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.
2005 Toyota Sienna le, the automatic passenger side door failed, and the cables were hanging from the track. Door became fixed in one position, would not open or close. Repairs were too costly, nearly $2000 for part alone, not including labor. Dealer removed automatic door cable to allow it to work as a manual door. There were no incidents leading to the failure, it was a complete surprise. In my opinion, and after reading other complaints on this issue, I believe the failure is caused by a design flaw between the sliding door and open window. On a manual door, the door will not stay fixed open when the window is rolled down. On an automatic door, the door is forced open even when the window is down. Clearly there is a conflict between these two mechanisms. One additional note on the sliding doors, they freeze closed at the first drop in temperature. Extremely inconvenient when trying to load 3 kids on a chilly morning.
Driver side passenger door will not open past about 4 inches due to locking mechanism at bottom that engages when fuel door is open stuck in the up position. Fuel door is closed but the locking mechanism that prevents the door from opening when the fuel door is open remains up.
The manual sliding doors are supposed to lock in the open position. When the window is rolled down, the door does not lock in the open position, creating a hazardous condition when young children are entering or exiting the car, as the door is heavy, and on a slight incline could actually injure a child. Minivans, after all, are supposed to be for transporting children.
The power sliding doors on my Sienna van "freeze up" under certain cold moist winter conditions making it almost impossible to open them (you have to climb in from the front door) and then once you manage to get them open, they will then not close properly. I have had to drive miles with the door alarm sounding and the heat full blast before I was able to stop and get them to finally close. This is dangerous, because although the door looks "closed" it is not hooked in as signaled by the alarm. I doubt if I was hit if the air bags would function properly either. This occured the first winter I had the car and then a few times each winter thereafter, but since ouir winters have been mild, and certain conditions are needed for it to occur plus lack of time, I have not pursued it. When I happened to mention it to my dealer, they didn't understand how this problem could occur and it was then dropped. Other Sienna owners however, have told me they also experience this problem.
(#1) we purchased a 2005 Toyota Sienna xle. Within one week of owning the car, the driver's side sliding door was not working. Automatic opener did not work. I'm not sure what the fix was. About six months ago the driver's side sliding door, again, started to sound like crumpling aluminum and with a few more uses would not open any more. My daughter and son could have been trapped if that was the only side to get out. Toyota wanted $1,800 to replace the cable that moves the door automatically back and forth. This was at approximately 46,000 miles. (#2) after a few years of owning the car, the driver's door started "clicking". it was determined to be a faulty weld. It was fixed and about a year later now it is "clicking" again. (#3) about three months ago they had to replace the rear door lifting mechanism. It failed and the door was like a big weight waiting to crash down. Another recall. Had I know that in the 30,000 to 45,000 mile range that we would have four times door problems, I would not have purchased this car. I feel that it is poorly made and engineered and requires a serious investigation. Is this a nhsta or dca issue?
1) we had been on vacation for a week and a half, during which time our minivan sat in our garage. The first day after returning, I took the kids to a grocery store and used the power sliding door button to open and close the doors. When trying to lock the doors, I noticed that one power sliding door would not lock - it slid back but would not latch. I tried pushing it in but it was not working. Nothing was jammed in it either. This had never happened before. 2) suddenly and without warning, the power sliding door on the driver's side was not latching. I had to get myself and the kids home from the grocery store, but the dashboard display showed me that a door was unlocked and there was nothing I could do to lock it. I started driving slowly but upon the slowest of turns in the parking lot, the door would start sliding open. My 7 year old daughter was trying to reach over to keep it shut! in order to drive to get it repaired, I had to tie the door to an inside handle and drive slowly in order to keep the door from opening. The consequences of this failure: Safety issue!!! this failed without any warning. This is on a minivan, where children are sitting. Even though my children always have their seat belts on, it was still scary for them and I'm very concerned about the passenger side sliding door, which did not fail and thus was not repaired. How can this happen on such an important part, on a relatively new car? 3) I called our Toyota dealer to schedule a service appt. The cause was found to be "actuators binding internally" in the door. The dealership replaced the sliding door lock assembly. This is a 2005 model year car with 39K miles on it, therefore just past the warranty period. I see this as a major safety issue - what if this lock failed without warning on the highway and the door flew open?
The power rear door lifts normally and then immediately goes down suddenly, if some is putting something in the cargo area, the door will hit the person on the back or head. As resistance is applied to the door coming down, it will start lifting again and continue the same pattern.
I opened the manual liftgate on the 2005 Sienna and it immediately came back down on my head, striking me on the forehead. According to the dealer the cylinders will have to be replaced. They stated they have received numerous similar complaints and to date there has been no recall.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Rexford, NY, USA