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.
Several months ago, we noticed the driver's side sliding door on our 2005 Toyota Sienna le (we have manual doors, not power sliding doors) would not "click" or "catch" and lock when we opened the door. No matter what we tried, the door would not latch and stay open about 25% of the time. A few days ago, the same door started to not close all the way intermittently. While driving, the interior lights and the door open indicator lights will come on and go off at varying frequency. When the interior lights are on, they cause a distraction and make driving more difficult at night. The lights will go on and, sometimes, slowing down or taking a left turn will cause them to go off, but only for a short time. Anywhere from 5 seconds to a few minutes later, the light will be back on. They are on more then they are off. I'm sure our lights going on and off is also distracting to other drivers. I'm fearful the door will one day fly open while we are driving, putting my children in danger. I have not taken the vehicle to my dealer but I will this week. I've read countless accounts on the internet of problems with the doors on the Sienna and I hope when enough complaints come in, a recall will be initiated.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that when taking his vehicle in for an inspection they informed him that the spare tire has corroded, could possibly detach from the vehicle and impact with another vehicle. The contact referenced NHTSA campaign id number: 10V160000 (structure). The contact also wanted to mention that the recall only involves 20 states and believed that it should be expanded. The vehicle had not been repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 58,000. Updated 02/03/11
The paint/coating on my rims is bubbling and flaking off. It has been getting steadily worse since I purchased the vehicle used in 2009. I have not tried to contact a dealer about it as it is beyond the 36 month warranty period and any special adjustment from Toyota likely would be a huge up-hill battle and would probably just end up wasting my time.
At about 107,000 miles, our 2005 Toyota Sienna driver's side door began making a loud popping. No incident led to the initiation of this noise. Investigation revealed broken welds at the door stop connection. Further investigation revealed a significant number of other complaints including a service bulletin (NV003-07). Toyota was contacted and after about 2 weeks of follow-up, it was determined that they would not assist us in any way citing a lack of "service history" with the dealership. We were over our extended warranty mileage by about 7000 miles and the time by about 3.5 months. We are the second owners of the van, but the original owners were my wife's parents. Nothing has been done so far to repair the door. A proper fix would include installing a new door. We are a middle class family working on a budget though so that is out of the question. We will have to find an alternative. Options include 1)removing the door stop allowing the door to freely swing...definite safety concern. 2)drilling out the spot welds and mig welding them back...nobody is having any luck with this from what I am reading. 3) drilling out the spot welds and attaching with a bolt...only temporary from what I am reading...cracks form in the welded materials. The temptation is to temporarily fix the problem and then sell the vehicle. We are honest faithful people so I would not be able to stick another family with this issue. Some might argue that this is not a safety problem. Since the stop is still partially attached, my wife has been entering and exiting through the passenger side door to prevent any further damage. Complete failure would result in extreme difficulty fixing it and pose a serious threat to one of my three unsuspecting children when they open it up. I have already read of children being hurt by a free swinging Sienna door. This is a manufacturing problem. Welds aren't supposed to break. The materials between the weld should break first. It was a bad weld from day 1.
Automatic rear doors will not lock or unlock or open or shut with remote. Are extremely difficult to open manually. I was told they could be repaired at a cost of over $1200 per door. I also had a problem with the rear automatic hatch which was repaired under warranty. I see a pattern here.
- Oro Valley, AZ, USA
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The driver's side door is falling off of my 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. Toyota issued a service bulletin recall for this defect in 2005. The problem 1st appeared in my car in March 2007. The folsom lake Toyota dealer repaired my vehicle by sending it out to a welding company to be repaired. I was provided with a rental car at no charge by Toyota. The description of the defect, as stated on the repair slip is as follows: "...found door deformed and weld broken inside door, 23 replaced drivers door check, sublet to body shop for repair of door." I have a copy of this original repair form. The 2nd time this defect re-appeared was on July 8, 2010. I immediately reported the problem to Toyota corporate, was assigned case # 1007081422 and was advised by the Toyota corporate representative that the Toyota of richmond, Indiana dealer would be calling me within 3 days to make an appointment to bring my car in and receive a free rental until my car's deformities were fixed. The dealer failed to respond within 3 days, and I called corporate again on 7-14-10 and spoke with catherine. She sent another request to Toyota of richmond and said that I would hear from the dealer within 24 hrs. Again, Toyota of richmond failed to contact me. I called Toyota corporate moments ago (7-16-10), and jessie said they have no control over their dealers fixing Toyota defects and that I should try to contact them myself. Toyota has a legal and ethical responsibility to fix their known defective problems. After all of these failed attempts to get richmond Toyota to contact me to initiate the repair process, Toyota should be fined and/or Toyota should be prohibited from selling in the us marketplace. The driver side door is clearly falling off and will cause injuries when this happens.
