AtWhatMileage
Electrical · 31 owner reports

Other electrical problem on the 2004 Toyota Camry

6 crashes 5 fires 3 injuries 14 of the 31 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 31
With an odometer reading 25
Reports per 1,000 built 0.7 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 32%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 14
Typical repair $250–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 6th

When other electrical problem gets reported

Owners of the 2004 Toyota Camry report other electrical problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 25 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 6th most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 15,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 102,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 86,200 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.

32% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 25 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
15,600 miles 30,000 miles 60,000 miles 80,000 miles 101,800 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, 6 a crash, 5 a fire and 3 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 $250–$2,000 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.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2021, at a median of 35 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 190,000 miles.

By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 118; the 2004 has 31. 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.

Median
  1. 1996 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 124k
  2. 1997 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 101k
  3. 1998 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 120k
  4. 1999 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 113k
  5. 2000 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 50k
  6. 2001 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 40k
  7. 2002 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 60k
  8. 2003 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 92k
  9. 2004 (this one) 60k
  10. 2005 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 73k
  11. 2006 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 77k
  12. 2007 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 89k
  13. 2008 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 66k
  14. 2009 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 71k
  15. 2010 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 20k
  16. 2011 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 40k
  17. 2012 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 29k
  18. 2013 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 24k
  19. 2014 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 44k
  20. 2015 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 30k
  21. 2016 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 20k
  22. 2017 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 24k
  23. 2018 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 7k
  24. 2019 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 20k
  25. 2020 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 3k
  26. 2021 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 35
  27. 2022 Toyota Camry other electrical problem
    no odometer readings given
    —
  28. 2023 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 30k
  29. 2024 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 122k
  30. 2025 Toyota Camry other electrical problem 189k

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.

The consumer stated on october 17, 2004, after being out of the vehicle for about 1 1/2 hours, the vehicle burned to ashes. The firemen seemed to think the problem was the air fuel flow and or electrical. Consumer just got the vehicle. It was locked so no one could have done this. *ak the consumer heard a popping sound and a pedestrian yelled about the fire. The vehicle burnt to ashes, totaling the vehicle. *sc

12,000 miles NHTSA complaint 503387 filed 2004-10-25

Tl*the contact owns a 2004 toyota camry 4-cylinder vehicle which was purchased in 2004. While driving speeds of less than 2 MPH there was an unexpected surge at 3,000 rpms, the vehicle rapidly accelerated and the contact almost crashed into the garage. An independent mechanic stated that there was a faulty computer chip in the gas pedal. The computer chip was replaced at the owner's expense for $750. The manufacturer advised the contact that they would call him back after they spoke with management. The failure and current mileages were approximately 26,000. The consumer stated during testing of the vehicle to determine the cause of the unintended acceleration, the drivers floor mat was in the trunk of the vehicle. The entire gas pedal assembly was replaced as a unit with the computer chip/sensor attached. Updated 10/23/09

26,000 miles NHTSA complaint 732707 filed 2009-08-24

In the middle of driving my 2004 toyota camry on a busy street, my car experienced a throttle body failure. The service engine light came on and my car stalled in middle of traffic. We had to put the car in neutral to pull it off from the road and wait for a tow truck. The service shop advised me that it will cost over $1000 to fix the faulty throttle body. Toyota is aware of the problem and fixed it in later model years, but to date, no recall has been issued. This is a very dangerous defect and should be recalled as it does affect all 2004 camrys. My car only has 45,000 miles on it. *tr

45,000 miles NHTSA complaint 739229 filed 2009-10-12

Also reported on the 2004 Toyota Camry

Other speed control problem

209 reports median 44k

Other brake problem

45 reports median 59k

Other steering problem

44 reports median 25k

Other powertrain problem

40 reports median 22k

Other engine problem

38 reports median 72k

Airbag failed to deploy in a crash

26 reports median 50k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 31 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 electrical problem happen on the 2004 Toyota Camry?

Across 25 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 30,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

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

31 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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