If you are considering buying a used Toyota Auris, these are the common problems worth knowing about first. Our garage database tracks 6 known faults for this model, 5 of them rated high severity. Every one below is a repair bill a seller has good reason not to mention.
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Check a Toyota Auris advert (free) →The Toyota Auris has 6 known faults in our database across 2 generations, 5 of them rated high severity. The most serious are engine (electrolytic corrosion around cylinder liners causing head gasket seal failure) and engine (EGR cooler blockage leading to localized overheating and head gasket failure). None of them makes the car a bad buy on its own; the risk is a seller who knows and says nothing.
That is a count of the faults we hold, not a reliability score. Popular cars get written about more, and a newer generation has had less time to show its faults.
No year is a write-off on its own. What matters is which serious faults a given year and engine can have, and whether the car in front of you has had them fixed.
Each one is set out in full below, with the symptoms, the typical mileage and a rough repair cost.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
One owner each, in their own words rewritten as a line, and not counted in our risk scoring. A fault joins the list above once a second report or an editorial source backs it.
Sellers rarely admit these faults outright
We track 16 specific phrases sellers use in adverts to soft-pedal these exact issues. Paste any Toyota Auris advert and we check it in seconds.
Check an advert now (free) →Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. These are the 16 DVSA recalls for the Auris, newest first. They do not tell you whether this particular car has had the work: for that, put the registration into the free GOV.UK MOT history check, which shows a recall status where the manufacturer shares it, or ask a franchised dealer to check the VIN.
For certain vehicles that were affected by a previous campaign announced in October 2023 for high-pressure fuel pump a further check is required to confirm if the correct pump is fitted.
Put right by: A check of the high-pressure fuel pump and replace if necessary.
Affected vehicles are fitted with a high-pressure fuel pump which over time could develop a crack which could lead to a fuel leak and a risk of a vehicle fire.
Put right by: Check and replace high pressure fuel pump if necessary.
The inside of the high-pressure fuel pump may be worn or damaged over time during operation.
Put right by: Inspect* and if necessary replace the high-pressure fuel pump. (*Based on engine variant and/or pump manufacturer/pump serial number.)
A possibility that the Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) cooler could develop an internal coolant leak
Put right by: Replace the EGR cooler in all involved vehicles and if necessary replace the inlet manifold.
Incorrectly installed covers could prevent the seat-mounted side air bag from deploying properly.
Put right by: Inspect the covers installed on the front seats and replace any incorrectly installed covers
An incorrect tightening torque was applied at the moment of injector re-installation.
Put right by: Check the injector clamp bolt torque and replace the parts if necessary.
Possible fuel leak from fuel tank.
Put right by: Replace the fuel tank emission control Canister.
Affected vehicles received a recall remedy in which the replacement inflator may have been installed in an incorrect orientation.This may prevent the front passenger air bag from inflating as intended during deployment as designed.
Put right by: Affected vehicles will have the inflator checked and corrected if it is necessary.
The vehicles are equipped with a fuel evaporative emission control unit (canister) assembled to the fuel tank. There is a possibility that a crack could develop on the resin channel for the emission gas flow due to an improper shape of the channel edge at that location. The crack could expand over time and eventually fuel may leak from the crack when the vehicle has a full tank. Fuel or fuel vapour in the presence of an ignition source could increase the risk of a vehicle fire
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected and replace the fuel suction plate sub-assembly.
Headlamps manufactured to the incorrect specification may have been fitted and not may distribute light correctly.
Put right by: On affected vehicles replace headlamp units.
Affected vehicles are equipped with a drivers side Power Window Master Switch (PWMS) containing sliding electrical contact modules. These modules may not have been incorrectly coated during the manufacturing process. This may cause a short circuit which could cause the switch to overheat and melt
Put right by: Inspect switch and apply coating. If switch indicates signs of malfunction it should be replaced.
The inverter assembly may overheat which will cause warning lamps to illuminate and the vehicle to enter a fail safe mode. Fail safe allows the vehicle to be driven on reduced power to a place of safety. However it is possible for the hybrid system to shut down causing the vehicle to stop which increases the risk of a collision.
Put right by: On affected vehicles reprogramme the Motor Generator and Power Management ECUs.
The subject vehicles are equipped with front passenger airbag inflators which could have been assembled with improperly manufactured propellant wafers. Improperly manufactured propellant wafers could cause the inflator to rupture and the front passenger airbag to deploy abnormally in a crash. This could result in increased risk of injury to the occupant and the possibility of a fire.
Put right by: Recall the vehicles that are likely to be affected to replace the airbag.
Oil may accumulate in the turbo charger and in certain circumstances flow into the combustion chamber. This may cause engine damage. In extreme cases oil can be ejected from the engine and if it comes in contact with an ignition source may result in a fire.
