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.
Sliding doors do not want to open when it is cold out. Power sliding door on the passengers side will not open even when it is warm out with the push buttons but you can hear the motor trying to open. This is a dangerous situation with 3 small children if there is ever an emergency. One child is handicapped and couldn't climb up to the front to be taken out if necessary. It has happened now that the door will not open or close if I do manage to get it open at all. Huge disappointment in Toyota.
I have had trouble with my passenger side power sliding door for the last 12-18months. First the door was stuck and wouldn't open. A trip to Toyota resulted in having the mechanisms replaced. Fortunately I was under warranty at the time. Now the door opens and partially shuts but will not latch for a complete close. A trip to Toyota says that the latching mechanism has gone bad and will cost $875 to fix. The other issue is that the doors freeze shut in the winter. Anytime we have snow or rain and then the temperature drops, the doors are frozen shut. I have complained about this to Toyota on multiple occasions and I was told they could lubricate the doors. Yeah, well, that doesn't work either. They have been warned that if my kids are in the car and I cannot get them out in case of an emergency because the doors are frozen, that I will sue Toyota.
Both power sliding doors on my van have stopped working. The first door stopped working and within two weeks the other door has stopped. The doors stopped working with the key fob and the buttons in the front drivers area & the buttons located near the power doors, only opening with the actual door handle. They have now stopped working all together. We have turned the power button off so they open manually now. They are very hard to open manually(almost impossible for me at times?!) I have 3 small children and the other day I could not get the door to open at all (power or manually) and they had to crawl over the front seat(ridiculous)!!. it is very frustrating and unsafe to have doors that won't open. It appears that this problem has been going on with lots of Toyota since 2008 and Toyota has not taken care of their customers. Toyota has already done a recall on the rear lift door so why not take care of the doors that people actually use to get in and out of the vehicle. It is hard to believe that Toyota has let this problem go on as long as it has. They can do a recall for a clip that holds carpet in place but not take care of this sort of issue. My biggest concern is for the safety of my children, that is why I purchased a Toyota van in the first place but now I'm starting to regret that decision. After speaking with a Toyota dealer and found out that it would cost approx. $1500 per door to fix I was very devastated. That is absolutely absurd!! I would expect to pay that much for an engine problem or transmission but for the doors"?? and with all the problems reported by other Sienna owners!? Toyota step up and take care of your customers!!! how would they feel if they couldn't get out of their door???"
The driver's side automatic sliding door on our 2005 Toyota Sienna xle no longer works automatically. It still works if we manually hold the exterior door knob or the interior door knob out for a few moments. I guess that means that the cable has not broken (yet). None of the buttons work to open the door anymore. The dealer says it is an $1100 door motor assembly replacement job. When the cable does break, other people report that the door remains stuck wherever it is - open or closed. Is that not a safety issue? I ask the NHTSA to require Toyota to recall these faulty devices and implement a permanent fix.
The automatic sliding doors on our 2005 Sienna xle malfunction on a regular basis. The passenger side door has broken entirely and cannot be opened manually or automatically without tremendous effort (as in using entire body weight of a grown man). The driver's side automatic sliding door has opened by itself while driving on the freeway at 60mph! because of these problems, we have been forced to have our passengers climb through the front driver & passenger doors. The cost to repair these issues has been estimated at $1200-1800. No abuse of the doors has taken place as they've only ever been opened via remote (until now).
- Bothell, WA, USA
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Power doors frozen -weather in the 30 degrees fahrenheight. Our Toyota 2005 limited Sienna's power doors, both sides, are "frozen" and won't open when the weather is in the 30's fahrenheight.you can hear the motor trying to open the door but won't move. Somtimes the door latch releases just enough to turn the door open light on in the car and you can't close or open to fix the problem. Other times the door just doesn't open even when you hear it trying to open. When driving the kids to school they have to enter through the front doors and climb over into the rear seats. They have to do the same to get our of the vehicle. When the car warms up the doors work. Dangerous situation for getting kids/rear passengers out of the car. We have applied wd-40 to the parts and still getting the problem. Serious safety issue that Toyota needs to correct.
Automatic door will open any way (remote, handle, buttons), however will not close using buttons or remote. Toyota wants $1500 to fix. Searching on the internet sounds like many automatic doors are having this issue and should be a recall. Please make Toyota recall this as it could be a safety issue. Thank you and god bless you!!!!!
