on an interstate through a congested mountain pass, was fortunate that no semi trucks were directly behind me and that there was a shoulder on this stretch. Took into dealer after same experience on 2 trips. They were unable to determine a problem. June 2011 drove 200 miles on the road, then drove in town same day with multiple stops. Driving at approx. 35 MPH, car jerked, stepped on gas with no response. Able to coast to a stop at a red light. With traffic backing up behind us and car would not restart, driver behind us and my octogenarian father pushed the car around the corner to a church parking lot. Called triple aaa for a tow, after waiting a half hour tried to start car. It started. Called triple aaa to cancel tow. During the next 1 to 2 miles the engine shut down 3 more times and…
Our 2010 toyota corolla xle with 74,000 miles experienced complete engine failure due to a defective fuel pump. We own and operate this car at about 1,000 feet (omaha nebraska). My daughter drove this car north west towards the eisenhower edwin c. Johnson memorial tunnel in colorado and the engine completely shut down. Very little warning as the engine shuttered and came to a complete and unexpected stop in the middle of northbound traffic on highway 70. My daughter almost got hit by a couple of cars as she reattempted the climb towards the eisenhower edwin c. Johnson memorial tunnel. But to no avail. She took this car to stevenson auto in lakewood colorado for diagnosis, but they couldn't recreate the problem because they are allowed to drive only 20 miles or so and the car was towed 27 miles from highway 70 to their dealership (the closest toyota dealer). They told my daughter to go back home to omaha nebraska because there aren't any fuel pump problems at low altitude. Btw, the toyota tsb is entitled "extended crank at altitude".
Also reported on the 2010 Toyota Corolla
Other steering problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 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 fuel pump failure happen on the 2010 Toyota Corolla?
Across 3 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is fuel pump failure on the 2010 Toyota Corolla?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.0 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