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Toyota · NHTSA safety record

2015 Toyota Tacoma

Every safety complaint, recall and defect investigation the US government holds on this vehicle.

100

Complaints

15

Crashes

2

Fires

11

Injuries

0

Deaths

Owners of the 2015 Toyota Tacoma have filed 100 safety complaints with NHTSA between December 2014 and June 2026. The most complained-about system is the body structure, named in 14 of them (14%). The typical failure was reported at 10,000 miles, the median across the 63 complaints that gave an odometer reading.

NHTSA has issued 4 recalls covering this vehicle.

Recalls (4)

STRUCTURE:BODY:HOOD:HINGE AND ATTACHMENTS

17V425000 · July 3, 2017

The defect
Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC (SET) is recalling certain 2011-2016 Toyota Tacoma and 4Runner vehicles equipped with accessory hood scoops installed by SET or SET dealers. The adhesive attaching the hood scoop may weaken, allowing the hood scoop to detach from the vehicle.
The risk
If the hood scoop detaches, it may become a road hazard, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
SET will notify owners, and dealers will mechanically fasten the scoop to the hood, free of charge. The recall began on September 1, 2017. Owners may contact SET customer service at 1-954-429-2000. SET's number for this recall is SET17B.

Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC · up to 3,547 vehicles across all model years covered

TIRES

15V099000 · February 23, 2015

The defect
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing (Toyota) is recalling certain model year 2015 Tacoma pickup trucks manufactured August 7, 2014, to December 22, 2014. The affected vehicles may have had their tires and wheels changed to TRD PRO accessory tires and wheels, causing the inflation information on the tire placard to be incorrect which may result in the tire being improperly inflated. As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 110, "Tire Selection and Rims and Motor Home/Recreation Vehicle Trailer Load Carrying Capacity Information for Motor Vehicles with a GVWR of 4,536 kilograms (10,000 pounds) or less."
The risk
Improperly inflated tires may increase the risk of a vehicle crash.
The remedy
Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will send a revised tire placard with correct tire size and inflation information to owners, free of charge. The recall began March 13, 2015. Owners may contact Toyota customer service at 1-800-331-4331.

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing · up to 18 vehicles across all model years covered

EQUIPMENT

14V828000 · December 30, 2014

The defect
Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC (SET) is recalling certain model year 2014-2015 Toyota 4Runner, Tacoma, FJ Cruiser, Land Cruiser, RAV4, Scion FRS, and XB vehicles. The affected vehicles may have accessories installed by SET, such as running boards or other items, that were incorrectly installed. The accessory attaching fasteners were not tightened with the proper torque, possibly causing the accessory to detach from the vehicle.
The risk
Accessories that detach from a vehicle may result in a vehicle crash and/or personal injury.
The remedy
SET will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and tighten the affected bolts, free of charge. The recall began February 23, 2015. Owners may contact SET customer service at 1-866-405-4226. SET's number for this recall is SET-14B.

Southeast Toyota Distributors, LLC · up to 3,958 vehicles across all model years covered

EQUIPMENT:OTHER:LABELS

14V663000 · October 22, 2014

The defect
Gulf States Toyota, Inc. (Gulf States) is recalling certain model year 2015 Toyota Tacoma vehicles manufactured September 2, 2014, to October 15, 2014. The affected vehicles may contain an incorrect Load Carrying Capacity Modification Label. As a result, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 110, "Tire Selection and Rims for Passenger Cars."
The risk
An incorrect label may result in the vehicle being overloaded, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Gulf States has notified owners, and dealers will install an accurate label, free of charge. The recall began December 1, 2014. Owners may contact Gulf States customer service at 1-800-444-1074.

Gulf States Toyota, Inc. · up to 142 vehicles across all model years covered

Defect investigations (1)

An investigation means NHTSA has decided a pattern is worth examining. A preliminary evaluation is often closed with no action; an engineering analysis is the stage that usually precedes a recall.

