On January 19, 2021, after driving for about two hours, I suddenly started to hear an unusual knocking noise from the engine. I slowed down, but I was unable to pull over immediately because I was driving on a very dark two lane highway, with no safe shoulder. After the same noise continued for about five to ten minutes, a light began to flash indicating extremely low oil pressure, and warning that the car should stop immediately. At that point, fortunately, I was able to pull over at a gas station, where I discovered that oil was gushing from my engine onto the ground. I checked my oil dipstick and noted that the car had no oil, and was thus inoperable. I was extremely concerned that the engine had been damaged while being driven with little to no oil. In 2014, Toyota issued a notice of a Warranty Enhancement Program -€" ZE2, related to extending warranty coverage for repairs related to a leaking or seeping engine oil cooler pipe. I never received any owner notification of this issue in 2014. Toyota refused to pay for the repair in 2021, and now in November 2021, the engine has quit due to the damage incurred in January 2021. The engine oil cooler pipe is defective and my family could have been seriously injured or killed by its catastrophic failure.

- Portland, OR, USA

On September 25, 2021, my husband was driving our 2008 Highlander locally to the store. The low pressure light came on and said pull over immediately. He pulled over and and checked the oil dip stick and our car was totally out of oil. He also notice oil under our car and a line of oil going up the street. The following day, I contacted Toyota Experience Center and was informed their were no service campaigns on my Highlander. I had the car towed to my local mechanic and he verified that the car had no oil and replaced the failed oil cooler hose. My concern is that the oil cooler hose failed, draining all of the oil in minutes. I feel this is a safety issue because of how rapidly it occurred and If we couldn't immediately stop the car our engine could have seized up and made the car stop.

- Solvang, CA, USA

I was driving my vehicle on a short trip on the highway with my eight year old daughter when a hose on the engine oil cooling assembly burst. This resulted in all of the oil in the vehicle being drained in a very short amount of time. No warning light came on as a result of this. I didn't discover the issue until pulling back into my driveway in which there is an incline. Then the light indicating low oil pressure finally came on. I opened the hood and found the dipstick to be completely dry. I also found a slow drip of oil under the car (only slow since it was only a small amount of oil remaining). I then discovered that the entire undercarriage of the vehicle as well as the back hatch of the vehicle were covered with oil. My daughter and I are very fortunate that the oil that covered the vehicle did not catch fire and as far as I know the oil slick on the highway did not cause any accidents. I am now being told by Toyota that this is a known issue, but it is not listed as a recall. Not only did their known engineering issue put my family and other families' lives in danger, they are also not willing to pay for the repairs of the damage to the vehicle that their known defect caused. There is a "warranty enhancement" that was issued by Toyota for this defect. According to Toyota the warranty enhancement notice was issued to the previous owner of my vehicle and I was not made aware of the issue. I have also had other work performed at the dealership since then and was never made aware of the defect or warranty enhancement. I am trying to understand how a manufacturer can know a defect exists that can potentially cause engine seizure, fire and accidents, but not issue a recall. Instead they limit the notice to a "warranty enhancement" which isn't caught by the dealership from a VIN check.

- Austin, TX, USA

While driving on I40 near Texas/nm state line, oil cooler line failed resulting in the Highlander dumping oil on the roadway for over a mile before it was noticed. Pulled off immediately, saw oil pouring out from bottom passenger side of engine cover. Exterior lower passenger side and rear of vehicle were also covered in oil. No dash indicator lights ever warned of issue. This left us stranded on side of busy interstate with heavy semi traffic for hours while waiting for a tow to a shop for repairs, where we had to wait a day for the part. Completely unacceptable Toyota knew of a defective design that could lead to accidents and death, and chose not to issue a recall! will be seeking legal action.

- Albuquerque, NM, USA

The incident happened while I was driving my family North on interstate 81 at 1:00 am. We were traveling at about 75 mph. In my driver-side mirror, I noticed what looked like a mist getting kicked up behind the car and covering the rear window. In the dark, I couldn't tell if it was water or some other liquid. The road was dry so my wife and I planned to get off on the next exit and inspect the car, we had children in the car, and stopping on the side of the road did not seem safe. While we were looking for the next exit, I kept looking for indicator lights to come on and checking the temperature gauge to see if I could discern if there was anything wrong with the vehicle. No indicator lights came on and the temperature gauge stayed within normal levels. Then after a few minutes, about 5-6 minutes, the engine seized. All of the indicator lights came on and the display said there was a problem with the vsc system. Thankfully the car continued to roll and I was able to pull the car to the side of the road and turn on the emergency blinkers and called for assistance. When finally we got the car towed to the nearest Toyota dealership we were informed that the oil coolant line had "blown" and our engine had seized from a loss of engine oil. Two weeks before this incident the car also displayed the vsc warning so we had the car towed to beaman Toyota where we paid $1818.60 to have, among other things, the water pump and drive belt replaced. Knowing we were going on the above trip we had all the recommended repairs performed so we could be confident in the car during our trip.

