This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Shortly after the expiration of the manufacturer's warranty, my 2002 Toyota Highlander began experiencing the following problem. The sun visors on both the driver and passenger side has become loose and opens up when the vehicle travels over even the slightest bump on the road. The unexpected dropping of the sun visors in the driver's field of vision is at best distracting and at worst accident causing. Local Toyota dealership wants to charge $600 to replace just the driver's side sun visor. I believe that Toyota should recall my vehicles and others with similar problems and replace the dangerously defective sun visors free of charge.
Driver side visor will not stay up, keeps falling down and distracting me. The problem is inside the visor, I rarely use the visor, but it does have the homelink garage door opener, which I use daily.
Driver side sun visor swings down from rest position to block view. We use visor normally until it suddenly gave up and did not stay in any position other than hanging straight down. We do not hang anything on the visor to cause a load. It just simply "hang loose" now. When I (male 5' 11") am driving, the visor would randomly and often flip down right in front of my eyes blocking my view. This would be an equivalence to some one sticking their hands in your face while you drive. This definitely distracts me and causes me to take my eyes off the road. I am afraid that this will eventually cause an accident at any speed. Since we drive long distance with this car, our warranty was over quick and was not covered. I am currently holding it up with velcro just so it would stay out of the way. If it wasn't for the homelink system on it, I would have removed it already. The visor is useless to me since I can not tilt it to block the sun. It can only hang and that it too low for me to drive safely. I do not feel safe driving my little kids in this car and have bought mini van to do so. This is a serious safety issue that NHTSA and Toyota should look into correcting. I know there are many others with the same exact issue, but they do not know to voice their concerns here. Please research this defect and have it corrected before some one get hurt or killed. Thank you.
Driver's side sun visor will not stay in position. It will only hang straight down, blocking the view of the driver. Visor has not been used in any unusual manner - the tension in the visor is simply gone.
- Stanley, NC, USA
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Within a month, both sun visors started falling/rotating on their own. While driving, this can block your vision and not allow a 'full' view of what's ahead of you. The dealership I called just put me through to the 'parts' dept. An email from Toyota said it was my problem. The sun visors have seen nothing but "normal" use.
Approximately six months ago I had a problem with my sun visor randomly flopping down as I was driving, and it would not stay in position when I tried to use the visor to block the sun. The dealer did replace the visor under warranty, but advised me that the part cost over $500 due to the "home link" system in the visor. The visor is once again starting to become loose, and will not stay in position up against the windshield. This is very inconvenient because I have to duck down to see under the visor at traffic signals to see when the light changes. I am also concerned that it will soon start randomly flopping down as I'm driving again. One week ago, the dealer agreed that there was a problem with my visor and this time told me that there was a defective part in the visor, which they replaced. After the repair, the visor stayed in position for only one day. When I returned to the dealership, the advisor told me that there was a defect with the visor on Highlanders, and that Toyota had corrected the problem with the new models by installing the home link system elsewhere in the vehicle. The service manager, however, insisted that there was no problem with the visor, and that was the way it was supposed to be. After a great deal of discussion, the service manager finally agreed to order a new visor for my verhicle. My concern is that this will be an ongoing battle with the dealership if the problem persists since my vehicle is now out of warranty and the part is expensive.
Driver side visor will not stay in any tilted position after it has been pulled down from its resting "our of the way" position in the roof bracket. Because of the failure of the visor to stay in position it is no longer safe to operate the vehicle while using the visor as it obstructs the driver's view of the road. This condition additionally makes the vehicle unsafe to operate while driving in the direction of the sun as there is no means by which to block the incoming glare from the driver's eyes while the visor is in its "out of the way" position in the roof bracet. The dealer has been made aware of the defect. The replacement cost of the visor is $580. I consider this to be a manufacturer design defect of a small inexpensive part contained within a very expensive visor.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- La Canada, CA, USA