Bulletins
| Bulletin | Bulletin date | Replacement Bulletin | Item no. | Summary | Added |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TIRES - PRESSURE MONITORING AND REGULATING SYSTEMS | |||||
| 02207 | 05/02/2007 | 10021715 | Tire pressure warning valve/sensor activation. *kb | 06/15/2007 | |
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| TIRES | |||
| 12/28/2010 | 20100 | ||
| This report concerns a 2008 toyota highlander limited that was purchased new as a dealer leftover. the vehicle has just over 20,000 miles and the toyo open country a20 tires are shredding and have pieces of the tread missing. this is on all four tires. the tires are p245/55r19 with a dot number cxhh-dk80508. i have not yet contacted toyo, however from other complaints noted, it does not seem that the manufacturer will willingly accept the defect of premature wear of this tire. the tire size is unique, which causes the replacement cost to be much higher than more standard sizes. | |||
| 10/12/2010 | 20195 | ||
| Tire falling apart and flaking including premature wearing on factory oem toyo open country 245-55x19 a20 tires which were on my 2008 toyota highlander purchase brand new on jul 2008. approximate current mileage is 20,195. all tires are showing the same abnormal wear as verified by toyota dealer. there are numerous online complaints of similar owners with pictures of the unusal wearing. mine are worse than are described as concurred by toyota service advisors. | |||
| 10/07/2010 | 28000 | ||
| Tl-the contact owns a 2008 toyota highlander. all four tires are chipping away on the shoulder of the inside of the tires and the vehicle is unsafe to drive. the tire name was toyo open country at, size p245/55r19. while driving 35 mph the vehicle tire pressure warning light illuminated. the vehicle was taken to a mechanic shop who inspected the tires and found them chipping on the shoulder on the inside of the tires and informed her not to drive the vehicle because it was unsafe. the toyo tire company was called and informed her to take the vehicle to a toyo tire dealer near her but the tires are in such bad shape she cannot drive the vehicle. the toyota manufacturer was notified and informed her to take the vehicle to the dealer for inspection but she cannot get the vehicle there because it was unsafe to drive. the tires are not repaired. the failure mileage was 28,000....mw | |||
| 09/19/2010 | 23897 | ||
| Greetings. i am writing to you regarding my 2008 highlander sport, serial number jteds43a682065681. specifically, i am writing about the oem tires, toyo open country, dot cxhh, dk82508. as of today, i have 23, 897 miles on the vehicle; and the tires are completely worn out to a point below the wear bars, which indicates that they must be replaced now. when i purchased the vehicle in october 2008, i purchased the toyota maintenance program, so the tires are rotated and balanced (if necessary) every 5,000 miles when i also change the oil. i am a 46 year old father of three small children, with no moving violations, tickets or accidents. i tell you this about my life to indicate the type of conservative driver that i am. i have conducted extensive research online and have identified the lowest price for a set of four tires at $759.88, which will actually more expensive during the buy due to the tpms system, the necessity for an alignment when replacing four tires, and tax. i realize that tire replacement is just one part of the overall maintenance requirement for a vehicle. however, tires on a $33,000 vehicle should provid far more mileage than 24,000 miles. in fact, if you have the time-i invite you to go the blog titled toyota nation, where all of the writers consistently make disparaging remarks about toyota | |||
| 02/16/2009 | 10765 | ||
| Stock tires on 2008 toyota highlander limited are unsafe. | |||
| 04/01/2010 | |||
| Poor tires on my 2008 toyota highlander sport edition. excessive wear and need to be replaced at 22k miles. they are the bridgestone 245/55/r19 | |||
| 01/12/2010 | 31077 | ||
| 2008 toyota highlander purchased used toyota certified 9-3-09 fails to shift into gear. most occurrences at low speed after slowing to 5mph vehicle does not respond to gas pedal - or will not engage into gear and move forward. this occurs or is most noticeable at slow speeds when the gas pedal is pushed after having slowed down or in the midst of a turn into a parking spot. wife has also complained about transmission not engaging into gear when car is first started up acts like you didn't shift it into gear. we have also noted transmisson doesn't always seem to disengage when slowing from highway speeds 55 mph. feels like it is draging car to stop. there is a noticeable whine between 55 - 62 mph. talked to dealer mechanic and he said that was normal everything is controled by computers. we are going to take it back in this week and complain about the transmission slipage. we have also had a issue with the toyo tires. at 28,345 they were down to 5/32 to 4/32. they have major problems in snow and heavy rain with loss of traction. when esc kicks on in the snow on a turn do to sliding at slow speed it makes matters worse be better off with it turned off. | |||
| 11/15/2009 | 23000 | ||
