5.5

fairly significant
Crashes / Fires:
0 / 0
Injuries / Deaths:
0 / 0
Average Mileage:
16,450 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.

2008 Toyota Sienna accessories - interior problems

accessories - interior problem

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2008 Toyota Sienna Owner Comments

problem #7

Jul 282010

Sienna

  • 25,000 miles

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

1. engine lights came on alerting us to a problem (check engine, service engine, etc.). after alleged repair, spouse drove to families house approximate 600 miles away and found a significant amount of oil had leaked from the system - oil had been changed as part of the fix. A second dealer, at the new location, "fixed" with the same hose again, with similar results, though my spouse only drop 120 miles. She is unable to continue the trip home due to this issue. 2. after taking to dealer, was told the vvt oil line was a known faulty part and needed replacement. Was not a "formal" recall, but was considered an internal recall to Toyota that needed to be fixed for "free". both dealerships claimed to have fixed the problem, though the engine is still leaking a significant amount of oil. There is a significant amount of data on the web that addresses this oil line and the associated issues. 3. part was replaced, but with same type (part number, composition, etc.). basically, a "new" bad part was replaced. Furthermore, the first dealership installed various gaskets and seals incorrectly, and still gave the car a safe rating for a 600 mile trip. The second dealership merely replaced a bad oil line with another bad oil line.

- Colorado Springs, CO, USA

problem #6

Jan 012010

Sienna

  • 48,000 miles
I have a 2008 Toyota Sienna van. I had once gotten a flat tire about three months ago. I tried to unwind my spare tire from the undercarriage unscrewing the bolt to lower the spare tire using the winch mechanism. Once the spare was lowered I could not pull the wire back up again. Once the flat was repaired I could not use the winch again to pull back my spare tire to the original position. I went ahead and replaced the winch mechanism on my own cost after not getting any support from the dealership to help fix it or repeated calls to Toyota that refused to acknowledge the defect. They citied that I was out of warranty and now could do nothing. Now I am hearing there is indeed a problem with the mechanism and there is a recall on the van. I placed a call to the dealership in town there is no response. While there may have been dangerous situation this was avoided I think by putting in a third party winch mechanism on my own cost. I like Toyota to either 1) fix my problem 2) pay for the cost of fixing the problem which I took care to fix it on my own cost.

- Monroe, MI, USA

problem #5

Feb 272010

Sienna

  • 41,950 miles
We bought a new-to-us 2008 Toyota Sienna with a power operated passenger door. Within 2 weeks of purchase we parked in our church parking lot (not on an obvious incline) and pushed the internal button for the power door. I went to take my child out of her car seat and the door automatically closed on me. It took all my force to keep it open. I let it shut, then reopened it and it would not latch and kept forcibly shutting. I literally propped the door open against its will to close while my child exited. The dealer cannot duplicate the problem and doesn't believe it happened. We are very concerned about this especially because there is no way to manually disengage the motor and stop it from forcing itself closed.

- Maple Grove, MN, USA

problem #4

Feb 102008

Sienna

  • miles

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

I bought my 2008 Toyota Sienna in October 2007. The first defect I noticed is when the rear windows are open, the rear doors do not lock in place when you open them. The mechanic stated said the he thought the reason it was designed this way was as a precaution, in case a child is leaning out of the window when the doors are opened. This made no sense. My experience has been that the door slams really hard and then bounces back. If a child happened to be leaning out the window they would suffer serious injury because of this. No one has been injured thus far, but the slamming certainly startles everyone! this happens even if the window is only open slightly. Another defect is the tire pressure light on the dash. It stays lit up constantly. After adding air on numerous occasions, I noticed that the light comes back on in just a couple of days. I discussed this with the dealer and he simply stated that tire pressure changes with the temperature. This is a safety issue because I would not know if the tires' inflation was really off or not. Obviously I cannot add air to the tires every other day.

- Cincinnati, OH, USA

problem #3

Feb 162009

Sienna

  • 0 miles
Bought a 2008 Toyota Sienna xle limited with all the options etc. The navigation system that was part of the package with our model van we bought states that is covers all of North America. There is a dvd that loads into the nav system each time the van is started, these maps include all of the lower 48 states and Hawaii and even include Canada. However nothing in Alaska is covered. I feel as though we were mislead about this feature and have tried contacting Toyota directly however the maps covered on the dvd is a software program that was provided to Toyota by a 3rd party. Is there anything we can do to get Toyota to listen?? returned phone calls and E-mails from Toyota suggest that the state of Alaska doesn't justify their cost in producing a new dvd upgrade to include our state. When we purchased the van this was not clearly stated by the sales manager and we were told that Toyota was coming out with a new dvd that will cover Alaska, but now it's obvious they have no intentions of providing this. Frustrated in ak.

- North Pole, AK, USA

problem #2

Dec 102008

Sienna

  • miles
Speedometer on my 2008 Toyota Sienna appears to be showing a faster rate of speed from 3 different speed radars in the city and county of honolulu. There is a 2-3 second delay, with the movement of the speedometer needle. It is clear, that all 3 radars show a consistent pattern of a 5 mile variance. The Toyota dealership I purchased the vehicle from did not make appropriate vehicle checks to rectify the problem. They have referred me to a local auto repair with a dynometer which is demanding a $95 fee to check the speedometer. A Mr. Kitajima the local representative for Toyota has is refusing to pay for the dynometer check and is indicating that the radar readings are inaccurate. All three radars could not be defective and coupled with the fact that I've also checked the speed with another vehicle using a cell phone to monitor the speed with the other driver. All of these checks, clearly prove that the speedometer is inaccurate. Again, they all show a 5 mile variance of speed between my new Toyota Sienna (2008) and all radars and other vehicle checks.

- Honolulu, HI, USA

problem #1

Oct 252007

Sienna 6-cyl

  • Automatic transmission
  • 200 miles
I was programming a new Sienna van homelink to my garage door opener. It started the sequence as one would expect.(.small house icon blinking )but never apparently moved on to the step of retrieving the signal. As required one must hold the garage door opener remote on to try to accept signal. After attempting this several times I stopped and was just in time to notice the motor of garage door opener was overheating and near fire! fire dept was called and it was all checked out. In fear of faulty equipment I took steps to replace both garage door motors. After new openers were installed professional installers attempted to program the homelink. It failed once again. We tried several times and even tried to program other buttons. End result was button 1 and 2 of homelink are faulty and 3 finally programmed. So after replacing my own equipment which I assumed was faulty...we determined the homelink system in the car was at fault and malfunctioning. This was determined after we tried on new motors...so in the end my original equipment was not the cause of the fire but merely a result of a faulty program chip in the homelink. I was fortunate that my house had not caught fire as my garage is under the family room. I spoke with my dealership as well as Toyota customer care center and home link and non of the 3 sources will assume responsibility of the faulty equipment. The car was only a week old brand new 2008. I feel had the homelink worked properly the 1st and 2nd button would of programmed as easily as the 3rd and my garage openers would not of overheated and near caught fire and place my home and pets in jeopardy. Not to mention I had a cost of $700 to replace equipment that wasn't faulty. I would like Toyota to acknowledge that this may perhaps be the first of several homelinks to have a issue and to make consumers aware that there is a potential malfunction so they too don't overheat and possibly lead to fire in the motors in garage.

- N. Easton, MA, USA

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