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.
My daughter was exiting the the freeway on off ramp and turning right. The car lost electrical power without any warnings on dash or notification. When she tried to turn the steering wheel she was unable to due to loss of power steering. She ended up crossing a median and was able to turn the wheel enough to pull into the suicide lane. She noticed the hood was smoking so she shut off the car and exited the vehicle. Soon the car engine area was in flames. Fire department put out the fire and police made and incident report. The car is unusable.
Parked my vehicle 2014 Rav4 at work, went to my office and security called that my Toyota rav4 burst into flames. All caught on video. Sprinklers went off and fire department called. Fire started under the hood. Entire Engine compartment burned. Vehicle totaled.
The multimedia screen has been stuck in a powering up/loading cycle but would not able to complete the loading cycle, so none of the multimedia functions (radio, DVD Player, Bluetooth, GPS, etc.) would be able to function. This happened to me in early 2023. Over the past months, I have searched similar issues and possible fixes on the internet, but seems no easy fixes, while reported dealer repair estimates for $800+. A Google search shows many similar problems with RAV4 from their 2013 model year on. One Youtube viedeo "Rav4 radio stuck in boot loop" has had 10,000 views as of today, May 23, 2023.
As I drive the multimedia system reboots on its own. Also as I was exiting the freeway coming off a curvy ramp, the car shut down as I was driving and the steering wheel locked for a second and then it came back to life. As this happened the dashboard lit up as if it was in accessory mode. Luckily there was not a lot of traffic on the ramp. Also about 5 months ago i had it repaired at the dealer because of a torque converter extended recall
The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that while her husband was driving at an undetermined speed, an unknown vehicle crashed into the driver's side front quarter panel. There were no warning indicator lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent body shop. The vehicle was taken to another independent mechanic for tires who stated the battery was losing power and surging and not working efficiently. While at the mechanic's, they noticed smoke underneath the hood and the vehicle caught fire. The battery bar compartment was burnt. They were able to extinguish the fire. There were no reported injuries or police reports filed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact had previously affixed a group 35 sticker on the battery. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 87,000.
- Fishers, IN, USA
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Steering and brakes quit working while driving. Able to safely get off road. Took to Toyota Service Department. Per invoice "improperly installed battery caused everything to melt" battery installed by AAA in March 2020. Size 35 battery. Extensive damage.
Our 2014 Rav4 LE with 37k miles caught on fire while parked in a shopping plaza parking lot. The fire department says I was lucky that I wasn't driving the car or I wasn't in the car with children, pets, or elderly parents or we could have died. If my car was parked next to others this fire could have spread and been absolutely catastrophic. We've had our car fully inspected once within the last 6 months, and a limited inspection during an oil change within the last 3 months. I believe the fire started with the battery, we think we were affected by this... https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/toyota-rav4-under-investigation-due-to-battery-fire-concerns-a8630737173/ Our battery was inspected recently during an oil change and it was fine. The car has very low miles. Prior to parking the car I noticed a sulfuric rotten egg smell which I thought was coming from one of the nearby restaurants in this plaza. I turned the engine off, rolled up the windows, and put the in-car ventilation on at which point I noticed the smell coming from the vents. I rolled the windows down and was going to pop the hood to investigate but I decided to wait a few minutes for the car to cool down. There were no check engine lights or attention lights on the dashboard. As I got out of the car to walk to the plaza I noticed a small amount of steam coming from between the cracks of the hood. About 45 seconds later when I walked to a nearby storefront I noticed a flame coming from between the windshield and hood. I promptly called 911 and the Skokie fire department arrived on the scene about 5 minutes later. They put out the car fire in about 3 - 4 minutes, but the car was a complete loss.
Audio System, Navigation. Cannot enter and use set up Menu for Radio, CD. The Panel continuously displays the screen of the software, hardware, Entune starting and restarting.
Shortly after I purchased the vehicle, the Entune application began sending -€œmovement alerts-€ and frequently showed that it was in a different location. The dealership said that an update was required, but that did not fix the problem. About a year later, it began to drain batteries repeatedly (4 in one year). The Toyota dealership could not find a problem. After the last battery replacement, I noticed that the Entune app shows that I have over 960,000,000 miles on the vehicle (when the odometer isn-€™t even at 85,000) and the battery voltage was 14.6 volts! My car was broken into and the front window was broken, but the app failed to inform me of that! About a month ago, I left home and all of the lights on the dash started flashing. The engine temperature was rising (according to the temperature gauge), and then the gauges stopped functioning. The tachometer showed 0 RPMs and I was unable to see the odometer, temperature, or even my speed. After disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables, it appeared to solve the problem. I am afraid of what may happen next and would trade it in if I could afford to.