| Tl* the contact owns a 2008 toyota highlander sport. the contact stated that one of the lug nuts on the tire had rusted. the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealership where the contact was informed that the lug needed to be replaced. there has been no replacement of the lug nut at the time of the complaint. the failure mileage was approximately 23,000. the current mileage was 27,806. | |||
| 04/08/2010 | 23000 | ||
| Toyota highlander (2008) with toyo a20 tires. extremely high wear with low mileage; car hydroplanes with minimal wet road surface, power wheels lose traction, even with slow start. the toyo tire treads are almost worn off at 23000 miles; when in normal driving, one should expect 45000 miles. this is a very poor quality oem tire, and should be recalled. | |||
| 03/23/2010 | 18600 | ||
| I ask because today had a horrible experience with toyota. they told me my shredding, bald tires are safe and nothing wrong with them. called toyo who makes the tires and they offered me 50 percent discount on new tires and tire place said car wouldn't pass inspection.. .all this when an hour earlier toyota dealership said everything is safe and sent me off with a safety inspection report saying all is well... from what i see online, it seems like hundreds of customers dealing with same 2008 vehicles with only 10-18k miles on tires that are shredding and bald. personally i think this could be another toyota example of turning the other way. from reading consumers stories and comments online i am afraid this could result in more injuries than the whole brake situation. appreciate anything you can do to draw some attention to this. the dealership i went to was: toyota of braintree 781 848 9300 customer service manager bob hadges service manager bob sullivan | |||
| 02/22/2010 | 30000 | 1 | 02/29/2008 |
| Tl* the contact owns toyo open country a20 tires, size 245/55/r19, dot# cxhhdk84607. while the contact was having her vehicle inspected she noticed that all 4 tires were experiencing adnormal tread wear. the tires were taken to the dealership where the contact was informed that the tires were experiencing normal wear. there were no prior warnings and the current and failure mileages were 30000. updated 4/28/10 *cn updated 06/11/10.*jb | |||
| 03/06/2008 | 1000 | 1 | |
| My wife's 2008 toyota highlander sport with 19 rims came with bridgestone dueler h/l 400 tires. this tire happens to be the only tire made to fit this rim other than a toyota open country which apparently was standard on the hybrid model. we found this tire to be unfit and unsafe for a 4,500 lb vehicle of this scale. these tires hydroplan in rain from the moment they were new, and they handled terribly in any amount of snow, causing the rear of our 4wd vehicle to slide sideways when starting from simple stops. on several occasions we held our breath as we slid toward vehicles and property while the stability control system tried in vain to overcome the tire's very poor handling characteristics. if you go to tirerack.com you will see that this tire is rated extremely poorly by many many owners of highlanders and other cars that they came standard on. when i contacted toyota about this, they balked at me, and copped an attitude when they asked if i seriously thought toyota was going to replace my tires for me. these tires are unsafe for any vehicle which will travel in snow or rain. the final insult of these tires is that they were more than three-quarters worn out by 15,000 miles. we milked these tires until almost 30,000 miles since i refused to buy the same tire again, hoping some other manufacturer would come along with a similar sized tire - 245/55-19. that never happened, so i went with a 255 width tire and brought a well rated hankook. i could not be happier. i am just incensed that toyota colluded with bridgestone to install such terribly cheap and unsafe tires on thousands of highlanders, stranding all those owners to suffer the same instability issues as we did, while they did not work with any other tire vendors to supply this distinctive tire design. i am not sure who i hold in more contempt - bridgestone or toyota. i do not doubt that you could research vehicle crashes involving highlanders and find many caused by poor traction. *tw | |||
| 02/06/2010 | 0 | 1 | |
| Toyo a20 open country tires in 245/55r19 size wear prematurely with potential loss of traction and control. drivers unaware of the fact these tires wear out in less than 20,000 miles may fail to check them for wear soon enough. these tires are the oem tires used on the 2008 toyota highlander sport model and probably some other toyota models and model years as well. the 2008 vehicle owners will be the first to report problems. this blog on consumer reports details the problems. http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2009/04/toyota-highlander-how-to-choose-the-best-replacement-tire-.html toyota dealers are offering no compensation or replacement assistance and this size tire is unique so that only two firms offer replacements - toyo and bridgestone. the bridgestone oem tires in this size may have the same wear and traction problems. *cn | |||
| 11/02/2009 | 25000 | 1 | |
