Parking brake failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry
8 crashes 2 injuries 10 of the 17 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 parking brake failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Camry report parking brake failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 17 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 200 miles at the tenth percentile to 100,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 99,815 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.
47% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 185 miles | 26,196 miles | 40,000 miles | 100,000 miles | 100,000 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, 8 a crash and 2 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–$1,300 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 15 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2006, at a median of 3 miles, and latest on the 2002 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2005 has 17. 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.
After being involved in a rear end collision (with my camry xle v6) when reversing out of a parking spot at a busy restaurant, I attempted to pull forward a foot or two and park by putting the car into drive (not pressing the accelerator). Upon pressing the brake to park the car accelerated forward uncontrollably (without application of the gas pedal) crashing into the car parked in front of me and pushing that car into the car directly across the parking lot from it. The car directly across the parking lot was pushed over the concrete parking block and into a tree. After pushing the car in front of me, I was able to steer away from other cars and was finally able to stop the car only by using the emergency brake. From the time the car accelerated forward without pressing the gas pedal the brakes did not work. After clearing the cars I looked down to make sure I was using the brake pedal, which I was, and it was not working at all. During this entire incident there was a very loud and consistent noise coming from my car. The car is currently being inspected. *nm
Dt: the contact stated while driving, smoke started coming from the rear part of the vehicle. There was no actual fire, only black smoke coming from the vehicle. The dealer said the parking brake was out of adjustment and caused damage to the rear brake system. The dealer repaired the vehicle, but the contact has not taken possession of the vehicle. *ak
2005 toyota camry xle--beginning in march 2007 my camry began to accelerate from a stopped position. My camry would take off at high speeds from a complete stop and applying the gas pedal. This occurred several times. I took my car to my dealer bill page toyota in falls church, va. The first time the acceleration occurred was after 2 years and in march 2007. I was on constitution avenue, right lane in dc--which either turns right or goes straight. Constitution avenue is 3 or 4 lanes each east and westbound--I was heading eastbound. When the light turned green, the car in front of me turned right, thank goodness because as I took my foot off the brake and unto the gas, my car shot forward so fast my brakes wouldn't stop my car. Upon slamming on the brakes which were shuddering so badly, I thought my car was never going to stop and hit the next car (rush hour). I stopped short of hitting that car. I was so scared. My service manager said couldn't reproduce and that there was nothing wrong with my brakes or car. He told me that the shuttering is normal when I slam on my brakes--a safety feature to stop the car. Computer said nothing…
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 17 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 parking brake failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
Across 17 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is parking brake failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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