general problems of the 2018 Toyota Camry - part 1

I am reporting a severe safety and vehicle integrity issue involving a Toyota vehicle purchased from wolfchase Toyota. After a technical inspection (invoice #xxx), it was confirmed that the engine VIN does not match the chassis VIN. This indicates an undocumented engine replacement of unknown origin and mileage. As a result, the vehicle's safety systems, engine performance, and structural integrity are unverified and potentially compromised. The dealership and Toyota north America have been notified of this 'frankenstein' engine configuration but have not removed the vehicle from the road, forcing me to operate an unsafe vehicle for my 110-mile daily commute. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

On March 19, 2026, I was driving to work when traffic began to slow, and I reduced my speed accordingly. As traffic started to return to normal speed, I pressed the accelerator; however, although the engine revved, the vehicle did not accelerate beyond approximately 15 mph. I safely moved to the side of the road and turned the car off. After restarting the vehicle, shifting into drive, and pressing the accelerator, the same issue occurred. I subsequently took the car to two separate mechanics, both of whom reported that the transmission needs to be replaced. This is unexpected, as the vehicle has fewer than 100,000 miles and has received regular maintenance.

Ics malfunction error light and check engine light came on. I received a recall notice that this was being looked into but now the water pump has went out. The car is overheating.

While driving home from work , on a major highway, multiple warning lights came on my dashboard and my car would not accelarate. I immediately pulled over and shut the car off, turned it back on and the car was again drivable, however all the lights were on. I went directly to my mechanic and dropped the car off, for further inspection. The next day I was informed that the error code came up as slippage and he recommended replacing the transmission. The car only has around 130,000 miles on it. I have read that there are class action suits against Toyota, and my car make and model are in the group. However I can not find an active class action suit to join, as I just want my car fixed and should not have to pay for it, especially if Toyota knew this transmission was faulty.

Car stalled while driving and needed to be towed to dealership. Dealership confirmed that there was coolant intrusion into the engine that clogged the fuel injector causing the car to stall while driving. Dealership informed us that car will need a new engine and transmission because of the coolant intrusion. The car stalled while driving and could have led to an accident or loss of life depending on where the car stalled and when. This coolant intrusion has been confirmed by the dealership and shown to us via video they took. The vehicle has only been inspected by the dealership and we called Toyota corp to have then review this as a safety issue. They informed us the call stalling was not a safety issue. Unknown on confirmed symptoms prior.

The vehicle illuminated the malfunction indicator lamp (mil) and stored dtc p26cb71 – electric water pump speed stuck. The dealer confirmed the electric coolant pump actuator is mechanically stuck and requires replacement at a quoted cost of $1,257. 81. Toyota official TSB-0323-17 (published December 8, 2017) explicitly states that this exact repair for dtc p26cb71 is covered under the Toyota federal emission warranty for 96 months or 80,000 miles from the vehicle’s in-service date. Despite the vehicle being well within both time and mileage limits, the dealer and epa both refuse to honor Toyota’s own published 8-year federal emissions warranty, violating 40 cfr §85. 2107(a) which mandates that the manufacturer “shall repair or replace” any covered failed emission-related part at no cost to the owner. The failed electric water pump is an emission-related component because its malfunction triggers an obd-ii emissions dtc and can cause elevated emissions due to improper engine temperature control. The part remains installed in the vehicle and is available for inspection. No warning symptoms appeared prior to the mil illumination.

2018 Toyota Camry at times vehicle engine will run under engine temperature, and other times, vehicle will overheat. This is intermittent issue and is not all the time. When vehicle is shut down. For 5, 10 minutes, it seems to work fine again for a week or two, and then starts to act up again. Toyota is aware of this issue with a defective electronic water valve part that control the flow of water into the engine. Toyota did send notice out should this issue happen they will do a free voluntary repair to replace that defective electronic water valve even after the original initial warranty expires. Bringing to dealer to check and I will update after the fix was made that is suppose to fix this over heating issue with engine code reading p26cb. If you have same issue with vehicle years in question with code p26cb you might want to contact Toyota. This is a safety issue should engine start to overheat while driving.

