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 opening the automatic, passenger side, rear sliding door, the cable frayed and became stuck, causing the door to stop mid way open. The door was stuck and wouldn't open or close. We were finally able to get it closed, with much force, so that we could continue driving home (we were out of town at the time). We were told by Toyota that it would cost $3000 to repair the problem, as the entire system, not just the cable, would need to be replaced. I asked if they could just make it so that I could open the door manually. Having a door that won't open is a safety hazard. They said no. I took the van to a repair shop, where the owner cut the cable and took it out. This allowed the door to be opened and closed manually. How did he manage to do something that I was told by Toyota wasn't possible" he didn't charge me for this simple fix. I have letters that I wrote to Toyota detailing what happened. We were offered a free oil change for our trouble, which I declined as I will not visit a dealer again by choice, and told we would have to repair the issue ourselves. A Toyota rep recently, 2012, told me that there are many complaints with this same issue, but a recall status has not yet been reached or set. Very disappointed that Toyota allows this to continue to happen. What could owners possible do to make a cable snap or break" it's obvious this is a faulty design and should be repaired.
Went outside to try to open my driver side electrical sliding door and the cable snapped. I can no longer open my door and I have a baby that the car seat is on the working side and now my other kids have to try to jump over the baby or go out the front doors to get out of the car.
Our power sliding passenger door has had issues over the years where it wouldn't function properly, and we had it repaired at Toyota. Most recently, the door wouldn't open automatically, we would have to push it hard to make it open or close. Then, the door just wouldn't close, and we had to drive home with it partly open. We brought it into the Toyota dealership and they told us the motor needs to be replaced, at a cost of over $2,000! we can't afford this, so we told them we can't fix it, but asked if we could manually open it. They cut the cable so we could manually open it, but they told us not to use it too much or it may have further issues. Now, it appears we cannot use this door, which means my children need to enter the opposite door, entering from the street. This is a problem for us, but we are stuck because we can't afford the huge repair bill.
The driver side passenger is jammed and won't open or close even in the manual mode. I had to drive home with the door open slightly because I couldn't get the door shut. After reading many forums online it seems that this is a problem with Toyota and it is a defect with manufacturing.
Passenger side power sliding door cable broke making the door inoperable. The van cannot be exited on the passenger side. Repair involves motor and cable replacement costing $1720. Toyota extended the warranty to 9 years from purchase and 120,000 miles thereby acknowledging their issue to a faulty part. They wouldn't replace it until it failed. The car was garaged its entire 9 years and therefore it took 127,550 miles to fail. Even though I am within the 9 years of purchase by 4 weeks, Toyota won't honor the warranty extension due to being beyond 120,000 miles. I will have to pay this high cost to replace a door motor out of my own pocket. I will never buy a Toyota again. This cable should never fail and is a faulty product which they have acknowledged.
- Saco, ME, USA
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The left door of the Toyota Sienna van stopped closing properly a few years after we bought it. It will not close all the way and wears down the battery of the van. The door opens unexpectedly from time to time while we are driving.
Sliding side door automatic opener cable broke, disabling the opener. Do not use that door anymore because it can stick in the open position now. This is covered by a customer support program (csp) that is good for 9 years or 125,000 miles, but my car is past that. Since this is a known problem, and since it can be expected to occur, but occur later than the warranty for doors that aren't used that often, I feel Toyota should fix this past their extended warranty.
The rear sliding door cable frayed and snapped. When I opened door it jammed and would not close. I had to drive with door half way open to get where I could get it fixed.
My wife was shopping with my 3 year old daughter and dog and couldn't get the drivers side auto sliding door to shut. I arrived and noticed the cable sheathing was frayed approximately 6 inches in from the pulley system. The door would auto slide until this frayed part hit the pulley, seize and return open. I manually tried pulling the door shut thinking I could get the frayed part through the pulley, but I guess the tolerances were too tight and it wouldn't allow closure. The local Toyota dealership told me to cut the cable so I cut the tensioner cable portion behind the door to allow it to close. After dropping off at the Toyota, they demanded a $1000 upfront fee from my wife for a new motor. I am trying to get them to cancel the motor purchase since the motor still works, but haven't gotten through yet. The locking mechanism still works (after I cut the cable and was able to shut the door). With the number of complaints, NHTSA needs to bring this up to Toyota and make a recall.
