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.
We have a 2004 Toyota Sienna xle that has just suffered a failure of the power sliding door, causing it to become stuck in the open position. My wife was forced to drive with two young children in the back seat and the side door wide open. This is extremely unsafe and demands a recall. Apparently the cable was frayed by a failed hinge, and I have read many complaints about this problem. This is a 5-year-old minivan with 84,000 miles. How is Toyota allowed to ignore such a blatant safety defect to their cars that occurs within the first 3 to 5 years" it is out of warranty and they will provide no measures for repair, but no reasonable person would ever expect the doors of a car to be the first thing to stop working, and in that short a period of time. This is unacceptable and dangerous and simply shameful from a quality manufacturer on a $38,000 vehicle. I am sure you are hearing lots of complaints about this door hinge and cable motor. The dealer has quoted a repair around $2,000 including work at a body shop welding on the new hinge. Meanwhile, I'm wondering about the other door. Will it be another $2,000" please issue a recall now!!!
We have a 2004 Sienna with auto-sliding door for passenger side. The van has around 57000 miles. It is raining/snowing today and the passenger door couldn't be closed. My wife and my kid is stuck in newtow, 30 min away from home. The passenger side door can't be closed manually. The outside temp is around 35 degree. By reading the internet, it looks like many 2004 Sienna owner have the same issue. I consider it as a safety issue since most van owners have young kids in the van. If the door is stuck in the winter time, it is a big problem.
I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna xle model. The sliding door cables plastic/rubber shield began to peel off and now the door won't close in automatic mode because it always sense resistance. I tried to disable the automatic mode and put the doors on manual mode, but it's nearly impossible to move this door as something seems to be stuck. Did a search on the web and it seems like almost everyone is having this problem now that this model is getting to be 4-5 years old. Some says to cut the cable in order to get the door to operate smoothly in manual mode. But I don't want to take the chance. Toyota really should have a recall on this major design flaw and safety hazard. Thank you.
The doors on my 2004 Toyota minivan have been freezing every winter season since 2006. Canada Toyota has made this a recall item, but the United States will not? I find this to be absurd - especially when children have to climb up through the front seats to get out of vehicles. This could be fatal in an accident if the doors can not be opened. I have contacted Toyota dealer and they claim to use wrench grease to lube the doors to help and prevent from sticking. I live in new england and the doors have already starting freezing shut this year (Oct 2009). This is extremely frustrating, this isn't a cheap vehicle and it was purchased for family use. Toyota has really failed the american public with their minivans. I would have used this avenue to complain years ago - I have been wasting my time trying to work with the Toyota company. Please help
We have a 2004 Toyota Sienna. We have discovered that the cable on driver side of the sliding door has rusted/rotted and snapped off. We have called Toyota about this issue and they informed us that the doors are not covered. We feel that this is a safety issue as the doors only open part way. We have found that there was no recall on this issue. Please look into this asap. Just picture your children trapped in the van during an accident- these doors are too heavy for them in manual mode. This is happening to many Toyota vehicles, to the point where this needs to be aired on national television for Toyota to step up and stand behind their vehicles. This is about safety and our children - not just a bonus feature. Help us to keep our children safe in these family built vehicles! please!!!
- South Hadley , MA, USA
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I have a Toyota Sienna 2004 le 8 passengers. My complaint is that the dash of the Sienna is cracking like someone has sliced it with a blade. Please investigate this defect. I know that I`M not alone with this complaint. Thank you, jesus
The power doors of our 2004 Sienna froze each winter since purchase and would not operate until vehicle warmed - 2 children had to climb in and out through front doors. This winter, probably February one cable snapped on passenger side, other cable frayed and refused to operate - dealer estimated approximately $600 per door for repairs. My husband told him we would wait until the recall was issued as this was a safety concern. My husband disconnected the doors so they would operate manually - which in not something the Toyota design allowed for. Since my husband disconnected the door, we have experienced some other electrical problems, not certain if they are related. Also have had problems maintain air pressure in tires although not all wheel drive model. Dealer was supposed to contact us to schedule additional recall work on the vehicle, but has not done so, I believe because we continue to refuse optional maintenance work and the associated expense. I work extremely close to home for the last 4 years and our vehicle had approximately 48,000 when the doors broke. I now have approximately 52,000 miles.
Family loaded in van to leave, pushed button on rear passenger automatic door to close it and made a weird noise then failed to close. Some how the automatic door cable caught in track of sliding door preventing door closure past half way. All efforts to close door failed. Luckily we were leaving home not returning home. Van had to be driven to shop with door wide open! Toyota dealer charged $450 to cut cable off and free door to close manually, or over $1600 to replace cable and motor that are apparently all one piece. There was absolutely no warning to this failure. It seems that if an automatic door part is going to fail, it should be designed to at least function in a manual state. Children cannot be driven around in a minivan with the door wide open. Toyota refused to acknowledge that this could be a problem.