Power door stopped working - would barely open or close, if at all. Toyota told me it would cost over $3000 to fix the one power door. I asked them if they could disable it, at which point they cut the cable. I have since found out there is a way to do this without damaging the car door. Have since researched this on the web and have seen that the power doors on this model Siennas have a lot of problems similar to this. The door is now so heavy and fast to close I am more worried than ever about my children using it. If their hand/arm/leg ever got in the way it would easily be crushed.
My rear passenger side sliding door does not open from the inside. I have checked the child safety lock and it still will not open. The power switch broke about 2 years ago and we learned to live with it, but the fact that my children can not get out of the door is so unsafe. If there was an emergency, they would not be able to get out. I have to get out and walk around the car to open it for them. This is unacceptable. This is a problem with all Sienna owners I know. This should be a recall.
1. second row seat belt locked tight to passenger (unable to loosen) during steady speed as well when in standby. Need to unlatch and fullly retract in order to extend it out again. 2. rack and pinion starts leaking power steering fluid and starts generating noise when making a turn. 3. passenger side slide door fails to open from inside and by remote. Further research confirmed failure of lock release actuator.
The passenger side automatic sliding door fails to operate properly. It will travel to a certain point and then retract to the open position. Cleaning and re-lubing the mechanism fails to solve the problem. This van has extremely low miles and is lightly used to justify a major overhaul of the door mechanism which I'm told must occur. My concern is one of safety. I purchased the van with side airbags as an additional safety feature for my young children who use the van daily. The door not operating properly presents a very large safety concern as it might fail to operate properly trapping passengers during a crash.
Passenger door will not open or close. When it does open it start to close than stops or continues to close. Not good if a child is trying to enter or exit from the door. Toyota quoted 1800 for repair and said it was a broken wire on the door motor. You have to purchase the entire piece to fix door. Extremely concerned the door could open or not shut properly and having children sitting near door. Toyota has not been helpful in this issue at all. Safety concern.
Left rear sliding door on my Sienna (2005) does not open at all. When I push the button to open the door, the door will attempt to open but will not open. I can't even open the door manually. I am experiencing problems with my right rear sliding door as well. The door opens but will not close on its own. It is just a matter of time before the door fails as well. In the event of an emergency I would not be able to get my kids out quickly. This is a scary thought because I have three small children that are latched into car seats and boosters.
I have a 2005 Toyota Sienna xle AWD limited. The power sliding doors have motors in them that open and close the doors, via small steel cables. The steel cables attached to the motors/doors are the same steel cable type used in the Toyota spare tire recall. These steel cables are trash. If/when they break, Toyota is charging $1,600 to $1,800 per door to fix the problem, even if the motor attached to the steel cables is fine. I've been told that on newer model Sienna vans you can just purchase the steel cables and not the whole motor. A google /yahoo search turns up hundreds if not thousands of complaints regarding these automatic sliding door issues and the extreme cost to repair them. Additionally, I have been told by my Toyota dealership that if the steel cable breaks, I can not open or close the door manually. This is a safety hazard! I have 2 children, if the door(s) won't open manually, how do I get my kids out if I have an accident? Toyota needs to be held accountable for this problem. A recall needs to be conducted and Toyota needs to foot the bill for these fixes. I called Toyota usa and reported the issue. Toyota basically could give a rat's butt about it. It's not a safety issue on a large enough scale. I am at a loss for words at just how angry I am at Toyota. $3,200 to fix about 12 foot of cable that is no bigger in diameter than an cell phone charger's wire. We need help and representation!
Toyota Sienna xle 2005: Automatic sliding door problem purchased this vehicle used one year ago (2010). There were no previous problems with the door, that I know of. Both sliding doors started failing during winter time. One motor was replaced, the other one not due to cost. The driver side sliding door worked "on and off", but is not working now. It opens and shuts with a manual pull of the handle.
The contact owns a 2005 Toyota Sienna. The contact attempted to open the rear driver and passenger side automatic doors but they would not open. The contact also stated that there was not an option to open the doors manually. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for diagnostics, where the technicians stated that the doors would have to be removed and they could not guarantee that no damages would be caused during the process. The technicians also stated that the pulley cable connected to the power doors would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 92,000.
2005 Toyota Sienna power sliding doors: 2nd failure of doors within the past 3 months. First failure was lock assembly mechanism. Most recent failure is servo motor cable assembly that opens and shuts the door. Door would not shut...could not drive car safely. Left stranded.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Dover Plains, NY, USA