Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2006 Toyota Camry
1 crash 1 of the 8 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 rack, gear or tie rod failure gets reported
Owners of the 2006 Toyota Camry report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 40,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 12th 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 110,644 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
50% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7,150 miles | 14,174 miles | 39,644 miles | 76,699 miles | 117,794 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, 1 a crash is 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 $700–$2,600 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2012 at 150,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 21; the 2006 has 8. 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've got very bad experience with car dealer. I have bought toyota camry 2006 at the end of february 2006. After receiving a new car, I had heard some kind of noise when I drove the car for the first time. At that point, I knew that this kind of noise was normal because my car was brand new. Unfortunately, that noise had got louder time after time, and did not stop. To fix a noise problem on my car, I checked my car to toyota. Toyota found the problem and told me that my car needed to replace a whole transmission. At that time, I could not believe the fact that my new car needed to fix, because my car had got just 500 mileage on it and just passed two weeks after purchasing my car. Furthermore, I felt displeasure and was very upset about their employees' attitude. I wanted to trade in my car with a new another camry. They required me to pay for 7000 dollar more with my old car. I had been waited for more one hour to make deal with one of their employees. At that time, I had felt some kind of discrimination. Even worse, this thursday, I also have heard same noise again. To check the noise, I dropped off my car again to the toyota…
I have a 2006 camry le which has developed a clunking noise in the steering shaft or column somewhere below the steering wheel. Toyota has a service number on it, but will no do anything unless this detect was reported before 36,000 miles. They require you to find their detect it early and if you find it later after 36,000 miles they say that's too bad you are too late. This is just wrong !! They know they have a problem, yet they hope you pass 36,000 miles so they don't have to fix their known defect. *tr
2006 toyota 60,000 miles. Needs to have intermediate steering shaft replaced or I won't be able to steer the car soon. Happened to my old 1997 toyota also. Couldn't turn the wheel had no control. Worried this may happen again to this 2006 car. Told by mechanic that it is wear and tear. He only sees it on some toyota not all. If it was wear then why not on all. Sounds like a defect to me. Very costly to replace, $517. This car has been maintained thru toyota dealership on a regular basis, it was bought as a demo car from a dealership with 12000 miles. Something is wrong maybe engineering defect? *tr
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
Complaints are voluntary, so 8 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 rack, gear or tie rod failure happen on the 2006 Toyota Camry?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 40,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2006 Toyota Camry?
8 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.8 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