Other brake problem on the 2004 Toyota Highlander
4 crashes 1 injury 5 of the 15 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 brake problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Toyota Highlander report other brake problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 65,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 13 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,252 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.
15% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,620 miles | 63,899 miles | 86,000 miles | 111,922 miles | 125,872 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, 4 a crash and 1 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 $300–$1,800 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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 57; the 2004 has 15. 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.
Consumer complained about a brake system problem. Consumer took vehicle to the dealer on several occasions, and dealer performed repairs. Shortly after the problem recurred. *ak the consumer feels that the brakes are still not performing as they should. The tire wore out prematurely at 24000 miles. *nm
Dt*: the contact stated after the vehicle was parked for an extended period of time, while brake pressure was applied at various speeds, there was an increased stopping distance. The vehicle was inspected by a dealer who duplicated the problem, yet was unable to repair the brakes due to the design. The dealer determined the contact needed to warm up the engine before driving, but the problem persisted. The manufacturer was alerted. Updated 11/9/2006 - the consumer contacted toyota who said the are still working on a fix for the problem. *nm
We were traveling in the vehicle, approx. 20-25 MPH when suddenly the right front brake locked for a few second, released and then about 10 seconds later, locked and released once again. It was as if we had slammed on the brakes as hard as possible, only on the right driver's side brake. When we took it to the dealer, the codes lead the technician to an open circuit on the ABS actuator, however, the warranty company wouldn't fix or correct the problem because 1) they couldn't reduplicate the problem; and 2) the part in question is a small part within a $3,500 larger part, of which the entire $3,500 part would have to be replaced. They told us to wait until it happened again to bring it back to the dealership. Approx. One month later, the vehicle did the same thing, however, it was on the freeway at approx. 70 MPH. The impact was less hard as the speed wouldn't allow the brake to fully stop the vehicle. The warranty agent again denied resolving the problem because they couldn't duplicate it in their presence and the codes were deemed incomplete and therefore, no repair. I am concerned this might cause a serious accident and/or…
Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Highlander
Other powertrain problem
Other speed control problem
Other visibility problem
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 brake problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Highlander?
Across 13 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 65,000 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 brake problem on the 2004 Toyota Highlander?
15 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