Other powertrain problem on the 2012 Toyota Camry
When other powertrain problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Toyota Camry report other powertrain problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles, from 53 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 92,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 2,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 152,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 148,520 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.
36% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,480 miles | 25,148 miles | 74,000 miles | 105,000 miles | 152,000 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
Putting it right typically runs $400–$4,500 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.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 26 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 1,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 100,000 miles.
By volume the 2007 carries the most reports, with 190; the 2012 has 72. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2012 toyota camry. The contact stated the transmission became stuck between second and third gear. When the failure occurred the contact had to pull over and restart the vehicle in order for the transmission to respond. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who stated paddle shifting on the steering wheel was determined to have caused the failure. The contact did not agree because the paddle shifting was never used. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 50 and the current mileage was 1,800.
It sometimes will not shift into normal reverse. On these occasions, when you shift into reverse ,it will not move or creep slowly back as it normally does. It feels like a brake is on and you must push hard on the gas to get the car to back up at all. The car then lunges backward until you take your foot off the gas and it will jerk to a stop without you even touching the brakes. This is scary when you are in a parking space at a retail store,restaurant ,etc. And have someone parked on both sides of you. You cant back up slowly,only can lurch out of your parking spot and hope no pedestrians or vehicles are coming by. I finally got the car to do this at the dealer lot in des moines,by driving and parking for 48 minutes. Now the dealer saw the problem dealer tech backed the car up for a block with one foot on the gas and one on the brake, as I told him if he drove forward for 50 feet it would snap out of the problem and we would be trying to recreate it again. No probs show on scope tests toyota has no idea what it is. Bought the car 03/24/2012 dealer has had it to look at over 18 days already in and out. My wife is terrified to…
Tl* the contact owns 2012 toyota camry se. The contact stated that while driving approximately 40 MPH, there was a delayed response when the accelerator pedal was engaged and within seconds the vehicle abruptly accelerated. The failure occurred intermittently. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer three different times for the identical failure. The technician was unable to duplicate the failure. The manufacturer was not notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 3. Updated 1/17/13 *cn updated 01/24/13
Also reported on the 2012 Toyota Camry
Torque converter failure
Other body or interior problem
Other speed control problem
Other steering problem
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 72 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 other powertrain problem happen on the 2012 Toyota Camry?
Across 53 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 25,000 miles and a quarter after 105,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other powertrain problem on the 2012 Toyota Camry?
72 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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