Other engine problem on the 2013 Toyota Highlander
1 injury 1 of the 20 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 2013 Toyota Highlander report other engine problem at a median of 2,300 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 miles, from 18 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 400 miles at the tenth percentile to 25,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 25,767 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
89% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 433 miles | 1,037 miles | 2,250 miles | 10,000 miles | 26,200 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 an injury 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 2013 has 20. 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.
Vehicle hesitates when accelerating. Does not happen all the time, when trying to get vehicle up to highway speed will depress gas pedal and nothing will happen for 3-4 seconds, then all of a sudden vehicle will speed up. This only started to happen after 1300 miles . Took vehicle to toyota dealership and of course vehicle ran fine, tech. Checked for any trouble codes and none were found. Also since this started to happen my gas mileage has dropped from 18 miles a gallon to 15 miles a gallon. *tr
At totally random times, after a few miles of driving or 100 miles, vehicle hesitates when accelerating. Most annoying and dangerous is the way it doesn't respond to the accelerator for a few seconds after stopping at a stop sign or stop light. Took vehicle to toyota dealership and of course vehicle ran fine for the 4 miles they drove it. Tech checked for any trouble codes and none were found. This seems like a rear-end accident waiting to happen. For ten days we have gotten nothing but the run-around from the national toyota "case manager". (at first we thought this hesitation occurred because the vehicle was new, but after 8,000 miles, we are still experiencing the same issue.) *tr
The vehicle has a hesitation or lack of acceleration problem. It occurs from a stopped position or a moving state. I have had it to the local toyota dealer 5 times and they have not been able to find the problem. They were able to duplicate the problem. They have been in touch with toyota but they say no problems exist, which is what I have come to expect from toyota corporate. My wife was almost in an accident on the interstate yesterday, 08/28/2013. I would estimate that the problem has occurred at least 10 times since we purchased the vehicle in july. This is a safety issue. Thank you in advance for your help on this concern. Also, the dealership is going to give us a loaner today and possibly just let us return the vehicle. They have been great, palmierro toyota.
Also reported on the 2013 Toyota Highlander
Other speed control problem
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
Other steering problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 2013 Toyota Highlander?
Across 18 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 2,300 miles. A quarter were filed before 1,000 miles and a quarter after 10,000 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 2013 Toyota Highlander?
20 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