2003 TOYOTA TUNDRA — Complaint #1324246
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about STEERING:HYDRAULIC POWER ASSIST:HOSE, PIPING, AND CONNECTIONS filed October 8, 2016
NHTSA complaint #1324246 (ODI reference 10914885) concerns a 2003 TOYOTA TUNDRA and was filed on October 8, 2016. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 2, 2016. The vehicle had 79,962 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Ohio based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as steering:hydraulic power assist:hose, piping, and connections, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA TUNDRA cohort independently describe similar steering:hydraulic power assist:hose, piping, and connections failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2003 TOYOTA TUNDRA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I AM A RETIRED TOYOTA MASTER DIAGNOSTIC TECHNICIAN. I HAD TO REPLACE MY REAR BRAKE LINES ON MY 2003 TUNDRA-WITH 79,962 MILES. THE REAR BRAKE LINES HAVE RUSTED THROUGH WHICH HAD TO BE REPLACED- AT MY EXPENSE. MY BRAKES FAILED AS I WAS TOWING A TRAILER IN HEAVY, CITY TRAFFIC. I WAS GOING 35MPH WHEN A VEHICLE PULLED OUT IN FRONT OF ME AND THEN PROCEEDED TO STOP SUDDENLY TO MAKE A LEFT TURN INTO A PARKING LOT. I SLAMMED ON THE BRAKES AND THE PEDAL WENT TO THE FLOOR. I WAS LUCKY THERE WAS ROOM TO MANEUVER TO THE RIGHT SO I WAS ABLE TO AVOID HITTING THE VEHICLE IN FRONT OF ME. I'M SURE THERE HAVE BEEN THOSE LESS FORTUNATE. THEN, AS I WAS REPLACING THE LINES, I SAW A FLUID LEAK UNDER REAR OF VEHICLE. UPON INSPECTION I FOUND THE REAR DIFFERENTIAL HOUSING HAS RUSTED SO BADLY THAT THE GEAR OIL IS LEAKING THROUGH THE HOUSING. UNFORTUNATELY THE ONLY REMEDY IS THE REPLACEMENT OF THE COMPLETE REAR AXLE/DIFFERENTIAL ASSEMBLY. ALSO THE POWER STEERING LINES HAVE ALSO RUSTED THROUGH WHICH ALSO HAD TO
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1324246 |
| ODI Number | 10914885 |
| Date Filed | October 8, 2016 |
| Failure Date | October 2, 2016 |
| VIN | 4T3KT441435 |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.