Once opened, the vehicle door would not close. I had to use excessive force to get it to close & the only way it did so was after the power sliding door cable had snapped. Had this happened while away from home, I may have had to drive home with the door open.
2004 Toyota Sienna. Consumer writes in regards to vehicle sliding door malfunction. The consumer stated the left sliding door came off track, after the cable system malfunctioned. When the door fell down to the side step, it shattered the left rear window.
Went to open the drivers side automatic sliding door on my 2004 Sienna xle, the door opened about 6 inches and stopped. I got out to open it manually and it would not open. I was able to close it and that is when I saw a cable hanging down the side of the van, that's when I figured out the cable that opens the door had broke. I am now unable to use the door as it will only open about six inches. It will now cost me $1200 to get it fixed as it is about six months past the 9 yr. 120000 mile extended warranty Toyota had put on this part. I am obviously not the only one that has had this problem and am hoping the passenger side door does not go through the same issue costing me another $1200.
I have 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan le model. 2 years ago trying to get out of drivers seat, as I tried to open the door I heard a motorized clicking sound and the door wouldn't open from inside. I took to a mechanic and he found that the metal wire that connects to the latch had broken. I called Toyota and they said it will cost $250 for the assembly that controls the latch to open the door. Last year my power sliding door (passenger side) started acting up. Sometimes the door would open and sometimes it won't when I press the power door button located on the ceiling close to driver's side. Then it would only open from outside if I pull the latch from outside. Then one day when I pulled the door latch from outside to open it, I heard a loud noise and the metal cable that the door slides on snapped! I received an"enhancement recall" letter from Toyota just after the warranty expired. I searched the web and saw complaints that Toyota does this on purpose last minute expecting that customers won't see it in time. I called the Scion dealership in palatine, il and they said that it will cost me $120 to inspect what's wrong with the power door and there are 4 to 5 parts where 1 or more could have gone bad. Some parts are covered and others are not covered by the warran ty. This should be safety recall and could kill a small kid. A class action suit must be filed against Toyota for ripping off customers. They should be fixing it for free since its a design flaw. I would expect an engine to fail at 96000 miles but not the 2 doors (front manual door and power sliding door). Big companies like Toyota needs to cut off bonus form CEO and board of director's paycheck and use the money to correct their design flaws. I paid $32,000 and expect Toyota to return the cost of repair which is $1800+tax or fix it for free and thank me that I did not file a suit against them.
Toyota issued a recall for the power cord on the electric sliding door. The design (located on the door's exterior) exposed it to the elements and caused the cable to snap. That happened to my 2004 Sienna but my van was beyond the max mileage they allowed in the recall. So we've just been using the door manually. Yesterday, my son opened the door a liitle too hard and he had to pull harder than normal to get it to close. When he pulled and the door released, the door fell off!!!! we have running boards so the door was resting on the running boards. I can not believe a door would just fall off! no door should ever fall off, especially a quality Toyota vehicle. This happened in my driveway, so we were okay but what if this would have happened when I was an hour away from home like I would have been today, at my son's basketball game? we would have had to have it towed and dealt with how to get my family of 5 back home. I believe this would have never happened had Toyota not excluded my van from the recall due to mileage.
