2010 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER — Complaint #2082168
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:ALTERNATOR/GENERATOR/REGULATOR filed April 11, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2082168 (ODI reference 11654081) concerns a 2010 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER and was filed on April 11, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on April 6, 2025. The vehicle had 185,420 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Colorado based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:alternator/generator/regulator, 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 HIGHLANDER cohort independently describe similar electrical system:alternator/generator/regulator 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 2010 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2010 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving 40 MPH, the vehicle lost automotive power and started to drift to the right side of the road. The brake pedal was depressed, and the vehicle was able to come to a complete stop. The contact mentioned she waited for AAA for roadside assistance. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed alternator needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure but offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 185,420.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2082168 |
| ODI Number | 11654081 |
| Date Filed | April 11, 2025 |
| Failure Date | April 6, 2025 |
| VIN | 5TDEK3EH2AS |
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.