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.
The brakes randomly give out for a second even while applying constant pressure on the brake pedal. It feels like the car lurches forward when the brake loss occurs. Even though it only lasts a second, it is terrifying and there have been a couple incidents when I was coming to a stop at a red light and I almost hit the car in front of me. This has also occurred in my 2021 Highlander Hybrid. It luckily has never happened during high speeds, but it-??s scary enough going 30 MPH.
Sometimes vehicle jumps forward if breaking on uneven surfaces like manholes or crack road. Or if emergency brake that-??s hard enough the car also jerk forward a little. Toyota said that-??s normal because the braking system switches from electric brake to hydraulic brake. I don-??t feel that it is normal.
My vehicle occasionally exhibits a behavior during low speed braking (such as approaching a stop sign or red light) where the deceleration will briefly cease in spite of constant brake pedal pressure. This lasts for less than a second before brake behavior returns to normal. To the driver, it feels like a sudden acceleration (but I believe it is a momentary loss of deceleration). -- This behavior is intermittent and difficult to reproduce on demand. It seems to happen more frequently: - At low speeds, when gradually slowing to a stop. - Un uneven pavement (such as a street with speed bumps or potholes). - On downward slopes. -- I strongly believe the problem is related to transitions between regenerative, engine and friction brakes in this vehicle. I believe Toyota has a systemic issue related to the design and/or implementation of the hybrid braking system on this and similar models. -- This is not a case of "you just need to get used to how hybrids work", it is a case of "I press the brake, I expect the vehicle to decelerate". If you review Toyota online forums for the current Sienna, Highlander and similar Toyota hybrids, this issue is extremely common and many owners are complaining, so far Toyota is ignoring the issue.
Our 2022 Hybrid Toyota Sienna will randomly have a loss of brakes for several seconds while in the middle of a stopping situation. The vehicle seems to lurch forward with the brake pedal going soft. After cramming my foot as hard as possible into the brake pedal I have been able to get it to stop so far, however my stop distance is much longer than anticipated. It seems to be getting worse in the past week with 2 of these episodes occurring. In the past year it has happened approximately 5 times. Each time is highly distressing. We have taken it to one Toyota dealership so far that could not find anything wrong with the brakes and have another appt in July with a second Toyota dealership. I find similar experiences described online from other 2022 Hybrid Toyota Sienna owners. I feel an obligation to report this because it is life threatening to be without brakes for even a few seconds while driving. There are no warning messages that appear when this brake failure occurs and it has not been reproducible.
Brakes release briefly when slowing to a stop. While slowing to a stop with steady pressure on the brake pedal, the braking action will momentarily give out, resulting in the vehicle lurching forward beyond the anticipated stopping/slowing distance before the braking action re-engages. This has resulted in near collisions with cars, bikes, and pedestrians as the vehicle suddenly stops slowing without warning and unexpectedly increases stopping distance. The problem is intermittent and difficult to reproduce, but has occurred repeatedly over at least 6 months of ownership. Going over any kind of bump, crack, pothole, etc seems to increase the likelihood of occurrence, but it also happens on dry, flat pavement. No warning lamps, error messages, or other related symptoms from the vehicle either before or after occurrences of the problem.
- Minneapolis, MN, USA
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Over the past 18 months, this vehicle has exhibited the following actions approximately 30-40 times. When slowing the vehicle, with brake pressure applied, the vehicle reacts appropriately until, at the slow speed( approximately 5-10 mph) it suddenly accelerates or surges ahead for approximately 1-2 seconds. The has occurred while in the process of turning as well as moving straight ahead. I have taken the vehicle to the dealer of the original sale, Shepard's Toyota, Thomaston Maine, and they have attempted to replicate this action. They were unable to do so. The reported to me that they contacted Toyota engineering and was told, I paraphrase, that when the drive battery is fully charged and the dynamic braking system is still creating a charge, the current is directed to the drive motors, despite the fact that the brake is applied to slow and stop the vehicle. These events have occurred inn the middle of turns, when attempting to stop at crosswalks, and stopping prior to entering a traffic stream. If I had not continued to apply the brake, the vehicle would have, in several case, collided with objects.
When pressing the brake to come to a stop, the van will surge almost as if the brakes stop working. It happens just for a second but makes it feel like you won't stop in time. It definitely slows the braking down and may cause a crash. It has happened randomly and is unpredictable and cannot be replicated in a way that I know how to replicate. This has happened since new but has gotten worse recently. Van currently has 24,000 miles.
About five times now, when braking at slower speeds, such as at a light or parking, the car will accelerate and lunge forward or there will be a loss of the brake. My foot is depressing the brakes normally when this happens, but then I will slam harder on the brake to not hit whatever is in front of me. There does not seem to be any particular reason that causes this to happen, for instance temperature, and it happens randomly.
When breaking at a stop sign or light, the vehicle occasionally feels like it surges forward and I'm accelerating instead of breaking. This causes me to push harder on the brakes, which then seem to mechanically engage and then stop the van. I've had the van for a year now and it happens a few times a month, especially if I breaking on an uphill incline.