I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna and my passenger side sliding door will not open electronically or manually. This is a safety issue as I carpool and have to let the children out on the street side. If there is a fire the door is not operable. I brought it to the dealership and they said that they do not know what the problem is, so they want to start changing parts until the problem is solved. This is an on going problem with the Siennas.
2005 - Toyota Sienna ' driver's side sliding door was stuck in the open position, approximately 7/8 of the way open. The issue occurred when my wife pressed the automatic close button when the door was in the full open position. It began to close but after a couple of inches it stopped. The vehicle was unsafe to drive. The local dealership offered no solutions via phone and requested that we drive the vehicle in. I was able to drive it a short distance, cautiously, to the local mechanic who was unable to repair the door. The aaa tow truck operator refused to tow it to Toyota due to liability with the door being 7/8 open and stuck. Toyota of dartmouth sent their contracted towing agent to tow the car to the dealership. Toyota of dartmouth diagnosed the problem, after several hours, as the door motor had the door cable wrapped around the gears. Based on the number of complaints I am unsure why it took Toyota of dartmouth so long to diagnose the problem and why they could not speak to it over the phone or at least instruct me to cut the cable in order to get the door closed and therefore be able to safely drive the vehicle. Two options were presented - $1700 for replacement or $195 to cut the cable and put the door back together. Unacceptable!! especially after 60K miles and we just began using that door two years ago when we had a second child.
2005 Sienna le. Drivers side door "door check" damaged - diagnosis by dealer. Damage due to wear and tear on poorly designed/manufactured component. Informed by dealer a "partial recall" exists on the problem. Can find no record of such recall. Informed that due to current mileage (110K), would not qualify for dealer provided repair. Body shop quoted $271 to fix and stated has been making these repairs for "several years." Symptoms: Loud popping when opening and closing (approx 18 months), followed by door not opening fully and failure of window to roll down completely. Door lock sometimes does not work (about 1 week ago). Dealer claims fixing door check will correct lock and window problems. Body shop skeptical of this claim.
I can't open my driver or passenger sliding doors on my 2005 Toyota Sienna van. It started about a year after I purchased. The driver side passenger would just open when it wanted to didn't do nothing to it. One day it would open, the next day it wouldn't did this for about 3 months now it won't open at all. The passenger rear power sliding door started making noise like something was stuck in it. Had it checked at dealer nothing stuck would stop on and off for a few months now it won't open at all. I have 3 children that has to climb through the front to get to the rear. Can't afford to pay the note and get it fixed.
The bolt on my sliding door (not a power door) broke. The vehicle is a 2005 Toyota Sienna van. The front door has been replaced already do a defect with the hinges. I have read online that others are having the same problem with their Sienna van's sliding door. However, the dealer tells us "it's just wear and tear" and that we must pay $1500. To have it replaced. The door is closed now but is totally inoperable now because if you open it you cannot get it to close.
On 2005 Toyota Sienna there was a recall on power liftgate struts.why only power liftgate, why not on manual liftgate, is it not the same struts? I am having a same problem with my liftgate, which is manuall liftgate. I called Toyota on 03/30/2010 to tell them about my problem, but they said it is on power liftgate only........... I bought my 2005 Sienna brand new. My liftgate is having the same problem as power lift gates.......
