1996 Toyota Camry: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Oct 2, 2013 · Acceleration · 135,060 miles · FL

Stuck accelerator pedal entered I-75 s on-ramp at ellenton fl and was accelerating. At about 60 MPH, rapid acceleration occurred. I was quickly approaching a tractor trailer about mid-river ( manatee river), checked the cruise control light (not on) and hit the brakes. The brakes slowed the vehicle from 70mph but the engine continued to race. I had the brake petal fully engaged, which decreased speed to about 40 MPH. I pulled onto the berm about one-half mile past bridge and while keeping foot on brake pulled gear shift into neutral. Engine was fully engaged producing a loud screeching sound. I brought the car to a stop. The car was towed by aaa to a local transmission repair shop.. Wording on repair estimate is as follows: work requested: accelerator pedal stuck. Work performed: diagnose to air intake boot deteriorated, found small piece fell off and jammed into throttle plate, install new air intake boot. (air mass meter boot). (the defective deteriorating boot is in my possession.)

Filed Jun 19, 2013 · Acceleration · 149,000 miles · NC

This event occurred twice: I was driving at approximately 30-40 MPH w/out the cruise control engaged. When I took my foot of the gas pedal to apply the brakes the vehicle accelerated. I had to depress the brake pedal as hard as I could to stop the vehicle. In the second incident I had to take the car out of gear which caused the RPM to jump significantly. Once the car was turned off and restarted the car functioned normally. I took the vehicle to the dealer who could not find any open recalls nor could the dealer identify any problems with the vehicle. I also took the vehicle to a mechanic who was unable to identify any problems.

Filed Sep 11, 2012 · Acceleration · 85,000 miles · WA

Tl* the contact owns a 1996 toyota camry. The contact stated that while driving 65 MPH with the cruise control activated, the contact was unable to disengage the cruise control function. In addition, the vehicle would increase acceleration speeds independently. The contact notified the dealer and they advised that there was a recall for the failure under the federal safety agency campaign id number: 96e001000(vehicle speed control) but the contact's vehicle was not included in the recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact notified the manufacturer but did not get a response. The failure mileage was 85,000.

Filed Apr 15, 2010 · Acceleration · 183,000 miles · TX

My 1996 toyota camry experienced unintended acceleration and became difficult to control on april 12, 2010. While driving home from work (a distance of 26 miles) I entered the freeway and gave my car gas to move into the second from the left hand lane. After getting into the proper lane, the car behaved in the same way as a car after pressing the resume button, after disabling cruise control. This happened at 4:30p during the start of rush hour traffic. The only way I could keep from hitting another vehicle was to floor the brake. At one point the car raced to speeds of 65-75 MPH. I could tell that at the 75 MPH range that I was very likely to hit the car in front of me. To prevent this I briefly placed the car in neutral, then switched it into reverse twice in quick succession. The camry made a horrible noise, but did slow down after that. The brakes seemed to be unable to engage properly from that point, possibly due to excessive use. I was able to successfully drive to the dealership after that. The dealer examined the car, test drove it and stated that they could find no problem with the car. Statement from spouse: as a recently retired engineer from a large research laboratory, I'd like to add my comments: I spent 33 years designing laboratory experiments to run safely and reliably. Over those years, I formed the opinion that lab equipment should be designed so that malfunctions cause only minor problems, not major ones. Since toyota's problems with unintended acceleration seem to affect vehicles of various ages and designs, I suspect the root cause is not a specific piece of hardware, but rather a failure to design their equipment so that malfunctions cause only minor problems, not major ones. Perhaps there are components of their vehicles that fail in a way that gives the vehicle full power, whereas a safer failure mode would be have no power.

Filed Nov 6, 2009 · Acceleration · 200,400 miles · TX

1996 toyota camry, ca dxlesexle cruise control recently stopped working while driving along and the vehicle suddenly increased speed (occurrence date oct 18 2009) and I pressed the brake and the cruise control disengaged. Subsequent attempts to use the cruise control got the same result, continuous increase of speed until turned off. Checked for recall, and there is a recall for the 1996 camry in reference to the cruise control, however the local toyota dealer checked the VIN and said that it is not on the recall list, and toyota headquarters took my info and also told me the VIN is not on the list. The symptoms are exactly the same as in the recall. Very dangerous situation, as people may think they are under cruise and not realize they are accelerating.

Filed Nov 5, 2009 · Acceleration, Airbags · 200,500 miles · CA · crash · 1 injury

Tl* the contact owns a 1996 toyota camry. While driving down a hill at 15 MPH, the vehicle starting accelerating without warning. The vehicle reached speeds of 60-80 MPH while running two stop signs. He had to crash into a tree and another vehicle to stop the vehicle. The air bags did not deploy. He suffered injuries to the right arm. He contacted the manufacturer in reference to recall # 96e001000 (rostra precision controls). He was advised that the recall only applied to six cylinder vehicles. The current and failure mileages were 200,500. Updated 01/12/10. *lj the consumer stated 2 nights before the accident, the cruise control came on and then went off. Updated 01/13/10.