Put right by: Depending vehicle diagnosis modify intercooler layout to improve air flow; upgrade ECU software; upgrade turbo charger and/or vacuum pump
It is possible moisture or other fluids may enter the drivers window and contaminate the main power window switch. If this occurs and the switch is damaged it could overheat and cause it to melt and/or smoke. If this situation is not identified it could result in a vehicle fire.
Put right by: Recall all affected vehicles and check the switch. If the switch is not damaged a waterproof cover will be fitted. If the switch is damaged it will be replaced and a waterproof cover will be fitted.
If the rear suspension arm is adjusted as part of a wheel alignment or other repairs whilst in service it is possible that backlash can occur. This can allow corrosion to develop and cause the threads to deteriorate. Ultimately this could result in failure of the arm with a resultant loss of control of the vehicle.
Put right by: Recall all affected vehicles to check the torque on the arm. Where necessary the arm will be replaced.
Recall data published by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency under the Open Government Licence v3.0. A recall listed here may not apply to every car of this model: the build dates and the registration check are what decide it.
A timing chain has no change interval, which is not the same as lasting for ever. Listen for it on a used Auris, and check the oil has been changed on time. These are the figures UK specialists work to.
The 2.0 D-4D (1AD-FTV) is chain driven with no scheduled replacement, and the chain itself is rarely the failure point. This engine family's real reputation is head gasket failure and progressive oil consumption; Toyota ran piston-replacement campaigns that did not fully cure the oil burning. On an oil-burning example check the level religiously, because a low sump is exactly what starves the chain tensioner. Injector coking is also documented.
Toyota officially treats the WS transaxle fluid as sealed for life with inspection only and no scheduled change, but Toyota dealers and hybrid specialists both recommend a proactive drain and fill at 60,000 miles, within a 60,000-100,000 mile range, roughly halved for taxi or heavy stop-start use. It is about 4 litres of Toyota WS fluid and is cheap insurance for the motor-generators on a high-mileage hybrid. The absence of any fluid change on a 100,000-mile-plus example is worth noting, not treating as a fault.
Always confirm against the vehicle handbook. Intervals vary by engine, and several manufacturers revised theirs after failures in service.
Three stand out. Engine: electrolytic corrosion around cylinder liners causing head gasket seal failure (typically 60000 to 120000 miles). Engine: EGR cooler blockage leading to localized overheating and head gasket failure (typically 100000 to 150000 miles). Gearbox: MMT actuator and ECU failure causing the car to drop into neutral while driving or refuse to select (typically 50000 to 90000 miles). The full list above is grouped by generation, with typical mileage and a rough repair cost for each.
No Toyota Auris year is a write-off, but the Mk1 (E150) (2006 to 2012) carries the most serious faults: engine and gearbox. The Mk2 (E180) (2012 to 2018) has high-severity faults on record too. Year matters less than whether the specific car has had the known fixes, so check the history for them.
Ask the seller about the engine and gearbox faults on this page and whether they have been fixed, with invoices. On the test drive watch for coolant loss, loud metallic 'death rattle' or shaking on cold start and red cog warning light on dashboard. Read the MOT history for repeat advisories, then paste the advert into the free check, which reads it against all 6 known faults before you travel. Check a Toyota Auris advert →
The DVSA lists 16 safety recalls for the Toyota Auris issued between 2012 and 2025. The most recent, from January 2025, is "High-Pressure Fuel Pump replacement on multiple models". Recall work is done by the manufacturer, and GOV.UK says you will not usually have to pay for it. This list is by model, so it cannot tell you whether one particular car has had the work: the free GOV.UK MOT history check shows a recall status from the registration where the manufacturer shares it, and a franchised dealer can check the VIN.
Owners report 48.6 mpg on average across the Toyota Auris engines with data, about 84% of the official combined figure. The gap between official and real-world economy varies a lot by engine, so the Real MPG page lists every engine and generation separately, from 2,018 owner submissions. Toyota Auris Real MPG by engine →
Looking at a Toyota Auris right now? Check the advert before you go and see it.
If you used to check the Honest John “Good & Bad” section before the site closed in 2026, this page is where that information now lives. We rebuilt the Toyota Auris owner-report history from the archived Honest John dataset, added our own research, specialist and owner-club sources and DVSA recall data, and we keep it free. Each fault above is badged with its source. The same data feeds our free advert check, which reads a listing against every known fault for the exact engine and year.
CarAdCheck is not affiliated with Honest John or Volkswagen Financial Services. What happened to Honest John, and where each feature lives now.
Knowing what a Toyota Auris goes wrong with is half of it. The rest is reading the advert and checking the car's history before you hand any money over.