2005 Toyota Sienna has a passenger side power sliding door that has gone through the stages of sticking, rubbing against the body and rubber stripping around windows, and now, working at all through the power button option (or the remote) -- only way to get it open is via the door handle. This seems to be a recurrent problem in a number of Toyota Sienna but the manufacturer has not issued a recall so far. I deem this a safety issue because the door fails to close many many times and the driver has to get out of the vehicle to close the door in frustration and that can create unsafe situations.
The sliding doors on the van freeze shut when weather is cold and now one of them can not be opened even in warm weather. It appears that the lock on the sliding door will not disengage. The second door is starting to fail as well. I took it to the dealer and they said it has not been a problem with other Sienna vehicles but there are many complaint of it on the web. Toyota could not open it either and suggested I pay $875 to have it repaired. This is a safety hazard because you can not remove children from the back of the car without them climbing to another door.
The drivers side door makes a crackling/scraping noise as if a hinge or metal component is broken. We had received a recall notice from Toyota to come in to have the problem repaired, if the problem existed. It did not exist when letter was received - letter said file this recall info if the problem did not exist. So we filed it. Then later the problem occurred and when we took the van in for repair the dealership said tough luck, they would not do anything to fix it. Because the vehicle was out of their warranty period - we then discussed the issue with the local dealership again and they said they would pay half the cost to repair it (about 1500 dollars if we would pay the other half, about 1500 dollars) since the recall notice did not say anything about the warranty issue, I think they should honor their recall notice. Since it seemed like it could be a safety issue, ie., would door not close properly or fly open when we were on the road, we attempted a fix with a local welder, and the weld did not work. I think they should honor their recall notice and repair the door at Toyota's expense.
I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna as of 2009 both of my sliding passenger doors have stopped working. Behind the driver's side the cable has snapped and hangs out of the back of the door. The motor has completely failed and we sometimes cannot open the door at all. My 5 year old daughter sits on that side. On the other side the motor no longer works, but so far the cable is still attached. My van is used to Transport my children to and from school and sports. The doors handles were rarely used, as I almost always opened them with the push buttons on the ceiling. I am concerned that we may be in an accident or in some other predicament and will not be able to open the doors to get my children out. I went to the dealership, and since I was 900 miles over my warranty when I reported, they were going to charge me $1080 for parts for each door plus labor. I called their main call center to report the defect and they said they would open a case and when enough people called in to report, they would send out a recall. Even if my car was 7 years old, these doors should not have failed. I need help.
On Jan. 25,2010, my son opened the passenger side power sliding door of my 2005 Toyota Sienna as usual. However, when he went to press the button to close it. It would not close. Upon observation, I noticed the cables which operated the door were hanging out. When I tried to close the door using another door control, it did not work either. I also tried to manually close the door and this would not work either. It appeared that the back cable would not retract, so the door would not close. I contacted the Toyota service department and they couldn't provide me any directions until I brought the car in. After seeing the problem, I was given an estimated range of $1300-$2000. Upon doing an internet search, I have found this to be a problem as far back as 1999 and yet is still an ongoing problem today. The only difference is that when asking for assistance from Toyota to make a repair that will inevitably happen, they have reduced the amount of assistance from 50% to 15%. it is disappointing and expensive to have a failure occur, even when you follow proper operating procedure, I.e. pressing the button to open the door.
2005 Sienna xle limited. In October of 2009 the cable to the drivers side power sliding door became tangled and snapped. Caused the door to be frozen in a half open position. Seems very early in the life of the car (50,400 miles) to have something so major go wrong.
I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna xle. The plastic on the sliding door cable chipped away causing the cable to become exposed. It corroded and snapped, which made the door to stay wide open without being able to close it back manually. I found out that simillar incident happened to lots of owners putting us and our children's lives at risk. Toyota is not taking responsibility but only documenting the complaints.
2005 Toyota Sienna passenger side automatic sliding door has ceased to function. It can no longer be opened either manually or automatically. This poses a serious situation should someone need to exit the vehicle in an emergency. Additionally the driver's side sliding door is reluctant to open without very sharply pulling on the handle to disengage the lock. This has slowly been deteriorating over the last couple of years. If this were to fail then there would be no form of egress for rear passengers.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Madison, WI, USA