Other steering problem on the 2002 Toyota Rav4
Only 4 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.
When other steering problem gets reported
There are 4 reports of other steering problem on the 2002 Toyota Rav4, 4 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 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 55,000 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 22 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 2024 at 145,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 85; the 2002 has 4. 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.
Dangerous transmission problems occurred in this car. The car would stall before going into second gear. Once it occurred as I was in an intersection. There are low miles on this so there should not be a need for repair or replacement at this time. *tr
I purchased my 2002 toyota rav4 SUV in august of 2002. Ever since I bought the rav4 something has been wrong with it. The first 3-months that I had the rav4 the drive belt was chewed up and almost caused me to wreck. The transmission started making funny noises like a grinding sound and the transmission would not shift. Sometimes I would just have to pull off of the road because the rav4 transmission would not shift. I called and talked with the dealership and they said that nothing was wrong with my rav4. I finally just parked it because my wife would not drive it and I would not drive it. Toyota would not fix my vehicle nor would the dealership. My brother-in-law said that he would try to find a used transmission and put it in my new rav4 SUV. The used transmission was purchased at a car parts and salvage place for $1,700.00 and my brother-in-law put the used transmission into my new toyota rav4 SUV. I have contacted toyota motor corporation several times and they said that they are not going to do anything about paying me for the used transmission that I had to purchase. Can you see if toyota will listen to you about my…
I purchased the 2002 toyota rav4 new from the dealership. One day while I was on my way to work I almost wrecked because the drive belt got hung up on something and it chewed up my drive belt. Also, I started noticing every time that I wanted to speed up my rav4 would hesitate and not go in gear. If it did go in gear it made a noise like a grinding type of noise. I called the toyota dealership and they did nothing. I called the toyota motor usa and told them about my problem and I was told that toyota does not manufacture any defective vehicles and they refused to do anything. The I read where there had been a recall on all 2001, 2002 and 2003 rav4 toyota vehicles because of faulty transmissions. I then sent a letter to toyota motor corporation usa and again they refused to do anything. The rav4 has been parked in my garage and it has only 35,000 miles on it and everyone in my family is afraid to drive it. I thought that when a car manufacturer has a recall that the manufacturer has a responsibility to fix the defect. In my case toyota has refused to do anything. Can you agency ask toyota why they have never offered to do anything…
Also reported on the 2002 Toyota Rav4
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Harsh or jerky shifting
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 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 4 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 2002 Toyota Rav4?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 55,000 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 2002 Toyota Rav4?
4 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