Filed Aug 7, 2008 · Acceleration · 60,000 miles · CA

Vehicle-toyota-camry-1996 and 1993 problem: cruise control we own 1996, my mom owns 1993, both have the following problem. Neither of us have been able to afford to have repairs done, so we do not know the cause/remedy. We have instead stopped using. Intermittently, repeatedly, without any warning, cruise control suddenly stops working. A sudden extreme decrease in speed occurs due to failure. Switches and lights indicate it is still on and working properly. This is extremely dangerous on freeways at high rates of speed particularly because that is also when normal use of cruise control is most likely/most often being used. This poses an enormously high risk of being hit from the rear or the car following to swerve and it either hitting, or being hit by, another vehicle. Huge possibility of multiple vehicle pile up. Because cruise control is almost always being used when it the most dangerous times for it to fail, the urgency of this problem can not be over emphasized. More likely to fail on inclines makes it even more dangerous as the rate of speed drops even faster. Starts very intermittently and far between, as time goes on occurs more and more often. Eventually found that it occurs more often on incline, but not always, with a less and less incline as time goes on. Happened on crowded freeway at high rate of speed with big rig following close behind. Almost hit by it! Happened at high speed on a crowded freeway, other vehicles close all around, barely avoided nightmare pile up! I can not over emphasize how dangerous this problem is! With both ours and mom's camry having the exact problem, there may very well indicate pattern/problem.

Filed Nov 4, 2006 · Body, Brakes · 75,000 miles · FL

8/2003 bought car. At 75.000 miles, freeze plugs started to go. One after the other. Leaving me stranded many times. After we replaced the freeze plugs, 76.000 miles the car started dumping its coolant through the overflow tank.. Could not get answers from phillips toyota. Started loosing oil. The obd light has never come on. The car runs quite and smooth. Made several attempts to take care of this problem with the corporation, but they will not help. Also, the brakes have always made loud noises, and the cruise control has a mind of its own. Car has now, 130000 miles on it, and all I can do, is add water every 25 miles or so. None of the shops we have taken it to can tell us what the problem is. Can you help me please.

Filed Aug 31, 2005 · Acceleration · 25,000 miles · MI

In hot weather after about 100 or 200 miles the cruise control on our 1996 toyota camry would fail and would cause the vehicle to speed up until the cruise was turned off. Other times the cruise would just fail and drop out unexpectedly. Either event could be hazardous so we stopped using the cruise control. We went to the toyota dealer twice when this first happened while the vehicle was still under warranty and they refused to do anything about it because we were unable to demonstrate the problem immediately. Today we did a recall search on the internet about this problem and found the problem did exist on most 1996 camry but our VIN number did not fit their listing. Vin# [xxx] today we went back to the toyota dealer where we bought the car new on 3/14/1996, but they would do nothing for us. The dealer is rinke toyota 25420 vandyke centerline, mi 48015 586‑758‑2000. We also called the toyota customer service 800 number before contacting you but they were not helpful. Please help us resolve this safety issue. Thank you. [xxx]. *nm information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).

Filed May 2, 2004 · Acceleration · NY · crash · fire

I experienced 3 or 4 sudden acceleration incidents with my 1996 toyota camry during the first 5 years of ownership. No accidents resulted. I can't give the exact dates (ignore the incident date I entered below; I just put a date in at random since it's a required entry). It's been over a year since the last one. All occurred as I started to brake in a very slow-moving situation - two definitely happening while parking, coming to a stop before the incident. However, when touching the brake pedal to reverse direction or stop, there was a confusing surge as my instinct was to question whether I had touched the accelerator rather than brake and thus take off my foot - the worst action. In all cases, I had enough time to realize that I did have my foot on the brake and pushed down forcefully which stopped the acceleration. I asked my mechanic to check this out, but unless he could replicate the situation, no diagnosis was possible. Given the randomness of these occurences, the probablility of a replication is pretty close to zero. The one common thread in these incidents: they occurred following a long road trip during which I was using cruise control for extended periods, though in none of the incidents, was the cruise control on. I am sending this now as I learned you are looking into such incidents and thought you would want to build a record. I believe there are far more incidents like this that never get reported because they end safely; a solicitation of such incidents from those like myself who simply remain puzzled over them would yield a much larger data base. Thank you.

Filed Oct 29, 2000 · Acceleration · WA

Cruise control would not cancel when brake was applied. Dealer advised it was the brake switch which controled brake lights & cruise control was bad, paid dealer to replace but concerned about the possibility that others have experienced or could experience an accident due to this defect.

Filed Dec 13, 1999 · Suspension · ME

The front end of the vehicle vibrates when reaching a speed above 55 MPH, also on highway driving the vehicle pulls to right and/or left at times, dealership indicates no problem, because they will only test the vehicle on side roads, as opposed to highway driving which is what I bought the car for. The cruise control when engaged, if you hit the brakes, while the tires are still torqued makes an extremely loud bang, and the vehicle at times tends to speed up then slow down.