Toyota Camry Mechanical Problems

The Camry is the lead consumer car for Toyota. In this article, we take a look at common Toyota Camry mechanical problems that have popped up over the years.

The very title of this article implies the Camry is a piece of “el junko.” It is not. The Camry regularly gets high ratings for quality and reliability. That being said, it is a car and a car is a mesh of moving parts. Sooner or later, moving parts degrade and problems can occur. The exact nature of these problems is highly dependent on the model year as well. The Camry has been around in one form or another since 1980, so the style and issues that arise have changed down the years. Obviously, we’ll forgo the problems in the 1980s to focus on more recent models.

When it comes to mechanical problems, the 2007 and 2008 Camry models had a unique one that resulted in a recall of well over 50,000 vehicles. The mechanism at fault was pretty much the last one you would think of. The mechanisms were two fasteners that came with optional all weather floor mats for the driver’s side of the car. The fasteners would come loose or detach. This sometimes resulted in the mat sliding forward and pushing the gas pedal. The fasteners would then catch and you couldn’t release the gas pedal. Yes, there were more than a few crashes.

The 2007 Toyota Camry had another recall as well. This one was related to a defect in multiple airbags in the car. They bags had defective heating elements that were critical to the inflation process. When the heating elements failed, the airbags would not deploy with rather nasty results as you might imagine. The problem was tracked to a specific batch of airbags and only 133 cars had to be recalled.

When a car is launched in 1980 and still around nearly 30 years later, you can be most of the kinks have been worked out. This is definitely true with the Camry. It is a solid family car. That being said, there are still a few chinks in the armor that very rarely pop up. The biggest has to do with the automatic transmission. From time to time, the transmission is known to slip between gears causing the engine to rev and then shoot the car forward when the transmission catches. This is a momentary event, but can happen.

All and all, the Toyota Camry mechanical problems tend to be very car specific. By this, I mean they occur on an individual car instead of across an entire model year. Still, make sure to check the particular issues that arise with the year you are considering to avoid any unforeseen issues. 

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