AtWhatMileage
Brakes · 45 owner reports

Other brake problem on the 2004 Toyota Camry

16 crashes 9 injuries 25 of the 45 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.

Reports of this failure 45
With an odometer reading 32
Reports per 1,000 built 1.1 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 34%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 25
Typical repair $300–$1,800
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 2nd

When other brake problem gets reported

Owners of the 2004 Toyota Camry report other brake problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 32 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 7,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 137,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 128,305 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.

34% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 32 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
8,010 miles 14,250 miles 59,353 miles 104,000 miles 136,315 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, 16 a crash and 9 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 $300–$1,800 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.

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 1,300 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 110,000 miles.

By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 168; the 2004 has 45. 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.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

(1) permanent behavior (2) brakes fade - braking force is not constant with application of pedal and the pedal sinks as the brakes are applied. Consequence: not enough braking pressure is applied and emergency application of more braking is required. (3) attempted to get manufacturer to repair under warranty. Followed arbitration procedure when that failed.

1,000 miles NHTSA complaint 545068 filed 2005-07-20

Dt*: the contact stated while depressing the brake pedal it goes to the floor causing an increase in stopping distance. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the problem could not be duplicated.

30,000 miles NHTSA complaint 579678 filed 2006-04-19

I own a 2004 toyota camry le, my problem with this vehicle are two things one is the braking system/ABS and the second is the tires bridgestone. The pedal is too soft, doesn't stop the car as it should, the ABS locked on many occasions regardless of the weather condition. I managed to hit a the front of the car twice and once in the rear. All of the ABS system, while the damage is only to my car its becoming a very serious safety issue regarding the how safe is this vehicle. I have spoken with the dealer and he replaced the pads once, however the problem still exist and the rear breaks are making squeaky sound. I have 21,000 miles on this car and its my first new car and it will be the last toyota I own. The dealer denies any problems and they say its normal but its not. *nm

8,000 miles NHTSA complaint 583129 filed 2006-05-26

Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Camry

Other speed control problem

209 reports median 44k

Other steering problem

44 reports median 25k

Other powertrain problem

40 reports median 22k

Other engine problem

38 reports median 72k

Other electrical problem

31 reports median 60k

Airbag failed to deploy in a crash

26 reports median 50k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 45 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 other brake problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Camry?

Across 32 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other brake problem on the 2004 Toyota Camry?

45 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.1 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