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10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
1 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
89,139 miles

About These NHTSA Complaints:

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.

2008 Toyota Sienna engine problems

engine problem

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2008 Toyota Sienna Owner Comments (Page 1 of 2)

problem #39

Apr 162024

Sienna

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The head gasket that was repaired failed and the radiator system also failed. Im not sure if these issues are dealer related or manufacture related as i spoke to the previous owner and they stated they had the vehicle serviced at a manufacturer prior to doing a trade in with the dealer

- Vacaville, CA, USA

problem #38

Dec 152022

Sienna

  • 204,000 miles
The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated while pulling into a grocery store, he heard an abnormal ticking sound. The contact stated upon parking and inspecting the outside of the vehicle, he noticed that engine oil was leaking onto the ground. Additionally, the oil dipstick was dry upon inspecting the oil level. There was no warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local Pep Boys where oil was added in the vehicle and the contact drove to his residence. However, the failure persisted while driving. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the exhaust cam gear had fractured, causing damage to the engine and other unnamed components. The dealer diagnosed that the engine, the exhaust cam gear, and the timing chain needed to be replaced, and additional unknown repairs were also needed. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact related the failure to an unknown Toyota Extended Warranty. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist due to the vehicle manufactured date. The failure mileage was approximately 204,000.

- Shreveport, LA, USA

problem #37

Apr 062021

Sienna

  • 108,000 miles
Car speed varies when doing a moderate speed example 40 mph sometimes feels like its engine slips and speed slows car jumps forward feels like engine slips or gear shifts. Engine bogs down or sometimes revs up a little..scares me sometimes but no choice but to drive

- San Antonio, TX, USA

problem #36

Aug 252019

Sienna

  • miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

Check engine light, vsc light and trac off light on and off light intermittent. At any time the light goes on and off. It is nerve breaking knowing that the warning light and the problem can not be fixed by Toyota. I have my Toyota Sienna 2008 and it have a very low miles due to lights safety reasons that can not be solved by Toyota. Every time we complain, we were always told that bring the car in when the light goes on. The problem is when the light goes on it will be off when we get to the dealership. We noticed when the car reached approximately 98,000 miles. The cause of the on and off lights are unknown.

- Fairfield, CA, USA

problem #35

Apr 082020

Sienna 4-cyl

  • 184,000 miles
While driving with my autistic children the check engine light, the vsc light and the trac off light all came on and the wheels locked up on the right side and through the van into a ditch. This is very dangerous since this vehicle was made for families. I am now keeping a log and I do plan on retaining an attorney as no one has addressed this issue as a safety hazard.

- Alvarado, TX, USA

problem #34

Jun 192019

Sienna

  • 170,000 miles
Lower oil cooler line developed hole and leaked engine oil while in motion on county highway.

- Powell, TN, USA

problem #33

Feb 012011

Sienna

  • 170,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Sienna. While operating the vehicle, the engine hesitated and shuddered before stalling. The vehicle was taken to Toyota of orlando (3575 vineland rd, orlando, fl) where it was diagnosed that the engine camshaft was faulty and the engine would need to be rebuilt. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified, but no assistance was offered. The contact indicated that the vehicle previously experienced the same failure in 2011 and the engine was rebuilt. Furthermore, in 2016, the camshaft was repaired. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 170,000.

- Orlando, FL, USA

problem #32

Apr 012018

Sienna

  • 205,700 miles
Vvti oil line has large hole all of a sudden, caused very quick loss of all oil in car. I was in motion on the highway, and oil light came on. I was able to get the car pulled over and stopped. If I had been in a worse position, it would have caused engine seizure. There is a limited service campaign on this, my vehicle had it replaced in 2014, and it failed again because they put the same faulty part with rubber hose connector. In 2010 they actually released same engine with an all metal oil hose, but thats not what they replaced it with on the technical service campaign.

- Denver, CO, USA

problem #31

Jan 222018

Sienna

  • 169,000 miles
This vehicle has 3 open recalls on it I have contacted my local Toyota dealership in wooster Ohio and the service advisor informed me it would take a few hours to do all the repairs and id have to wait or drop it off I as a customer feel its unfair for Toyota to make a customer wait for hours to fix repairs that are faults of the car manufactuer I asked for a loaner car while the work is completed they refused saying the only way a loaner is given is is the recall is door related

- Orrville, OH, USA

problem #30

Jul 232017

Sienna

  • miles
My 2008 Toyota Sienna began to create a smoke screen impairing me from having a clear visual of the road. I had to immediately pull to the side of the freeway and check if my vehicle was on fire. Once I inspected the outside and open the hood to make sure nothing was on fire I notice a puddle of oil under the vehicle an upon further look my engine motor oil cooling hose had burst, spraying the motor and everything inside with motor oil. This was the 3rd time this vehicle has done the same problem.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #29

Apr 132017

Sienna

  • 154,000 miles

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S

While putting on the brakes to stop for a traffic light the engine suddenly revved up to 6000 RPM and tried to take off by itself. I pushed the gear shift into neutral and put my left foot on the brake to keep the car from moving. I kicked the accelerator pedal several times until it disengaged. This is the 4th time this has happened. There was not a floor mat involved as there was not one in the car at this time. The last time I talked to a Toyota dealer about this they said this could not happen and I was wrong about what happened. The dealer did not document any of this and wanted nothing further to do with me. This is dangerous and happens with no warning when you push the brake pedal to stop for a traffic signal or to pull into a parking space. My wife was also in the car two of the times and saw what happened. She was not in the car for the latest episode.

