Loss of braking on the 2001 Toyota Tundra
6 crashes 2 injuries 8 of the 10 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 2001 Toyota Tundra report loss of braking at a median of 100,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 175,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 14th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 85,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 190,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 105,492 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85,800 miles | 91,980 miles | 100,000 miles | 175,251 miles | 191,292 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, 6 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 carries the most reports, with 29; the 2001 has 10. 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 bought my 2001 toyota tundra in febuary of 2005. When ide bought the brakes where in good shape. After just 3 months of driving my truck started shaking violently when applying the brakes at higher speeds (30-55mph). I took it to a mechanic and he said that the brakes were shot and that the rotors were in need of turning. I proceeded with the repairs and was back on the road again till two nights ago. My family and I were coming home after sunset when a cow darted out in the middle of the road. I acted quickly and veired only to find that the brakes didnt work causing me to loose control of my truck. I was able to regain control by knowing the proper procedures from a defensive driving course ide taken when my occupation was as a firefighter but I still came in contact with the animal in the road due to the brake failure. Ive since taken the truck back to my mechanic and the brakes and rotors are shot once again. He said the exceedingly rapid ware of the brakes and rotors came from a malfunction on the rear brakes which in turn causes over strain on the front brakes resulting in premature break failure. Ive searched the internet…
I bought my 2001 toyota tundra in febuary of 2005. When ide bought the brakes where in good shape. After just 3 months of driving my truck started shaking violently when applying the brakes at higher speeds (30-55mph). I took it to a mechanic and he said that the brakes were shot and that the rotors were in need of turning. I proceeded with the repairs and was back on the road again till two nights ago. My family and I were coming home after sunset when a cow darted out in the middle of the road. I acted quickly and veired only to find that the brakes didnt work causing me to loose control of my truck. I was able to regain control by knowing the proper procedures from a defensive driving course ide taken when my occupation was as a firefighter but I still came in contact with the animal in the road due to the brake failure. Ive since taken the truck back to my mechanic and the brakes and rotors are shot once again. He said the exceedingly rapid ware of the brakes and rotors came from a malfunction on the rear brakes which in turn causes over strain on the front brakes resulting in premature break failure. Ive searched the internet…
On 10/14/09 while driving on la 15 the left front ball joint came apart on my 2001 toyota tundra pickup. There was no warning, just a loud bang leading me to believe, at first, I had a blowout. What followed next was a loss of control and brake failure before I spun out on the side of the road and came to a stop. Luckily I was unhurt. I know there was a recall on the 2002-2004 vehicles but I am more than a little sure something is wrong here too. *tr
Also reported on the 2001 Toyota Tundra
Rust or structural corrosion
Other body or interior problem
Other brake problem
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Premature brake pad or rotor wear
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 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 2001 Toyota Tundra?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 100,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 90,000 miles and a quarter after 175,000 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 2001 Toyota Tundra?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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