Steering column or shaft failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 28 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 steering column or shaft failure gets reported
Owners of the 2005 Toyota Camry report steering column or shaft failure at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles, from 23 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 165,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 139,440 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.
22% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26,560 miles | 37,250 miles | 46,000 miles | 60,000 miles | 166,000 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, 2 a crash and 1 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 $600–$2,500 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 13 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2008, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2005 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Dt*: the contact stated while driving various speeds, a clunking noise was heard and excessive play occurred in the steering wheel. The vehicle was driven to the dealer, who replaced the intermediate shaft in the steering column. Updated 1/29/2007 - *nm
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 toyota camry. On one occasion, the wheel locked. The contact was able to get the key into the ignition, but the wheel would not unlock and the key would not turn. The failure occurred on another occasion. She jiggled the key and steering wheel until the steering column unlocked. The manufacturer stated that she should continue to jiggle or "play" with the steering and the key until she is able to turn the ignition to start. The wheel locked again, but she was unable to unlock the steering column. The tow truck driver was able to unlock the steering column and charged the contact $75. The dealer stated that the vehicle could be diagnosed for $65 and stated that there did not appear to be any failures. The contact was advised to continue to drive the vehicle as normal. The failure mileage was 34,000 and current mileage was 35,000.
The steering of the car was slightly bumpy, was not evident in the beginning. After few months or so or close to 42k miles the steering began to make some bumpy noises. Was not aware of the defective intermediate shaft that was supposed to be replaced under warranty . Was never notified by dealer even during my visits to them when it was under warranty. Recently took the car to the dealer and they informed that I will have to change the intermediate shaft for $500+. *tr
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 28 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 steering column or shaft failure happen on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
Across 23 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 60,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering column or shaft failure on the 2005 Toyota Camry?
28 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