Toyota Camry Seat Defect Lawsuit: 2025 and 2026 Camry Driver Seat Popping and Shifting

Owners of the 2025 Camry, which NHTSA lists as the Camry Hybrid, began describing the same experience: a pop, click, or shift in the driver seat back or lumbar area during ordinary driving, especially when accelerating, braking, turning, or getting in and out. Some say it feels as if the seat back is about to fold or that something inside is loose.

Lemberg Law, a consumer and lemon law firm, announced a class action investigation into the driver seat in 2025 and 2026 Camrys. The firm's investigation page, updated June 25, 2026, says Toyota has not issued a public technical service bulletin or recall for the driver seat problem, and that owners are relying on dealer visits and internal Toyota technical assistance cases with mixed results. It reports owners being told dealers could not duplicate the issue.

An investigation means attorneys are gathering information to decide whether to sue. It is not a finding that the seats are defective, and Toyota has not been accused of anything in court on this issue. For how investigations work, see what a lawsuit investigation is.

What federal complaint records show

NHTSA collects owner complaints in a public database. For model year 2025, the Camry is listed as the Camry Hybrid. As of September 2026, NHTSA's database shows 161 complaints for the 2025 Camry Hybrid, 17 of them filed under the seats component, not counting seat belts.

Several recent seat complaints use nearly the same language. Owners filed reports in May, June, and July 2026 describing a backrest that feels loose inside during acceleration, braking, rough roads, and turns; a lumbar component that pops when accelerating or braking and is "surprising and distracting"; and a seat that shifts so that the driver adjusts position while moving. These are unverified owner reports, but a cluster of similar complaints is exactly what regulators and attorneys look for.

You can read these complaints yourself on NHTSA.gov by entering your model year, make, and model, then opening the complaints tab and filtering by the seats component. Reading them is a quick way to see whether your symptoms match what other owners describe, and whether any owner reports a fix that worked. Complaints are not verified by NHTSA, and a complaint count alone does not prove a defect.

If your seat has this problem, filing your own NHTSA complaint adds to the record. It is free and takes a few minutes, and it gives you a dated report in case of later claims.

As of September 2026, we found no filed class action and no recall covering the 2025 and 2026 Camry driver seat.

Item	Status
Driver seat class action	Investigation only; none filed that we found
Driver seat recall	None
Public service bulletin	None, per Lemberg Law
NHTSA investigation	None opened that we found
Rear seat recall 24V128 (2023 to 2024)	Open; free repair

If a lawsuit is filed, it would likely claim breach of warranty and failure to disclose a known defect. The early steps would be Toyota's response and possibly a motion to compel arbitration or to dismiss. Class cases over vehicle defects commonly take years; see how long class actions take.

Investigations like this one end in one of three ways. Attorneys may file a class action if they find a consistent defect and enough affected owners. Toyota may address the problem first through a service bulletin, a customer support program, or a recall, which can reduce the need for litigation. Or the complaints may turn out to have several unrelated causes, in which case individual warranty and lemon law claims are the usual path. Owners do not need to wait to see which happens: a documented warranty repair request protects you in all three scenarios.

The investigation covers 2 model years, 2025 and 2026, and all Camry trims.

• Vehicles: 2025 and 2026 Toyota Camry, all trims, according to the investigation.
• Symptoms: popping, clicking, shifting, or looseness in the driver seat back or lumbar area during normal driving.
• Stronger claims: multiple dealer visits, failed repairs, a repair order recording the complaint, or physical symptoms from the seat.

You probably are not part of this issue if the noise comes from an object under the seat, a loose trim piece that a dealer fixed for good, or if you own an older Camry generation. If your seat was damaged in a crash, that is a different kind of claim.

A new car with a defect the dealer cannot fix after several tries may also qualify under your state's lemon law, which does not require a class action. Lemon law protections usually apply during the early warranty period, so timing matters.

There is no case yet, so there is no payout. In vehicle defect class actions generally, settlements tend to include a free repair or redesigned part, an extended warranty for that part, and reimbursement of documented out-of-pocket costs. Owners who never paid anything often receive only the repair and warranty.

Toyota's new vehicle warranty covers most of the car, including seats, for 3 years or 36,000 miles, so right now a documented dealer repair is the most direct remedy. Lemon law claims, where available, can lead to a buyback or replacement plus attorney fees paid by the manufacturer. For comparison with class payouts, see class action vs individual lawsuit.

