Other engine problem on the 2005 Toyota Rav4
2 fires 2 of the 10 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 6 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 engine problem gets reported
There are 10 reports of other engine problem on the 2005 Toyota Rav4, 6 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 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 97,929 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, 2 a fire 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 147; the 2005 has 10. 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.
I have a toyota 2005 rav 4 - 6 cyl. I am experiencing a problem not associated with the toyota recalls, according to toyota. Twice while the vehicle was in drive and I have my foot on the brake, and the vehicle is stopped, after the vehicle idles down from moving, the engine revs up again. The gas pedal was not touched and the floor mat is not in the way. The engine revving up is scary enough that someone outside of my car thought I was spinning my wheels in the snow and ice, and I was not moving. I took it in to a dealer and they hooked it up to their computer and found no problem. Of course when they drove it, they could not replicate the problem. They recommended that if it happens again that I immediately have it towed back to the dealer. *tr
I have a 2005 4 cylinder toyota rav4 with about 68,000 miles. It starting making a gurgling noise in the dashboard area, and eventually left 2 puddles of anti-freeze on my garage floor. I immediately took it to the toyota dealer for repair. After checking the rav4 out, the repair manager phoned to tell me the engine was indeed leaking coolant around the engine head because the engine bolts had stripped. I asked how the head bolts got stripped and he replied, "wear and tear and the repair would be around $3000.00 if the head bolt holes could be repaired; otherwise, I would need a new engine." the rav4 has been well maintained, so this is not "wear and tear", but rather a manufacturing defect. After talking with the mechanic doing the repairs, he said they see many of these 4 cylinder engines with this problem -- mostly on the camry, since it is basically a camry engine. I've done some research on the internet and found this is becoming quite a common problem. Here a few websites with very unhappy toyota owners: (http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.ee9e769/8444…
First tire indicator light came on. Checked pressure in all tires. Tires were at correct amount. Went to reset light which did not work. Suv was on an incline (driveway). Let car sit for an hour on flat surface. Started rav4.the tire indicator light came on plus ABS and vsc trac lights. Consulted owners manual which stated to take to toyota. No other brake warning lights came on. Was 1/2 mile from dealer when smoke started coming into passenger cabin. Smoke/fire was coming from the engine and under rav4. Smoke was a bluish grey. Pulled off the major road into an abandoned business driveway. Turned rav off and ran. Passerby called 911. Fire trucks/police arrived. Rav was a total loss. Called toyota usa to report fire. They are saying that it was not mechanical or electrical. But that the fire originated in the engine compartment. Cause of fire was undetermined and there was no evidence of any sort of defect or malfunction with any of the electrical or mechanical systems found. Rav went to dealer for all required service and never had and major problems. If it was not electrical then what caused my lights to come on. Thee vsc trac…
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Rav4
Airbag inflator rupture
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Other visibility problem
Other powertrain problem
Other steering problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 10 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 10 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 2005 Toyota Rav4?
Across 6 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 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 engine problem on the 2005 Toyota Rav4?
10 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