Brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2000 Toyota Tundra
When brake line, hose or caliper failure gets reported
Owners of the 2000 Toyota Tundra report brake line, hose or caliper failure at a median of 110,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles, from 20 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 115,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 80,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 190,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 108,700 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 79,600 miles | 94,500 miles | 109,500 miles | 165,000 miles | 188,300 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
Putting it right typically runs $250–$1,600 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 8 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 200,000 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 lost my brakes. I had the 2000 tundra towed to our mechanic and they called and said the entire frame from the driver's seat to beyond the shocks was totally rusted and cracked ! They said it was not drivable. I called the irwin zone in laconia nh and they offered to help, we took the truck down they took pictures and then the gave me a official inspection form to sign saying they were not responsible for me driving the vehicle off the lot. The form said the car is not to be driven. Tech inspected and wrote this invoice #547395 "frame has a hole on frame at lt wheel area,also has crossmember separation at frame on lr and has caused damaged to the brake line. We strongly recommend vehicle not be driven, customer takes vehicle at own risk and responsibility. #119848 frame cracked and rusted bad. Not safe to drive." toyota said there was nothing they could do because there is not a recall on the tundra. I have contacted the attorney general complaint dept. And a lawyer. I cannot drive my car or even sell it as it is. Looking for help with this manufacturer defect. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2000 toyota tundra. The frame had corrosion, and the brake line needed to be replaced. Since the warranty expired he paid a local mechanic to make the repairs. The manufacturer was notified, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 61,000.
I found holes in the frame of my 2000 toyota tundra in 2007 and immediately brought it to toyota. They said it wasn't covered under warranty but to watch it and it wasn't a big issue to have a little rust (this was during the tacoma recall). Sept of 2008 I brought the truck in again since the rust was even worse they said again not a big issue but to keep an eye on it. In september of 2009 I was changing the oil and I saw that the front sway bar mount had totally rusted through and had fallen off - immediately called toyota corp - they said there is nothing they can do. My issue is that they have told me all along that this is not a big deal! But now its a safety issue ! It has since taken out a power steering line and there is a brake line that has been ruptured as well. Now that the truck is worth nothing I want toyota to help me out. They told me it wasn't an issue, I believed them, now my truck is worthless! And the truck only has 130000 miles on it! This is nothing compared to all my other toyota trucks... *tr
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 22 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 brake line, hose or caliper failure happen on the 2000 Toyota Tundra?
Across 20 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 110,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 95,000 miles and a quarter after 165,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is brake line, hose or caliper failure on the 2000 Toyota Tundra?
22 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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