Other powertrain problem on the 2006 Toyota Rav4
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 35 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 powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Toyota Rav4 report other powertrain problem at a median of 22,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 26 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 900 miles at the tenth percentile to 90,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 89,600 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.
58% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 900 miles | 3,050 miles | 23,500 miles | 61,000 miles | 90,500 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 and 1 a fire 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 $400–$4,500 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 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 2,500 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 180,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 157; the 2006 has 35. 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 new 2006 toyota rav4 with automatic transmission and, in the first 2000 miles, it has failed to shift correctly on 3 separate occasions. This has created dangerous situations when merging in traffic. Specifically, when I step on the gas pedal, the rpms shoot above 4-5k but there is no accompanied increase in speed. Given the repeated postings on edmunds.com about these problems, it does not appear to be an isolated case with my vehicle. *jb
A 2006 toyota rav4 v6 limited 4x2. Problem: automatic transmission defect? Sometimes when I step on accelerator there's lag time before car shifts and gets going. Also there's an ongoing (month or so) droning noise. I took car to toyota dealer 6/15/06. Service writer and 2 techs heard droning noise while I was there. With the car. I asked to bring the car in the following saturday as I work during the week, but they said saturdays not good so I made appointment for 6/26/06. They told me it wasn't dangerous to drive the car. I took car in 6/26/06 & rode with master tech who was able to hear the droning noise. He drove car, also sat in parking lot with engine running and shifted into park and into reverse etc. With his foot on the brake and noise changed in intensity in different gears. He took car back to service center and checked it out. The service writer said the tech not able to pinpoint problem, but tech would call toyota engineering the next morning because he didn't want to try a fix when he didn't know what the problem was. They gave me my car back, said they'd call me after talking to toyota engineering. They called me…
Serious hesitation problem in my 2006 toyota rav4. I've reported to toyota, but they indicate it's normal. Problem has happened seriously 3-4 times. When slowing to a near stop or from a stop, accelerating, I get nothing when I push on accelerator. This is beyond hesitation. The first 2 times I panicked since I was merging in traffic, floored the pedal and after perhaps 1/2 to 1 second (might not sound long, but imagine no response to pushing you pedal with oncoming traffic doing 60-70)....it kicked in/downshifted or whatever. Really scary. Again, I noted this to toyota. I noted a post on edmunds site today with a 2005 article on past hesitation problems with toyota/lexus. And other complaints as well on this serious safety issue. I've posted a date of june 30 for incident, but actually 3-4 separate times in past 4 months. *jb
Also reported on the 2006 Toyota Rav4
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
Steering column or shaft failure
Excessive oil consumption
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 35 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 powertrain problem happen on the 2006 Toyota Rav4?
Across 26 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 22,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 2,500 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2006 Toyota Rav4?
35 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 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