Airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 1999 Toyota Camry
23 crashes 14 injuries 37 of the 24 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.
When airbag failed to deploy in a crash gets reported
Owners of the 1999 Toyota Camry report airbag failed to deploy in a crash at a median of 30,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 75,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 64,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
56% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13,000 miles | 30,000 miles | 30,000 miles | 74,500 miles | 77,200 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, 23 a crash and 14 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.
Putting it right typically runs $1,000–$5,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2018, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1996 at 200,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 35; the 1999 has 24. 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.
While driving at 25 MPH, the consumer fell asleep behind the wheel. The consumer lost control of the vehicle and struck another vehicle, then collided with a street light pole and subsequently the air bags did not deploy. The consumer broke her sternum and was hospitalized for a week. The consumer also had a grandson in the vehicle that broke two fingers in the accident. The police did arrive, but the consumer was not cited. The manufacturer and the dealer are aware of the problem. *jb
Complaint via e-mail. Had learned that NHTSA investigated sudden acceleration in the 2002 and 2003 toyota camry. I experienced this effect recently with my 1999 camry. The incident took place inside the garage of my apartment building. Although no injuries occurred, my car and another car suffered some body damage. I took the car to a toyota service center , but the technicians were unable to find anything that would explain the sudden acceleration. *ak the consumer was backing into his parking space when the vehicle suddenly lurched forward. The brakes did not slow the vehicle. The consumer hit a post, bounced of it and hit a parked vehicle. The air bag did not deploy. *sc
Complaint via e-mail. Had learned that NHTSA investigated sudden acceleration in the 2002 and 2003 toyota camry. I experienced this effect recently with my 1999 camry. The incident took place inside the garage of my apartment building. Although no injuries occurred, my car and another car suffered some body damage. I took the car to a toyota service center , but the technicians were unable to find anything that would explain the sudden acceleration. *ak the consumer was backing into his parking space when the vehicle suddenly lurched forward. The brakes did not slow the vehicle. The consumer hit a post, bounced of it and hit a parked vehicle. The air bag did not deploy. *sc
Also reported on the 1999 Toyota Camry
Other engine problem
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Other body or interior problem
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 24 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 airbag failed to deploy in a crash happen on the 1999 Toyota Camry?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 30,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is airbag failed to deploy in a crash on the 1999 Toyota Camry?
24 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.8 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