- Nashville, TN, USA

2008 Highlander hybrid limited check engine light came on and showed code P0A1B - drive motor 'a' control module, the code was cleared manually and the check engine light went off, the next day the light came back on after driving about 3 miles then parked. The next day the light went off on its own as we took it to the Toyota dealership and has not been back on since driving it there and back, the dealership said they drove around a little and the light never came on, we brought it home and have driven about 7 miles without the light coming on. According to the local Toyota dealership and corporate Toyota there are no recalls for our VIN but it is showing all signs of the inverter assembly recall that affected 235,000 vehicles in the recall. Toyota quoted the repair at $9000+ and even though it has the symptoms of the recalled vehicles they will not fix it because it is not on the recall list and there is nothing they can do. The repair cost is more than the value of the car.

- Bountiful, UT, USA

I had an engine oil cooler hose rupture at 131000 miles. I left an oil slick a mile long on the street causing a hazard in the road and a mess in my garage. Engine oil had sprayed all over the lower half of the engine and onto the catalytic converter which was heavily smoking and I noticed a small fire down in the lower half of the engine compartment so I had to pour water on the fire. Toyota has known about this issue for a good 7 years because I received a "warranty enhancement notice" (ZE2) in 2014 stating that the oil cooler hose could spring a "leak" and they were extending the warranty for said part to 10 years or 150,000 miles. But Toyota played down the severity of the issue stating that a majority of vehicles with this known defective part wouldn't fail. Toyota knew that the rubber hose will fail on all vehicles due to the heat/cool cycle by its close proximity to the catalytic converter (about 6 inches away) so they redesigned the oil cooler lines to be all metal. All Toyota/Lexus vehicles with the 2gr-fe engine (2007-2011) will experience this catastrophic failure of the rubber oil cooler hose(s) over time and I'm sure vehicle fires have already happened due to this known design flaw.

- South Windsor, CT, USA

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving approximately 65 mph, smoke was suddenly present coming from under the passenger side of the front hood before the engine stalled. After stopping and examining under the hood it was discovered no oil was present in the engine and oil had spilled onto the engine. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic who diagnosed that the engine oil cooler line had burst causing oil to leak from the engine. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The local dealer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 82,652.

- Bronx, NY, USA

Highlander hybrid 2008 we were driving on a country back road. In Idaho, we had just stopped at a stop sign and went to drive forward after going around 100-200 meters and the car lurched forward while I was driving and then the screen with all the warnings began going off. All of them saying pull over tot the side of the road and that all the systems were failing. All the warnings said things to take the car to dealer. We pulled over to the side of the road and then tried to get the car to move forward by putting it in drive and you could hear the car trying to do something but nothing happened. The car did turn on but that was it.

- Star, ID, USA

The contact owns a 2008 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at 65 mph, the engine oil cooler pipe ruptured without warning which caused the vehicle to stall. The contact pulled over, shutoff the vehicle and inspected the vehicle. The contact became aware that the oil was completely drained from the engine. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic to be inspected. The inspection confirmed the driver's assessment. The mechanic informed the contact of a manufacturer's extended warranty coverage on similar vehicles however, the warranty had expired on the vehicle. The contact stated that he was never notified of the extended warranty prior to the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 82,156.

- Winter Haven, FL, USA

Dear sir/madam the Toyota Highlander /Camry and sienna have a oil cooler line which is made of rubber and explode due to the high temperature of the oil. All these vehicles have been causing oil to be leaked all over the roads of America with Toyota not having issued a recall. Years 2008 - 2013.this issue is dangerous.

- Teaneck, NJ, USA

While driving my car at approximately 55mph all the dashboard lights flashed and then the check hybrid system light came on and stayed on. It said that there was a problem with the hybrid system to pull over as soon as you could safety and to contact the dealer. Well the engine died abruptly and loss power immediately. Luckily I was on a one lane road with a shoulder and no one immediately behind me. The mechanic said that it was a lower end motor failure but really could not figure out what is wrong with it. In fact it is still at the mechanic's and they are still trying to figure it out. It appears that it may be the engine inverter but still not sure. This is a very unsafe situation and Toyota should have address this. My car is a 2008 highland hybrid with 119,000 miles on.

