10.0

really awful
Crashes / Fires:
6 / 1
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
13,666 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.

2017 Toyota Highlander miscellaneous problems

miscellaneous problem

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2017 Toyota Highlander Owner Comments (Page 2 of 3)

« Read the previous 20 complaints

problem #22

Nov 102019

Highlander

  • 25,000 miles

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

I turned my car to park in the church parking lot. I believe my foot was on the brake, it happened so fast, I am not sure.. all of a sudden the car began to accelerate on it's own! it scared the daylights out of me! suddenly the car jumped through a wooden fence and off a five foot drop off to the street below. I was lucky there was a pile of gravel to stop me. I put it into park.the airbags did not go off. I was not hurt. But I am very stressed by the incident. It will be a month before it is fixed.

- Weaverville, CA, USA

problem #21

Sep 222019

Highlander

  • 47,129 miles
While driving on the interstate, vehicle motor stopped. Had to steer to the shoulder of highway. Was able to turn vehicle on/off, seemed to reset car. Able to drive. Within 250 miles occurred again. This is the second complaint with this vehicle. Last year, car automatically decclerated to 40 mph on the interstate on cruise control, would not go above 40 mph. Very dangerous. Car taken in to dealership for 4 days for quests dust on some kind of electronic board.

- Rockingham, VA, USA

problem #20

Jun 012019

Highlander

  • 5,500 miles
My vehicle has app. 6500 miles on it. The steering has a herky jerky feeling to it at times and now it's started making a popping noise that I don't know where it's coming from or if it has anything to do with the steering. All this happens when I'm driving on any type of surface. When I had the tires rotated in June, I was not informed of any problem but there is clearly something going wrong. It's a little difficult stating a starting time but it hasn't gone away.

- Crossville, TN, USA

problem #19

Aug 182019

Highlander

  • 38,000 miles

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

The sunroof in our 2017 Toyota Highlander hybrid just exploded. It was 80 degrees outside. We were driving on a paved, 2 lane highway. No one else was on the road. There was a loud explosive sound. My husband thought we had been shot; I thought the back of the car had fallen off. We pulled over and inspected the car. There was a large hole (about 10 inches across) in the sunroof. Shattered glass filled the interior sunroof cover. The glass was pushed up, not down like you would expect if something hit the glass.

- Clive, IA, USA

problem #18

May 042019

Highlander

  • 41,000 miles
Car stalled has happened more than 5 times at parking lot - gas station - home - restaurant - car wash car has stopped while driving on main street 1 time

- Harbor City, CA, USA

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problem #17

Feb 092018

Highlander

  • 20,000 miles
I stopped at my neighbors house to give her something, I left the engine running when I went in to her house as soon as I went into her house I heard a noise looked out and couldn't see the car, I went out side and the car had jumped in to gear and went into her garage ( the door was open) the car hit her bike, golf clubs there was a 2X4 on a chair the car hit the 2X4 and then the other end of the 2X4 hit her washing machine witch stopped the car.the door was locked so I went home (3 houses from her house) to get the other set of keys the car still wouldn't unlock so I used the the key that is in the remote control to unlock it and shut the engine off.I can't believe the car locked because the keys were in my purse that was in the car.the 2X4 went into the engine and a tow truck had to take it to the garage.I can't believe the car jumped into gear and moved on its own. At one time when we had and oil change my husband told the service manager that when we put the car in gear the car would make a clunk noise and he said they all do that. Maybe they do but I wouldn't think so after what happened.

- North Port, FL, USA

problem #16

Jan 232019

Highlander

  • 13,700 miles

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

Several instances with vehicle moving on a city street less than 5 mph and attempting to make a left turn into a side street the vehicle loses all engine power at the gas pedal. Attempts to press the gas pedal has no affect, then after about 5-8 seconds the vehicle responds to the gas pedal and starts moving. I have had the same problem when moving slowly on a city street and attempting to change lanes, while in the middle of the lane change the vehicle loses all power for 5-8 seconds and then will start to respond to the gas pedal. Then responds to the gas pedal. This is potentially a very dangerous situation and an accident waiting to happen as I'm unsure if the car will go or not when this occurs. I have had the vehicle back to Toyota's service department two times for this prob lem and they repeatedly tell me that they can not duplicate the problem and that the vehicle is operating normally.

- Cape Coral, FL, USA

problem #15

Jan 062019

Highlander

  • 23,620 miles
Sitting in the car with the transmission in the park position, motor and accessories off, the tailgate opened on its own six times in a 45 minute period. Each time we closed the hatch with the button on the dash. When we returned home and parked in the garage, the door opened again by itself within a two hour period. All keyfobs were in the house.

- New Berlin, WI, USA

problem #14

Oct 312018

Highlander

  • 14,500 miles
Takata recall. Strange noises and flash green light appear on display, after 1/4 miles from parking lot, the car speed up by itself, the pre-collision system (pcs) is not working, brake assist is failed, the driver cannot manually brakes the car.

- Rockville, MD, USA

problem #13

Oct 052018

Highlander

  • 18,000 miles
Twice in the span of 1 year and 6 months owned car for 2 years 1st- shattered windshield- glass came inside the car of hylander when rock hit winshield- only 1 year old. Car was in motion on a city road speed limit 35 mph 2nd time: Shatterd winshield 1 year 3 months later from another rock. The car was in motion on a city street speed limit 45 mph

- Keswick, VA, USA

problem #12

Sep 222018

Highlander

  • 8,000 miles

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

This vehicle does not alarm on people walking behind the vehicle when backing out of a parking spot in a parking lot. It also doesn't alarm on a vehicle backing towards you directly behind the vehicle. The vehicle was in reverse just moving out of my parking space, it happened twice recently. It is an unusual situation which is why I haven't reported it earlier. The car was in reverse.

