Print this page

10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
50,681 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

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.

2008 Toyota RAV4 engine problems

engine problem

Find something helpful? Spread the word.
Get notified about new defects, investigations, recalls & lawsuits for the 2008 Toyota RAV4:

Unsubscribe any time. We don't sell/share your email.

2008 Toyota RAV4 Owner Comments

problem #5

Nov 262011

RAV4 4-cyl

  • 57,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that the engine was abnormally burning two quarts of oil every 3,000 miles. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer but the vehicle was neither diagnosed for the failure or repaired. The failure mileage was 57,000 and the current mileage was 60,000. Updated 04/10/12 updatyed 04/23/12

- Kirkland, WA, USA

problem #4

Oct 132011

RAV4 4-cyl

  • 47,000 miles
While I was driving to work around the month of October, my car would be going around 40-50 mph and it will suddenly stall or power down and the car just shuts off in the middle of everything. Its a good thing I go to work early around 4-5 am and traffic is low or I would be in major accident and at fault too? this continues to happen. Sometimes happens when I flash on high beam and even when the car is in low speed around 15-25mph or turning around a corner. There is never a check engine light. When my car goes into stall, all power dies and my radio/cd/MP3 player stop playing my dashboard becomes all pitch black and headlights all die as well. I don't know how to explain this its frustrating and scary, I'm the original owner and I bought it brand new from my local Toyota dealership. I live in Wisconsin and the snow is coming and Toyota require me to leave the car with them for over a week or so, not a problem cause I don't want to drive it until its fix. Its now after thanksgiving and the problem is still occurring I took the car to the dealership today but they wont even look at it until I leave it with them for a week. I cant leave it there because I need a car for work so I had to arrange car rentals first with my own expense and will be dropping the car off Saturday. The answers they already gave me was no clue and don't know what's wrong with it with no check engine code. I don't want to be another koua fong lee. I just want to post this up now see if anyone found a solution and for my reference if they cant fix it. I want someone to have my back. The car is a Rav4 2008 with only 50,000 miles.

- Madison, WI, USA

problem #3

Sep 072011

RAV4 4-cyl

  • 78,604 miles
On 9/7/11 my daughter was driving her rav 4 home from pinole to hercules (less than 5 min) and she heard a noise and the car stopped. On 3/26/11, during a 66,138 maintenance service Toyota repaired the rear crank seal. We normally maintain the service close to 5,000, except this time due to lack of funds we were late. My daughter had made an appt for 78,000 service for 9/8/11, during out of town trip for my daughter's wedding. So now Toyota will only repair it for $7,000 because we were late one time on the service, the crank froze and it needs a new engine. They feel it had nothing to do w/the crank seal. How can a brand new car, which I'm still paying for, engine break down just from being late one time. I feel that it should still be covered w/warranty (exp. 75,000),

- Hercules, CA, USA

problem #2

Jan 222011

RAV4

  • 47,000 miles
At approximately 11:15am Saturday January 22, I was stopped at a stop light on spit brook road in nashua nh for about 30 seconds, when my leased Toyota rav4L suddenly revved it's engine and started to move forward. As it did, I pressed on the brake as hard as I could, and the car continued to rev the engine and suddenly jumped forward hitting the car that was about 6 feet in front of me. At that time, I put the car in park, stopped the engine and checked to see if the woman in the car ahead of me was hurt. She was not. Her car had no damage to it. She went on her way. There is minor damage to the from end of the Rav4, including the bumper and grill. I got back into the car, and took it to the Toyota dealer in nashua nh, that was a mile or 2 away, and explained to them what happened. They tried to blame this on the floor mat issue, and then tried to blame it on me, saying that they think my boot might have been on the accelerator. I told them that was not the case. The car was stopped for about 30 seconds when it suddenly revved the engine and accelerated into the car ahead of me. The car was left at the dealer for them to take a look at on Monday January 24th, 2011. They told me that they would look into it and get back to me.

- Nashua, NH, USA

problem #1

Feb 192010

RAV4

  • 23,800 miles
Idle speed kicked up unexpectedly at a stop light. The engine was close to full operating temperature, about 1.5 miles from home. The air conditioning was not on. The defroster was also not on, so there was no reason for the idle to kick up. Vehicle was stopped at a light behind another vehicle at an intersection. It lurched forward, but was easy to hold back with the brake. I then put my left foot on the brake and released my right foot to be sure that both brake and accelerator were not being pressed simultaneously. The high idle continued, about 1100 RPM in drive. I then put the vehicle in neutral and the tachometer read 1300-1400 initially, then slowly dropped to about 1000. Once back in drive it dropped to about 800 RPM, which is normal operation. It has never done this before or since. That particular intersection has power lines and/or transformers that have interfered with my am radio in other vehicles, but not this one.

- Fairport, NY, USA

Not what you are looking for?