Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING | |||
| 01/29/2009 | 1 | ||
| Comments: dear sir or madam, i would like to make you aware of a problem with our 2006 toyota highlander hybrid. in august of 2008 while backing out of our driveway i suddenly lost all power & control of the vehicle, there was no brake nor steering. i was able to eventually stop the vehicle before any property damage was done. my husband wrestled the vehicle off the alleyway & the car was towed to the dealership. they said there was a problem with the electric link assembly & they said the problem was fixed. yesterday morning at 6am i got into the car & turned the key, the ready light came on & i put my foot on the brake & put the car into reverse, as soon as i put the car into gear, the brake pedal went to the floor, the gas engine came on full power & the car flew backward. i tried frantically to depress the brake pedal trying to stop the car & steer the car while careening in reverse. the car slammed into our rear neighbors vehicle (which is to the back & right of our garage across the alley) our car pushed theirs over 4-6 feet & continued trying to reverse full power over their bushes i didn't know what to do so i slammed the car into the park position. the car stopped but the engine continued to race. i shut it off & jumped out. i was not injured, however our car & our neighbors was damaged. the car was again towed to toyota dealership. i conveyed to them what happened & the car is there now getting checked. i called them in the evening to ask what they had found & they stated they were trying to reenact what happened. they must find what it is in this cars computer that continues to cause these catastrophic malfunctions. had i been at a school or shopping lot someone could have been killed. i am a person who believes in accountability & ownership of responsibility & if this were my fault in any way i would not be writing you today. i feel you need to be aware of this problem so no one in the future is seriously injured or killed. *tr | |||
| 09/06/2008 | 100140 | 1 | |
| My 2006 toyota highlander hybrid suddenly stalled in the middle of the street. the car was later towed to the toyota dealer in hanford,ca. the car has 140 miles over 100,000 miles and the dealer told me it was out of warranty. the problem is with the hybrid system was later pointed out to the inverter and it will cost me roughly $5,000. *tr | |||
| 08/04/2008 | 33000 | 1 | |
| Dash board dwscription: check hybrid system. check vsc system the car would not restart. toyota highlander hybrid 2006 hybrid failure. suv just stopped causing me to have whip lash. very dangerous. email below explains more... email: yesterday 08/04/08 around 05:17 pm, my highlander hybrid suv hybrid system failed. it happened while i was driving around 30 mph. the car just halted. it acted like if you went from 5th gear to 2nd gear, a big jolt; causing me to have a whip lash. my left side of my neck really hurts and i cannot turn my head to my right....my question to toyota is why didn't the system default to the gas engine instead of just stopping? you know if this happened to me on the highway, i may have been seriously hurt or even killed. i think this is a very dangerous failure. what will toyota do to make me feel safe driving this car with my family? i do not want this to happen to me again, because who knows if i will survive it or not. *tr | |||
| 07/17/2008 | 10000 | 1 | |
| I bought an '06 toyota highlander hybrid in june of '07. for the last 9 months i have had nothing but problems with this vehicle. my main concern is it stalls out in traffic. it has stalled on the interstate, highways, waiting to make turns and sitting in traffic. the only way to get it started again is to turn it off and restart it. i have complained to the dealership on several occasions regarding this but because it is not registering an error code they claim that there is nothing they can do. it has become so bad that i fear for my family, myself and other drivers surrounding me. one of the employees at the dealership says he believes that there is a software issue. the dealership makes me feel like it is going to take someone getting hurt or killed before they do something about it! why should it cost my family or the surrounding public their life or injury for dealerships to really make an effort to work on a vehicle? i put the most recent incident down as the incident date but it has happened several times. *tr | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE | |||
| 09/08/2008 | 31000 | 1 | |
| Upon acceleration the 2006 highlander hybrid 2 wd suddenly and rapidly accelerated. this happened once in reverse and once in drive both times the vehicle was stopped at onset. it has not happened again thus far (2 days ago). the suv was at the dealership yesterday where they could find nothing wrong. i am now aware that this has been an issue with toyota's, esp the camry, upon which the highlander is based. *tr | |||
| 02/22/2006 | 1450 | 1 | 12/10/2005 |
| 2006 toyota highlander 4wd hybrid stalled during left turn (in front of traffic) when traveling to work. both the gas and electric engine stalled - i.e. i pushed the gas and nothing happened. turned the engine off and restarted, and everything has worked well since (4 days). *nm | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - ENGINE - GASOLINE | |||
| 08/30/2006 | 15000 | 9999 | 11/11/2005 |
| Have been experiencing braking problems ... driving in traffic or coming to a complete stop fairly quickly (i.e. stop sign), the brake engages ... lets go for a second... catches, car stops. this didn't happen all the time, but it began happening quite frequently ... took it to toyota. they changed the brake pads and rotors on the front ... since there was a technical bulletin on the newer model, but not mine. riving on a service road ... 55-60 mph ... the car starts slowing down by itself ... constantly.. kept speeding up and it kept slowing down, as if brakes were being applied... no brake lights though. today i was driving the car ... going down a gradual slope ... on a turn ... braked ... the car sped up .. went from 30 mph to about 35 mph, while braking ... car skided off the road, skid light came on, beeping non stop ... hit a pole... shattered my mirror and scratched the side ... car wouldn't stop ... threw it into park and finally skidded to a stop. driving on thursday, about to come to a stop and .... it does this short stop thing recently.. where it brakes rather forcefully and abruptly when it is cold... so after that happens ...the car completely shuts off... and comes to a full stop. no lights. no engine. brake pedal goes all the way to the floor. car is still in drive, key still in ignition ...push it into park, take out key... restart.... driving again. the glove compartment light doesn't turn on anymore now. this has happened 3 times since last thursday now. there are alot more incidences and different failures. *jb | |||
| ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING - EXHAUST SYSTEM | |||
| 05/12/2008 | 25590 | 1 | |
| We drove our 2006 toyota highlander hybrid home from town at about 7:00 p.m. on a cool evening, (six miles) 1/2 mile is a fairly steep hill to climb. on pulling into the driveway and stopping i noticed a burning smell and told my husband i thought the brakes were hot. after a couple minutes he noticed smoke coming from around the hood. he opened it and there were flames coming from the lower center area of the engine under the radiator hose. he got a fire extinguisher from the garage and extinguished the fire. the following morning we had the car towed to the dealer in ukiah. they had the car for 22 days. after the first day they reported that the catalytic converter had set the motor mount on fire and that toyota was sending a team of engineers to look into the cause. the front motor mount, the radiator hose, air fuel sensor, front wiring harness, seals and gaskets were replaced. according to the dealers service summary, the root cause of the incident could not be determined. no manufacturers defects were found. we find it strange that a two year old toyota with 24,000 miles and having been serviced one week before the incident should catch on fire after driving 6 miles. they claim the car is restored to its original condition but without knowing what caused the fire we don't know if it is safe to drive. *tr | |||