CarComplaints.com Notes: Beware of the NHTSA complaint data for the 2007 Corolla. It is almost certainly misleading.
The problem with NHTSA data for the 2007 Corolla is that for months on end, the news media repeatedly told the public that several Toyota models have an unintended acceleration defect, & to go to safercar.gov (the NHTSA's website) to file a complaint.
So, the NHTSA received a disproportionate number of complaints about Toyota unintended acceleration issues because of the national news media attention, to the point where now the NHTSA data is unreliable taken in context with any other vehicle that did not receive national news attention.
CarComplaints.com typically receives more complaints per day about vehicles than the NHTSA does, but the news media did not repeatedly say "go to CarComplaints.com to report your Toyota acceleration problems" like they did about the NHTSA -- so although we have less complaint data than the NHTSA for the 2007 Corolla, our data for the Corolla is a far more statistically accurate representation of the Corolla's reliability than what the NHTSA data shows.
My wife complained of noise coming from rear of car. I test drove it and it sounded like a brake hanging in the rear. I pulled the drum and discovered one of the tension springs that controls the auto-adjuster was missing. After careful checking I found it lying in the bottom of the brake assembly which was causing the noise. I removed and cleaned the brakes and replaced the spring and adjusted the rear brakes manually this resolved the problem for a while.
In about 6 months they started making noise again and I removed the drums, springs were in place? I cleaned and replaced drums and suggested my wife get rid of the car, in my opinion the rear drum brake self adjust mechanism is poorly designed on the 2007 Corolla Sport model. I don't know if other models use the same design on rear brakes. Front brakes, though I have replaced twice, seem to work correctly.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
My wife complained of noise coming from rear of car. I test drove it and it sounded like a brake hanging in the rear. I pulled the drum and discovered one of the tension springs that controls the auto-adjuster was missing. After careful checking I found it lying in the bottom of the brake assembly which was causing the noise. I removed and cleaned the brakes and replaced the spring and adjusted the rear brakes manually this resolved the problem for a while.
In about 6 months they started making noise again and I removed the drums, springs were in place? I cleaned and replaced drums and suggested my wife get rid of the car, in my opinion the rear drum brake self adjust mechanism is poorly designed on the 2007 Corolla Sport model. I don't know if other models use the same design on rear brakes. Front brakes, though I have replaced twice, seem to work correctly.
- Mark C., Belle Vernon, PA, US