- White Bear Lake, MN, USA

problem #11

Sep 122018

Highlander

  • 11,800 miles
2017 Highlander limited. 11,800 miles. Over the last 30 days the vehicle has had 3 similar events of vehicle hesitation or stumbling from a full stop, when applying full accelerator pedal travel. The vehicle seems to accelerate normally for a second or two, then just seems to hang at 5-10 mph. Pumping the accelerator pedal quickly full up, full down may have fixed the problem, I'm not really sure, but that is what I did.the vehicle operates normally after that.in the last and most frightening episode, I was at a stop, on a side street waiting to turn onto a frontage road where typical speeds are 60 mph. I pressed the accelerator pedal full down to the floor and turned onto the frontage road. The vehicle seemed to accelerate normally for 1-2 seconds, then as before, just stayed at 5-10 mph with a car coming upon my rear at 60 mph. Fortunately for me he was able to change lanes and avoid running into me. I pumped the accelerator pedal as described. The vehicle than responded normally. I don't remember if the vehicle was in power or economy mode. I typically put it into power mode before entering the highway (which I was about to do on the far side of the frontage road) if I remember. As you may imagine this last episode left me quite disturbed. I always use regular grade gasoline from top name gas stations. These events happened with different tanks of gas from different stations. I took the vehicle to the dealership. They were not able to read any error codes from the computer, and were unable to repeat the problem in a test drive. They have escalated the case to the Toyota engineering team.

- Houston, TX, USA

problem #10

Jul 302018

Highlander

  • 15 miles
"takata recall" while driving back home while I was driving on the 5 South freeway heading back to los angeles from newhall ca, the warning, the ABS, the cruise control and the tracking control lights lid on my dashboard all at the same time, scare me since I was driving with my children I did not know if my car would all of sudden turn off, but once I got home I park and return back to check it 30 minutes later turn the car on and the lights where still there I turn the car back off and this morning they where no longer there I called the dealer but they said they cant no longer do anything but do the 5 point check since the lights are not there for them to see what is wrong the car or why the lights lid in the dashborad.

- Los Angeles, CA, USA

problem #9

May 102018

Highlander

  • 34,000 miles
As I was driving on the freeway I heard a loud bang there were no vehicles around me at the time and nothing had hit my vehicle, I then heard falling glass pieces and wind and realized my sunroof had been shattered. Upon inspection it was evident that the sunroof had exploded as it was pushed outward and cracked from one side to the other in multiple areas.

- Gilbert, AZ, USA

problem #8

Dec 252017

Highlander

  • 12,000 miles
While driving 60 mph on an interstate, my sunroof just exploded for no reason.

- Renton, WA, USA

problem #7

Oct 112017

Highlander

  • miles
Windshield replaced after a crack. Windshield company and Toyota dealer could not recalibrate front camera. Lane warning system and frontal collision avoidance systems not working. Driving with warning lights on dash. Windshield mounted camera safety systems is a bad idea. The need for windshield replacement may occur to anyone. It should not be this complicated to recalibrate the camera. So now I have an expensive vehicle that is supposed to be keep me safe- except that the safety systems are not working.

- Copley, OH, USA

problem #6

Nov 232017

Highlander

  • 4,000 miles
Vehicle had a straight frontal collision with the end of a guardrail on a highway between 30-40 mph. Vehicle is equipped with a collision avoidance radar system but the system did not engage. The system did not automatically brake as it should have.

- East Peoria, IL, USA

problem #5

Nov 232017

Highlander

  • 2,600 miles
We were in a thanksgiving day related touch N go traffic on a normal street, which enters into a mall. All of us are stopped at a red light, car ahead of us just started moving and we followed after allowing a safe distance, then suddenly the car ahead of us stopped, so I tried stopping quickly, but the car's automatic collision avoidance kicked in and took control of my brakes, but it still didnt stop, I was trying to stop, but the brakes were not working. Ended up rear-ending car infront of me. The whole point of this safety feature was to prevent the car from rear ending other cars in day-to-day traffic situations. Also our speed was not more than 20 mph, when I hit the gas pedal, almost instantly I realized I have to stop and took my foot off the pedal, tried braking, but car kept rolling forward. This is just 4 month old car with 2500 miles on it. Waiting to see how Toyota handles my case, in the meantime, insurance thinks I am at fault and started the claim, covering the car infront of me. My dashboard displayed a "brake" message in red color, which is true, it identified a collision, but didnt stop. Imo stopping is more important! there was some damage to car infront of me, my car had some minor damage to grills and front bumper area.

- Ashland, MA, USA

problem #4

Nov 092017

Highlander

  • 15,000 miles
I was traveling East at 65 miles per hour on interstate I64 in Illinois when a very loud bomb, like a shot gun sound occurred in my car. We were then covered with the shattered glass from the sunroof shattering and glass was blown inside the vehicle and out. We were not hit with any object, it exploded from the inside out. The glass was actually pushed up to the sky. The explosion left a 14 inch hole in my sunroof.

- Carbondale, IL, USA

problem #3

Feb 142017

Highlander 6-cyl

  • 3,150 miles
Many electrical problems, fuses repeatedly blowing out, power lift gate not closing, many different error message appearing on the screen for no reason, vehicle went into accessory mode while driving resulting in a loss of power.

- Old Orchard Beach, ME, USA

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