Steering column or shaft failure on the 2006 Toyota Camry
Only 5 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When steering column or shaft failure gets reported
There are 7 reports of steering column or shaft failure on the 2006 Toyota Camry, 5 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 16th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 48,750 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
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 carries the most reports, with 28; the 2006 has 7. 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.
Popping and loose steering while turning, stopping , accelerating or just driving. The failure is the upper intermediate shaft universal joint, the occurrence is constant while driving. The intermediate shaft had to be replaced. *tr
Tl* the contact owns a 2006 toyota camry. The contact stated that he heard a clunking sound whenever they completing a left or right turn. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and was told that the intermediate shaft needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 38,000 and the current mileage was 41,000. Updated 2/5/13 *cn the consumer stated that a loud clunking noise could be heard from the steering column. The consumer informed the dealer and was it was not a safety concern. The consumer later learned of a service bulletin pertaining to the "clunking" noise and brought to the dealer's attention. The dealer would not assist the consumer with repairs, stating the vehicle was out of warranty and that there was no documentation of a complaint prior to the vehicle being out of warranty. Updated 02/25/2013 *js
Wife was driving and noted that the red airbag warning light had gone on. We stopped. I moved the seat and began driving. The airbag warning light was off. The light remained off until early 2014, when it began alternating periods of on and off. On march 27, 2014, we took our camry to our toyota dealer. The dealer wrote (report is in the computer holdings of toyota motor sales, u.s.a.): "found the seat track floor covering has come loose which once the seat has moved it caused the cover to [be] pushed against the airbag connector underneath the seat. This causes the light to come on due to no communication at the drivers side airbag squib connector. (code b1821)" the dealer repaired the wiring. It is evident now that each time my wife or I moved the driver's seat there was a possibility of disruption of the airbag electrical circuit. The seat is driven by an electric motor, so there was no chance we disrupted the wiring as might happen with a manually readjusted seat. This is a serious safety defect caused by poor engineering design and not a "wear and tear" issue. The airbag electrical circuit should have been designed so as to…
Also reported on the 2006 Toyota Camry
Other speed control problem
Other brake problem
Seat belt or retractor failure
Airbag failed to deploy in a crash
Other body or interior problem
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 7 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 7 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 2006 Toyota Camry?
Across 5 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. 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 2006 Toyota Camry?
7 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.6 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