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Steering · 7 owner reports

Other steering problem on the 2010 Toyota Highlander

Only 6 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.

Reports of this failure 7
With an odometer reading 6
Reports per 1,000 built 0.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 33%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $350–$2,400
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 10th

When other steering problem gets reported

There are 7 reports of other steering problem on the 2010 Toyota Highlander, 6 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 95,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 6 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 89,500 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 $350–$2,400 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 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 200,000 miles.

By volume the 2015 carries the most reports, with 22; the 2010 has 7. 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.

Tl*the contact owns a 2010 toyota highlander. While driving 25 MPH when the steering wheel drifted to the left and then to the right and he lost control of the vehicle. He also applied the brakes and they did not engage; however, after 5 seconds the vehicle began driving normal. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated that this was not a safety concern and to continue driving the vehicle. They were also unable to duplicate the failure and no repairs were made to the vehicle. The failure mileage was 1,280 and the current mileage was 1,295.

1,280 miles NHTSA complaint 769010 filed 2010-03-02

Tl* the contact owns a 2010 toyota highlander. The contact stated that when driving in excess of 50 MPH, the vehicle would uncontrollably drift from side to side. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer where the contact was told that the failure was due to the electronic power steering. The contact was also told there was no option to have the vehicle repaired. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 1,000 and the current mileage was 5,000.

1,000 miles NHTSA complaint 848999 filed 2011-03-28

I bought my highlander used in march 2016. The car has had the clunking noise since I bought it but I didn't know it was a known issue with toyota. I bought an extended warranty but of course it doesn't cover the defect. I am very upset because I have paid for a warranty that doesn't fix what is wrong with the car. I also feel like it falls on the dealership and they should have fixed it before selling. Even though it is not considered a safety issue I don't want it to become a safety issue in the future. I don't feel like I should have to come out of pocket $650 to fix an issue that is known with the manufacturer.

135,000 miles NHTSA complaint 1382327 filed 2017-06-04

Also reported on the 2010 Toyota Highlander

Other electrical problem

40 reports median 58k

Other visibility problem

40 reports median 50k

Other brake problem

17 reports median 33k

Other speed control problem

14 reports median 3k

Other body or interior problem

14 reports median 40k

Other engine problem

11 reports median 80k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 7 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 7 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 steering problem happen on the 2010 Toyota Highlander?

Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 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 other steering problem on the 2010 Toyota Highlander?

7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.1 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