Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| UNKNOWN OR OTHER | |||
| 02/21/2013 | 35900 | ||
| Traveling at highway speed, (55 mph) when the vsc failure message appeared along with the check engine light and apostrophe inside a triangle error/ warning light. vehicle was purchased as a certified used vehicle at a toyota dealership less than two weeks ago. mileage is less than 36000. | |||
| 08/09/2012 | 20000 | ||
| My 12 year old son reached back for the seat belt for the middle row seat behind the passenger while the automatic door was closing. his hand became trapped between the door and frame as the automatc door shut. the door did not release automatically and only released when he used his other hand to push the door open button. unfortunately he suffered a fracture of his 4th right metacarpal. we are very concerned about the close proximity of the door mechanism and the seat belt, and also about the lack of a safety mechanism for automatic sensing/release. | |||
| 05/12/2012 | 6100 | ||
| The vehicle caught on fire after driven for approximately 5 miles and parked for several minutes. it only had about 6,100 miles and purchased new 9 months ago. the fire caused total loss to the vehicle and everything inside including the child seats and stroller was permanently damaged by heat and smoke. according to the incident report from fire department, it appears that the fire ignited at the upper left corner (passenger side) of the engine bay. no evidence or indication of incendiary fire was found. | |||
| 05/02/2012 | 5000 | ||
| In may of 2011 i purchased a toyota sienna 8 passenger that has been reclassified in nov 2011 from 1550 lb cargo and passenger capacity.to 1325 that renders it non compatible, for which i had bought the vehicle for. therefore it has caused and renders this what was 8 passenger and value to decrease. this is clearly a miss representation of sale,and customers should be compensated or a fix to restore this classification should be issued.i have contact both toyota and dealer to my regret no solution for this problem is available but if one where to put 8 passenger and cargo, skip the cargo or luggage 8 x's adults @190= 1520 who would be held accountable???? | |||
| 12/01/2011 | 14000 | ||
| Roof rack detachment on highway: we have the toyota sienna oem roof rack cross bars installed when we purchased the vehicle, but never had actually attached anything to the cross bars. while driving down the highway, we heard bag, looked in the mirror and saw my cross bar in road. immediately pulled over and confirmed that the cross bar had in fact detached from our car and fell in the road behind us. the remaining cross bar was still on, but was cocked and the tightening mechanism was loose. our concern: the special installation practice has been explained to me by the parts manager. apparently, this new clamp design requires the user assure perpendicular alignment of the lower clamp plate to the roof rack, otherwise when you tighten the screw you can get a false tight sense, when the plate is cocked and not true. so, i see many things wrong with this design: (1) too much reliance on following proper installation to assure product is safely secured. (2) how tight is tight on the screw? no instructions provided? (3) excessive reliance on the owner to check this part for the life of the car - service manager says this must be intermittently tightened by the owner? where is this in the service manual? (4) it also appears that toyota may have introduced this easy to remove design to appeal to those customers which complained on how long it takes to remove the earlier model roof racks (<2011), but in turn have compromised on quality and more importantly safety. (5) not only is this a unique design for the toyota lineup of cars, it is also a unique in the industry design, which has for many years now established a history of having positive locking and redundant installations for roof rack cross bars. i wrote letter, and toyota said our insurance covers such things, and for us to work with our dealer, rather than main company. | |||
| 12/29/2011 | 5000 | ||
| Water accumulating in fold-down compartment for third row seats. standing water noticed under carpet. dealership unable to replicate leak. | |||
| 12/17/2011 | 20000 | ||
| After pulling out of the driveway and driving forward less than 100 yds, the vehicle began to pull left and right as if vehicle stability control were taking over. very shortly after, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop with brakes seemingly applied on their own (power brake assist?). the screen lit up with the following warnings, check abs, check vsc, and check brake system, followed by have your vehicle checked by dealer. the abs, vsc, emergency brake, and check engine lights on the dash came on as well. upon taking a look under the hood, we also discovered what appeared to be an oil leak at the head gasket. the vehicle was taken to the dealer and a toyota engineer was flown in to help diagnose the problem. the result was they cleared the codes, wiped up the oil, and said there was nothing wrong with the car. about a day and a half later, the exact same thing happened again with the vehicle pulling, warning lights, etc. this time, the dealership said that they found hard codes and that the floor wire harness needed to be replaced. the vehicle has now been out of service for 16 days. we shall see whether the wire harness fixes the problem. the dealer said they put dye in the engine oil to try to detect a leak. not sure why they didn't investigate the problem while the oil was sitting there. it was very obvious where the leak was. | |||
| 12/29/2011 | 5000 | ||
| Water accumulating in fold-down compartment for third row seats. standing water noticed under carpet. dealership unable to replicate leak. | |||
| 12/17/2011 | 20000 | ||
| After pulling out of the driveway and driving forward less than 100 yds, the vehicle began to pull left and right as if vehicle stability control were taking over. very shortly after, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop with brakes seemingly applied on their own (power brake assist?). the screen lit up with the following warnings, check abs, check vsc, and check brake system, followed by have your vehicle checked by dealer. the abs, vsc, emergency brake, and check engine lights on the dash came on as well. upon taking a look under the hood, we also discovered what appeared to be an oil leak at the head gasket. the vehicle was taken to the dealer and a toyota engineer was flown in to help diagnose the problem. the result was they cleared the codes, wiped up the oil, and said there was nothing wrong with the car. about a day and a half later, the exact same thing happened again with the vehicle pulling, warning lights, etc. this time, the dealership said that they found hard codes and that the floor wire harness needed to be replaced. the vehicle has now been out of service for 16 days. we shall see whether the wire harness fixes the problem. the dealer said they put dye in the engine oil to try to detect a leak. not sure why they didn't investigate the problem while the oil was sitting there. it was very obvious where the leak was. | |||
