Loss of braking on the 2000 Toyota Tundra
3 crashes 2 injuries 5 of the 29 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Toyota Tundra report loss of braking at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 9th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 60,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 60,000 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
10% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 58,000 miles | 60,992 miles | 81,500 miles | 111,000 miles | 118,000 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, 3 a crash and 2 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.
Putting it right typically runs $400–$3,000 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2016, at a median of 600 miles, and latest on the 2003 at 170,000 miles.
By volume the 2000 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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 severe vibration in the vehicle when braking from 30 MPH or higher. I had the brakes replaced and rotors resurfaced. The vibration reappears within a matter of days. An ase mechanic did all the work and used original toyota parts. The last time I took the vehicle for repair, I was advised that my calipers were the culprit and that it would cost nearly $1,000 to replace them. I took the vehicle to my dealer for warranty service on this item since the truck had under 60,000 miles. The dealer stated that the warranty had expired and that I would need to pay for complete system replacement. I have never owned a vehicle where the brake system needed replacement with 50,000 miles. My research has revealed many other people with the same problem. I believe this to be a major safety concern that needs to be addressed before someone is seriously injured or killed due to brake failure. *jb
Repeated problems with brake vibration on 2000 toyota tundra. Repairs completed per tsb's by toyota dealership in 2001 under warranty. Brake vibration problem returned less than 15,000 miles later. This is a very serious problem that affects the performance of the brakes. This should be a recall effort by toyota before someone is injured due to brake failure. *la
Dt:the contact owned a 2000 toyota tundra. Ever 15,000 mile brakes had to be replaced, including the rotors twice. The contact stated that vehicle vibrated. The contact was afraid that vehicle will hit somebody because of brake failure. The manufacturer told him that they were aware of the problem. However, they will not do anything because warranty expired. The contact stated he did not haul heavy loads with this vehicle, and could not understand why the brakes failed. Had the brakes replaced five times with only 67,000 miles on the vehicle. The first time contact took the vehicle to dealer he thought it was the tires. *ak *nm
Also reported on the 2000 Toyota Tundra
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Rust or structural corrosion
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 29 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 loss of braking happen on the 2000 Toyota Tundra?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 60,000 miles and a quarter after 110,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2000 Toyota Tundra?
29 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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