Unclassified problem on the 2008 Toyota Rav4
5 crashes 5 injuries 10 of the 66 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 38 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 2008 Toyota Rav4 report unclassified problem at a median of 82,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 miles, from 38 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 57th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 27,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 101,654 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
21% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 82,500 miles | 103,500 miles | 129,654 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, 5 a crash and 5 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 2008 has 66. 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 rav4 2008. Last year july to august within one month, my rav4 (less than 2 year driving) had happened 2 times engine dead problem during driving, where my vehicle drove down to the hill without any power, specially no brake at all. It was happened one time I was driving, and another time my wife driving. We sent to dealer but I was told there was no error code was found, and was told they communicated with toyota factory. No similar problem was found. We went through arbitration last year. But they said they cannot reduplicate the problem, so I cannot replace the car. But our family is really concerning to continuously drive this car since it is so dangerous, and we have no idea when it will die again during driving. It bothers us a lot, and no problem can be found by services. We just want to replace this car.
Problem with my 2008 toyota rav-4. The air bag sensor light comes on randomly while driving and after starting the car and stays on. Owners manual says to take to dealer immediately. I was told by one toyota dealership that this means the air bag is disabled, but no local dealer will be able to get me in right away. If this is as potentially serious as it sounds, I wish they would take it more seriously. I took first available appt, but it seems like this is a common problem, looking at rav-4 forums. *tr
Air bag ecu on 2008 rav4 needs replacing . Starting at 52000 miles dashboard airbag warning light would randomly come on. Recently it would stay on (82000 miles), after dealer inspection it was declared that a new airbag ecu is needed at a cost of $670. *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
This page is kept out of search results because 66 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 66 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 2008 Toyota Rav4?
Across 38 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 82,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 102,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2008 Toyota Rav4?
66 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 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