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.
While we were driving in the mountains, the wiring harness shorted and fried all 4 of our front bulbs, causing us to have no visibility while driving on unlit back roads in Colorado. Toyota has a known TSB for this issue but claims it's not a safety issue, and has a kit to repair the issue, charging us $500 to install the kit. When asking about this 2 different employees explained it was a design issue with the car. Why is this not a recall" How is frying all my headlights not a safety issue"
The contact owns 2017 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated while driving downhill at night with the headlights illuminated, the windshield darkened, and the contact lost visibility of the roadway. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who informed the contact that the windshield was compliant to safety standards. The contact stated that he had contacted an unknown dealer, who informed him that the failure was related to the design of the headlights. Additionally, the contact stated that while attempting to turn the key in the ignition switch, the key would not turn and remained stuck. The contact stated that he continuously attempted to turn the key while wiggling the steering wheel, and he was able to turn the key in the ignition switch. There was no warning light illuminated. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and a case was opened; however, no further assistance was provided. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 5,000.
Even when properly aimed, with new headlight bulbs, visibility is poor at night. I recently had an incident while driving in town at less than 25 miles hour where I almost hit a deer that I could see on the side of the street, and this is actually not the first of many such incidents. I feel unsafe driving the vehicle at night due to the poor amount of light put out by the headlights. Toyota should offer to retrofit these with LEDS for people with issues. It's downrigtht scary, especially on poor lit streets or driving on the highway.
Both of my headlights burned out at the same time. I was driving on a rural mountain highway at about 7:30pm and was using my adaptive headlights. They were working fine, I noticed no issues, until they both burned out at the same time. It was dangerous, there was no shoulder to pull over on, and a steep drop-off i couldn't see and no warning whatsoever I'd be in pitch black dark in the middle of the road. Thankfully there was very little traffic, it could have been much worse. My dash camera captured the event and I've shared it to YouTube. https://youtu.be/plJlQYcA8-A No indicator lights ever came on, before or after. I had to drive the last hour to my destination through the mountains in the dark with only fog and running lights. I had been to the dealership for scheduled interval maintenance just the week before. A multi point inspection evidently didn't catch that both headlights were about to go out at the same time. Bulbs" Wiring? Relay" Not sure what happened.
This and other year model RAV4s have a known and reported issue of the tail light lenses not being properly sealed with and connected to the tail light housing. This is allowing water intrusion into the tail light and electrical system and vehicle body. This is the case with both of my tail lights on my 2010 RAV4. Water has been entering the tail lights where the lens is not sealed to the housing. The lack of plastic welding / sealant can be seen at the lens and housing. Water is intruding corroding the electronics and electrical connectors as well as portions of the body. The lenses are becoming deteriorated and discolored due to the water intrusion diminishing the effectiveness of the rear lighting. Of course, this is a safety issue as well as the corrosion of the electrical connectors and electronics within the tail light that may cause them to completely fail. Toyota knows of these issues but refuses to address them.
- Seminary, MS, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
While operating the vehicle all front headlamps failed simultaneously leaving me in the dark. Dealer next day found both front headlamp bulbs had both low and high beam filaments burned out! this may have been a catastrophic accident but for my fog lights. How can anyone feel safe in a vehicle in which all lights might fail while driving unlit curvy roadways?
I bought my Rav4 in September of 2017 brand new and within 6 months I had a dead battery needing replacement so I replaced it via AAA. Since then, I have had the battery replaced an additional 3 times! I always serviced my car at the dealer and took very good care of it. Then after 50k miles, I started having odd lighting issues-€¦both headlight bulbs had to be replaced within 3 weeks of each other and one high beam bulb, and then my tail lights went out! Then I would occasionally have trouble starting the car and with a natural gas smell, rotten eggs. Which could be a catalytic converter or fuel pump issue but can also be the battery. Well, my Rav was in the driveway with a dead battery and with no tail lights and had been sitting there for a month since I mainly drive our Sienna.My Rav just caught on fire and was completely destroyed. No one was hurt but if the Sienna had been out there it would-€™ve caught on fire and it burned the garage door-€¦Rav totaled! I also had a very expensive brake job last year and think those are faulty too. But this fire-€¦.was bad and I can-€™t get a car of equal value with what i received for the total loss. What is Toyota doing about this? Less than 4 yr old well taken cared of Rav 4 XLE that I paid cash for and now can-€™t even replace with a Corolla! There were no warning lights ever, not even for the dead battery-€™s. And less than 6 months prior to the fire, it was serviced at my Toyota dealer and they said all was good. The firemen that came also told me that Rav4 fires have increased and I searched on Consumer Reports and sure enough-€¦what was explained was a carbon copy of my experiences. Thank god no one was in it when it started, but the house could-€™ve caught fire as well. Toyota needs to do something for those of us who had their cars totaled due to fire-€¦just the time invested finding a replacement is worth something-€¦.not to mention the time vested researching vehicles before I bought the Rav4. plus the depreciation, etc-€¦.
All exterior lights: Headlights, fog lights, brake lights turn signals etc. Have all been replaced at least twice in less than 4 years and 75K miles of use. I was told that perhaps the probmem is that the area around tbe bulbs is too small causing them to over heat, which could be dangerous
Vehicle has both extremely poor downroad and sideroad illumination. Very hard to see animals standing by the side of the road at night, resulting in several near misses with large deer. Upgrading the factory bulbs made little to no difference.
