Unclassified problem on the 2004 Toyota Rav4
6 crashes 2 fires 2 injuries 10 of the 37 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.
Only 14 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 unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 2004 Toyota Rav4 report unclassified problem at a median of 95,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 32nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 155,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 119,707 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.
14% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37,393 miles | 53,000 miles | 96,500 miles | 131,000 miles | 157,100 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, 6 a crash, 2 a fire and 2 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 160,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 149; the 2004 has 37. 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.
2004 toyota rav4 l - driving about 25 MPH, no dash warning lights on, smoke started coming into cabin, within less than a minute fire shooting out from under hood. Totally engulfed in flames in less than 3 minutes. Regular service done at toyota dealer. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 toyota rav4. The contact was driving approximately 15 MPH and attempting a left turn when another vehicle crashed into the front passenger side door of the contact's vehicle. The vehicle slid forward and proceeded to crash over a curb and into a pole. The side curtain air bags failed to deploy. Immediately after the crash, smoke began emitting from the engine compartment. The driver was able to exit the vehicle and noticed flames coming from under the hood. The fire department was called and extinguished the fire. The contact sustained bruising and pain to the lower back. The contact was transported to the hospital via ambulance and was later discharged with no major injuries. The vehicle was towed to an auto body lot. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and sent an engineer to inspect the vehicle. The engineer advised that the crash did not occur in between both doors so the curtain air bags would not have deployed. Additionally, the engineer stated that the front bumper pushed the engine back and fractured the transmission lines, causing transmission fluid to leak into the engine manifold…
Tl* the contact owns a 2004 toyota rav4. The contact stated while driving approximately 35 MPH the traction control activated. The contact stated the steering and brakes locked and the warning chime began to sound. The vsc warning light also illuminated. The failure occurred intermittently at different speeds. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing where the technician was unable to diagnose the failure. The tires were replaced but the failure continued to occur. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 30,000. *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Rav4
Other speed control problem
Head gasket failure
Airbag inflator rupture
Other powertrain problem
Other visibility problem
Complete transmission failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 37 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 37 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 unclassified problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Rav4?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 95,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 55,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2004 Toyota Rav4?
37 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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