Toyota's basic new vehicle warranty runs 36 months or 36,000 miles, the window in which a documented seat repair request carries the most weight.

• Express warranty. Toyota promises to repair defects in materials or workmanship during the warranty period. Repeated failed repairs can be a breach.
• Implied warranty of merchantability. A car should be fit for ordinary driving. A seat that shifts unexpectedly may not be.
• Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. The federal law that lets consumers sue over written and implied warranties. See our Magnuson-Moss guide.
• State lemon laws. In California the Song-Beverly Consumer Warranty Act is the lemon law; every state has its own version.
• Federal safety standards. Seats and head restraints are covered by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Recall 24V128 was issued because rear seats failed to comply with FMVSS 202 on head restraints.

A technical service bulletin would show Toyota acknowledged the condition, which is why owners watch for one. A recall would require a free fix regardless of warranty.

Safety matters to how regulators treat a defect. NHTSA can open an investigation when complaints suggest a safety risk, and a manufacturer must recall vehicles with a safety defect. Owners in these complaints describe the seat problem as a distraction while driving, which is why filing a detailed NHTSA complaint, including when it happens and how it affects your control of the car, is more useful than a general complaint about noise.

Do not confuse the driver seat investigation with an actual recall on the previous generation. On February 21, 2024, Toyota filed recall 24V128 for 4,212 2023 to 2024 Camry and Camry Hybrid vehicles whose second-row center and right-side seats may have insufficiently welded head restraint brackets. The vehicles fail FMVSS 202, "Head Restraints." Dealers replace the 60 percent rear seat back frame free of charge; owner letters were mailed April 19, 2024, under Toyota recall numbers 24TB04 and 24TA04.

Separately, recall 25V059 covers certain 2025 Camry Hybrids and some Lexus models whose second-row center seat belt webbing may be damaged. Check your VIN at NHTSA or Toyota for any open recall; the repairs are free. For how recalls relate to lawsuits, see recall vs class action.

Of 161 NHTSA complaints for the 2025 Camry Hybrid as of September 2026, 17 were filed under seats, a sign that owners are documenting the problem even when dealers cannot reproduce it.

The most common frustration in these complaints is a dealer visit that ends with "could not duplicate." Seat noises and shifts are intermittent and often depend on the driver's weight, posture, and the road, so a short test drive by a technician may not trigger them. That does not mean you have no claim, but it does mean the paperwork matters.

• Be specific when you drop off the car. Say which part of the seat moves, what driving maneuver triggers it, and how often. Ask the service writer to type your words onto the repair order.
• Offer a ride-along. Ask the technician to ride with you, or to drive the route where it happens most.
• Bring your video. A clip with audio can show a symptom the technician cannot reproduce.
• Keep the closed repair order. Even a "no problem found" order proves you reported the defect, on a date, at a mileage, while the car was under warranty.
• Escalate in writing. If two or three visits do not fix it, write to Toyota's customer service and ask for a Toyota field representative to inspect the car.

Under most state lemon laws, what counts is the number of documented repair attempts and days out of service, so each repair order is a building block of a potential claim. The same records would support a claim in any future class action or settlement, since reimbursement programs usually require proof of when a problem was reported and what was paid.

Finally, keep your own simple log: date, mileage, what happened, and who you spoke with. Attorneys reviewing these cases consistently ask for that timeline first, and it takes only a minute after each incident.

Every visit within the 36-month or 36,000-mile warranty should produce a repair order with your complaint written on it.

1. Take it to a Toyota dealer while under warranty and describe the problem precisely: when it happens, where in the seat, and how often.
2. Get a repair order every visit, even if the dealer says "could not duplicate." That paper trail matters for warranty, lemon law, and class claims.
3. Open a case with Toyota customer service and write down the case number.
4. Record it with a phone video, safely, with a passenger filming.
5. File an NHTSA complaint online.
6. Watch your deadlines. Warranty and lemon law rights have a statute of limitations and early-ownership time limits.

Other auto pages cover Hyundai and Kia and Subaru battery drain. If your 2025 or 2026 Camry seat has not been fixed, independent attorneys who handle auto defect cases may want to hear about it. A free case review takes about two minutes.