Unclassified problem on the 2009 Toyota Rav4
8 crashes 3 injuries 11 of the 28 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 10 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 2009 Toyota Rav4 report unclassified problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 48th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 900 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 108,249 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.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 935 miles | 9,000 miles | 44,686 miles | 74,417 miles | 109,184 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, 8 a crash and 3 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 2009 has 28. 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.
An emergency stop from highway speeds (65 MPH) on hot (85+f) dry pavement resulted in a significantly less than expected braking capacity. Best guess is that the traction control system throttled back available braking capacity. Brake pedal can be pushed to the floor at will but the traction control system takes over braking. The brakes cannot be immediately released and additional pressure (braking) cannot be applied. *tr
Occasionally the car will try to accelerate, when the foot is on the brake off the accelerator. This has happened at least four times since purchasing this new vehicle in sept. Of 2009. *tr
Tl*the contact owns a 2009 toyota rav4. While driving approximately 5 MPH, the contact depressed the brake pedal and upon release, the vehicle suddenly accelerated causing a crash. None of the air bags deployed and the contact was injured. A police report was filed. The vehicle was towed but had not been inspected when the complaint was filed. The current and failure mileages were approximately 18,000. Updated 06/10/10 *bf updated 08/06/10*jb
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Rav4
Other speed control problem
Other suspension problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Other powertrain problem
Other body or interior problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 28 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 28 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 2009 Toyota Rav4?
Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 2009 Toyota Rav4?
28 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