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Highlander Hybrid Electrical/Lighting Problems

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Comments

  • bchihybchihy Member Posts: 6
    Wolfcal ; I did try for the pump noise ; nothing. Maybe it is too warm now. It seems we got a couple of the best cars they made in 06. Wonder what the percentages are of good to bad??
  • wolfcalwolfcal Member Posts: 19
    gotta tell ya. you know how big and heavy this car is right, well i just love the power and so did the calif. hwy patrol....seems I was pulling 97mph uphill when they got me, locked in radar at 87mph and wrote me a ticket for 75mph in a 65mph..it pays to talk nicely:> I almost said "damn this thing can move", when he told me how fast I was going. have hit 105 before I got nervous on a different trip up to oregon, in the flat lands of nowhere between calif and oregon. and it was smmmmmooooooth...
    cheers
    chris
  • bchihybchihy Member Posts: 6
    Hey Chris,
    Plenty of punch; shocks some people. I am still on the fence about keeping it for my wife. Some of the problems that others have had are holding me up. I still need to get a feel about the reliability AFTER the recall repair. Have had no problems with the car.

    Dave
  • wolfcalwolfcal Member Posts: 19
    fyi: had my recall done in january 2012, no problems ..
    this car is now over 100k.
    we live in the mountains of california.
    4 seasons, winter snow, down to 20's.
    commute to work is short 10 miles up and down the hill.
    all long drives we use this car, 3hr-5hr trips, and 4 times a year 9hours to bend oregon.

    may make a difference if sitting in commute city traffic or long hauls consistently, don't know.
    it is my wife's car and I haven't had to worry or don't.
    cheers
    chris
    p.s. don't remember , you did replace the small battery inside the engine compartment. That was my only issue and scare with this car. I will replace before 5 year life span also. When it goes , the car shuts down.
  • burbee1527burbee1527 Member Posts: 1
    I know it has been forever since you posted this but do you remember how this was resolved? We were having this same problem on our 06 HiHy Limited and we took it to a local dealer and were told a chip in the shifter was bad and the whole assembly had to be replaced: $685 part; $1100 total (!!!). Im no expert but I usually maintain and make minor repairs on my own cars and I have never heard of this. Also, of all of the people having this problem on all of the forums I have read I never read anything like that. If that is legit, I guess I'll have to pay it but I don't want to be taken advantage of.
  • abotabot Member Posts: 2
    My 2007 HH has fluctuating dc voltage since April 2011 when there was 120488 miles on it. The dealer had below statement:
    "INVERTER VOLTAGE FLUCTUATING AT AMD WIREFROM DC/DC CONVERTER. ~|~120488 INVERTER VOLTAGE FLUCT UATING AT AMDWIRE FROM DC/DC CON VERTER. 150 INVERTERNEEDS REPLA CEMENT."
    They gave me an expensive estimate to repair it. Back then I didn't like the fact to pay such money for a part that still working. I thought I will repair it whenever it dies.
    It is more than a year and half and I put more than 15000 miles on my car and the inverter is still working as before.
    Anybody has the same problem? Does anyone know if my car really needs an inverter or it might be something simpler than that?
    I would appreciate any thought.
  • sockpuppet1969sockpuppet1969 Member Posts: 308
    2006 highlander hybrid with 135K miles. When the gas engine is not running there is no heat. I checked the heater fuses and they are all good. Any ideas?

    Thanks in advance for your replies...
  • sockpuppet1969sockpuppet1969 Member Posts: 308
    Turns out the heat not working when the engine was off (electric mode) was an early symptom of the radiator leaking. The truck lost all heat then finally overheated. A new radiator and $675 later, all is well...
  • thefirstaahzthefirstaahz Member Posts: 1
    I have a 2006 HH that I bought "nearly new" (the dealer's wife had put about 400 miles on it). Now I'm approaching 190,000 miles. I've experienced several of the problems reported in this thread, including the "pop and die" inverter failure while driving on I-75 in Georgia. Fortunately, that was covered by the recall (although the towing charge was not). I'm on my third 12v battery, and it's about time for a fourth. Apart from these things, and the steering going haywire one evening (also covered by a recall), I've enjoyed my HH. However, there is a problem that's been brewing over the past few months that may change that.

    I know this is the "electrical problems" thread, and what I'm about to describe deals with the brake system, but several of the symptoms come across as electrical/battery/computer system failures.

    As HH owners are likely aware, when you open the driver door before starting the car, a motor buzzing sound comes from under the hood, and after you shut the car down the same buzzing sound occurs. This is a pump in the "brake actuator" (aka "ABS actuator") assembly. What it does is pressurize the brake system - I'm told that it does so with pressurized nitrogen, but I don't know that for sure.

    Not too long ago, my HH started having the "barking seal" sound whenever the brake pedal was depressed. Research revealed that this is due to tiny bubbles forming in the brake fluid as it passes through a valve. The severity of the sound is related to atmospheric pressure - higher pressure reduces or eliminates the sound, lower pressure increases it. HH owners who have driven between coastal and mountain areas report that the sound increases in the mountains and decreases or goes away near the ocean, so this fits. I, on the other hand, haven't changed location at all, and over the past months the sound has gotten worse.

    About the same time this started happening, I noticed that the brake actuator started running more than once after I shut off the car. Now, within the past few days, it is running nearly constantly; that is, it runs for a few seconds, stops, then restarts over and over. This results in the 12v battery being drained. Usually I have to jump-start the car, but sometimes if it hasn't been sitting for very long I can make a starting attempt, remove the key, wait a while and try again, and the car will sometimes get enough charge back to get a "READY" light. Once that happens it's good, but it doesn't happen all the time. Other times I get nothing at all; others I get "Check VSC" or "Shift to P", and occasionally I get all sorts of blinking lights on the dash, and today I saw the speedometer register 105MPH while in park with the engine still not running!

    Since it is a known issue with the HH that sitting for any length of time could result in a dead 12v battery, I think this problem with the brake actuator could be a significant factor to the issue. There is no way to prevent the brake actuator from running even with the system off and the key out, short of pulling the fuse (which is difficult given where the fuse is). Plus, I believe this problem is much more prevalent in the HH that it may seem at first. Here's why:

    Doing a little more research, I found that either the brake actuator itself or a brake line near it is prone to leaking in the HH (and Prius and Camry Hybrid and possibly others), due to design and/or manufacturing flaws. This results in a reduced pressure in the brake system, which in turn results in the brake actuator having to run more and more just to keep the pressure up. This problem with the reduced pressure may also explain why I'm now experiencing the "barking seal" problem even though nothing else has changed. The ultimate end to this problem is a complete loss of brake pressure and/or failure of the brake actuator, problems that are critical safety hazards. This problem has resulted in numerous documented reports with the NHTSA, including several crashes with serious injuries (no deaths yet that I'm aware of, thank goodness).

    Toyota, though, has yet to issue a recall for this problem. They have issued a so-called "warranty enhancement" numbered ZG1 for the HH and Prius to cover replacement of a faulty brake actuator, which they are very careful to label as "NOT a recall." However, they will replace the brake actuator ONLY under very specific conditions, namely if an internal failure of the brake actuator results in the on-dash display of one or more of 5 indicator lights (Master error, Brake, ABS, Electronic Braking, and/or Skid). Unfortunately, they will not replace the actuator (a $2000 part and a $1200 labor charge) unless those lights come on as a result of the internal problem. Also unfortunately, they are careful to say that those lights can come on for other unrelated reasons, giving them an out to deny the replacement (and charge you for the diagnostic). The concern here is that since the brake actuator fails because of another problem with the brake system, delaying replacement until it fails increases the chances of a catastrophic failure while in use (meaning while someone is driving in traffic). This is a serious safety issue that Toyota doesn't seem to be taking seriously.

    The NHTSA is already aware of the problem. I have written my congressman about it to see if he can jostle any of the right people in Washington to force a recall. But it would be telling to see how many other people here who are experiencing a 12v battery failure on the HH have noticed an increase in the operation of the brake actuator pump while the car is off. And of those, how many also have the "barking seal" problem with their brakes.

    Incidentally, because of the pressurized system, replacing the brake actuator is not something the home mechanic can do, even if they could get the part. Even on eBay, the part is still very expensive new. I have seen used ones on eBay, but given the nature and likely prevalence of the problem, I would be very hesitant to put a used actuator in my car for fear of it already having the problem.
  • Mr_ShiftrightMr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481
    Seems to me, especially on a vehicle this old, that you'd want to get the brake problem fixed regardless, and work out possible future re-imbursements with Toyota, should things go your way in the future. Even if you unfortunately had to eat this repair, your vehicle has given you 190K+ miles, so you're still way ahead of the game here IMO. And who knows? Toyota might spring for re-imbursement in the future. This has certainly happened before with other automakers, who retroactively decide to help customers.

    I just can't see the wisdom of waiting for complete brake failure in order to take advantage of the (possible) warranty coverage.
  • PF_FlyerPF_Flyer Member Posts: 9,372
    And if you wait for complete failure, that failure might come at a time that would have not-so-good consequences.
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