Electrical overstress

EA19001

Closed engineering analysis · opened April 19, 2019 · closed September 19, 2024 · led to recall 20V024

the air bags

The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened this investigation to determine if the failure of airbags to deploy during severe crashes, in certain vehicles, was the result of a safety related defect.  During the investigation a complex failure was studied that can result in non-deployment of subject vehicle air bags and other restraint system devices in severe crash events. The subject vehicles may be equipped with an airbag control unit (ACU) for the supplemental restraint system (SRS) Electronic Control Unit (ECU) manufactured by ZF-TRW.  The ECU receives signals from crash sensors mounted in the vehicle and deploys the vehicle air bags and seat belt pretensioners in accordance with manufacturer design specifications.  The ECU in the subject vehicles contains a model DS84 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) which controls the communication of the crash sensor signal, firing commands (i.e., when to deploy the airbag(s) and/or pretensioners), and fault information (e.g., diagnostic trouble codes). In September 2016, FCA announced recall 16V-668 for certain model year (MY) 2010 to 2014 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep products manufactured with the subject ZF-TRW ACU.  In this recall, FCA discussed an EOS condition that resulted in a failure of the subject DS84 ASIC, which caused air bag non-deployment.  FCA noted that the defect condition had only been observed in vehicles equipped with sensor harnessing routed across the front of the vehicle.  Other FCA vehicles that also used the subject ACU, but were not equipped with cross-car harnessing, had not experienced EOS failures, despite similar time in service. During the course of this investigation, ODI sent two separate Information Request (IR) letters to six vehicle manufactures (including FCA, Hyundai, Honda, Kia, Mitsubishi, and Toyota) and one IR letter to ZF-TRW.  These IR letters resulted in ODI receiving comprehensive data from these manufacturers and suppliers. Studies of this data found that the DS84 ASIC does not have sufficient protection against negative electrical transients or electrical overstress (“EOS”) that can be generated in certain severe crashes.  An electrical transient occurs when the electrical power supplied to a circuit changes momentarily over a short duration of time.   In these severe crash cases, the crash sensors and other powered wiring can be damaged and short circuited so as to create a negative electrical transient of sufficient intensity and duration (that are outside the vehicle manufacturer's specification) to damage the ASIC before the restraint device deployment signal is received by the SRS ECU.  This damaged signal can lead to incomplete or nondeployment of the air bags and/or pretensioners.  Airbag non-deployment and/or lack of pretensioner operation can increase the risk or severity of injury in a crash.A total of 8 fatalities and 14 injuries were associated with known EOS events. The common element in all investigated manufacturers vehicles is the SRS ECU containing a DS84 ASIC manufactured by ZF-TRW.  The risk associated with the ASIC is equally shared among all OEMS involved in the investigation.  The actual real-world risk can be mitigated by other factors which were assessed by ODI during this investigation. The first mitigating factor involves protections built into the ACU design which protect the DS84 ASIC from damage.  There are multiple strategies and levels of protection employed by different OEMs that provide effective EOS mitigation.  The two most common strategies at the ACU level are circuit protection diodes on the remote senor signal lines, and current limiting resistors that protect critical components. The second mitigating factor is found at the vehicle level and involves the location and routing of the wires leading from the crash sensors to the SRS ECU.  If the wires are well protected in a crash and are not routed with other power wires carrying large currents, the risk for an EOS event is significantly reduced or eliminated. These design specific factors combine to produce a spectrum of risk for the vehicles equipped with ACUs using the DS84 ASIC.  Given the many of years of field exposure, it is possible to divide the subject population into two groups; vehicles which have experienced EOS events, and vehicles which have not experienced EOS field events. Four of the six OEMs involved in this investigation have experienced EOS field events on at least one of their models equipped with a DS84 ASIC.  All vehicle models (including the Toyota models identified in the Failure Report Summary of the opening resume for this investigation) with field events have been recalled.  In an abundance of caution, ODI kept this investigation open five years to monitor field performance and did not identify any field events on vehicles not included in existing safety recalls. Given the spectrum of risk identified in this investigation and that all vehicles with a demonstrated unreasonable risk have been recalled, ODI is closing this investigation. ODI is closing this investigation with the following manufacturer safety recalls: 16V-668, 18E-043, 18V-137, 18V-363, and 20V-024.  With the recall actions taken by the subject vehicle and equipment manufacturers, this investigation is closed. The closing of this investigation does not constitute a finding by NHTSA that a safety-related defect does not exists on other model or model year vehicles outside of the recall scopes. The agency reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances.