Poor acceleration and lose of transmission control …. Complete safety hazard and the car has a failure to lose power while driving…. . A humming noise and the car jerks while shifting gears.

I gave yesterday a complaint (9/24/25 complaint #11689593). Today at the same location, exit ramp of the az 101, going west, the same thing happened. Today, 9/25/25, as I was approaching the car that was waiting to enter 56th street my engine increased from about 5 mph to about 35 mph. Instead of hitting the car in front of me I turned into the lane on my left. A car hit my car on the left side. My car isn't safe to drive!!.

As I was exiting a highway, and my foot was on the brake, the engine increased from about 15 mph to about 30 mph. I had to put the car in park. I almost hit the car in front of me. The engine increasing like this happens when I slow down for a red light or stop sign.

Vehicle cut off at a stop light twice.

2018 Camry with very low mileage (appx 38,000) and had all its required services done, suddenly had a check engine light. Less than a minute after that, "coolant temp high - stop where it's safe" message popped up. Service center indicated it was a failed water pump (diagnostic codes p26cb71, u0073, u016387, u0163, p26cb). Coolant was gone. Multiple users for 2018/2019 have reported this water pump failure on r/camry [xxx] does not seem safe to have a car go from no problem to near catastrophic engine failure with virtually no warning information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

I paid off my var in June. By the ed of August my cars engine started going bad out of no where. Started with oil and coolant mixing into the engine and then transmission started whining. Long story short I had to get both replaced. Oh yea my car only has 56k miles. Can you guys explain or give me any ideas on how this happened?.

Low braking power message is on and brake to floor and vehicle does not brake properly cause: diagnosed concern, found vaccum pump not producing vaccum causing concern, inspected and found vaccum pump broken and camshaft broken, pieces broken off inside engine. States low braking power message is on and brake pedal drops to floor and vehicle does not brake properly.

I am reporting a brake failure issue that matches the symptoms described in NHTSA campaign number 19v-544 (Toyota recall for brake booster vacuum pump failure). My 2018 Camry has experienced loss of brake assist, making it difficult to stop safely and requiring excessive pedal pressure. Despite these symptoms and the known recall for this issue, my VIN is not currently included. This raises concerns that the recall scope was too limited and that my vehicle should be included. I have contacted both the dealer and Toyota corporate, and I am requesting that NHTSA investigate this defect further and consider expanding the recall. This is a serious safety issue.

Intermittently, when leaving from a stop the car will have just enough power to pull forward about a car length before losing all drive power. The engine revs, but behaves as if it were in neutral. This happened a couple times when making a left turn from a stop sign leaving the car in cross traffic, powerless, with cars coming from the drivers side for a second or two before it had power again. It seems to happen in hot weather. It is intermittent. The dealership could not reproduce the problem. There were no warning lamps. I could make the vehicle available for inspection upon request. The first appearance was last summer. It did not do it over the winter. It happened again yesterday. When it happens it tends to happen for a few minutes before driving normally again. It may happen at start up or after the car has been driven for some time.

Only when it rains the forward collision warning light comes on. The last time it came on the engine light also came on with code p01280. Diagnostic at Toyota said the thermostat needs to be replaced. I decided to look into this as the thermostat should not be bad at 54500 miles. Weeks later and the neither light has come on again.

Vehicle has a safety issue involving the vehicles electric water pump. The water pump failed causing the vehicle to be unusuable until the electric motor is replaced. No warning when it failed, left consumer in the road blocking traffic.

In February of 2025 the brake vacuum pump failed and lost braking power. It was promptly towed to Toyota and the recall was performed. Roughly 3 weeks later an internal engine part that was removed during the recall repair came loose and damaged something internally. Since then the vehicle has yet to be adequately repaired. It produces no power, struggles to accelerate and has constant safety system malfunctions. Toyota had the vehicle from April to October and failed to adequately repair the vehicle after dozens of attempts. The vehicle was forcefully returned and will no longer pass smog from the engine malfunction they introduced during repairs. Currently in litigation and Toyota is ignoring all complaints.