- Dallas, NC, USA

problem #28

Jan 042012

Sienna

  • 61,637 miles
That was around 2012 new year time when I, my wife and my kid visited our friend at atlanta, ga. We drove our van on interstate highway I-75, in the middle of our trip, our van started shaking vigorously. I felt that was from engine, it forced me to stop on the side of I-75. After a while we restarted our van, we could only drive for < 65 miles/hour. Any acceleration resulted in vigorous shaking. After we came home I drove my van to an auto service center, and was checked. It turned out that 3 ignition coils, spark plugs, and manifold gasket had to be replaced. Yesterday (9/10/2015) the same problem happened again.

- Estero, FL, USA

problem #27

Aug 192015

Sienna

  • 80,000 miles
Car completely stoped without any warning on an extremly busy road. Extremely loud noises are coming from the engine and car will no longer move. Still cluessless on the issue at hand.

- Charles Town, WV, USA

problem #26

May 312014

Sienna

  • 112,496 miles
Upon exiting the interstate, we began to smell a burning smell and the light for the A/C started flashing and wouldn't turn back on. We drove about a mile thinking that the smell was roadwork, but then we decided to stop and check it under the hood. Once we opened the hood, we were hit with a plume of smoke, and realized there was a pool of oil under the van. We began to look on the internet for causes, where we came across several instances of the oil hose blowing and the vehicle catching fire. We called the dealership the next day to see if there was a recall. They didn't know of one, but stated that they'd fixed several vehicles for the same issue. This is very alarming since the check engine light, oil light, etc didn't even turn on. Had we driven another mile, would the van have caught fire? we have a van full of children, and it's frightening to think that this could have ended much worse.

- Florence, SC, USA

problem #25

Mar 192015

Sienna 6-cyl

  • 89,358 miles
Variable valve timing oil supply line sprang a leak at bend on rubber tubing. Toyota has a new replacement tube, but not paying for tube or labor.

- Birmingham, AL, USA

problem #24

Jan 162015

Sienna 6-cyl

  • 80,200 miles
My wife was driving the minivan with both kids in the car after grocery shopping and picking them up from the preschool. While she was driving into the garage she smelled and saw oil fume coming out of the hood. She thought the car was going to catch fire and grabbed the kids and got out of the van as quickly as she can. I got her call and rushed home from work. It turned out there was a sudden failure of a oil cooling pipe on the engine. All of the engine oil had almost leaked out (there was maybe about quarter of inch showing on the dip stick). After we towed the car to the dealer, we found out the oil had leaked from an engine cooler pipe which was poorly designed and over time it could develop a slow seep leak or in our case failed in a sudden burst and caused the oil to leak out like a running faucet. We were extremely fortunate because it occurred just while she was driving the van in our subdivision. Toyota had an extended warranty for this issue last summer but didn't have a recall for this. If it happened while we were driving on highway and we didn't pay attention to the engine light, the engine may burn or worse it could seize and cause accident. After a little research on the web, I found out there are a lot of people had this same issue. Toyota actually had a recall other models of cars for the same issue several years ago. I wonder why they didn't recall the 2008 Sienna and they should have. I want to report this and hopefully force Toyota to start recall on this issue for all impacted models so others won't have to experience this and avoid potential accidents. Thanks.

- Overland Park, KS, USA

problem #23

Nov 032014

Sienna

  • 104,000 miles
The vehicle came to a stop at a stop light and the odour of something burning entered the cabin. No lights on the dash appeared and drove to the next parking lot to find a trail of oil behind the vehicle and a pool of oil under the engine. I had the vehicle towed directly to the dealer to find out a 'pin hole' was found in the oil cooler hose. This is not the same hose as the vvti that has been recalled already. The dealer informed me it's like the two other rubber hoses carrying oil on the engine but has not been recalled. The cost to have it replaced with a steel line is $429 cdn. This van was purchased new in 2009 and brought into manitoba, Canada from the us.

- Lockport (Manitoba, Canada), ND, USA

problem #22

Oct 012014

Sienna 6-cyl

  • 85,000 miles
Toyota known defective timing chain gasket. Leaking oil.

- Birmingham, AL, USA

problem #21

Jul 092014

Sienna 6-cyl

  • 123,000 miles
Upon exiting freeway in butte, mt, and slowing done for red light at bottom of ramp, heard tapping noise coming from engine. Drove one block to gas station, and while pumping gas, noticed large quantity of engine oil puddling under the engine. Had vehicle towed to Toyota dealer, who determined that oil cooler hose had ruptured. Fortunately, no apparent engine damage. After some research on Sienna owners' forum, learned that this was a recurring problem on certain Toyota models in certain years, including the 2008 Sienna with tow package like ours, and that Toyota had put out a tsb on this, but apparently had never informed owners. It took 4 days for the replacement hose to arrive, and the repair cost $520. This incident occurred while my family was far from home (silver spring, md) on a cross-country trip and thus forced them to cancel part of vacation and spend extra $$ on hotels and a rental car. But it could have been much worse - the oil could have drained while at speed on the highway, ruining the engine, stranding my family in an isolated area or causing an accident or engine fire and possible injuries. Given that Toyota was aware of the problem, it could have informed us so we could have had the hose replaced before it failed.

- Silver Spring, MD, USA

problem #20

Jun 062014

Sienna 6-cyl

  • 85,000 miles
Vvt-I hose broken, rapid oil loss and almost no oil left in engine when problem was spotted. Oil spilled to the belts around the vvt-I hose. When turn steering wheel, noise heard. This is the same issue to the other recalls but not applicable to Toyota Sienna. toyotanews.pressroom.Toyota.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1906 I was told may cause problem turning the steering wheel, or accident. I was instructed to file the claim to your office. Thanks.

- Estero, FL, USA

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