What owners report

Complaints naming each system. One complaint can name several, so these add up to more than 100.

UNKNOWN OR OTHER 28 28%
STRUCTURE 14 14%
ENGINE 12 12%
AIR BAGS 11 11%
SERVICE BRAKES 11 11%
POWER TRAIN 9 9%
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 9 9%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 8 8%
VISIBILITY/WIPER 7 7%
WHEELS 6 6%
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 5 5%
STEERING 4 4%

When the complaints arrived

By the year NHTSA received them, which is not the year the failures happened. They peaked in 2016 at 19.

2014 2016 2026
2014 to 2026, the last of them a part year

In owners' own words

Quoted from NHTSA's complaint file. These are unverified accounts by the people who filed them, not findings of fault.

UNKNOWN OR OTHER

1 injured · fire

TOYOTA TACOMA. CONSUMER WRITES IN REGARD TO AN AUTO ACCIDENT CAUSING THE VEHICLE TO CATCH FIRE. THE CONSUMER WENT TO THE TRUCK TO GET SOME PAPERS AND WHEN OPENING THE PASSENGER DOOR THE TRUCK EXPLODED IN FLAMES IN WHICH THE CONSUMER SUFFERED 8 DEGREE BURNS AFTER BEING PARKED FOR 3 HOURS.

NHTSA complaint 11503555. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS

1 injured · crash · towed · 12,000 miles

TAKATA RECALL -- I WAS INVOLVED IN A FRONT END AUTO COLLISION YESTERDAY, I WAS GOING ON SPEEDS IN EXCESS OF 45MPH WHEN I STRUCK A CAR THAT HAD CUT ME OFF, MY CAR BECAME COMPLETELY INOPERABLE. THE AIRBAGS HAD NOT DEPLOYED WHICH MAKES ME FEEL THERE IS A SAFETY ISSUE INVOLVED WITH THE VEHICLE. THE VEHICLE I HAD STRUCK WAS GOING ROUGHLY 10MPH. THE FRAMING OF MY CAR IS COMPLETELY BEND AND MOST OF THE FORCE WAS EXCRETED TOWARDS THE ENGINE ON THE PASSENGER SIDE OF THE MY 2015 TACOMA.

NHTSA complaint 10820461. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

1 injured · crash · towed · 15,500 miles

OUR 2015 TOYOTA TACOMA PRERUNNER'S STEERING LOCKED UP JUST AS THOUGH THE IGNITION WAS TURNED OFF, AT 45 MPH, CAUSING THE TRUCK TO VEER LEFT INTO ON COMING TRAFFIC, CAUSING A HEAD ON COLLUSION WITH A SEMI TRUCK. TOYOTA INSPECTED THE TRUCK AFTER ACCIDENT AND SAID THEY COULD NOT FIND ANY PROBLEMS, AND THAT IGNITION KEY TURNED AND STEERING WORKED NORMALLY, BUT THERE WAS NO DRIVERS WHEEL,RIM, LINKAGE, OR FENDER. TOYOTA'S LEGAL DEPARTMENT TOLD ME THAT THEY WERE NOT GOING TO LOOK INTO THIS ANYMORE. THIS WAS A GOOD 2 LANE ROAD IN GOOD WEATHER AT 1 PM IN THE AFTERNOON. MY 28 YEAR OLD STEP SON WAS DRIVING AND HAS HEAD, NECK AND BACK INJURIES DUE TO THIS PROBLEM AND TOYOTA DOES NOT SEEM TO CARE ABOUT