I keep getting error code p0304 which says its cylinder 4 misfire the engine starts shaking a bit and most of the warning lights in my dashboard turn on and it disables the parking brake , I took it to a shop and they took out the fuel injectors to visualy inspect them and moved injector 4 to a different cylinder but the same error keeps coming back cylinder 4 misfire , I keep having to spend money and still have the same issue. It only does it on a cold start .

Replaced car battery , vehicle constantly jerking pressing the accelerator. It took almost a month to stop with harsh jerking . Going on 3 months and still transmission slips or jerks when entering traffic or accelerating sporadically. Feels as car either loses power or can’t find gears while driving. Very dangerous.

Check engine light came on one day. Ignored it. The next morning was driving on the highway and noticed the car had some trouble accelerating, tried to switch lanes at ~40-60mph (don’t remember) and the car started to kick back and almost felt like it was coming to a complete stop. I was so scared the car would just stop in the middle of the highway because I couldn’t even change lanes without it kicking back/not accelerating enough. There was not a lot of traffic around so I was lucky enough to get the car into the far right lane and coast. An alert came on, almost immediately after, on the dash and was told to pull over due to the engine overheating. Looked at the heat gauge and noticed it was all the way to hot. Got off the highway and tried to take local roads back home, the car started to kick back almost like it was about to come to a complete stop but was able to keep going local roads, didn’t pull over (was close enough to home that I didn’t want to leave my car on the side of the road if it didn’t start back up again) and the engine eventually cooled down. Got back home to put in more coolant (there was zero coolant, never noticed a leak) car ran fine for about a week, then check engine light came back on. Took it to autozone for a scan, code came out as p26cb. Took it to Toyota for diagnostic and repair, the code they found was p26cb71. Was told by the service advisor that the car should’ve turned off automatically and I shouldn’t have been able to drive it so far with the engine over heating like that. Also was told that the engine was very close to “blowing up”.

The transmission has completely malfunctioned. The car started stalling in traffic. It then stopped registering gears and stopped pulling. The car was taken to a shop who stated transmissions issues along with a brake assist failure. The torque converter has not been released by Toyota. My car has 139000 miles. I have researched this issue and many others have reported the same problem!.

About a month ago my daughter left the Toyota dealership in bradenton FL. After an oil change. She drove several hundred feet, the car stalled and she couldn't start it. The mechanic crew had to push it back into the service area, after been there for 2 days they found no problem, just last Monday [xxx] she filled the car up at a gas station, as she was leaving the car stalled again and she couldn't start it, the car was towed back to same dealership, they could find a problem after being there another 2 days. I believe it's a computer chip problem, which hasn't been resolved by Toyota, I don't want my daughter to have an accident and get hurt due to this problem, perhaps your agency can look into this Toyota problem information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

The shifting solenoid malfunctioned, burned up transmission and created a hazard on the roadway in high traffic areas. Vehicle stalled creating a backup in traffic and myself almost got rear ended. The red mccombs Toyota did confirm it was a solenoid malfunction through a phone call and video. They concluded that the car is not operable. The problem has been inspected and was advised to pay a hefty fee of nearly $10,000. Prior to the failure no lights or warnings were provided by the car’s electrical system not until I parked and restarted the car that the lamps turned on after the failure.

My 2018 Toyota Camry le electric water pump failed and car is over heating. There was a recall for certain VIN# but I can't find my vehicle with VIN# affected. Today at 74500 miles my car water pump failed.

Upon leaving my home the “check engine” light turned on suddenly after only less than 2 minutes of driving . The “ics malfunction” light also turned on. The car pulled and stalled when pushing the gas and velocity stalled. Engine light turned said something similar to “engine overheating park in a safe place” . Not sure exact words. I was able drive less then one mile to get the car to Toyota penske of downey. I had the diagnostic done and the service provider stated the car needed an electrician water pump replacement. My car has very little mileage and was not running for long for it to over heat.

Toyota told me my car isn’t part of NHTSA# 18v200000. . Car has all the symptom. . Losing power at driving speed. Ics malfunction take to dealer check engine light on . . Dealer states it’s water pump . . $1400. . How do you lose power from water pump . . ?.

