Unclassified problem on the 2016 Toyota Corolla
23 crashes 2 fires 15 injuries 40 of the 50 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.
Only 28 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2016 Toyota Corolla report unclassified problem at a median of 27,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 12,500 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 44th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 72,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 70,636 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
64% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,464 miles | 12,500 miles | 28,000 miles | 50,000 miles | 73,100 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, 23 a crash, 2 a fire and 15 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 carries the most reports, with 276; the 2016 has 50. 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.
Fumes out of vent 15,000 miles 79 MPH on interstate, first time this has happen, make my eyes tear up(mild plus) went on for at least 10 miles, was looking for exit to get off. I stopped about 20 miles further down the road, checked exhaust pipe, no blockage
We bought a new 2016 toyota corolla and have a problem with rodents getting in it. We read up on it and it is caused by the materials used. The person I spoke at toyota said they use peanut based lubricant. This apparently is know by toyota yet they continue to use it. What can be done? I am tired of being told nothing can be done.
When I drove my car into my garage, the car accelerated and smashed into my back garage wall (a load bearing wall), completely detaching it from the top and bottom. I decided to back up the car a foot for clearance for me into my house, but the car then accelerated backwards into the street ramming into my neighbor's vehicle. While my car was now smashed front and back, none of the air bags deployed. I put the car back in drive to remove it from my neighbor's car and again, it accelerated, racing down the street and, across a busy intersection. I had my foot on the brake and was pulling on the emergency (or parking) brake and it finally came to a stop. The police were called and came but said since it was only property damage there would be no report. I shut off the ignition.
Also reported on the 2016 Toyota Corolla
Seat belt or retractor failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other brake problem
Other steering problem
Other speed control problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 50 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 50 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2016 Toyota Corolla?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 27,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 12,500 miles and a quarter after 50,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2016 Toyota Corolla?
50 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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