After driving the van about 5k miles, we had an unrepairable flat on the front right. The dealer insisted that we only needed to replace that tire, and not the other on the same axle. Within another 5k miles, all four tires had strange wear patterns on them, looking like toe in and toe out, etc. and were really bad with some starting to show thread. Had alignment checked at the dealer and 2 other places. One place agreed with the dealer that alignment was ok. The other place recommended shims, etc. on the back axle. Glad I didn't listen to that garage.

The dealer confirmed that there is no rear-wheel alignment on the Sienna. The dealer's recommendation was to replace all 4 tires and redo the alignment (although their check indicated that the alignment was okay). So, I replaced all 4 tires with Goodyear tires. Everything seemed to run ok for about 15k miles with rebalancing every 5k miles, then lots of vibrations etc. Replaced junky Goodyear tires with 4 real Micheline tires. All problems went away. Had another unrepairable flat on the front right about 3k miles later. The tire guy at Costco thought we were nuts to insist that we buy another new tire to go on the other front wheel, but we have learned and won't repeat that mistake.

The lesson learned seems to be that anytime one tire is replaced on the bigger, heavier Toyota Sienna's, the other tire on the same axle must be replaced, even if they have only 1 or 2 thousand miles of wear!!! Otherwise all four tires may be affected severely. Hopefully this experience is helpful to someone.

So, my front tires on the 2015 Sienna were rotated at every designated service or approximately every 3k miles due to oil changes. What the sales person did not inform me about was that this automobile wears out tires every 20-25k miles. Well that would be acceptable if we are driving a Corvette with gummy racing tires, but this is a people mover. He had no design explanation of why this happens, and neither do I as the van is based on the Toyota Highlander chassis. One would think that tire wear would be similar. Not so, evidently. Please consider this as part of your maintenance when purchasing this minivan.

I have logged three complaints on this site, partially as I need to vent and mostly as I need to warn other potential buyers that these are issues to be aware of. My Complaints are on tire wear, strut leakage and break rotor replacements. None of these are cheap issues, and all are significant driving annoyances. Mine is an AWD, limited.

I do like the van a lot. It has a tone of cargo space and drives like a car. It handles well in snow and ice if you have the correct tires, though it does lack ground clearance and a bumper that can handle a brush with a snow bank. It is a fun van, it is handy, and does what it should do. I can put an entire sheet of ply wood in the back with the second row seats removed and drive home from the hardware store. However, these are issues are such that Toyota should be concerned with them and should be financially responsible.

I am a mechanical engineer by trade. I know based on what I have worked on (suspensions for military tanks etc.) that this is unacceptable wear and tear. They should be ashamed enough to cover the cost of these well-known issues. Doing so, would go a long way to making the minivan survive and would make customers feel like they were not duped. Thank you for reading.