- Westminster, MD, USA

The rubber oil cooler line (part number: 040004-29131) of our 2008 Toyota Highlander burst at 139,000 miles causing an oil spill and complete and irreversible engine failure due to oil starvation while vehicle was in high-speed motion in a congested highway during icy-and foggy conditions. Driver managed to remove the vehicle from the road, not causing any accidents, just before the engine irreversibly broke and shut down. Two days prior the incident, oil-change scheduled service was performed by a Toyota-certified dealership showing no signs of engine/engine oil-cooling line abnormalities. Defective software displayed warnings on the dashboard of low engine oil/pressure seconds before the engine shut down. This defective part has been specifically acknowledged in the Toyota's 2014 "warranty enhancement program, ZE2" for repairs at no cost until January 31, 2016 or past that date for "10 years from the date of first use or 150,000 miles, whichever occurs first." Toyota claims they mailed a letter for "several months" after "late July 2014" for ZE2 to owners but the owner of this vehicle neither ever received such letter nor was notified by Toyota Corp./dealership. Vehicle has been under *consistent, scheduled, and regular car services* since its original and sole purchase in 2008. This should have been a recall to the NHTSA upon *unreasonably dangerous design* for using rubber pressurized pipes in V6 engines instead of metal-based materials, defective part awareness, incident history, and the extent of the high hazard risk that involves this part failure: Oil spill (not oil leaking as stated in ZE2) can occur at high resulting in a non-opportunity to prevent vehicle loss and high probabilities of crash, injuries, fire, and/or fatalities. This is also exacerbated by the embedded defective software in terms of poor timing to display engine failure.

- Arvada, CO, USA

The engine oil cooler pipe on my 2008 Highlander was defective and leaked at 124,000 mile/12 years (in Feb 2020). Happened while I was on a highway & smoke in my cabin. Toyota has set a limit of extended limited warranty (lcs-ZE2) to fix this defect but only if it occurs at < (or equal) 10 yrs or 150,000 miles. Many reports on the web indicate cars past the Toyota arbitrary cut offs for time and miles. This is a serious safety defect/risk because all of the oil could leak out from a defective pipe & engine could catch fire or freeze. I had smoke in the cabin and a low oil pressure warning light. Of note, my car was serviced (oil change) and a multipoint inspection by Toyota 3 weeks prior to oil leak (in Jan 2020) and the oil leak was not noted. This means that the leak occurred recently and well past the arbitrary time interval/mileage limit set by Toyota. At no time did my Toyota dealer notify me regarding the extended warranty enhancement or that this could E a problem or nor did my Toyota dealer specifically look for this problem on my car during inspection. A full scale recall is required for this defect, not a limited warranty enhancement letter. Attached are 1- the invoice to fix the oil engine pipe leak 2- the inspection from Toyota dealer with no evidence of an oil leak (Jan 2020) 3-warranty & webchat other owners complain of similar dangerous effects of the oil leak and expensive repairs that occurred past the Toyota arbitrary limits 4. invoice documenting the oil change (Jan 2020) showing no evidence of a leak when Toyota set the limits on the extended warranty of 10 years or 150,000 miles, they had no idea if that would be sufficiently in length to catch all the problems. Because Toyota owners keep their vehicles for a long time, these arbitrary intervals are not sufficient. Therefore a full recall is required.

- New Canaan, CT, USA

On my way home on Saturday night, about 2 to 3 streets from my house, my dash started to say low fuel. I continued to drive home because I was so close. I get home and jumped out of the vehicle to listen to my car and everything sounded good. I shut the car off. On Monday morning, I walked out and noticed all the oil in the car had leaked out of the car onto my driveway. I immediately called Toyota and they said they would send a tow truck. The tow truck driver arrived and checked the oil with the dip stick. Since there was no oil in the vehicle, we did not start the engine. He towed the car to Toyota (where I have all my work done including inspections-which the last one was done 3 weeks prior to this incident). The Toyota mechanics looked at the vehicle. They called me and said a hose under the engine had cracked causing the oil to leak out. They had to order the part and it would fixed and ready by Tuesday. The part didn't come in as expected and the car was not fixed until Wednesday. I left work on my break to pick up the vehicle Wednesday night when they called and said it was ready. I picked up the vehicle from Toyota and drove back to work. On the way, I noticed a noise coming from the engine but assumed it was ok since it was just fixed. After my shift (Thursday morning), I came out and started the car. Immediately after starting the vehicle, a loud banging noise came from the engine. I called Toyota and had them tow the vehicle back to Toyota. They looked at the car and called me and stated the engine had blown and that it would cost $7000 to replace. They said I could keep the vehicle there until I decide what to do.

