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.
Can not close rear sliding door or driver it has 2 latches the front one locks and the rear one does not because of the weld braking loose also the rear hatch door where the latch holds on the bracket the weld came loose can not keep door closed I took it the dealer and they said that no recall has been on file.
The power sliding door on our 2004 Toyota Sienna is faulty. It failed in the open position. My wife had to drive my kids plus neighbor kids home with the door stuck open. This is truly a safety concern. Now, only a strong adult can get the door open or closed. Also, the center hinge on the door is faulty and has ground away the paint and metal on the body right below the track the door uses to open. Apparently, Toyota sort of recognized a problem with this (there have been many complaints about it) because they issued an extended warranty to cover this very problem. However, the warranty expired a year ago, and my door didn't fail until very recently. I called and they said there is nothing they can do. The warranty period is over. The problem with the warranty is that it puts the onus on the owner to recognize the problem (paint being rubbed off and then metal) or a major failure (the door being stuck open). Will it take a serious injury or some child falling to her or his death through the open side door before Toyota acts responsibly and issues an actual recall?
The metal cord that is part of the automatic door mechanism frayed. This morning, the door would try to auto close but it got hung up and returned to full open position. We turned off the automatic door feature and attempted to manually close the sliding door. When my husband tried to close it manually, the rollers in the track hit the damaged part in the wire, the slide pushed out of the track breaking the window out that is positioned just in front of the track that the slide rolls in. The sliding door was hanging off the vehicle in a 45 degree angle and the driver side rear quarter window was shattered all over inside and outside of the van. My husband and I both got cuts on our hands from broken glass while we put the sliding door back on its track and covered the window opening to protect it from the weather. There is glass in my baby's car seat, stroller, and back seat where my older children normally sit. After I purchased the Sienna I checked the reviews online and this frayed wire on the automatic doors seemed to be a recurring problem that Toyota has known to be a defect but has not issued a recall for because no injuries have been reported. I was very thankful that my children weren't in the vehicle at the time that this all occurred because whoever was in the back seat as well as in the car seat near the slide door would have been hurt by the shattered glass. I called the local Toyota dealership and I was told that this is not an issue they see often and all the reviews I read online were false. I was told I would have to bring it in to the dealership to assess the damages and repair it at my expense. We have no option but to leave the automatic door feature turned off and use the door manually now that my husband has been returned to its track. The glass will be replace at our expense on 9/19/14.
When open or close the driver side front door, there is a loud popping sound. The weld-on hinge between the door and the body is broken. Toyota dealership informed us that the problem will deteriorate in the coming days. The door will swing freely when open, potentially hit people and other cars near by. The window on the door may get stuck and not able to be opened or closed. Toyota was aware of this problem as early as 2007. It issued two warranty extensions but told the owners to keep the warranty letter in file if the problem did not occur. I followed Toyota's instruction and kept my warranty extension in file since the symptom in my car did not occur at the time. However, when the problem did occur last month, Toyota refused to honor it, claiming the warranty has expired and I am no longer covered. They did offer $350 towards the repair but I would like to get your help to cover the full repair cost. This is a crystal clear case of a problem caused by an inherit manufacture defect. Toyota should have issued an unconditional recall and fixed it for all impacted customers because of its safety consequences. Instead, they kept extending the warranty, hoping older cars expires before this problem was uncovered. Please note that this is a well known problem and other Sienna customers have described the same problem and symptoms that my dealership described (see https://www.facebook.com/pages/Toyota-Sienna-van-door-weld-issue-creating-popping-noise/101820339938012)
About a month ago, while trying to open the passenger side power sliding door on our 2004 Sienna fwd xle, the cable snapped when the door was half way open, rending the door inoperable. Took us a great deal of effort to disentangle part of the broken cable clear of the exterior slider track. Fortunately after turning off the power slider switch under the dash, the door could be closed manually. We are out of luck as far as Toyota warranty enhancement is concerned, even though our van has very low mileage for its age. Toyota refused to offer anything helpful when I contacted them, and a local dealer quoted me over three thousand dollar parts and labor for the repair! it is a serious safety issue! we were just lucky that the door could be closed manually after the cable broke, not subjecting my family to having to travel in a vehicle whose door became inoperable suddenly, due to a widely publicized, correctable defect of a major power component. Toyota can do more for its unlucky customers than feeding them unhelpful platitudes about such a costly component failure.
- Sharon, MA, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
The passenger side sliding door of my Toyota 2004 Sienna le suddenly could not close suddenly. The power closing tries and then reverses to open. I followed the menu instruction to turn off the power door and tried to close it manually but failed. It won't move at all. I spread some lubricant and was able to make it close about 1/5. so I called the dealer and was told there was no recall. I then called Toyota directly and was told that there was an "enhanced warranty" for 9 years/120K miles. But mine is expired since it was bought 11/2003 even though it has only 58400 miles on it. I had it fixed now by a Toyota dealer for about $1352. I searched on line and found a lot of people have the same problem. Some could not open the doors. But the cause is the same. It is not just limited to 2004 model. It certainly a safety issue and Toyota should recall and fix at its cost.
I have a 2004 Toyota Sienna le purchased used with a power sliding rear passenger door. In March of this year, 2014, the door starting making a grinding noise when opening and closing the door and needed assistance when closing. Within two days the door failed an would not open or close either electronically or manually. We were informed this was a motor failure and would cost $1,800 to $2,000 to repair. The three mechanics we asked all were aware of problem being the door motor and/or broken door cable. Not having use of the passenger door was a major problem and a real concern in case of an accident. After doing some research it became clear that this is a design flaw with the car that Toyota ultimately issued an extended warranty of 9 years or 120,000 miles. Fortunately, I have been able to removed the cable and disassemble enough of the motor so that the door works manually. Given the critical need for a family passenger vehicle to have a working passenger side rear door this warranty should have been for the life of the vehicle. At the very least they should have offered the opportunity to make the door a manually operating door after the 9 years, 120,000 mile warranty extension.
