Vehicle Data Hub

2008 Toyota Highlander air bags problems

59 complaints about air bags have been filed for the 2008 Toyota Highlander, which is 12% of all its NHTSA complaints. It is the 3rd most reported problem area for this model year.

At a glance

Complaints
59 12% of this year's complaints
Typical mileage
78,000 miles 45 complaints with mileage
Crashes and fires
13 and 0
Injuries and deaths
21 and 0

Source: NHTSA owner complaints

When air bags problems show up

Air bags complaints by mileage, 2008 Toyota Highlander Complaints by odometer reading in 20,000-mile steps. The median is about 78,000 miles. 0k to 20k miles: 1 complaints 20k to 40k miles: 2 complaints 40k to 60k miles: 4 complaints 60k to 80k miles: 16 complaints 80k to 100k miles: 11 complaints 100k to 120k miles: 5 complaints 120k to 140k miles: 4 complaints 140k to 160k miles: 1 complaints 160k to 180k miles: 0 complaints 180k to 200k miles: 1 complaints 200k+ miles: 0 complaints 040k80k120k160k200k miles Typical: 78,000 miles
Based on 45 complaints that include mileage. 16% were reported before 60,000 miles. The amber marker shows the median: half of these complaints happened before that mileage.
View the numbers
MileageComplaints
0k to 20k miles1
20k to 40k miles2
40k to 60k miles4
60k to 80k miles16
80k to 100k miles11
100k to 120k miles5
120k to 140k miles4
140k to 160k miles1
160k to 180k miles0
180k to 200k miles1
200k+ miles0

What the data shows

Of the 45 air bags complaints that report mileage, the median is about 78,000 miles, and 16% were reported before 60,000 miles.

These complaints mention 13 crashes, 21 injuries.

What owners wrote

While driving down highway 17 south towards santa cruz, california on a raining wednesday morning, I suddenly felt my vehicle loosing control in a slippery downhill highway and I hit the center divider with the left front of vehicle and car spun multiple times and hitting the left rear bumper to the wall facing the oncoming traffic. There are 4 of us in the vehicle all wearing seat belts and suffered injuries. The airbags did not deploy and the antilock brake system did not activate.

Reported at 72,000 miles, March 2014 CrashInjury

While driving, the air bag light came on and stayed on. After taking it to a toyota dealer, it was diagnosed as a spiral cable assembly malfunction. This issue has been the subject of recall for 2008 tacomas, camrys and venzas, but not the highlander. It is a $450 expense. It seems to me if toyota has recalled the part on other models in the same year, it should consider recalling it for the highlander.

Reported at 85,000 miles, May 2013

Other problems reported for the 2008 Toyota Highlander

Air bags problems in other years

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Air bags problems across all Toyota models