Toyota's new Camry can start up with a blank gauge cluster — and no turn signals

Transport Canada recall 2026383, posted August 6, covers 11,159 Toyota Camrys from the 2025 and 2026 model years — the second-largest Canadian campaign of the month.

On certain vehicles, a software problem could cause the combination meter in the instrument cluster not to display when the vehicle is started. As a result, the turn signals and hazard lights may not work.

It affects only cars equipped with the 7-inch display, which is the base cluster in this generation.

Why a blank screen takes the turn signals with it

This is the part that surprises people, and it's a good illustration of how modern cars actually work.

On an older car, the turn signal was a switch, a relay and a bulb. The clicking noise was a physical component doing a physical job. Nothing about the gauge cluster had any bearing on whether the lamp on the corner of the car blinked.

On this Camry, the instrument cluster isn't a set of dials in front of a computer — it is part of the computer, and the turn signal indicator lives in the same subsystem as the signal logic. When the cluster fails to initialise, it doesn't just fail to show you the arrow. The function goes with it.

Transport Canada lists what else goes dark:

Additionally, you may not be able to see certain information about the vehicle, including warning lights, malfunction tell-tales and seat belt reminders.

So: no turn signals, no hazards, no warning lamps, no seat-belt reminder. The safety case writes itself —

Turn signals that don't work may cause a person not to recognize when the driver intends to turn or change lanes and could increase the risk of a crash. Warnings, tell-tales and gauges that don't display could also increase the risk of a crash. A seat belt warning that doesn't work may not remind you to buckle your seat belt.

The remedy is a software update to the combination meter, performed at a dealership. Unlike the Stellantis camera recall this month, this one isn't going out over the air.

First-generation teething

The Camry was fully redesigned for 2025. We made this point about 2027 model-year buying and it holds here: first model years of a new generation are where recalls concentrate. Not because manufacturers get careless, but because a redesign replaces validated hardware and software with new versions of both, and some share of the defects only appear at fleet scale.

This isn't an argument against buying a new generation. It's an argument for knowing which one you're looking at — and on a used lot, that comes down to the VIN. The tenth character encodes model year, so a 2025 Camry and a 2024 Camry are one character apart in a string most buyers never read.

Checking a Camry

The campaign number is 2026383. If your 2025 or 2026 Camry has the 7-inch cluster, it's worth a call.

Our Toyota Camry recall page lists what's on file across model years from both Transport Canada and the U.S. NHTSA.

If you're shopping used, run the VIN through our free decoder first — it'll confirm the exact model year and trim and check both countries' recall databases in one pass. Recalls are matched by make, model and model year, and many cover only certain VIN ranges, so to confirm this campaign applies to a specific car — or to get the update done, free — the dealer or manufacturer is the authority.