Auto-high beam doesn't function normally at times. Auto-high beam icon goes off at random, even though the lever is pushed forward and the headlight stalk is in the 'auto' position. This causes the high beams to be inoperable when the headlights are set to 'auto.'
Abh (automatic high beam) system disconnects randomly and shuts down the head light high beam. When this happens, the abh indicator on the dash goes dark. Abh may or may not come back on after several seconds. This happens at highway speeds with no other vehicles or lights around. This is a problem because there is no quick way to get the high beams back on. This has happened since the car was about 2 years old.
The halogen bulbs in the Rav4 le are substandard and present a safety hazard. After a dealer upgrade to some brighter bulbs, there is still very little spill to the sides of the road. This prevents me from seeing potential hazards like deer while driving at night. I have had several near misses with animals and even one with a pedestrian inside the city limits because I simply couldn't see them. Headlight aim has been verified as correct so that's not the issue either. This is a dangerous situation waiting to happen.
Automatic high beams (ahb) malfunction. When driving at night the ahb systems occasionally (every ~10 minutes lately) shuts down and the green "auto high beam" indicator goes off - resulting in total loss of high beams in all ambient conditions. This usually lasts about a minute and then the systems recovers. There are many cases of this reported on the internet - which can be found by googling "Toyota auto high beams malfunction". the issue seems to affect all Toyota and Lexus vehicles manufactured in the last ~3 years and equipped with ahb. Lexus owners seem to be able to successfully fix this under warranty by their dealers - the fix is cleaning the camera lens and the windshield in front of the camera. Unfortunately it seems impossible to get this addressed by Toyota. I had two dealer visits and two calls with Toyota customer service - each time they just try to convince me that "I am using it wrong". by the way I have a video of this happening and showed it my dealer but was denied warranty service nevertheless. A similar video available on youtube - just search for "A_32T4qtx4M" there.
When using auto head lamps and engaging the auto high beams (pushing the left hand switch in) they don't always turn on. Sometimes the green auto ready light will not come on which prevents the high beam (blue) light from turning on. I had no issues until about a month ago and now the high beams have refused to turn on a dozen times. I understand this is an intermittent issue, some times they work and sometimes they don't but it is very dangerous when driving on unlit back rounds to have my high beams refuse to turn on. I brought my car in to acton Toyota in littleton MA and they claim they could not reproduce the problem. They refuse to acknowledge there have been numerous complaints about the auto high beams not working properly since 2016. Since I drive back roads every day which do not have street lights, I need the high beams to come on reliably when I pull back the light switch lever. I understand determining root cause and corrective action on an intermittent is difficult but, they should be honest with their customers and admit the issue exists.
When headlights after dark are set on automatic and I meet on coming traffic either bright lights my lights not only dim automatically but the automatic turns it's self off and won't come back on for a good distance. I have met vehicles with exceptionally bright lights and my automatic not only turns off but the headlights turn off altogether and I am left without headlights. I am fumbling with the light switch to turn the lights on manually. This could be deadly.
I purchased a 2017 Rav4 le in December 2017. After driving it in the dark, I realized how horrible the headlights are. I had them adjusted on May 5, 2018, but little difference was noticed. Those that buy the high end models of the Rav4 get better headlights. And they cannot be retro fitted into the le model. Driving at night scares the bejezzus out of me. My parents live in Montana (lots of wildlife), and hitting a deer is not my idea of fun. I drive high beams as much as possible, but don't want another car to wreck due to my headlights. I can't even see across the street with the headlights on low beam. I can't believe Toyota has not remedied this issue. Driving in the rain on November 23, 2018, was horrible! I couldn't even tell if the headlights were on. I went to the Toyota dealership on November 24, 2018, and gave the salesman a piece of my mind. I will not buy another Toyota as long as these headlights remain an issue. This is extremely dangerous and puts people at risk of their lives if driving at night. I will see what they come back with after my discussion the other night. I wasn't able to drive most of 2017 due to medical issues, so I didn't realize this problem. Toyota is better than this and should be embarassed by the situation. I've spoke with them several times about this problem and they know who I am when in the dealership. The next step is to write to the Toyota corporation about my specific complaint. I had a 2009 Rav4 and did not have this issue. A huge black eye for Toyota.
Toyota's headlights are terrible and make it hard to see at night. They are using the same 9012 bulbs used on the GMC Sierra before you guys issued a safety recall for the Sierra's headlights. See this for reference: www.gmcproblems.com/trends/terrible-headlights/ I really think Toyota should do something to fix this. On rural roads with animals like deer I feel its potentially dangerous.
The car is equipped with auto high beams. Which do not function properly. On Monday, March 26,2017, my wife was driving to work in the early morning. She had the auto high beam setting on and the headlights flashed from low to high and back several times, while she was following a car. The sensors did not recognize there was a car in front of her. At other times, while driving with the auto selection on the indicator on the dash just vanishes and will not reset unless you manually turn on the high beams, then turn them back to auto. This was one of the selling points of the car that Toyota advertises, but it does not work as it should. Unfortunately in this day and age, this may cause a road rage incident, if the driver in front of the vehicle gets agitated. I contacted Toyota corporate, but I feel as if this was a waste of my time. The dealership thinks the setting is too sensitive, but there is no way to adjust the sensitivity. So basically I was told don't use it. It was set when I left the dealership yesterday and the auto indicator just vanished from the dash.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Denver, CO, USA