NHTSA complaint 10934070, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS

1 injured · crash · towed · 130,000 miles

WHILE TRAVELING APPROXIMATELY 60 MPH, I COLLIDED INTO A LARGE FREE RANGE ANIMAL IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD. UPON IMPACT NONE OF MY AIRBAGS DEPLOYED AND AS A RESULT I SUFFERED LIFE THREATENING INJURIES, WAS FLOWN TO THE NEAREST HOSPITAL AND HAD OPEN HEART SURGERY TO REPAIR MY AORTA WHICH RUPTURED UPON IMPACT. DUE TO COMPLICATIONS FROM THE SURGERY I HAD TO UNDERGO A SECOND MAJOR SURGERY IN MAY OF 2019, AND AM CURRENTLY RECOVERING. MY PASSENGERS ONLY SUFFERED MINOR INJURIES.

NHTSA complaint 11266799. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The key fob separate from the key dangles while driving and with manual seats there is no way to adjust the seat up or down and while accelerating or braking, while moving leg and foot the knee hits the key fob and causes the key to turn while driving leading to a hazardous safety condition, Toyota needs to integrate the key fob into the key so nothing is dangling to get hit by the knee and knock key out of position

NHTSA complaint 11745598. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

fire · 42,000 miles

The contact owns a 2015 Toyota Tacoma. The contact stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, the contact noticed an unusual burning odor in the interior of the vehicle. The contact's wife, who was seated in the front passenger's seat, noticed a fire in the power switch area of the rear driver's door. The contact then parked the vehicle. The contact extinguished the fire with a jug of water that was in the vehicle. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired by an independent mechanic or dealer. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was filed. In addition, the manufacturer requested an inspection of the vehicle. The failure mileage was approximately 42,000.

NHTSA complaint 11741529. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS

1 injured · crash · towed

Was in a serious accident while driving and rear ended another vehicle and my airbags did not deploy. Serious front end damage resulting in a total loss of my Tacoma. Shocked airbags did not deploy. Definitely should have.

NHTSA complaint 11735954. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS
Purchased this vehicle used from dealership after reviewing the carfax and receiving reassurance from dealer that airbags were never deployed. 4 days after purchase passenger window needed to be reset into the track and upon removing plastic around front pillars, discovered vehicle had airbags cut out of it. Also found other SRS components of vehicle tampered with or non functional.

NHTSA complaint 11735437. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Severe premature paint failure on hood, roof, & cab of 2015 Toyota Tacoma. Paint has completely oxidized and failed, exposing underlying surface. This appears consistent with a broader pattern of paint defects reported by other Toyota owners. Manufacturer has declined coverage despite the failure being clearly beyond normal wear.

NHTSA complaint 11732802. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN
Driving around a winding turn incline , tacoma hesitated at 40 mph while going down incline. Tacoma rpms fluctuates at 40 mph as if the engine is having difficulty accelerating. You can hear the engine stalling or shuttering to catch up to speed. This is occurred driving at a steady 40mph. The Tacoma seems to be stalling out at a certain speed limit and rpm at 40 mph. It only has this symptom at 40 mph going down an incline. This is dangerous and there were vehicles behind me traveling at the same speed going around a winding turn incline. This could of caused a pile up because of the tacoma struggling to maintain speed and accelerate to keep speed. Ive taken this tacoma to Nalley dealer

NHTSA complaint 11724425, quoted in part. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Compare

Other years of the Toyota Tacoma

Model year Complaints Recalls Deaths
2025 82 5 1
2024 142 5
2023 52 4
2022 57 3
2021 78 0 1
2020 86 1
2019 212 4
2018 202 3
2017 237 5
2016 323 4
2014 93 4
2013 124 6
2012 294 7
2011 185 9 2
2010 291 13

Other 2015 Toyota models

Every Toyota on this site — 272 vehicles, 370 recall campaigns and 3 open investigation s.

If this is your car and a dealer keeps failing to fix it, your state's lemon law may require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. What each state asks for , read from the statutes.

Where these numbers come from

A complaint is one owner's account and has not been verified by NHTSA or by us. A vehicle with more complaints is not necessarily worse: models that sold in larger numbers collect more of them. How this is counted.

Compiled and maintained by
Independent developer and analyst