On those Highlanders, the Rear Latch is Electric. You have to use the Electric system to open and close the Trunk area. In Winter in Canada Snow melts and ice will form in between the roof and the Real Latch Spoiler. When you open the trunk the ice makes pressure on the Spoiler (that is made of plastic) and it will break it. The only solution is to clean that area... but to gain access to it you need to open the trunk / latch...
It is like the chicken and the egg... there's no solution. Ideally there would be some rubber seal that would prevent the ice from forming in this area. Anyway, the dealer does not cover this defect... it's a bad design. If at least we could open the latch manually we could feel the pressure and remove the ice. The repair is over 1000$... no way, we are not fixing and it will be our last Toyota.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
On those Highlanders, the Rear Latch is Electric. You have to use the Electric system to open and close the Trunk area. In Winter in Canada Snow melts and ice will form in between the roof and the Real Latch Spoiler. When you open the trunk the ice makes pressure on the Spoiler (that is made of plastic) and it will break it. The only solution is to clean that area... but to gain access to it you need to open the trunk / latch...
It is like the chicken and the egg... there's no solution. Ideally there would be some rubber seal that would prevent the ice from forming in this area. Anyway, the dealer does not cover this defect... it's a bad design. If at least we could open the latch manually we could feel the pressure and remove the ice. The repair is over 1000$... no way, we are not fixing and it will be our last Toyota.
This service sucks.
- Martin M., Gatineau, QC, Canada