Other engine problem on the 2003 Toyota Highlander
1 crash 1 of the 27 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.
When other engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota Highlander report other engine problem at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 24 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 135,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 110,700 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.
13% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,000 miles | 61,852 miles | 98,450 miles | 110,628 miles | 136,700 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, 1 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 $300–$4,000 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 2,300 miles, and latest on the 2011 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2008 carries the most reports, with 46; the 2003 has 27. 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.
My 2003 highlander limited 6-cyl. 4WD vehicle has a loud audible clicking noise (sounds like valve lifters ticking) eminating from the engine since I purchased the vehicle new from page toyota in jan '2003. The clicking noise is only present when the engine is running. The clicking noise is always audible but the volume decreases as the vehicle reaches normal operating temperature.the clicking noise is very loud when the vehicle is cold. The clicking noise frequency increases with increasing engine RPM and decreases with decreasing engine RPM. The toyota red holman customer service representative stated that the clicking noise is normal and can not be reduced or eliminated. *ak
A few months after the purchase of my new 2003 toyota highlander, it has developed a pronounced "ticking" sound within the engine. I am concerned that this could mean that a problem is developing, and it is also an annoying sound in an otherwise quiet vehicle. I am going to report this to toyota via their web site. This vehicle cost me almost $35k and I do not feel that this problem is insignificant nor should be ignored by the dealer. Should I choose to sell the vehicle, I would suspect this will significantly lower the price I could ask and may even prevent me from unloading it altogether. *nm
2003 toyota highlander v6 4WD 45000 miles. It wa s already more than 2 years I have been experiencing exactly the same problem as 'described in NHTSA recall 100i0160 000- concerning accessory drive belt squeal/ belt tensioner rattles. Dealership response was that NHTSA item number 100i0160 didn't apply to v6 highlanders. *ak
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota Highlander
Head gasket failure
Other visibility problem
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Tail light, brake light or signal failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 27 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 engine problem happen on the 2003 Toyota Highlander?
Across 24 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2003 Toyota Highlander?
27 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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