Toyota Camry / 1997
1997 Toyota Camry problems
Owners have filed 685 complaints about the 1997 Toyota Camry with NHTSA. Service brakes, hydraulic account for 17.1% of them — narrowly the most common, ahead of engine and engine cooling at 14.9%.
Complaints685
Crashes92
Fires31
Injuries75
Deaths3
What owners report breaking
Service brakes, hydraulic 17.1% · 117
Engine and engine cooling 14.9% · 102
Suspension 10.4% · 71
Air bags 8.0% · 55
Electrical system 5.8% · 40
Power train 5.4% · 37
Steering 4.5% · 31
Vehicle speed control 4.4% · 30
Severity
Of those complaints, 92 describe a crash, 31 describe a fire, 75 report an injury and 3 report a death.
Reading the numbers
Across the 33 model years of the Toyota Camry in this data, 1997 sits 13th by complaint volume. 2007 draws the most.
Filing volume has held steady, 6 in the last three years against 6 in the three before.
The median odometer reading at the time of complaint was 84,226 miles.
In owners' own words
The braking system has been a problem every since I bought the car. It makes a lot of noise. Sometimes grinds and vibrate. I have had it to the dealer 4 times for this problem. They have done work to them once. They tell me every is to code. On friday october22, 1999 they failed on me. Dealer says because the can not duplicate the problem they can not fix it. They cant find anything. The vehicle is not safe. Service brakes, hydraulic
When brakes are applied, mostly in wet weather conditions, vehicle does not want to stop. Also brakes make growling noises when brakes are applied. In addition, vehicle has visual problems; headrest , blocks view when looking out of rear window. Problem is with all 4 headrests. Headrest are too wide and high. Possible design flaw. Dealers are aware the problem. Please provide any further deatails. Service brakes, hydraulic
While driving vehicle on the road about 40-45 mph with about 4 vehicles in front of the comsumer when he saw the vehicles stop, and comsumer tried to stop by stepping on brake pedal, but could not stop it on time and smashed front of vehicle or rearended. Air bags did not deploy during the accident. The shop said it was nothing wrong with the system. Service brakes, hydraulic
Verbatim from NHTSA filings. Complaints are unverified owner reports.
Safety recalls
Checking NHTSA for open recalls…
Other Toyota Camry years
1994 364 complaints · 14.6% air bags 1995 373 complaints · 15.8% service brakes, hydraulic 1996 567 complaints · 15.2% engine and engine cooling 1998 751 complaints · 17.4% service brakes, hydraulic 1999 661 complaints · 18.3% engine and engine cooling 2000 577 complaints · 18.9% vehicle speed control