AtWhatMileage
Adas · 14 owner reports

Other speed control problem on the 2001 Toyota Highlander

7 crashes 2 injuries 9 of the 14 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 14
With an odometer reading 12
Reports per 1,000 built 0.2 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 25%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 9
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Critical
Rank among this year's problems 3rd

When other speed control problem gets reported

Owners of the 2001 Toyota Highlander report other speed control problem at a median of 55,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 20,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 119,782 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.

25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 12 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
20,500 miles 40,000 miles 54,300 miles 98,750 miles 140,282 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, 7 a crash and 2 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.

Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 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.

This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2010, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 80,000 miles.

By volume the 2004 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2001 has 14. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

While in a car wash driver released pressure from the brake pedal and the vehicle surged forward, hitting another vehicle. It bounced back and surged forward again, hitting a wall. Engine continued to race until the vehicle was shut off by the driver. Manufacturer was supposed to investigate the problem, but never informed the consumer of the findings. *ak

4,000 miles NHTSA complaint 460917 filed 2004-03-16

Tl* the contact owns a 2001 toyota highlander. While driving 10 MPH the vehicle began to rapidly accelerate. After repeated brake application the vehicle would not stop. Consequently she crashed into a sign. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and they installed a secondary hook to the floor-mat. Also she was advised that in april 2010 they would install a newly designed accelerator pedal. The failure mileage was 169,794.

169,794 miles NHTSA complaint 748609 filed 2009-12-16

I was starting to slowly drive off the ferry boat as the ferryman was opening the gate. My toyota highlander 2001 sped up out of control. If the man had not jumped aside, he would have been run over. I had no control. My foot was not on the gas. Reported to local toyota dealer. "mat problem". I replaced the mat with a heavy rubber mat. *tr

52,000 miles NHTSA complaint 761381 filed 2010-02-10

Also reported on the 2001 Toyota Highlander

Other visibility problem

24 reports median 85k

Other engine problem

14 reports median 42k

Other body or interior problem

14 reports median 52k

Loss of braking

9 reports median 2k

Other powertrain problem

9 reports median 104k

Other brake problem

6 reports median 53k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 speed control problem happen on the 2001 Toyota Highlander?

Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 40,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other speed control problem on the 2001 Toyota Highlander?

14 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