Loss of braking on the 2005 Toyota Camry
12 crashes 4 injuries 16 of the 22 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Camry report loss of braking at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles, from 21 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 10th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 120,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 114,700 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.
67% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,300 miles | 3,704 miles | 11,362 miles | 45,000 miles | 118,000 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, 12 a crash and 4 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 $400–$3,000 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2005 has 22. 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.
I have driven a toyota camry for 14 years and have never had an accident nor a traffic citation. In october 2004 we bought a new toyota camry. On april 25, 2005 I drove to a meeting at a private home on a 27 acre farm. I had two passengers in the car. When backing up very slowly to turn the car around I had a sudden unexpected speed surge. Brakes did not work. I glanced off one car damaging the back bumper and putting a crease in the side, then hit a pickup truck square on its bumper knocking off the licence plate. Since there were people, cars and buildings behind me, I managed to get it out of reverse but then it surged forward (no brakes) went about 150 ft and I had to turn off the key in an attempt to slow the car down. This was on a long gravel driveway and the car was out of control. It coasted about 90 ft, went through a wire fence, hit a fence post, a roof support, and hit a 800 lb baler which moved 5 ft into a large farm sprayer. Three people witnessed what happened and heard the car when it surged backward. The rear seat belt snapped open on impact. One of the passengers was injured, one had bruises.
I have driven a toyota camry for 14 years and have never had an accident nor a traffic citation. In october 2004 we bought a new toyota camry. On april 25, 2005 I drove to a meeting at a private home on a 27 acre farm. I had two passengers in the car. When backing up very slowly to turn the car around I had a sudden unexpected speed surge. Brakes did not work. I glanced off one car damaging the back bumper and putting a crease in the side, then hit a pickup truck square on its bumper knocking off the licence plate. Since there were people, cars and buildings behind me, I managed to get it out of reverse but then it surged forward (no brakes) went about 150 ft and I had to turn off the key in an attempt to slow the car down. This was on a long gravel driveway and the car was out of control. It coasted about 90 ft, went through a wire fence, hit a fence post, a roof support, and hit a 800 lb baler which moved 5 ft into a large farm sprayer. Three people witnessed what happened and heard the car when it surged backward. The rear seat belt snapped open on impact. One of the passengers was injured, one had bruises.
Brakes failed causing car to roll into intersection. Car was then hit by truck. Make of car is 2005 camry le with 10,000 miles. Se toyota claims there is nothing wrong with the car even though there are numerous complaints of the same problem listed on autobytel.com . Generally this make of car has "mushy" brakes, but even the police investigator commented the brakes were unsafe. *jb
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Camry
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 22 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 loss of braking happen on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
Across 21 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 45,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
22 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