I have had this issue ever since i got the hybrid sienna minivan. When at speed 45-65mph and slowing down (for example approaching an intersection), when the driver presses the brake the vehicle initially slows down using the hybrid regen system and at some point switches to using the mechanical brake. I hold down the brake at the same firm pressure but when the vehicle switches from regen to mechanical brake, the vehicle jerks forward as it starts accelerating briefly before the mechanical brake engages. this causes a panic in the driver because vehicle is not behaving how the driver wants. in my experience i have had to slam the brakes even harder. There is a bulletin by Toyota to fix this but my dealer said that did not apply to my vehicle. I have had issues hydroplaning / skidding when making a turn on wet pavement which i think might be due to the acceleration / jerk forward while braking during a turn. this happened to me again on 9/11, i crashed into a concrete base of a light post in a parking light at 5-10mph. the forward collision warning did not trigger and airbags deployed.
It happens more often when the interior of the car is super Hot and AC is in Max output and city driving speed around 35mph. When slightly braking for a longer time in Regenerative brakes mode, the brakes will let up. Not completely but it's as if my foot let up on the brake pedal when it didn't. It caused the vehicle to suddenly speeding up, even though my foot hadn't changed pressure on the brakes. increase the risk of not being able to stop the vehicle at low speed and cause rear-end accidents. I am thinking that it may be caused by a software problem when the battery can't take all the charge of Regenerative braking while the AC is in Max output and the computer lowers the power of Regenerative braking which causes the "speeding up" effect. It has been happened more than 10 times in summer time. it will not happen when the car is cooler and AC is not in Max output. 100% sure that is related to the "Regenerative braking ". no problem for the hydraulic brake.
While applying brakes vehicle lurches forward. While coming to a stop at a red light with a car in front of me I was slowing down applying brakes and all of a sudden it was just like they released for a second and had to stand on them. Does not happen all the time but I see many complaints about it. This has happened so far 8 or 9 times maybe more. May have to do what you eat generative breaking going to normal breaking power. Have reported it Toyota and they said it's normal it's not normal it's a safety issue
Today in the morning while driving on normal road, suddenly Rear Cross Traffic alert and Blind spot Monitor became unavailable according to a message on the dash. This message persisted after restarting. In the afternoon another message gave these two company. The vehicle informed me, that the parking support brake is now unavailable as well. Funny is, that these messages are not documented in the alert history of the vehicle, although they still persist. Mileage of first occurrence was 9800. Another user in a sienna forum reported a similar problem and said this might be related to the poor design of the rear bumper that allows ingress and accumulation of dust, dirt and mud around the rear radar sensor. The vehicle was driven the week before the incident and about 700 mi before the incident on a dirt road (County road) in Michigan. This was pretty dusty and a bit muddy, but nothing a normal non-off-road vehicle couldn't stand.
I my Sienna had its 12 volt battery depleted over night with no reason. After it was jump started, literally every single piece of equipment was malfunctioning and producing an alert (hybrid system, brake pressure, RCTA, BSM, AWD, tire pressure and so on). After several restarts of the engine (about 15 min after running engine), all systems went to normal except hybrid drive system, that still asked for maintenance and the tire pressure sensor was still on alert. However I drove the vehicle to a dealership in Maine after the parking brake finally decided to get loose again. These guys told me, they had just the same problem with another 2022 sienna a week before. However, they reseted the errors, and everything worked fine. They had no explanation why two sienna in one week come to their lot with a depleted battery and as a consequence with a malfunctioning hybrid systen. That's very unsatisfying.
When I-€™m braking, some times, the car seems to lunge forward for just a moment. It-€™s very unnerving. It-€™s almost like it-€™s slowing, but then surges forward for just a moment. We-€™re at 2k miles and have had it happen ~5 times now. Once it happened and shot me forward into traffic, thankfully there wasn-€™t a car right there or I would have been hit! Very scary, I feel like I-€™m not in control of the car at all. It definitely needs to be looked into more.
The van, sporadically, for the entire time we've owned it, lunges forward while depressing the brake pedal while turning into a corner or parking lot, etc. I reported this to the Toyota dealer service department when I brought my van in for the recall. The lunging continues so I brought to the dealer service department again, today. The service representative asked me if I ever drove a Hybrid before, informed me that this lunging is designed into Hybrid vehicles because this is when the battery is getting charged. The service representative told me that he drives a hybrid and that this happens to him. I asked for clarity stating, "So it's "designed for a vehicle to lunge forward? This seems like a safety issue. I've gone on forums to see if others have been experiencing this and saw that this is happening in the 2022 and 2021 Siennas". They service representative advised me to not go on forums because they are filled with unhappy people. He said he moderates a forum and knows this. I responded, "I know what I'm feeling when I depress the brake, the van is lunging forward."
The contact owns a 2022 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated while driving approximately 40 MPH and slowing to stop at a traffic sign, the brake pedal was depressed and there was no resistance from the brake pedal. The contact depressed the brake pedal with force to bring the vehicle to a stop. The contact stated no warning light was illuminated. The contact had driven the vehicle to a local dealer, where it was diagnosed and found that the brakes were operating correctly. The vehicle was not repaired. The contact stated that the failure recurred intermittently. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 10,000.
I got the software recall fix last week. Today is the first time I have had any issues. 2 time today the emergency braking activated. First time I was leaving McDonald-€™s parking lot. I waited for a car to pass then I took off to get on the road. The emergency braking system activated leaving me halfway in the parking lot and part way in the road. I thought that was weird. The a few minutes later I arrived at home and started backing into the driveway like I always do. As I was backing into the driveway a car started to pass on the road in front of me. The car emergency braking system activated leaving me part way in the road and driveway was the car passed. I have saved the ring camera footage of me arriving home in case it is needed.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Dickson, TN, USA