Bulletins


BulletinBulletin dateReplacement BulletinItem no.SummaryAdded
TIRES - TEMPORARY/EMERGENCY SPARE TIRE
T-SB-0381-0812/01/200810044159Toyota: spare tire carrier binding. some customers may experience that the spare tire is difficult to remove or the cable is binding. *js05/16/2012
TC-11-00302/16/201110038205Ready06/10/2011
TC-11-00302/16/201110038205Toyota service campaign: see document search button for owner letter. in cold weather where salt is used, the salt can corrode the spare tire carrier cable. 1998-2020 sienna. *rm06/10/2011
TC-10-06012/06/201010037706Ready06/03/2011
TC-10-06012/06/201010037706Toyota: in cold climates where road salt is used the spare tire assembly cable can become corroded. *rm06/03/2011

Consumer Complaints


Fail datemilesoccurencesPurchase date
TIRES
11/24/2010
 The run-flat tires start to make noise, and then one day begin to vibrate badly. the steel belts separate on the inside of the tire, and catastrophically fail with potential to cause an accident. we pull over and have the car towed to a dealer who replaces the tires. this happens every 10,000-30,000 miles. we have to buy new tires to replace all 4 tires.
10/07/20100
 2008 toyota sienna le, purchased new. at 5k miles 1/2 tread was gone on front tires per repair tech notes. at 15k front tires were 2mm inside and bald on the outside, and front breaks were at 1mm, rotors had to be replaced as well. went back to dealership due to noise coming from breaks twice. current mileage is 33k and the van needs new front tires and front breaks (rotor?); all recommended servicing was done (per owners manual) and is documented. this van has a permamenet defect.
01/01/2010480001
 I have a 2008 toyota sienna van. i had once gotten a flat tire about three months ago. i tried to unwind my spare tire from the undercarriage unscrewing the bolt to lower the spare tire using the winch mechanism. once the spare was lowered i could not pull the wire back up again. once the flat was repaired i could not use the winch again to pull back my spare tire to the original position. i went ahead and replaced the winch mechanism on my own cost after not getting any support from the dealership to help fix it or repeated calls to toyota that refused to acknowledge the defect. they citied that i was out of warranty and now could do nothing. now i am hearing there is indeed a problem with the mechanism and there is a recall on the van. i placed a call to the dealership in town there is no response. while there may have been dangerous situation this was avoided i think by putting in a third party winch mechanism on my own cost. i like toyota to either 1) fix my problem 2) pay for the cost of fixing the problem which i took care to fix it on my own cost. *tr
02/02/201016000
 Tl*the contact owns 2008 toyota sienna. the contact noticed that his tires aren't lasting long. the tires are generally suppose to be good quality tires and should not experience wear and tear until at least 25,000 miles. as of 16,000 miles the tires seemed as if they were on the vehicle for years. the manufacturer of the tires were contacted and they referred the contact to the vehilce manufacturer. the vehicle manufacturer informed the contact to contact an authorized dealer. authorized dealer informed the contact that they would have to wait until the district manager came in to see what they could do to assist him. as of now the contact still has yet to get assistance with the tire failure. they also informed the contact that he would have to wait until all the recalls were taken care of before he would be assisted. the vin was not available. the failure mileage was 16,000 and the current mileage was 21000.
02/10/20081
 I bought my 2008 toyota sienna in october 2007. the first defect i noticed is when the rear windows are open, the rear doors do not lock in place when you open them. the mechanic stated said the he thought the reason it was designed this way was as a precaution, in case a child is leaning out of the window when the doors are opened. this made no sense. my experience has been that the door slams really hard and then bounces back. if a child happened to be leaning out the window they would suffer serious injury because of this. no one has been injured thus far, but the slamming certainly startles everyone! this happens even if the window is only open slightly. another defect is the tire pressure light on the dash. it stays lit up constantly. after adding air on numerous occasions, i noticed that the light comes back on in just a couple of days. i discussed this with the dealer and he simply stated that tire pressure changes with the temperature. this is a safety issue because i would not know if the tires' inflation was really off or not. obviously i cannot add air to the tires every other day. *tr
05/30/2009113731
 Run flat tire commercial. it is true that you can travel on a run flat tire for over 100 miles with a nail punctured tire. this commercial does not tell you the prones of it and i experienced this problem. i have a 2008 toyota sienna all-wheel drive and it has the electronic indicator of low air pressure. it came on once in a while and just added some air. but lately it came on more frequently and i took the van to the toyota dealer in la crescenta ca., where i bought the van, for inspection. they told me there is a nail in the left front tire and this type of the ran flat tire can not be repaired. so i had to buy a new tire. lucky enough they could order it right away and got the tire mounted the next day. the dealer could not mount the tire on the rim and had to send it to a special tire place, because this are special rims, i have been told. the price for this one tire was $ 269.56 including mounting, balancing and sales tax. since this type of a van with this run flat tires, does not come with a spare tire. they told me, it is not necessary to have one. what will happened, when you are in the middle of the wilderness in the country. yes you can drive over 100 miles on the flat tire, but when you get to the next town and they have to order this tire and it can take days before they get one. there you will be stuck for a while. this does not sound like a good way to have this tires. it sure is a miss leading advertising and a bad experience. on tap of it the tires have no warranty. unhappy experienced owner, karl *tr
04/21/20095700
 Tl*the contact owns a 2008 toyota sienna with dunlop sp4000 a/f p215/65s/r16 with dot da2hc4er3807. while backing out of the driveway at a low speed of 5mph the vehicle appeared unbalanced from the right to the left. the driver observed that the front passenger side tire was disengaged from the rim with aproximately 2/3 of the tire hanging onto the rim. the tire has not been repaired. the contact is aware of the saferty risk due to the defect. the current and failure mileages were 7,500.
09/17/2008102001
 My wife was making a low speed right turn from leeland road (rt lane) onto deacon rd (left lane) in stafford county virginia when she simultaneously heard an explosion and felt a jolt coming from the driver's side front wheel. there is no curb or other obstructions in the intersection but after the explosion she was startled and lost control slightly grazing the curb on deacon road before regaining control. she managed to pull off into a safe area; my two children (ages 9 & 7) were also in the vehicle. upon visual inspection of the tire, it appears that a side wall failure occurred. the vehicle my wife was driving is a new 2008 toyota sienna that has michelin energy lx4 tires on it, approximate miles on the vehicle/tires was approximately 10,200. my wife contacted michelin that evening and reported the incident; she was instructed to take the tire to ntb who is an authorized dealer. ntb refused to honor the warranty citing the tire was road damage after a naked eye visual inspection. the ntb store we went to did not have the tire in stock and referred us to their other store. upon arrival, it was obvious the road damage assessment was phoned ahead and the mechanic also would not honor the michelin warranty and accused my wife of lying and hitting a curb. i ended up having to pay $198.73 out of my own pocket just to get a new tire put on for my wife. i have the tire in question in my custody, i would not let the tire store keep it; i also have photos. *tr