On my 2004 Sienna le the driver side door check has broken and as a result the power window will only go down approximately halfway. I have since learned that this was due to a know defect by Toyota that they covered for 5 years. This defect is related to the structural integrity of the vehicle as it has to do with welding failures in the door hinge system itself. This should be a vehicle lifetime recall.
The driver side power sliding door cable snapped, nearly hitting a child. Upon inspection, it was noticed that the plastic covering over the wire had disintegrated and the bare cable was exposed.
The front doors on Siennas have a well known problem of welds failing in the door opening mechanism. Toyota recognized this and extended the warranty on the door hardware for 5 years 100K miles. I had both my front doors fixed under this extended warranty. It was known at the time (not to me) that this was another temporary fix as this is a design flaw that Toyota knew about but did not try to address with a permanent solution or an overall product recall. And, they apparently have gotten away with that due to the number of owners that have not gotten their doors fixed. The problem is that while there is just a "popping" sound due to the failure of the welds right now, it may lead to a situation where the doors will either not open or open without any control as they'd be held by the hinges only. Either situation presents the owners with inherent dangers- one from not being able to exit the vehicle in an emergency and the other where a door could open suddenly and injure anyone near the vehicle when being opened. I did register my complaint with the dealer and Toyota who both told me that any inspection or repair was solely the responsibility of me (the original) owner of the vehicle. My Toyota case number is [xxx]. information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The driver side door stop started making a noise when we open and close the door. The window stopped opening completely. Toyota has extended the warranty to 6 years or 100K miles for this defect. They won't repair my vehicle because it is beyond the extension. The cost is over $2,000. Now the door stop has broken off completely and door swings wide. This creates a dangerous situation every time we use the car. My understanding is that the welds were defected and Toyota didn't want to spend 2K per vehicle to repair all the defected cars. Car doors are a major component of any vehicle and shouldn't fail.
Due to a failure in the moonroof system in the vehicle (rubber seal and two drains on either side), rain water seeped into the air bag system resulting in mold-build up and serious damange to the vehicle and possible malfunction of the air bags and breathing of dangerous mold/fungi. All the passengers in the vehicle got nauseous in 1-hour journey and the future consequence of such fungi build up and potential failure of the air-bag could be life threatening.
The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that she noticed that the dashboard had many cracks. The contact stated that she examined the dashboard and noticed the majority of the cracks were around the air bag. The vehicle was taken to the dealer for inspection and they stated that the dashboard needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 98,000.
The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the driver side door spring became fractured. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who stated the door would need to be replaced. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 114,855.
The front of the door latched just fine. The back of the door stopped latching about a week ago leaving the door open light on all the time. I poked around a bit and discovered the rear latch on the driver's side sliding door was loose inside the door. Since I had to take the van to the dealer for a recall repair anyway I asked them to take a look at the door.
While I was climbing to the back of the car, (the car being parked, ever-so-slightly inclined to the back), the left back side-door shut close and trapped my right hand (which I was using for support to climb up), for about two minutes. I couldn't get it to open..! under excrutiating pain, I tried unsuccessfully to open the door. Nothing worked. The retractable cable had popped out two years before, so the beeper didn't respond adequately. After many attempts I was finally able to get it to open. I believe I had already filed a complaint to the NHTSA about the the power-sliding door. The mechanical failure on my car's power sliding-door is the same as described by many disgruntled Sienna owners, on various websites. Neither Toyota usa, nor Toyota puerto rico, has assumed responsibility. They've acted negligently. As I must've described in my previous complaint, they've obviously acknowledged a factory malfunction --inasmuch as they have conducted a recall campaign--. however, the campaign wasn't carried out responsibly. Despite their having my telephone number, email address and physical address, they failed to contact me. I found out by a third party (an auto-body shop). When I confronted the dealership, they said the campaign had expired. This situation is shameful.
The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the driver's side door would not open. The contact stated that the problem was due to a defective door check on the driver's side door. The contact stated the defect was repaired at the dealer but the problem recurred. The manufacturer was not notified. The failure mileage was 65,000.
The rear hatch is powered on this model. The gas springs that hold the door in the upright (open) position don't provide enough force to keep the door in the open position. When the hatch drops approximately 10 inches, the power function activates automatically, closing the hatch. This powered closing operation frequently occurs when someone is trying to load or unload items from the rear of the vehicle. The hatch comes down with surprising force and has knocked some family members to the ground and actually pinned my 8-year-old in a prone position with his head in the vehicle and his feet on the ground. The safety and mental anguish concerns are obvious, and Toyota has issued a recall for "certain 2004 to 2006 vehicles." Checking with Toyota, the recall does not cover my VIN, even though we are seeing the exact same problem for which the recall was issued. Is there some way to redress this problem, or do I have to wait for the door to actually injure someone and get a lawyer?
The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that during cold weather, both rear sliding doors failed to open. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer for inspection. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The contact mentioned that the manufacturer stated that there was a warranty extension under a manufacturer's safety improvement campaign for the failure but his vehicle was not included. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 83,000 and the current mileage was 92,000.
The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the spare tire became detached from the vehicle without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technician diagnosed that the spare tire carrier assembly was corroded and causing the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure and current mileage was 70,000.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Willingboro, NJ, USA