The contact owns a 2018 Toyota Camry. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed and attempting to stop the vehicle, the brake pedal depressed all the way to the floorboard and the vehicle failed to come to a complete stop. The abs and check engine warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was not taken to the dealer nor an independent mechanic. The vehicle was not repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to NHTSA campaign number: 21v890000 (service brakes, hydraulic). The manufacturer was notified of the failure but provided no assistance. The failure mileage was 149,000. The VIN was not available.

Water pump, Toyota Camry 2018 le, 2. 5. In the last maintenance carried out at courtesy Toyota, brandon, I informed the dealer that the check engine light was on, I told them that I had visited 3 different places on the same day to detect the fault and it told me that the problem was the code p26cb, water pump. They told me that they had to diagnose the car one more time and that the cost was $200. 00 (this is a scam when the problem was already detected). Additionally, I understood that the water pump of my vehicle model had a recall, because it came out with a factory defect and a new car is practically not one for the water pump to be broken in such a short time. The dealer did not want to solve this problem in the warranty of this claim, who informed me that I had to pay $1400. 00 for this repair ($500 for the part and 900 labor) (another bigger scam) so I had to buy the part from Toyota online to solve it. It is unfair that in such a short time a part of the vehicle is damaged due to a manufacturing problem and the dealers (who we all know that their main objective is to obtain profits rather than solutions for their clients) abuse and do not assume the brand's responsibility to solve problems and projecting a negative image towards them. The warning lights were on the vehicle's dashboard indicating to stop and visit the dealer, but no solution was possible on their part. Many people have complained about this damaged part of the vehicle in these models due to the electric water pump that does not have the required duration.

Turned on the car drove about 30 seconds and car states that secondary pre collision emergency brake and it just stops on a busy street with no other signs of defect ever . My vehicle goes to the dealership constantly and is very well taken care of.

The contact owns a 2018 Toyota Camry. The contact stated while driving 20 mph, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed and determined that the failure was due to the coolant bypass valve. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 80,000.

The contact owns a 2018 Toyota Camry. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, the vehicle failed to properly accelerate. The contact stated that the vehicle was hesitating while accelerating. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The local dealer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 46,000.

Vehicle is experience dtc p26cb71 (electric water pump stuck) same other 2018 Camrys have experienced.

Subject: concerns regarding TSB t-sb-0017-23 for Toyota Camry hv vehicles dear NHTSA, I am deeply concerned about the recently released technical service bulletin (TSB) t-sb-0017-23 by Toyota motor sales, USA, inc. This TSB addresses a potential issue with the active grille air shutter actuator in specific 2018-2020 Camry hv vehicles equipped with the a25a-fxs engine. Releasing the TSB in April 2023, after the warranty periods for many affected vehicles have expired, is unfair to owners. A 2018 Camry hv's warranty period of 36 months/36,000 miles ended in 2021. This situation raises significant concerns as it burdens owners with the financial responsibility of repairs for an issue that was not their fault, potentially compromising safety if repairs are not promptly carried out. Toyota's inadequate efforts to ensure all affected owners have access to necessary repairs are disheartening. I urgently appeal for a thorough investigation and decisive action to ensure that regardless of warranty status, all owners of affected Camry hv vehicles can obtain essential repairs. I would like to bring attention to a similar TSB, t-sb-0319-17, issued by Toyota in November 2017 for prius prime 2017 and 2016-2017 models. This TSB addressed a comparable issue with the active grille air shutter actuator. Toyota extended the warranty for affected vehicles in California by 180 months or 150,000 miles, aligning with the manufacturing year and ensuring all vehicles were covered. The repair was covered under the California emission warranty for specific states. The discrepancy in approach between the two tsbs raises concerns about the fairness and consistency of Toyota's actions. It is crucial for Toyota to extend similar warranty coverage for affected Camry hv vehicles, ensuring all owners have access to necessary repairs without financial hardship. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I urge prompt action in addressing these concerns.