Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure on the 2007 Toyota Camry
1 crash 1 of the 21 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 2007 Toyota Camry report steering rack, gear or tie rod failure at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 20 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 98,000 miles. It is the 25th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 700 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 93,900 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.
40% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 700 miles | 8,500 miles | 45,250 miles | 80,000 miles | 94,600 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 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.
Clicking, clunking in felt in steering wheel, especially noticeable at low speeds, but can be felt at highway speeds also. Dealer looked at problem and stated they repacked bearings in steering shaft. Didn't make it out of the dealers lot and problem still there. When taken back to service desk, dealer stated that I needed to work the grease in and that it should go away in a few days, if not to call them back to have steering knuckle replaced. Problem still there after 300+ miles of driving since having bearings repacked. *jb
Tl*the contact owns a 2007 toyota camry. While driving 2 MPH in reverse, the contact heard a loud grinding noise coming from the engine compartment. The mechanic stated that the rack and pinion steering was defective. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer and they agreed with the mechanic's diagnosis. They replaced the rack and pinion. As of october 11, 2007, there had been no further occurrences. The failure mileage was 11,000 and current mileage was 12,500. *updated 12/12/07 *bf updated 12/12/07
Tl*the contact owns a 2007 toyota camry. While driving 40 MPH, the contact felt that the vehicle was out of alignment. He took the vehicle to the dealer and they checked the alignment, but found no failures. A few weeks later, he took the vehicle back to the dealer because the failure was worsening. They still could not find any failures. The contact took the vehicle back to the dealer a third time because he felt that there was an issue with the brakes. Once again, the dealer found no failures. He took the vehicle to a different mechanic, who stated that the bolts in the rack assembly were loose. The mechanic tightened the rack assembly. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer to inform them that another mechanic was able to locate the failure. Two weeks later, the failure recurred. He filed for the lemon law. The vehicle is still not working properly. The failure mileage was 12 and current mileage was 20,000.
Also reported on the 2007 Toyota Camry
Other visibility problem
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other engine problem
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 2007 Toyota Camry?
Across 20 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 10,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 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 2007 Toyota Camry?
21 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.2 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