Loss of braking on the 2009 Toyota Camry
7 crashes 2 injuries 9 of the 20 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 loss of braking gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Toyota Camry report loss of braking at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 15 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 78,000 miles. It is the 17th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 175,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 163,079 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.
47% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,200 miles | 14,777 miles | 89,300 miles | 115,000 miles | 174,279 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, 7 a crash and 2 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 $400–$3,000 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 19 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2000 at 120,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2009 has 20. 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 have experienced the same "2010 toyota prius braking issue" on my 2009 toyota camry. The toyota prius braking issue is described as the following: "momentary loss of braking capability while traveling over uneven road surfaces, potholes or bumps." this is exactly what happened to me in my 2009 toyota camry just a few hours ago. After rolling over a series of bumps at about 45 MPH I tried to apply the brake in my 2009 camry and the pedal was very slow to respond and the physical brake pedal itself exhibited great resistance in my effort to press it down into use. This problem occurs only after having traveled over bumps or potholes, etc. The reason I am filing this complaint is that I feel that the "prius braking issue" is not limited to only the prius model that has been reported on in the new over the past 24 hours. *tr
I own a toyota camry hybrid, 2009. I am also experiencing the same brake failure problems that the toyota 2010 prius is being recalled for. I noticed that when braking on down sloped roads, slippery roads, or bumpy roads, the car seems to accelerate while braking. This occurs for 1-2 seconds. It is a very scary feeling. Last week I narrowly avoided hitting 2 cars during a minor snow fall because while making a slow turn or braking the car again accelerated and the braking system failed momentarily. I verbally asked the dealer that I purchased the car from, and my neighborhood dealer 2 weeks ago while making a scheduled 15k mile service visit about the problem, but they weren't aware of it and suggested that it could be the hybrid system kicking in. A few days later I heard of the prius recall and was shocked when I read the reasons behind it. I am now scheduled for a service visit tomorrow at toyota. At my last service visit they said the brakes were in good condition, but I think this is an electrical problem. Please investigate the camry hybrids as well. This problems is reproducible and occurs every time that I am on a bumpy…
I have a 2009 toyota camry that I purchased from darcars in silver spring, md., at the end of 2008. It is subject to the gas pedal recall and the floor mat recall, but I also have a separate problem. My brakes failed while I was driving to daycare/work on january 27th and I still do not know why. I was driving in downtown washington, d.c., and my brakes did not work when I tried to stop for a red light on 14th street. I managed to avoid smashing into the car in front of me only because I was able to swerve into the oncoming lane, which luckily had no traffic. My car traveled roughly another half block before I was finally able to stop on the side of the road. It was quite scary, in part because I had my one-year-old and my three-year-old in the car with me when it happened. I left work early that day and took the car up to the dealer where I bought it, but they couldn't find anything wrong. At this point, though, I am scared to drive the car - especially with my kids - and I am thinking of selling it as soon as possible. I assume this is unrelated to any of the recent recalls affecting the camry. *tw
Also reported on the 2009 Toyota Camry
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Excessive oil consumption
Other visibility problem
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 20 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 loss of braking happen on the 2009 Toyota Camry?
Across 15 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 15,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is loss of braking on the 2009 Toyota Camry?
20 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