- Philadelphia, PA, USA

On the highway at 75 miles/hour (with my 3 small children in the backseat), loss of engine oil pressure. Diagnosed as the engine oil cooler pipe, oil was everywhere without any in the engine. This is a known issue on many engines which was covered by Toyota for a limited time/mileage with a limited extended warranty under a "customer support program (ZE2)." We were never notified of this potential issue, as we would have elected to fix this prior to an oil blowout, to prevent a potential accident with loss of the engine while driving, particularly with our children in the vehicle.

- Scottsdale, AZ, USA

2008 Highlander, engine oil cooler pipe failed, dropped 4 qts of oil on the highway, which led to a slippery situation, I pulled over but a car behind me skidded through the oil and rear ended the car in front of them due to the oil left on the road impacting their safe stopping distance. This failed part was a rubber hose holding hot motor oil next to the catatlytic converter, terrible design, Toyota replaced this original rubber hose with part 04004-29131 that was metal pipes not hoses. This part was eligible for a Toyota extended warranty coverage (Toyota warranty enhancement ZE2) till 2016 or so, but I was never notified via mail of the issue, therefore did not know about it until after my car broke down. There are many documented issues of this part failing, and also many documented issues of Toyota failing to notify customers due to their inability to link VIN to mailing address prior to 2014. I feel that Toyota didn't notify me properly, which caused an unsafe situation for me and other motorists. Had this been a recall, they would have been obligated to more formally notify customers and dealerships about this hazard, and would have to fix them all, vs. The relatively small number that they did fix. I called Toyota motor Corp cust service, and they told me they no longer had any financial or notification obligation for this design & safety defect as the 'warranty enhancement' had expired. Please require a recall! there are thousands of cars on the road today with this unsafe condition ready to cause problems!

- Needham, MA, USA

The engine is emitting smoke, creates rattling sound. At start timing chain sounds scared kids. While driving you can hear knocking sound and if something can break while driving.

- Chandler, AZ, USA

The car was traveling approx. 65 mph on the freeway when suddenly I noticed smoke coming up from under the hood. I immediately pulled off the freeway and in the process noticed the engine sounding different and performance level quickly dropping. I then noticed the oil light come on, so I continued to find the first safe spot available to pull over. I then called aaa and they had to tow the vehicle because the car had evidently drained all of its oil, leaving a puddle. The car was then towed to neighborhood car care in mission viejo. It was noticed at the shop that the engine and compartment were covered in oil. I was told the engine oil cooler line had failed and would need to be replaced with an upgraded part. I was also informed that having the engine coated in oil is a fire hazard, and he told me I was lucky my engine didn't catch fire while on the freeway. He told me after the repair, that I would need to get the engine and compartment cleaned to avoid a fire. Out of concern of the potentially dangerous situation I was in, I contacted Toyota. They were aware of the probable failure of the part, and said there was a warranty, but they don't inform customers unless they have a failure within the warranty period. Had I been informed of this potential danger, I would have had it repaired immediately, before putting myself and family at risk.

- Mission Viejo, CA, USA

Vvt-I oil line failure causing complete loss of engine oil while driving at speed on a highway. Car had to be towed and repaired due to lack of quality parts used in the manufacturing process. Toyota identified this problem internally yet failed to take appropriate measure to identify all models equipped with substandard oil lines and, likewise, did not attempt in earnest to notify owners of affected models. The result of Toyota's lack of appropriate effort in notifying owners resulted in oil line parts failures occurring outside of an extended coverage period instituted by Toyota. Because Toyota did not act in good faith, owners were not notified and were subsequently put at risk of oil line parts failures resulting in engine damage or even engine failure. Many of the affected models are still in operation and the drivers of these vehicles will have no idea until the part fails due to Toyota's lack of appropriate action. Toyota offers no support for this defect outside of a warranty enhancement or limited service campaign which owners were not sufficiently made aware of.

- Pfafftown, NC, USA