The cables on both the left and right side automated sliding passenger doors have snapped within a 4 months of one another (right side on 8/24 and the left side on 12/26) and now I am unable to open either door. The doors will not operate even manually so the only way for a passenger to get in our out of the car is through the rear lift tailgate or the front doors of the vehicle. This is not acceptable in the case of an emergency or accident. Toyota extended the warranty on these components to 120K miles but this was announced after my vehicle passed that mileage. Toyota is charging customers to allow the doors to be operated manually even with this being a clear safety issue. Toyota needs to recall these vehicles for this condition based on the safety issues this creates for passengers. Toyota service bulletin number (sb-0280-10) date of bulletin : Oct 04, 2010 NHTSA item number : 10036906 component : structure:body:door summary : Toyota: Some vehicles may exhibit a condition where one or both sliding doors do not open or close smoothly. Inspect the sliding door lock assemblies and replace the affected components as needed, according to the listed instructions.
One rear sliding door comes open after latching (once when the Sienna had started moving) and can only be securely closed by an adult standing outside of the door, pushing when it latches and quickly hitting the power locks. The opposite rear sliding door: After it fully opens, it "bounces back" and begins to close again. A child cannot stop it; an adult must stand there and use full force to stop it from closing. There has been more than one incident where a child was nearly caught by the closing door and only missed injury when his mother simultaneously pushed him back into the vehicle and put herself between the moving door and the body of the Sienna. Originally this was happening intermittently but is now nearly constant. Originally Toyota denied knowledge of an issue, and then sent a "Toyota cares" warranty enhancement notice for 04-07 Siennas with this issue. Broadway Toyota required that we pay for an hour of labor ($95) to check out the problem, and says that it isn't covered on one side because it is a different part than what is covered (although the problem is the same) and on the other unless we have cosmetic damage repaired first, and then perhaps not the other side either. So they made money and did nothing and we still have a dangerous vehicle. Updated 03/12/13
Power slicing door cable assemblies...... work and then not working on and off... did not file complaint before because children complain not working but when I tried... it works about 4 times in the past. First instance in 2008. //// now not working completely/stuck. The power is working, but lock appear stuck to where the lock button wont unlock so door can not be open by button or manually. ***** the warranty is 120,000 mile for power slicing door cable assemblies.... my car door is completely stuck / wont open now at 142,000.
The cable on my left power sliding door "popped" out earlier this year (2012), thus rendering the power-sliding function useless. The failure is the same as described by many disgruntled customers on various websites. Aside from the obvious inconvenience, there is an intrinsic danger inasmuch as the door can roll forward and cause physical injury, especially to children. Surprisingly, I found out through a local auto body paint shop (on 10/20/2012) that a warranty extension notification had supposedly gone out to customers of Sienna's from 2004 on. To this day (10/29/12) I haven't received it. When I contacted Toyota, they indicated that my unit would not be covered because there is a 9 year/120,000 mile limitation. Since I purchased my unit in March of 2003, I'm technically 7 months past the extended warranty coverage. Hence, even though the mechanical failure is applicable to and necessary for my 2004 unit, the "benefit" of the extended warranty repair has become academic. I believe Toyota's determination is unfair because the 9-yr. Coverage doesn't contemplate the 2004 units that were purchased in early 2003. Moreover, it seems that Toyota purposely run out the calendar to profit from the exclusion of units. In addition to the economic loss that this failure represents, I fear for the safety of my children, who may potentially suffer severe physical harm from this mechanical defect, prevalent in Toyota Sienna's.
Our 2004 Sienna's driver-side manual-slider door does not latch properly. 2 of the 3 bolts have become detached. Toyota states that this is not covered under the "rear sliding door latch assembly" warranty enhancement notice, although detached bolts and failure of the rear sliding door to properly latch is clearly a latch assembly issue. This is also a significant safety concern as my son rides in that side of the car and if the door would become unlatched while driving he could be injured not to mention causing an accident as I (the driver) attempt to control/assess the problem and protect my son in a moving vehicle. My "door open" dash lights are constantly on and this is a distraction while driving not to mention when I ignore the lights because of this persistent problem, I may be missing other door-open issues. There are online posts of other Sienna owners who have experienced the same problem. Is it possible to urge Toyota to make this obvious "latching" defect covered under the warranty enhancement program or to recall affected vehicles?
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Gray, TN, USA