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.
A known issue that has been occurring to many people with the coolant bypass valve system going out very soon after purchasing. I bought a 2020 Toyota rav4 and my bypass coolant valve has malfunctioned and needs replaced and of course is outside of the warranty. Per many google searches this is a common issue and should be addressed.
Coolant bypass valve required replacement due to faulty equipment, causing sensor to read -??engine maintenance required-??. Costs $650 to replace and dealership will not cover in warranty or admit fault. Many other Rav 4 owners are having same issue. This should not be on the customer, but rather Toyota for having faulty equipment in vehicle. Also -??engine maintenance required-?? sensor will not go away. Since this is not an engine issue, this is unsafe, false alarming.
The Coolant Bypass Valve failed for my RAV4 at 59,210 miles. This was confirmed to me by Hoover Toyota. The part has not been inspected by the manufacture, police, insurance representatives, or any others. I had a message appear at 59,202 miles on my dashboard screen that said, "Engine Maintenance Required." I have already gotten Hoover Toyota to fix my part. My concern comes in part that reading through online forums, it appears this is a very regular/common problem for RAV4s (2019-2022) and seems to happen between 45,000 - 65,000 miles. If this is a known issue, I am curious as to why Toyota has not recalled this part since you wouldn't expect a car under 5 years old and driven less than 100,000 miles to have this kind of problem.
Per my research and talking with dealerships, the coolant bypass valve on this generation of RAV4-??s is a known issue at 45,000 miles. Many users online and the dealership report seen many cars experiencing the same issue but it-??s not currently under recall and would be a $1300 fix right now to drive my car safely without blowing up the engine.
- Rocklin , CA, USA
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My Toyota 2020 RAV 4 Hybrid accelerates in REVERSE when in drive mode and parked on an incline. My car ran over me on 2 occasions while outside the vehicle. Both times I pulled into my driveway, came to a complete stop, and believed I was parked and the car engine was off. Once I exited, I realized my car was still on, reached inside my car to push the off engine button, and the car IMMEDIATELY ACCELERATED in reverse (while in DRIVE MODE/not REVERSE or PARK MODE), knocked me down and pulled me under the front driver side tire and ran over my legs/body. The fire dept and police arrived to transport me to UCI Trauma Center. The car accelerated so fast that it knocked me down/pulled me under/rolled over my body, then rolled down the driveway, across the street, popped the curb and landed in the neighbor-??s lawn -?" all from the force of acceleration in reverse while in DRIVE mode. This happens whenever the car is in DRIVE mode and you push the OFF button, the car accelerates in reverse when parked on an incline. This happens in parking lots as well with an incline. Toyota Service REFUSES to let me show them this product design defect and how the car accelerates in reverse while in DRIVE MODE when the "on/off" engine button is pushed off and the car is on a slight incline. It is a major hazard to the driver, passengers and community, whoever is standing outside and behind the car. Toyota REFUSES to memorialize this design problem. Our other Toyota cars require the car to be in park before you can shut it off and DO NOT accelerate in reverse when in the drive mode, only when in reverse mode. Toyota maintenance staff told me they are not allowed to memorialize the problem in writing; they won't come to my house to see what happened or let me demonstrate at their service facilities. The police officer told me he has seen this happen before, and that we were lucky no kids in the street were run over, which he said has happened before. How many others were run over?
Our RAV4 was parked in an open lot (not under any trees or overhangs) and was no inclement weather. The glass sunroof spontaneously shattered-?" we were lucky the cover was closed (we have heard of many such instances with Toyota from other people and have kept the cover closed when not in use), no one was injured, thankfully.
Engine maintenance required notification came on. Car is only 3 years old. Dealership stated that the coolant bypass valve needs to be replaced and it could potentially cause a fire. Service professional at the dealership stated that this is a common issue and most of the time Toyota warranty doesn't want to repair it, also said that it should be recalled. I have also seen hundreds of people complain about this on Rav4 forums.
After 20 minutes of driving, the vehicle caught fire under the hood and was completely destroyed. When I first started driving the car that morning, I noticed an odd smell coming from the heater. It didn't smell like smoke or burning; I best equate it to the smell of a hair dryer. This is the first time I'd ever smelled that odor in this car. At this point there were no warning messages or alerts on the dashboard that would indicate an issue. After driving for around 20 minutes, I noticed smoke coming from under the hood. There were still no warning lights on the dashboard. I immediately pulled over into an open parallel parking spot on the side of the road (busy city street) and shut the car off. While I was assisting the other 2 passengers out of the car, flames became visible coming from under the hood. The source of the flames appeared to be the top driver's side under the hood (in front of steering wheel). We called 911 and stepped back to a safe distance. The fire was extremely aggressive and the entire vehicle was engulfed in flames in just a couple minutes. The fire was so intense that it caught the car parked in front on fire (which also became completely destroyed). The fire department responded after roughly 5 minutes and put out the fire. Fortunately, no injuries resulted from this incident. There was so much damage to the vehicle that the fire investigator was not able to offer a definitive opinion as to which specific engine/battery component likely started the fire. The remains of the car are currently in possession of GEICO. I was the original owner of the vehicle, which had no history of accidents, repairs, or modifications. It had been regularly serviced for routine maintenance at the local Toyota service department, most recently in early December 2022 (approximately 3 weeks prior to the fire).
