Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL | |||
| 09/26/2012 | 161000 | ||
| Vsc (vehicle stability control) is activated in curves at speeds between 25 mph and 60 mph. surface is dry and curves are gradual with appropriate and safe driving speeds. the vsc light goes on and warning buzzer goes off. the brakes shudder and the vehicle is de-throtteled. vehicle control is reduced for 3 to 5 seconds and then the vsc deactivates. concerned that this will be a problem when the road surface is slick. dealer could not find malfunction codes and could not duplicate problem so no fix. this situation occurs almost every day at least once. keeping incident log. web sites indicate this could be steering sensor calibration. dealer cleaned sensor parts and this did not resolve problem. contacted toyota and they said to continue working with the dealer. tsb is out for yaw sensor failure and steering calibration. | |||
| 04/06/2012 | |||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2004 toyota sienna. the contact stated that while driving between 20-30 mph, the traction warning light illuminated as the vehicle began to jerk violently. the contact also stated that the steering wheel would become very hard to steer.the vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where the failure could not be duplicated. the manufacturer was contacted and no assistance was offered to the contact. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was unknown and the current mileage was 98,000. kmj | |||
| 04/06/2012 | 98000 | ||
| Tl- the contact owns a 2004 toyota sienna. the contact stated that while driving between 20mph to 30 mph , the traction light illuminates causing the vehicle to jerk violently . the contact also stated that the steering becomes very hard to steer.the vehicle was then taken to an independent mechanic where the failure could not be duplicated. the manufacturer was contacted and no assistance was offered to the contact. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was unknown and the current mileage was 98,000.cv | |||
| 04/15/2009 | 98000 | ||
| The vsc has activated multiple times on my van for no apparent reason. while driving at any speed and usually in a turn, the vsc light will flash, the warning beep will beep, and the abs brakes will automatically be applied and the engine will quickly decelerate. i have almost been rear-ended several times because the van will suddenly decide to decelerate. i have no control over when this happens and no control of the van when it does! | |||
| 11/30/2011 | 56700 | ||
| As car was being driven in a parking lot the brakes were suddenly applied as the vsc dashboard light was lite. the car vibrated and slowed in a near stop. brake pedal was nearly useless. the conditions were clear with a dry mostly level pavement. attempted to drive vehicle about one mile to home not knowing if incident would be repeated. however, it was repeated without warning about every 5 to 10 seconds. speed never exceeded about 10 miles per hour. | |||
| 04/14/2010 | 98000 | ||
| Just over 1 year ago, the vsc warning indicator came on and it was found that one of the steering sensors was bad. i had it replaced. two days ago, the vsc warning light came on again. from all of the research that i have done, this seems to be a reoccuring problem for toyota on the sienna's and sequoia's. | |||
| 08/01/2011 | 68000 | ||
| The vehicle stability control has been engaging when it should not be. while driving at moderate speeds, into a slight turn, the vsc engages for a few seconds slowing down the car. it has been doing this now for the past few months while driving at moderate speeds when it should not be engaging. it is a little disconcerting when this happens being i know that it should not be doing this at that time. | |||
| 02/26/2011 | 116000 | ||
| Driving my 2004 toyota sienna 65mph on the highway on dry pavement the vsc light went on, a buzzer sounded, and i was unable to steer or brake the vehicle. the steering wheel started moving rapidly right and left causing the car to fishtail and the brake pedal went going in and out on its own. everything went back to normal after about 20 seconds or so, and i pulled off into the breakdown lane. i then pulled out again slowly to get my car in a safer area and it happned again. this time i was going much slower but it was horrifying none the less. i then pulled off the road and had the car towed to the toyota dealer. i found that a technical service bulletin had been issued on my car in 2005 and that the steering angle sensor was the culprit. the bulletin says that some customers may experience an intermittent vsc activation. owners of the 2004 sienna have not been notified of this problem, which after experiencing is clearly a safety issue, and there should have been a recall rather than a tsb. the tsb seems cleverly worded to avoid the fact that a driver could loose all control of the steering wheel and brakes which is clearly a safety issue. | |||
| 12/24/2010 | 100000 | ||
