Unclassified problem on the 1998 Toyota Camry
20 crashes 3 fires 16 injuries 39 of the 57 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
Only 14 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When unclassified problem gets reported
Owners of the 1998 Toyota Camry report unclassified problem at a median of 125,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles, from 14 reports that carried an odometer reading.
It is the 61st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 50,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 150,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 100,903 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50,697 miles | 78,599 miles | 123,812 miles | 130,000 miles | 151,600 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 20 a crash, 3 a fire and 16 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 28 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 125,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 281; the 1998 has 57. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
When driving at any speed air bag warning light appeared on the dashboard. *ak the consumer contacted the dealer but was told that since the warranty was expired it would cost $90 just to test the system. *nm
Dt: the consumer was attempting to brake when he realized that something was obstructing the pedal. He managed to release the obstruction and pulled over to see what it was . It appeared to be a piece of the air duct which somehow came loose. The consumer took the part to the dealer so they could determine what it was and where it came from. The dealer determined that the part wasn't vital to the operation of the vehicle therefore the consumer didn't have it replaced/fixed. The consumer has the part in his possession. *ak *nm
This description is in reference to a continuing mechanical error that has affected my 1998 toyota camry le and the terrible way my situation has been dealt with by toyota customer service. To summarize, after a routine check of my engine oil level on october 28th, 2004, I discovered that the bottom 1- inches of the engine oil dip stick had broken off. The piece was nowhere to be found and I immediately became concerned as to its whereabouts. At that time, I visited my local toyota service center and contacted the service manager after explaining to them the situation, they said there was no way to determine how the break originated. Upon further inspection of the dip stick under a microscope it was obvious there was a clean break on the metal. This ruled out a bending of the dip stick, and could only mean the metal broke off by rubbing against another part of the engine, which was my immediate concern. On september 15th, I contacted the customer center to make them aware of my continued concern. We agreed that obviously if the dip stick would be found, the customer (myself), would not be responsible for any of the labor, as I was…
Also reported on the 1998 Toyota Camry
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other body or interior problem
Other suspension problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 57 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 57 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does unclassified problem happen on the 1998 Toyota Camry?
Across 14 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 125,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 130,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is unclassified problem on the 1998 Toyota Camry?
57 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.6 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed