Edmunds dealer partner, Bayway Leasing, is now offering transparent lease deals via these forums. Click here to see the latest vehicles!
Popular New Cars
Popular Used Sedans
Popular Used SUVs
Popular Used Pickup Trucks
Popular Used Hatchbacks
Popular Used Minivans
Popular Used Coupes
Popular Used Wagons
Comments
Until January they will continue to make the regular version at Georgetown.
1) Intermittent left rear speaker hissing.
2) Very intermittent left power door button (on the B pillar) apparent contact problem - we hear some clicking but the door does not close. Key fob, front dash button, or pulling on the door activates the door with no problem.
3) About three weeks ago, left power door would click but refuses to close over a two-day period. Manually pulling the door forward resulted in the door reversing back to the fully opened position. We turned off the power to the door and used it manually. Finally, I tried closing the door half way with the power off, then switched the power back on. The circuits seemed to have reset itself somehow and we have not experienced further problems since.
The dealer checked out the van but could not duplicate, nor find the cause of, the problems above. Again, I consider these problems minor and I'm not too worried about them at this point.
The drive train has been extremely smooth and quiet; it's always been fed a 87 Octane diet with no problem. The van tracks straight at any speed (well, I haven't gone above 85 mph yet) on all road surfaces. The van is rattle free, and it is in excellent overall mechanical condition. Obviously the vast majority of the owners have similar trouble free experiences. I'm writing this to point out that things like abrupt shifts, unusual noises and vibrations, abnormal tire wear, excessive rattles, squealing brakes, engine knocking and any number of things that you don't expect to happen to a properly maintained late model vehicle, are NOT NORMAL. While Toyota makes excellent vehicles, the law of probability is that some of them will have problems. It is totally beyond me why in those instances where a customer experiences mechanical problems with a late model vehicle, the dealer, and Toyota, would not resolve the problem to the customer's satisfaction 100%. Why would Toyota want to save a few dollars and risk turning off any number of customers for life, and have this small number of dissatisfied customers bad mouth Toyota every chance they get? It disgusts me to read about hapless owners being told by dealers that their mechanical problems are "normal", when they clearly are not to any reasonable person. "dardson1" is one example, and I feel many on this forum have been too harsh on him. Last March I read his review on the new '01 XLE he bought, just before we bought ours. The guy was obviously very happy with the new purchase at the time. Well, we've all read a lot about the many problems that he had since until he finally sold the XLE at a big loss recently. We can argue about the severity of the problems he experienced (seems like mostly squeaks and rattles), but would you trade your no-squeak/rattle Sienna for his? The differences between his ownership experience and mine are night and day. Instead of criticizing dardson1 for griping excessively, a better question to ask is why his dealer, and Toyota as a company, didn't take care of this customer.
San Jose, CA
Everyone agrees that oil degrades gradually, and it just doesn't turn into sludge suddenly. As far as checking for signs of sludge, there's the dipstick. Check it regularly (maybe every 1000 miles, or 500 miles, or during each fill-up, whatever it takes to make you feel good) and you'd see whether the oil is dirty or not. If it's not, you're fine. If it's dirty, change it. What's so hard about that?
San Jose, CA
Oil light on dashboard illuminated very briefly ONE TIME at around 16,000 miles.
Noticed smoke billowing from exhaust on cold starts beginning several days after light illuminated.
I could see sludge on oil cap - the sludge consisted of hard black gobs of oil. (of course, never having heard of sludge, I did not know what this was at the time).
Noticed sudden high consumption of oil (used over two quarts in a 400 mile trip).
I "fortunately" caught my sludge early and was charged "only" $3,300 for dismantling the engine, cleaning out the sludge, and putting it all back together again. About two-thirds of the cost was labor. I have heard of other repair estimates as high as $8,500, probably because of engine damage.
Here is a link to a news article that was written about sludge in Toyotas.
http://www.autonews.com/news.cms?newsId=1534
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000010008feb09.story
Thanks!
I'll be changing the oil at 3000mi. and having the dealer do it so that it's on their records as well as mine. I am currently debating using Moboil-1. My just stick to dino oil at 3K and trade in the van in 3yrs.
Seems like a very frequent oil change protocol, but I've not yet purchased a minivan. In particular, the "every 4 to 6 months" seems frequent. So, if I buy a toyota and put low mileage on it but drive under "severe" driving conidtions (whatever that is), I still have to change my oil every 4 months! Is this typical for minivans?
Also, if a sludge problem develops, is there a problem with not having had your oil changed by Toyota?
i changed my oil yesterday and i took a peek down the hole where you fill up oil. i saw this black deposit that kinda' look like wet charcoal. i scraped it and it did come off and feels like when you mash your charcoal and wet it - black and yucky!
i dont have any blue smoke or any problems with my sienna. i currently have about 53,000kms on it. i'm just curious to know what sludge looks/feels like.
thanks.
i've seen pics at the dealer and it looks like mud so i wasn't sure if i have it or not.
i don't use any oil and no puff of blue smoke so i dont think i need worry (i hope). i change my oil regularly at every 5000kms. my manual calls for oil change every 6000kms. my sienna is a 1999 model and my brother's is a 2000 model but his manual calls for oil change every 8000kms. Exact same engine, dont understand why the difference in mileage for oil change.
i change oil every 5000kms. for every car i've owned - no sludge problems.
simple job to do and takes no longer than an hour for both the rear drums and front disc. i recommend this maintenance be done at least 2x a year. just my $0.02.
http://www.canadiandriver.com/news/020211-2.htm
I have been driving for 22 years, but obviously don't have the expertise that you have as someone in the business. My prior car was a diesel (which I kept for over 16 years and changed oil (as recommended by the dealer) every 5000 miles. My current car also is not a Toyota, so perhaps that's the discrepancy: its maintenance schedule does not require oil changes that frequently. It uses service lights to notify you when to change oil and, so far, has required changes only once a year. The manual also states only that "Oil should be changed at least every 2 years." Perhaps because it uses synthetic oil, could that be why?
I guess I was just wondering if low mileage driving required less frequent oil changes. Seems like it doesn't. I didn't realize that the Sienna requires oil changes at this interval. I'm fine with that, and I would definitely take care of a Sienna as recommended by the manufacturer. I am seriously considering buying a Sienna, but my nearest Toyota dealer is far away and this would be a bit of deterrent to buying a Toyota versus another model with dealers close by.
From your description, I assume you're driving a Mercedes. The Mercedes has some kind of oil analyzer that keeps you safe. Most cars don't have this and people are FAR better off to err on the side of more frequent oil changes. Oil is cheap.
So, if I buy a Sienna and drive it only 2,000 miles every 4 months but live in a harsh climate, what is the recommendation of Toyota for oil changes?
a) The vehicle is used in short trips where it is seldom operated long enough for the oil temperature to reach normal level to burn off the water condensation in the oil;
b) The engine goes through many cold starts where the engine experiences the most wear before oil pressure builds up.
As far as the specific oil-change interval for your specific situation, read the owner's manual. Skimmel, you didn't even indicate what brand/model of car you have, so how do you expect anyone to know the reason that your vehicle's owner's manual recommends "oil should be changed at least every two years"? I'm guessing that you're driving a Soviet built nuclear-powered car that'll run forever without refueling, but it still needs an oil change every two years since the designer had not perfected the nuclear oil technology. Am I close?
San Jose, CA
RELATED ENGINE FAILURES
Toyota has been stiffing thousands of consumers facing
huge repair bills after sludge build-up led to engine failure
in their relatively new Toyotas. The company has contended
the problem is due solely to owner negligence and has
refused to cover $5,000 engine replacements under warranty.
Last week, while still claiming there's no design or quality
problem, Toyota said that for the next year it will cover
repairs for owners who can prove they changed the oil at
least once a year.
http://consumeraffairs.com/news02/toyota_sludge.html
i know of 7 cars ranging from camry to avalon to sienna to lexus with the v6 engine as well as 4cyl. engine and none have this sludge problem. all (except the 2000 sienna) have 5000km. oil/filter changes. 5 of these vehicles have over 120,000kms on them with no problems at all.
so, my own opinion is that the sludge is probably caused partly by engine design and partly due to improper maintenance by vehicle owner
I'm still not clear what to be looking for. Does anyone have an exact description of what we're talking about?
I bypassed the other minivans in favor of the 2001 Sienna primarily due to the history of Toyota's reliable design. The only reason I picked Toyota was because of their reputation. I've always heard that Toyotas require minimal maintenance. With that in mind, I anticipated not having to open the hood for much of anything as long as I had the car serviced on schedule. Also, knowing that warranties get really wierd when you don't have documentation to support your maintenance, I also committed to driving 3 hours to my nearest Toyota dealership to have the work done. That's not a problem. I can live with that until the warranty has expired..
What I didn't expect to do was have to open the hood and check the oil cap every time I rememember to make sure that my engine wasn't damaged due to "you know who" or maybe "who knows what" since Toyota hasn't posted any solutions to the problem.
Is that what we're supposed to be doing? Checking the oil cap? I just did that and am not real clear what to look for. It looks like the drain goes to the left and directly below the oil cap is a hard surface. I can't tell if the surface is really metal or if it's some type of other material. It looks like crusty oil or a charcoal residue on the metal surface. Is that normal? Does the drain go to the left? What would be directly below the cap? Is that just overflow of burnt oil or something or do I have sludge like the others have described?
All 3 oil changes have been made at the dealership and currently have 16,000 miles. I have another due in a week. Driving conditions would be classified as mild.
Any information would be great since I am completely clueless what to be looking for.
Next, with 16K miles and three oil changes, you have little chance of sludge, unless those oil changes went past the 4 or 6 moth interval. The crud you are looking at is sludge, but sludge in the area of the fill cap is normal. In order to find dangerous sludge, you really need to have the valve cover removed. Short of that, you may try sticking a small screw driver back under the valve cover and seeing if you can scrape anything out from under there. A dental pick works ever better.
the carbon deposit mentioned is in the oil filler neck. when you remove your oil cap, look straight down the hole and you may or may not see this black carbon deposit there. if your van is fairly new, you may not have any deposit at all.
it is black and if you scrape it, it looks and feels like mashed up charcoal in water. some people call this sludge, some people call it carbon deposit. i just changed my oil over the weekend and i did see this deposit and scraped it and cleaned the oil filler neck area. from what i read/understand, this is normal in cars. i've also checked other cars yesterday and i do see the same stuff present. in order to know if you have sludge or not, only sure way to find out is to remove your valve cover or you'll know when you engine stop working! unless u see puff of blue smoke from your tailpipe and you are using up oil, then you're ok.
since this whole sludge issue started, i monitor my oil level and look for blue puff of smoke when i start up the engine. i change my oil every 5000kms. i now have over 53,000kms on the van and it runs perfect.
so my question is: are sienna's just sensitive to the "crown" on the road or is there something else?
i've been to 3 dealers, 2 of them said there were complaints on sienna's about this pulling problem and the one dealer gave me the "crown" on the road story.
thanks for any input
I have an opinion on this but first, let me give a little history. There was a batch of early production Siennas that did have a defect in the suspension that made them impossible to align without major alterations. I could be mistaken, but I think every one one of those were fixed and many were bought back by Toyota a few years ago.
Some of the people who experienced this problem posted on the Internet about their problems. This caused concern among other Sienna owners and gave them the idea to do something that they had never done before. They drove down a seemingly level road and let go of the wheel. That is when road crown caused a drift to one side or the other. Customers mistook this for an alignment issue and some mischaracterized it as "pulling" when drifting would have been more accurate. Combine that with people who had poor alignment anyway and the myth began about pulling Siennas.
Poor alignment is not easy to detect. There are slip pads at some dealerships, but they are known to be a bit vague. The only way to really know is to look for uneven tread wear. Unfortunately, by the time the problem shows up, it is too late. The best solution is to have your car aligned once a year in the spring after the potholes are repaired.
I've never seen that the Siennas are more susceptible to road crown than other cars. Drive the same stretch of road at the same speed in two different cars, under similar wind and weather conditions and the drift should be about the same. Certain tires may affect this a little, as may differences in power steering systems, but the affect will be negligible.
San Jose, CA
i gave my dunlops to my nephew for his caravan and i personally feel those dunlops were junk! he installed them on his caravan and about 5000kms later, they are almost bald! i havent seen tires wear out so fast.
thanks again
1. Some rattles
2.distorted windshield
3. and a right rear seat that will not come out. Dealer fixed once, but is now stuck again.
I've always been lukewarm about the sienna, and have never cared to drive it. Its my wife's car and it functions like a basic appliance. Plain as vanilla, little personality. However, just replaced the OEM Dunlops and put premium Michelin's X-1s on it and oh my what a difference. Why weren't these the OEM tire? Better handling, better straight line stability, smoother ride, quieter ride. All of you Sienna owners do yourself a favor. No matter what your mileage get rid of thos Dunlops or Firestones. It is a totally different van and I actually enjoy driving it and throwing it into a curve. Before I was afraid it would tip over, or a tire would self destruct.
As far as sludge, no signs. I change with the dealer every six months or 7500 miles and usually do a synthetic change myself once a year. So about three per year averaging every 3000 K miles. Our brakes are finally due for replacement, any opions or experiences with have the brakes serviced??
i definitely noticed the better ride and handling with my michelins.
if you can service your own brakes, you'd definitely save big $$ even if you use OEM parts.
Thanks.
Our XLE came with 215, but if you have the smaller 205 consider going up a size.
The X-Radial is premium touring tire with an 80,000 mile treadware. The tire guys tried to talk me into a sedan or minivan tire, the Michelin Symetry. While is has an agressive tread it is a very basic tire. The X-Radial is very quiet and is designed for luxury sport sedans with modest handling requirments. The next Michelin up is the Energy which is designed for the likes of Accord EXs, BMW 3s, etc. You'll gain some additional side wall stiffness, which is overkill for a minivan, at the expense of ride quietness and comfort. I love the x-radial, I can't gloat overthem enough. It even gives the van a more solid feeling.
Back to brakes, but never anti-locking ones. Is there any specific difficulties with doing the Sienna brakes.
i havent changed my brake shoes/pads but i did have a look at it. looks pretty standard to me and nothing special about it so i dont imagine it would be hard to replace - assuming you have done brake jobs before.
If you don't believe me try it out in the snow. I have used both X-1 and BFG TA M65 on the same car, and the BFG, which costs half of what I paid for the Michelins, performs much better on ice and snow. But then the Michelin is better on dry pavement and could last longer.
There are other Michelin tires which are better in snow than the X-1s, such as the XGTH4, or even the symmetry.
Thanks, Charlie
One quick question. Anyone know a good way to change the middle captain chairs to the bench. The captain chairs are great for older kids, but putting a small toddler in the rear seat is basically a pain because there is no real easy access. I'd like to temporarily put a bench in but am not sure of the price or if the hold-down brackets are compatible.
u can try to see if the dealer will replace or fix it for u but i doubt it. i read somewhere on this board or another that a sienna owner had his dealer replace the shoes/pads and the squaek/squeal stopped.