Cable snapped on rear power sliding doors. It appears that the outer plastic coating dried and broke off of the cable. Cable is hanging outside of the car as I drive down the road. The door is very heavy and my children are unable to open the door themselves.
I have 2004 Toyota Sienna with 1 powerdoor. The motor and cable assembly is now broken, and Toyota will not make it manual. I now have to pay $1,600 for a new assembly.
Both left and right sliding door cables broke on van. Right door will not open at all two months later left broke and opens about 12in.that four kids have to get in and out. Will cost$1500 each to fix.
Toyota Sienna electric sliding door does not open with button. Can only be opened by pulling hard on outside handle. Dealer suggested replacing door motor.
Initial note: This is a dangerous defect. Toyota should be ordered to recall this vehicle to fix this problem. We have a 2004 Sienna le, with about 70,000 miles on it. A few weeks ago, we noticed some difficulty with the passenger side power door. The problems began with the door not opening when we used the remote control or the button in the front of the car. The door seemed to function normally when pulling the handle, so we thought the problem was limited to the remote controls. When we were away at a camping trip from July 24 - 26, I noticed the problem had started to affect the handle as well. The door would hesitate, but would open normally if I pulled it a second time. When we returned home, after my family exited the vehicle, I tried to open the door to unload the car. It did not open, so I pulled the handle a second time. The door began to open. I then heard a "pop" as the rear side window, next to the third row of seats, shattered. There was a plastic strip lying on the driveway along with shattered glass. Shattered glass covered the interior as well. The door was hanging down slightly. The internal "wheels" for the door had come off their track; the internal cables were frayed. I could not close the door completely. We found numerous complaints about this door malfunctioning on 2004 Siennas. We reported our problem to Toyota, referring to the other complaints, but Toyota has done nothing. We are thankful that our children were not in the car when this happened, as they could have been severely injured! we are also thankful that this did not happen while we were away on our camping trip, as we were at a remote location with no mechanics for many, many miles!
*****2004 Sienna power sliding door fell off******* purchased a 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan brand new in March 2003. I loved the van until the summer of 2007. We had the optional power rear passenger sliding door. At the beginning of summer, the power cable snapped so we changed the door setting to manual until we could have it repaired. This manual setting was working fine and we took a 2 hour road trip to attend a lacrosse tournament for our son about a week later.***** our daughter who was 4 at the time always sat in the passenger seat furthest to the back. After we arrived at the tournament, my husband went back to the van to retrieve a chair. He unlocked the van, opened the side, rear passenger door and the door went rolling down the track, disengaged, slid off the track, all the way back and smashed in the small rear side window next to where my daughter normally sat covering the entire back interior with glass.****** it took 90 minutes to get the door back onto the track and engaged so that we could drive home. I contacted Toyota immediately the next day to find out what could be done to have the car fixed and was told that I needed to file a claim, which I did. After the claim was filed I was told that this was not a problem which had been reported and that there was no recall in effect, so Toyota would not cover payment to repair the damage. They suggested I call the dealership where I had purchased the van to see if they were willing to help. I contacted my dealer?S service department and got the same response that nothing could be done except for us to pay out of pocket for the repair.********** since we cannot afford the extensive body/mechanical repairs, the door must stay closed now because if opened, it falls off.
Defect with Toyota Sienna power door. The door motor / train mechanism is prone to breaking leaving the door stuck in an open position. Thits makes the car unusable and/or very unsafe. Clearly a minivan is meant to Transport children. This has happened to my 2004 Sienna twice in the last 12 months. This claim is for the most recent incident.
2004 Toyota Sienna's driver side automatic sliding door fell off of the vehicle as the cable came off of its track and wound tightly around the motor [located inside the door]. the very tightly wound cable around the motor pulled the door off the track causing a quoted $1,800 in repairs.
I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna and my sliding motor has given out and I see this problem is just not happening to a few vehicles and from what I understand it also could possibly lead to a safety issue. I officially would like to see this problem resolved before it is too late.
The passenger side power sliding door on my 2004 Toyota Sienna has failed -- we have just under 45K miles on the vehicle. We pressed the button to close the door and, as it was closing, heard a grinding noise. Upon further inspection, the cable was broken. Fortunately we were able to get the door closed, but now the door is unable to open more than 12 inches or so. I took the vehicle in for service and found that parts/labor is $1800+. some quick research on the web points to this being a fairly common problem with the vehicle. This is clearly a manufacturing defect as the cable simply frays and fails over time. For someone with a newborn and two other children, loss of access to this door is a problem.
The sliding rear passenger door on our 2004 Sienna failed as a result of a rusted / frayed cable. The door is stuck in the closed position so that my children must exit into traffic. In case of an accident we would be unable to exit that door. This appears to be a common safety problem that Toyota has failed to address.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Atascadero, CA, USA