| 2004 toyota sienna van, the vehicle stability control system (vsc) goes into skid prevention mode and automatically applies the brakes, disconnects the accelerator, and selects one side or wheel to apply brakikng force to. this has the effect of causing the car to shudder, skid and move dangerously close to the outside edge of a curve. this has occured 15-20 times in my car since its purchase. i have taken it for repair by the dealer three times. some rusted parts were replaced the first time. the next two times, i was told the vehilcle was working properly. the vsc activated at speeds that were at or below the speed limit and in conditions where no realistic possibility of a skd was present. the problem is intermitent as i have driven over the same roads at the same or higher speeds for years without activation of the vsc. when it does activate it is frightening, and it causes a significant danger of losing control of the car or veering out of your lane. after a period of no activity, i have suddenly had 7 incidents in the last week occurring between dec. 24, 2010 and january 2, 2011.the problem first arose approximately three years ago. there have been 4 or 5 isolated incidents, but now there has been a serious and dramatic increase in the frequency of the vsc failure. | |||
| 10/30/2010 | 1000080 | ||
| Traveling between 35-45 mph on dry, straight roads, the vsc (vehicle skid control) engaged without cause. alarm sounded, vehicle skid light turned on, vehicle automatically applied brakes to the point that they made some squealing noise, throttle was unresponsive, and vehicle steering pulled to the left. we pulled over and stopped the vehicle, in hopes that it would clear the problem. we started up again only to have the same problem a couple of minutes later. this happened four times on the way home. would hate to see what would have happened at highway speed while pulling our popup camper. | |||
| 07/03/2004 | 77000 | ||
| Vsc engages at highway speeds: vehicle alarm sounds, brakes deploy abruptly and unexpectedly, steering pulls, accelerator goes dead (pulse races, adrenaline courses). first complained to dealer after four incidents in first 20k miles: had online testimonials of yaw sensor, steering angle sensor and ecm replacements as possible remedies; dealer rebuffed my complaints, denying service to sensors, and suggested my tires had 'gone square'. i have lived with the condition for a total of seven years. the car now 'goes off' maybe three times per every 20 miles driven, unpredictably and always shockingly. my family refuses to ride in the car. i cannot sell it in good conscience, as the defects cannot be confirmed by the dealer (and apparently therefore do not exist), so there is no way for it to be 'made safe' for a succeeding owner. its remaining $10k+ equity has been nullified by this defect. | |||
| 10/01/2004 | 1500 | 1 | |
| 2004 toyota sienna xle limited- uncontrolled cruise control acceleration/deceleration. the problem has continuously occurred since purchase in september 2004. dealership denies problems. dynamic cruise controlsystem causes my car to dangerously accelerate and decelerate. when laser detects nearby vehicle, the car will brake abruptly. likewise, once the nearby car is no longer in laser range, the car will accelerate abruptly to return to the set cruise control speed. i have almost been hit from behind multiple times on freeways because of the abrupt deceleration. i have been caught off guard several times by the acceleration and nearly lost control of the vehicle. the only way to stop the rapid acceleration and deceleration is to press the brake in order to disengage the cruise control system. i have never driven a car with such a dangerous cruise control system. i no longer use my cruise control system because i fear that i'll be unable to disengage the system and lose control of the vehicle. *tr | |||
| 07/11/2009 | 49545 | 1 | |
| I have a 04 sienna w/ 49,000 miles. the check engine light, vsc and trac control light came on several times since i purchased my car back in 04. they would just turned off after the car was shut off. *tr | |||
| 12/18/2008 | 35000 | 1 | |
| I have 2004 awd sienna. a week ago, when i started the car in a freezing morning and drove in subdivision road, the slippery light and beep came on and the brake acted here and there on the wheels. at the very beginning, i thought the road was slippery. but it was not the case. there was no way my van was skidding all the time. i was only driving at 10 mph. then i realized the vsc was wrongly activated. whenever i get to more than 10mph, vsc got activated and broke the speed down to 5 mph. i could only drive at 5mph without getting vsc activated. then i realized i could not drive this van on the road. i parked it back in garage. the next day, my wife drove it out of the garage and got the same symptom. we put the van back to garage for another 3 days before i was about to call a tow truck to tow it to a dealer for examination. i tried it again. miraculously, the problem went away. i went to the dealer and talked to the service adviser, he said he knew nothing about the problem (recall etc.) and asked me to bring the van back for service once the problem happens again. my van appears to be working correctly now, but i dare not drive it far away from home. i know the problem is not gone. it will come back at the most inconvenient time. i do not want to be stranded in a snow storm at -30 degrees f that i can only drive at 5mph (that is what the weather is like here in chicago at this time of the year). i do not want to be thousand miles away from home when the problem happens again. it would be nightmare if vsc wrongly comes on at high way speed. *tr | |||