| I own a 2008 toyota highlander limited. after driving 25k miles, i noticed a vibration in my steering. i then noticed my tires tread on all 4 tires worn down to almost 2/32 of tread depth remaining. i have original tires: open country a20 p 245/55r19 103s. i called toyo tire consumer relations dept. and they said there is no mileage warranty on the original equipment. they offer 30% discount on new set of tires installed at tire dealer center. new tires, after discount will cost about $900, but they on the back order and become available only by the end of december 2009. i forced to keep driving my car with bad tires.they don't offer any replacement tires for this odd size, manufactured only for this car. these tires create a hazard to me, my family and public safety, especially driving in the north-east areas. i have never had a new vehicle that need new tires when it is barely two years old. i try to replace this tires before i have an incident. i have noticed numerous complaints about these tires on various web sites. all toyota highlander owners very disappointed and lost. many try to change tire size to more common used, which will void power-train warranty and could create more of safety problems. i hope you find this situation very disturbing and potentially safety hazardous and will lead to your investigation and correction. *tr | |||
| 01/09/2009 | 15000 | 1 | |
| We have leased a 2008 toyota highlander for 22 months. the toyo a 20 tires are so worn with normal driving they will not pass state inspection. numerous complaints appear online regarding this matter. no one wants to take responsibility for this matter. there is obviously a defect with tire or car. *tr | |||
| 09/14/2009 | 8000 | 1 | |
| Known defects of toyo tires on 2008 toyota highlander. tires shred tread in little pieces. toyota dealer has a sheet describing the details. toyo knew the tires were defective. they waited until the owner noticed and complained. the tires wear out very quickly. the tires should have been recalled and replaced. instead toyo applied their warranty. with 80% credit, my costs were$252.25 since the tires were known to be defective, they should have been replaced at no charge to me. *tr | |||
| 07/31/2009 | 12500 | 1 | |
| Tire flaking and prematurely wearing. *tr | |||
| 05/04/2009 | 5000 | 1 | |
| Toyo tires (p245/55r19) were installed on my 08 highlander at the time of purchase. at first oil change, was advised that they were not wearing properly & had alignment checked. no problems with alignment--called toyota--they advised to rotate every 5k with oil change..did the same and i now have 20k miles with 2 rear tires that rubber is peeling so bad that they have to be replaced immediately. front will have to be replaced within few months as well. toyota is blaming toyo & no reply from toyo....obviously this manufacturer makes poor quality products with just the complaint records that you have on file. anyone driving a vehicle with these tires is obviously taking their life in their hands!! *tr | |||
| 03/02/2009 | 23000 | 1 | |
| On march 2, 2009 i rented a suv from hertz at the salt lake city airport. upon picking up the car i commented to the person checking me out that the tire tread depth looked very low for an suv that would be used in the snow. she said she would make note of it. when i arrived at my destination 230 miles away i used a penny to check the depth. i called hertz to ask for assistance to get the tires replaced. roadside assistance said there was a goodyear dealer in the city i was in but would have to get approval. the manager at the hertz in slc said he would not approve new tires. i stopped at a toyota dealer who checked the tire tread depth, the depth ranged from 2/32 to 3/32, the service manager stated the tires were unsafe. should the nhstb investigate car rental companies who may be placing the safety of customers at risk to save money? *tr | |||
| 01/10/2009 | 500 | 1 | |
| The bridgestone dueler h/l400 (not h/l 683 or 684 ii as listed in the choices for this tire on this web site!!!!!) tires on our 2008 toyota highlander are terribly unsafe in all conditions other than dry roads. they hydroplane in the rain, the rear end slides in all types of snowy conditions, causing the stability control to kick in and compensate, and they require frequent topping off of the air pressure, more so than any tire on any vehicle i've ever owned. this tire is getting terrible reviews on tirerack.com from current owners of mazda cx-9s and highlanders, and there isn't another tire on the market in the size i would need to replace it. it's an accident waiting to happen. our car is a v6 powered 4x4 suv we bought brand new 10 months ago. it has never driven well in snow, and despite the full-time 4-wheel drive, the vehicle behaves like a rear-drive truck with summer tires. the car severely fishtails and slides sideways, with the stability control fully cutting power and applying certain brakes in attempt to correct course. this happens at every turn and intersection. it's not only embarrassing, it's also wreaking havoc on my fuel economy as i do so much slipping in these tires, and i fear i will be going off the road or sliding into someone's property or vehicle some day without warning. *tr | |||