| 04/27/2011 | 1000 | ||
| Electrical failure the clock loses time when you turn off engine then when you start engine it will give you warning to check vsc , srs airbag is off , radio is off too. the autimatic lock is not functioning we have to lock doors manually. this is frustrating because we have a brand new car!!! | |||
| 09/29/2011 | 25160 | ||
| I was out in the front porch near my garage around 7.30pm and my sienna was parked inside the garage. suddenly a loud noise like an explosion of sort occurred that scared me pretty bad that prompted me to look inside the garage and i was shocked to see two large holes simultaneously on either side (left and right) of the rear windshield and the glass was slowly caving out and then shattered completely in (not spider-web like) slowly falling away into the trunk. after coming back to my senses from the initial shock, i called my insurance company to see if they had heard of such freak incidents to which they said 'yes'. they did mention to go to the dealer and since it is still brand new (less than 9 months old), the glass will be replaced under manufacturer warranty. i went to don davis in arlington, tx from whom i had purchased the van along with their dealer warranty on top of the manufacturer warranty and after their service manager looked at the non-existent windshield with some of the glass still hanging on to the edges, he said he cannot make a judgment as to whether it was a manufacturer's defect or vandalism since there is no way to know as the glass is not in the windshield anymore (??!!!). i told them that if the glass shatters, it will not be intact and yet they would not buy my argument. i called toyota corporate and they said unless the dealer makes the judgment, they cannot proceed with replacement of the windshield. i sincerely urge the nhtsa to inquire this incident since if it had occured while driving, there would have been a serious risk of death or injury caused due to the sudden shock. | |||
| 09/24/2011 | 5000 | ||
| Vehicle was in park on a flat street. i wanted to move the vehicle forward, so i depressed the brake, and began shifting the (automatic) shifter to drive. the gear shift lever never made it to the drive position. as i moved the lever, the car shot backwards, striking a vehicle behind me with tremendous force. i have had the same model car for over 7 years and never had this happen. i cannot figure out how or why the car accelerated (forcefully) in reverse as i was shifting into drive. | |||
| 09/20/2011 | 13900 | ||
| I heard an extremely loud explosion sound coming from the roof of my 2011 sienna just right after i got onto a highway and was traveling about 40mph. the surrounding was clear when it happened. i called the police who found out that the sunroof glass bulged up and shattered. the police couldn't find any signs of rocks hitting the sunroof and based on the glass breakage pattern suspected that the car's interior cabin pressure might have caused the sunroof glass to explode and break. however, the temperature at the time was only around 65'f, so it couldn't be due to heat. the police suspected the sunroof glass could be a defective part and asked me to follow up with a toyota dealer. | |||
| 07/12/2011 | |||
| 2011 sienna le rear view mirror vibrates while car engine is turned on and when car is in driving vibrate to the point that makes a person dizzy. spoke to boch toyota service regarding this safty concern, but we were told that the vibration on the mirror comes with a car design, not a malfunctional part, refuse to replace or attemp to solve the problem | |||
| 04/03/2011 | 2000 | ||
| We have a 2011 toyata sienna xle that has acceleration issues. while in cruise control, when the vehicle needs to accelerate to regain speed or up a slope, the engine races to 5000-5500 rpm before speeding up. also, on some left turns the engine nearly dies. the dealer says the engine racing problem is normal and part of the engineering. big problem | |||
| 06/26/2011 | 60 | ||
| Purchased a 2011 toyota sienna limited on june 25th. next morning, after the car had been in dry weather and garaged overnight, i pulled it out to find the entire rear storage area by the back door was soaking wet with water standing in puddles and the rear welds corroded. it is apparent the water has been there for some time. after wringing out 4 beach towels, i put an industrial fan on it for 5 hours. it's still wet. | |||
| 10/30/2010 | 60 | ||
| Purchased 2011 sienna le van in october 2010. almost immediately the power sliding doors intermittently open an inch or less & alarm sounds. you can't open or close door at this point. you have to man-handle it to close. even turning off the power door with the switch does not help. took it to the dealer & they said toyota corp. knows about it but no idea how to repair. i should just check back at next 5000 miles check. what if door gets stuck open & it's raining.... only option is to shut off the power doors & use manually. i bought this model because of the power sliding doors! | |||
| 05/25/2010 | |||
| 2011 toyota sienna: the floor rug on the rear right side of the passenger seat keeps rolling up, causing an unaware passenger entering or exiting from/to the third row seat of the vehicle to trip over it. it's a safety hazard. | |||
| 06/09/2010 | 225 | ||
| 2011 toyota sienna van with 22o miles on it caught fire in my driveway 2 minnutes after parking it there. no warning lights or anything. vehicle is a total loss, no response from toyota for over two weeks, owned the brand new van for less than a week. a cause and effect investigator hired by my ins co found the problem to be a faulty fan wire that shorted out. extensive damage to my house and lanscaping as well. burned out van still sitting in my driveway causing danger with broken glass and soot to my children and pets. unable to get any response what so ever from toyota. the dealership has been extremely helpful. | |||