-Windshield cowl not properly screened from manufacturer in order to protect from rodents entering. Mouse/rodent infestation found in various compartments, including nests, droppings, and "other material" that made its way into the engine and HVAC, and even a dead mouse in the main cabin- all resulting from entering through windshield Cowl. Service report available if needed -Breathing in mice droppings, urine, and decomposing animals is a major health risk that can cause severe illness. -Service department performed removal, cleaning, disinfecting, and replacements of components. Service Department stated this has been happening much more frequently with the newer Toyota's as the wires used attract these rodents. This one service department in particular has even created a "Rodent Pro Service" for rodent infestation which includes cleaning and disinfecting of affected areas, and also installing a steel mesh screen to avoid future entrance from windshield cowl -Only warning was a dead mouse found inside main cabin
when car is subject to rain or car washed, the headliner gets saturated at the "A" pillar and the "C" pillar. This water seems to be coming from under the roof rails. I have tested sunroof drain and they are open leaving the only other area to leak at the insertion of the roof rails. I have never had anything attached to them to add excess weight but have also hearing and finding many other reports of this happening. My concern is having the headliner ruined AND malfunction of the airbags. This has been reported to my Toyota dealer twice and I have been told that they are unaware of any issues with the seals on the roof rails.
I want to file a complaint against Toyota for their design of air conditioner placement. My 2020 RAV4 just had to have repair including condenser replaced. Toyota's design allows rocks/foreign objects/debris to get behind the grill and damage the air conditioning system. There is no guard to stop these. This is on regular highway/rural road driving. I understand that the RAV4 is not the only Toyota car that has this design. My car is still under warranty, but this was not covered as it was deemed road hazard. I am unsure of the date this happened as I just started to notice it was not cooling efficiency and at first attributed it to Florida weather but as the days went on realized that there was something wrong. Estimate from Toyota Dealership was $1300
I was driving at about 65mph with a few windows down and the sun roof closed. The temperature was around 80degrees, when all of the sudden there was a huge POP sound. I opened the sun roof cover and saw that it was the sun roof that shattered. All the glass was broken.
On May 12, 2022 I was driving our 2022 Rav4 Hybrid. At about 10 am that morning I arrived at the Sherwin Williams store in Chandler, AZ. I applied the brakes and put the car in park. But the car did not stop! It continued to forge ahead, smashing into the building barrier and even then it kept trying to move forward. 1.The whole front end was smashed. 2.The first responders had to pry open the door to extract me from the car. 3.It was later determined that I had broken a rib. (I was lucky it was not more.) 4.The car was later declared -??totaled-?? by the insurance company. By -standers immediately called the police. 1.The police officer confirmed that the car was in park, at the time of the accident. 2.The officer also confirmed with witnesses that the car was in park but was still moving ahead. 3.The officer recorded the witnesses-?? names and contacts. 4.I have a copy of the police report, Before the accident, both my husband and I had noticed that the car had a tendency to jump ahead even after putting it in park. Since that time I have connected with other Rav4 owners on social media and have discovered that this -?? jumping ahead-?? has been experience by a lot of other owners.
Sunroof spontaneously shattered, with no vehicles close enough for a rock chip to be the probable cause. The only sound was a pop, of the window glass shattering - not of a rock or other object making contact. Upon examining the window, it had popped up, shattering first along the entire perimeter.
Vehicle has a automatic function that shuts off the engine when sitting in traffic, then restarts the engine when you press the accelerator. This function can be overridden by depressing a switch on the dashboard. It is easy to forget to push the switch and override this function. I believe this can present a safety issue. I was sitting in traffic waiting to make a left turn, this function I had forgotten to override. When an acceptable gap in traffic was recognized I pressed the accelerator, the vehicle took time to restart the engine and propel me into the path of oncoming traffic. At this time the gap in traffic had diminished to an unacceptable gap and I was almost struck by oncoming traffic. In the past we had asked our Toyota dealer to disable this function, they refused. I believe a more acceptable logic path would be for this function to be disabled when the vehicle is started and then the operator has the choice to engage this function if desired. I was told the purpose of this function is to save gasoline when sitting in traffic. There is also a second engine starter that completes this function. Having a second engine starter is one more item that could malfunction and need replacement.
The design of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) on this vehicle is dangerous and fundamentally flawed. When the system has a warning for the driver, it beeps and the driver must take his / her eyes off the road to look at the dashboard to understand the problem. For many years, voice response messaging has been available and should be implemented in addition to or instead of text messages to warn of serious, possible imminent problems.
I was driving down the highway and without warning, my sunroof completely shattered. I did not go over any bumps, there were no trucks around me, and I did not hear anything hit my window. I just heard a very loud pop and all of a sudden there was glass everywhere inside the vehicle. Luckily I did not get into an accident but this was completely startling and I could have easily gotten into an accident or had glass injure myself or passengers (luckily no one else was in the car). I brought the car into a local Toyota dealership in Colorado and they mentioned that someone who had about the same mileage on their car (17,000-18,000) miles came into that same dealership a few weeks ago with the exact same issue. They told me that Toyota would not consider this a defect or under warranty if it happened after 1,000 miles. I also sent a follow-up email to a service manager at the same dealership and he said that they have seen this before and a field technical specialist has looked into it and determined that it could not be a defect if it happened after 1,000 miles. This does not seem like a freak accident if there have been multiple incidents. This is a serious safety concern.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Meridian , ID, USA