Other speed control problem on the 2003 Toyota Rav4
3 crashes 1 injury 4 of the 14 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 speed control problem gets reported
Owners of the 2003 Toyota Rav4 report other speed control problem at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 140,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 102,000 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.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37,000 miles | 74,000 miles | 112,000 miles | 132,500 miles | 139,000 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
Of these reports, 3 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 $250–$2,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 235,000 miles.
By volume the 2009 carries the most reports, with 83; the 2003 has 14. 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.
2003 toyota rav4, 5sp, 4WD. Throttle body whine between 2700 and 3000 RPM. The noise is so annoying that you either need to turn the stereo up loud or wear ear plugs. Toyota states there is no fix for this problem. *la *ph
Tl*the contact owns a 2003 toyota rav4. While driving in reverse, the vehicle began to hesitate. The contact lightly engaged the brake pedal and the vehicle continued to hesitate. The contact also applied pressure to the brake pedal and the vehicle accelerated in reverse at a higher speed. The failure caused the contact to crash into a vehicle, a tree, and a pole which also caused the passenger side window to shatter. The shattered glass was lodged in the contact's nose and he was taken to the emergency room. The contact cannot confirm if the floor mats caused the failure to occur. The vehicle has not been inspected to determine if it was destroyed. The current and failure mileage were 73,000. Updated 03/07/11*lj updated 11/17/11*cn
I have a toyota rav4 2003. My car is running so weird and I am afraid that it will cause an accident and put my life at risk. I am driving on a freeway (65-70 MPH ' 36miles everyday) a dangerous failure to speed up and suddenly slowing down and choking. We took my car at the dealer twice and tell them what happened. At first they told us the problem, that we need to replace/change/repair the air filter/air pilometer, we replaced it. But then same thing happened the next day (everyday), failure speed up and suddenly slowing down and chocking while I am driving'. We brought it again at the dealer and they just told us that they already diagnosed it (twice) but their computer cannot locate the 'code' thing from the computer, which tells them if the car has a problem or not. I asked them that if they diagnosed it how come they cannot locate the problem? The only answer they told me was 'their computer is not giving them a code' and I told them if they are telling me that there is no problem in my car, the answer was 'they are not sure'. This is a really 'serious and dangerous matter'. 'toyota is putting our lives at risk'. Are they…
Also reported on the 2003 Toyota Rav4
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other powertrain problem
Complete transmission failure
Harsh or jerky shifting
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 14 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 speed control problem happen on the 2003 Toyota Rav4?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 75,000 miles and a quarter after 135,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other speed control problem on the 2003 Toyota Rav4?
14 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