2004 TOYOTA TACOMA — Complaint #1472171
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SUSPENSION:FRONT:CONTROL ARM:UPPER BALL JOINT filed May 30, 2018
NHTSA complaint #1472171 (ODI reference 11098861) concerns a 2004 TOYOTA TACOMA and was filed on May 30, 2018. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 22, 2018. The vehicle had 158,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Arizona based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as suspension:front:control arm:upper ball joint, 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 TACOMA cohort independently describe similar suspension:front:control arm:upper ball joint 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 2004 TOYOTA TACOMA shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2004 TOYOTA TACOMA. WHILE DRIVING APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH, THE FRONT DRIVER SIDE BALL JOINT FRACTURED. THE CONTACT LOST THE ABILITY TO STEER AND BRAKE, AND LOST CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO PULL OFF THE ROADWAY AND STOP THE VEHICLE. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO SIERRA TOYOTA (2596 E FRY BLVD, SIERRA VISTA, AZ 85635, (520) 458-8880) WHERE IT WAS DIAGNOSED THAT THE BALL JOINT FRACTURED AND NEEDED REPLACEMENT. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOT MADE AWARE OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS APPROXIMATELY 158,000. *TT
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1472171 |
| ODI Number | 11098861 |
| Date Filed | May 30, 2018 |
| Failure Date | May 22, 2018 |
| VIN | 5TEGN92N74Z |
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.