Other body or interior problem on the 2008 Toyota Rav4
2 crashes 2 of the 24 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 body or interior problem gets reported
Owners of the 2008 Toyota Rav4 report other body or interior problem at a median of 20,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles, from 16 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,300 miles at the tenth percentile to 80,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 79,063 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.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,250 miles | 8,762 miles | 18,000 miles | 69,620 miles | 81,313 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 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 $200–$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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 27 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2004, at a median of 1,900 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 165,000 miles.
By volume the 2019 carries the most reports, with 67; the 2008 has 24. 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.
Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota rav4. While driving 35 to 45 MPH with both rear windows opened, the air pressure is very strong and unbearable on the contact's ears. A report was filed with the manufacturer, but they stated that no action will be taken at this time. The contact will take the vehicle to the dealer for a diagnosis. The failure mileage was 2,500 and current mileage was 5,300. Updated 09/13/08.*lj updated 09/17/08. *jb
This is my effort to submit a comment on your regulations, not a complaint of an incident. I was directed to this form by lou molina at NHTSA. I am a driver who for health reasons wishes to sit erect. I am not fat, and of normal height (5'6"). This last weekend I purchased a rav4. The headrests intrude intolerably into my head space. In order to sit at my preferred angle and keep my back to the seatback, my head is tilted down so that I must raise my eyes to look over my eyeglasses, or my straight vision is directed to the center of the steering wheel. I trust that these headrests meet your standards. It is my belief that you have engineered this standard for an obese, fat-shouldered person with tight hamstrings, someone who prefers to drive reclined to accommodate his belly and is held away from the seatback by his own padding. My present approach to being able to drive this car is to turn the headrest backwards, and I am fully aware that this deprives me of the neck safety I would have had from an older design of headrest. I would suggest that the comments in section vii of rin 2127-ah09, "specifically, they maintained that…
Rear tire cover 2008 toyota rav4 18" wheels sport edition. Rear tire cover over time (within 6 months) has become loose and has blown off twice, 1 in a car wash and the other while simply driving down the street. Zipper was fully zipped and elastic was covering the bottom of the tire. Unit keeps slowly working itself off until it falls off. Toyota case# 200812200182. Dealer said that this is common for the elastic to deteriorate and expand over time but that this is not considered a defect. Anything that will fall off of your vehicle while traveling at any given speed seems like a defect to me.. *tr
Also reported on the 2008 Toyota Rav4
Excessive oil consumption
Other speed control problem
Other suspension problem
Other engine problem
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 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 body or interior problem happen on the 2008 Toyota Rav4?
Across 16 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 20,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 70,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other body or interior problem on the 2008 Toyota Rav4?
24 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