Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure on the 2003 Toyota Rav4
1 crash 1 of the 108 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota Rav4 report control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles, from 97 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 72,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 142,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 71,020 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71,800 miles | 86,000 miles | 99,300 miles | 124,000 miles | 142,820 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 $700–$3,000 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 14 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 200 miles, and latest on the 2004 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 233; the 2003 has 108. 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 wife's 2003 toyota rav4 has 85000 miles. Several weeks ago it started shifting poorly and eventually would not move easily from rest. We took it to the dealer and were told that the transmission was bad. We could not believe this and took it to a local cottman transmission shop for repair. After 2 weeks and the replacement of many internal parts, mechanical and electrical, we paid $4000 for our car and drove it away. Within 100 miles the same symptoms returned. We had it towed to the cottman transmission shop and were told that the engine control module was defective and they wanted another $1100 to replace it. Whether cottman transmission is being honest or not remains to be seen but we feel that toyota should have some responsibility in this matter. So far toyota usa has been unhelpful or unresponsive. I discovered a tsb (tc002-06) that discusses the engine control module. The tsb states that it is part of the emission control system and that replacement will be covered by warranty up until 96 months or 80000 miles. Leaves us out but others may be interested. *jb
I have a 2003 toyota rav4, at 86600 miles it appeared my transmission was slipping, when I would pull out in front of anyone it was stall and slip while going into 1st and 2nd gear. (automatic transmission), the dealership (toyota) said it was internal in the transmission so I took it to a transmission place, they said they could not find anything wrong with it. After review the complaints on the internet it seems that this is happening with toyota's 2001 thru 2003 and it is the ECM that goes bad and if you drive your car it will tare up the transmission. I went back to toyota and showed them the bulletin put out by toyota and after some back and forth with them they installed me a new ECM, this was just 2 days ago, they are not sure if this will fix the problem or not, but I believe toyota should recall these vehicles before someone get killed, this is a real expense to the car owners. *tr
I have a 2003 toyota rav4, at 86600 miles it appeared my transmission was slipping, when I would pull out in front of anyone it was stall and slip while going into 1st and 2nd gear. (automatic transmission), the dealership (toyota) said it was internal in the transmission so I took it to a transmission place, they said they could not find anything wrong with it. After review the complaints on the internet it seems that this is happening with toyota's 2001 thru 2003 and it is the ECM that goes bad and if you drive your car it will tare up the transmission. I went back to toyota and showed them the bulletin put out by toyota and after some back and forth with them they installed me a new ECM, this was just 2 days ago, they are not sure if this will fix the problem or not, but I believe toyota should recall these vehicles before someone get killed, this is a real expense to the car owners. *tr
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota Rav4
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Harsh or jerky shifting
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 108 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 control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure happen on the 2003 Toyota Rav4?
Across 97 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 85,000 miles and a quarter after 125,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is control module (ecm/pcm/bcm) failure on the 2003 Toyota Rav4?
108 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 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