The problem came up over a short period of time. At first, the back sunscreen would make a noise as it tried to go up or down. Then the screen would get stuck in a particular position and make a noise as it tried to be put up or down. I could usually fix it (stop the noise) by pressing the manual button. I tried to find in the owners manual how to just put it down and never use it, but there is no way to do that. Finally, the day came when the screen got stuck in the down position and when I put it in reverse, there is a horrific grinding noise that scares whoever is in the car and is very distracting to me, the driver.
It stops when I put the car in drive, but then a different grinding noise sounds for several seconds. I have taken it to two different Toyota dealers who told me it would cost $1,600 to fix it and would only have a one year warranty. I asked if they could just remove the fuse as had been suggested online, but they said the cruise control and blinkers would not work. I asked if they could just take it out but that would be $450 and would leave an unsightly hole.
There are hundreds of complaints online about this very problem but the Toyota dealers act like they have never heard of it (there is a TSB # 178994 that was sent to dealers on 3/1/2013 about the problem so they are not being honest and upfront about it). In researching this issue, the problem has been going on for over 10 year!
Toyota needs to issue a warranty extension as they did on the “sticky dashboard†problem of a few years ago. I also had one of those Camrys and the dealerships would not own up to the sticky dashboard issue so we traded the Camry in for this Avalon. A year later they issued a warranty extension but too late for us; we were given less on the trade-in because the car had a sticky dashboard that needed to be fixed (go figure!)
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
The problem came up over a short period of time. At first, the back sunscreen would make a noise as it tried to go up or down. Then the screen would get stuck in a particular position and make a noise as it tried to be put up or down. I could usually fix it (stop the noise) by pressing the manual button. I tried to find in the owners manual how to just put it down and never use it, but there is no way to do that. Finally, the day came when the screen got stuck in the down position and when I put it in reverse, there is a horrific grinding noise that scares whoever is in the car and is very distracting to me, the driver.
It stops when I put the car in drive, but then a different grinding noise sounds for several seconds. I have taken it to two different Toyota dealers who told me it would cost $1,600 to fix it and would only have a one year warranty. I asked if they could just remove the fuse as had been suggested online, but they said the cruise control and blinkers would not work. I asked if they could just take it out but that would be $450 and would leave an unsightly hole.
There are hundreds of complaints online about this very problem but the Toyota dealers act like they have never heard of it (there is a TSB # 178994 that was sent to dealers on 3/1/2013 about the problem so they are not being honest and upfront about it). In researching this issue, the problem has been going on for over 10 year!
Toyota needs to issue a warranty extension as they did on the “sticky dashboard†problem of a few years ago. I also had one of those Camrys and the dealerships would not own up to the sticky dashboard issue so we traded the Camry in for this Avalon. A year later they issued a warranty extension but too late for us; we were given less on the trade-in because the car had a sticky dashboard that needed to be fixed (go figure!)
- Patti A., Delray Beach, US