Seat belt or retractor failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry
16 crashes 11 injuries 27 of the 52 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 seat belt or retractor failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Camry report seat belt or retractor failure at a median of 80,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles, from 42 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 82,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 22,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 129,400 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.
19% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22,000 miles | 44,568 miles | 80,500 miles | 111,771 miles | 151,400 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 11 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 $200–$900 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 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 1999 at 130,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 61; the 2005 has 52. 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.
1 - seat belt - gets stuck , causing it to be inoperable and floppy. The plastic guide allows the webbing belt to get stuck in it. 2 - I cannot buy replace the belt , an important , common , inexpensive item , from anyone, but the dealer $200 + $100 labor. I can purchase lap belt for $15, but that is not good enough and does not fix the problem. Good design for the manufacturer , cheap because rightwas same as left , but poor design for me as it casused belt to be worn and get stuck . Car was 2005, but has 65000 so no more warranty . -maybe there should be for all car makers , extended warranty for certain items that wear out over time , safety items like seat belts , that wear out over time , 36 months 3 years , mostly due to poor design . *ak
We owned a 2005 toyota camry. My husband was the driver and was involved in a serious accident when he was cut off while entering a state highway in baltimore, maryland. My 5 year old son was in the back seat behind the passenger seat in a booster seat with his seat belt on. During the impact, my son was unrestrained due to a failure of the seat belt. The seat belt never caught in the retracting mechanism allowing my son to be thrown forward into the passenger seat. My son had a massive head trauma and was air-lifted to johns hopkins. He was released the next morning with a serious concussion. The other passengers had very minor injuries.
I bought a certified 2005 toyota camry xle from autowest honda, roseville. I was told that the car had no accidents and the car is clean per the carfax. I have had the front passenger seat belt replaced and now the driver front seat belt is going out. I received a post card for a free appraisal at 60,000 miles and I took my car into the toyota dealership and they told me the car has been in an accident prior to me purchasing the vehicle. The front end frame is bent and parts have been replaced and the car is maybe worth $8,000 and the car should of been sold as salvage and not certified car. The front bumper is coming off and also the paint chipped off on the side of the accident. The paint is different in the front from the hood. I do not know the date of the incident date, as for it happened prior to me purchasing the car. *tr
Also reported on the 2005 Toyota Camry
Other speed control problem
Other powertrain problem
Other brake problem
Other engine problem
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other steering problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 52 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 seat belt or retractor failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
Across 42 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 80,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 112,500 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is seat belt or retractor failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
52 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.4 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