On Sunday, Aug 29th, our RAV4 caught fire in our driveway. The vehicle was off/parked at the time and required the fire department to extinguish. The fire spread to our truck which was parked next to the RAV4. Both are a complete loss.
After a minor front end collision, the RAV4 immediately began smoking and caught fire. With a minor accident where the other car only had their front bumper minorly damaged, the RAV4 should not have caught fire. Their must be a defect in either the battery or oil line for the car to have caught fire. The car is a total loss and I am asking for a full investigation as my 2 children were in the car when the fire started.
Making a turn onto a local toll road and entire car went dead without warning of any kind. I had to struggle with loss of power steering to complete turn without going off road. Car came to a stop. I tried to call my wife to advise her I was having car problems which is surprising as I haven't had issues previously and had an earlier version of the RAV4 that I drove for 210,000 miles. Anyway, another vehicle stopped alongside and inquired if I needed assistance. As I talked, I noticed a smokey smell from what I had initially assumed was steam. I stepped outside the vehicle and observed through the drivers side front wheel well to see fire at the bottom of the engine compartment. Since I was driving to trails to ride my mountain bike, I had a water bottle and squeezed it onto the flames which partially extinguished and then relit. I hit the hood release but decided it was better to leave the hood down. I went to the rear lift gate to open it to retrieve my expensive carbon fiber mountain bike but it was locked. I tried to open the back driver side door also without success and tried hitting the unlock button on the drivers door but there was no power. About this time the smoke coming from the hood increased and I decided to heed the advise being given to step away from the car. Had I remembered sooner, I probably could have reached around the driver's seat to recover my wallet from the back pocket of the seat. As the fire increased, I stepped increasingly further back from the vehicle. About 5 minutes into the fire a state trooper arrived and expended his only extinguisher in an unsuccessful attempt to put out the fire. It was probably another 12-15 minutes before the fire department arrived to extinguish the fire but by that time, the car and its contents were a total loss.
All but one lock has now failed. The truck is not able to be opened. There were no warnings/indications, and now the company is telling me that it is no longer under warranty and it cannot be repaired unless paid for. I do find similar stories online and that the locks fail a second time in some cases.
On March 20, my 2014 Toyota Rav4 caught fire. It was parked in my garage and had not been moved for at least 24 hours. The car fire caught the rafters in my attached garage and then caught the rest of my home on fire.
Over the past three months, the electrical system will restart while I'm driving, usually when flicking on my brights. I got the car checked and the mechanics stated it probably was from the build up on the battery. There were a couple days when the battery was completely dead. Thanks for any advice.
My head unit which provides navigation, sound, hands free phone, bluetooth and music options continually attempts to reload. So I have none of the above features to use. This presents a problem, as if I want to make or receive a phone call, or speak hands free, the option no longer exists. I have reviewed websites like youtube and carcomplaints.com, and there are a lot of owners of not just a Rav4, but other Toyota brands who are having or have experienced the same issue. I've called Toyota, and they said there is no recall on this system. I don't see how not having your navigation, or hands free phone services not working, cannot be a safety concern! the whole point of hands free is indeed a safety issue! it doesn't matter whether you are driving or not, the system just wants to continually reboot. From what I've read and watched, this is a known manufacturing flaw within the 'entune' system. I'm hoping your organization can review this issue and support the millions of Toyota owners across the nation.
I've had multiple issues with this car. The lock actuators on all the doors and rear hatch constantly break, the radio completely stopped working and a new after market radio had to be installed since Toyota won't recall the radios, the ac blower motor keeps shorting out, and the usb ports short out and stop working.
Radio will completely stop working to where you have to buy a new $1200 radio from the dealer. All door lock actuators will stop working after a period of time causing you to not being able to unlock or open your doors.
2014 Toyota rav 4. over the past year--the electric locks on all four doors stopped working--took to local mechanic and Toyota dealership who said it was the actuators in the doors and would cost over $2000 to fix them. I wouldn't have a problem, but this car is only 6 years old and has 60,000 miles on it. I find it very hard to believe that all four would be knocked out at once, and suspect that it is a. it is a safety concern. I suspect that they used inferior/faulty parts.
The radio control unit went into a reboot cycle and never completes. The entire unit is unable to be used for any of it's functions. Radio, bluetooth, gps, etc. There are a lot of Toyota owners reporting this problem especially with the 2014 Rav4. There are many example and videos on youtube.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Gilbert, AZ, USA