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Comments
Also, the Mid Atlantic is fairly flat, not many large hills around here.
You only got 20k out of the Dunlops? Mine are at 30k and also plenty of life left. More than half the tread is left.
I am in Mid-Atlantic too, but in western PA, which is not exactly a mountainous region, yet anything but flat.
To be more precise, 19k on Dunlops. Maybe tire and brake pad wear go in sync, and increase dramatically for Sienna with even slight hints of city/hilly traffic component. Some people say this is true for all minivans, but Sienna owners complain, apparently, much more often.
I put that so I'd get the brazilian flag, but then Edmunds did away with that feature.
Too bad.
You couldn't tell if it was a Sienna or a camper!
I thought my neighbor's Escort was his Benz ML320! :surprise:
Two weeks after buying it, the trunk door stopped operating. It now opens and closes at will.
It is completely misaligned, the door's remote controlled electronics are screwed up and we have to manually force it down to close shut and stay shut.
On top of that, the dealership claims WE "bent" it (there are no dents or dings anywhere btw, and we are lost as to how it got "bent"... maybe we took a sledgehammer to the door joints??).
What next... the passenger seats start sliding at will and the seatbelts start popping out?
This car is a danger.
Of course, Toyota refuses to fix the problem... on a brand new less than 14 day old car (with additional 7 year extended warranty above and beyond the regular warranty).
What's the point of paying close to 40 grand? You get to be the biggest fool you'll ever know.
Trust Toyota - never again.
Note: (This car was purchased in July 2010 from a dealership in MD. The owner lives in NJ and his local area NJ dealership has refused to even consider that the car's mechanism is faulty).
Wonder if he really got ALL the air out? I'd be tempted to use blue fluid to see when it really got cleared out.
There are some creaking noises (from brakes) that are quite annoying.
The creaking noise appears when I release the break pedal slowly. the noise comes from front wheels.
This happens when I back the Van from Full stop, or when I go forward after a full stop.
Any ideas about it?
https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov
Good Luck and I hope the government look into the issue
My van needs new timing belts (last replaced at 102K), new shocks/struts (never been replaced). The dealer recommend to do valve adjustments but I don't trust them after the poor brake job. Overall, the van is great condition but should I trade it in or should I keep it till 300K. :confuse:
Just avoid the pads that have a "lifetime" warranty.
I brought my 2011 Sienna in for its 1st service after purchase (3500 miles) and at the same time they did the recall replacement of the stop lamp switch bracket. Prior to this my car was running great - no issues at all. As I left the dealership, I noticed the brake pedal felt hard, like a rock with no give or squishiness – like stepping on a rock – and when I did press down on the brake pedal, it was very sensitive and stopped abruptly. This is an issue I never had before, prior to bringing it in for service. At the time, I didn't think it was an issue that maybe it was part of the recall work that had just been done, that they replaced the brake pedal. After about 1 mile, lots of warning lights (including the ABS light) went on and it was very hard to drive & control the car. At that point, I turned around and headed back to the dealership; it was very hard to drive & control the car safely – when I pressed the gas pedal, it was like driving with brakes on, there was lots of resistance & there was a burning rubber smell, when I took my foot off the gas pedal – my car would not glide, but came to an abrupt stop. It was hard to pick up speed & stopping the car became unpredictable. Brake pedal was still hard, with no give. So scary, with my baby in the car! I was so lucky that I didn't get in an accident - I was trying to navigate through a busy intersection during rush hour traffic and there was no place to pull off!!!!
The dealership still has my car after 4 days, they told me it might be a faulty recall part (the switch bracket). Toyota opened a case to investigate this matter and a Toyota engineer is checking out my car this week. Not sure if a new switch bracket will fix the issue - if not, next time I may not be so lucky. It seems this is a serious problem that's been happenning to lots of people - I wonder how many others there are that haven't spoken up? I decided to join this chat forum just to get the word out there to other people. I hope others do the same! It's only a matter of time until a real tragedy happens...after all, these are family cars.
Sounds as if the brake light switch is always closed and with the new brake override firmware fix that will disable the DBW throttle system.
If, as I suspect, you were driving around with your brake lights always on ABS "armed"), then an ABS fault would undoubtedly eventually arise.
Please keep us all posted!! Thanks again!
Nowadays they get paid a set number of hours for each type of job they do, so they rush in order to get paid more.
The first time they do any given task, though, it simply takes longer. He (she?) probably rushed to compensate for that.
Automakers should provide better training so they're efficient even the first time they do any given task...
Maybe the brake pedal was mechanically trapped, brakes were "applied", but the brake lite switch was not "on".
Recall work was done by a McD flipper graduate or owner's teenage son....or both..??
I realize this is an old post, but I just started having the same problem with my 99 sienna... thumping/clicking sound from rear when I brake. Just wondering if you ever figured out what the problem was? Van brakes fine, just noisy.
Thanks
Patti
Good luck!!
Sue
After bleed break fluid (I will check rear soon) I retested the break. the full range is about 3.75inches thus too long to use it w/o moving my foot. At 1st one inch I can stop an sliding car at idle speed; 2nd one inch I can hear air push sound; at third one inch the air push sound is obvious; the last 0.75inch needs large force or raise my foot.
Compared with GS300, 1st one inch is nothing, but then nice sensitive and I usually needs 1.5inch for noticeable speed down at 40-50MPH.
I posted my problem in another forum and a few replies either says one has similar hit accident or this is a well known Toyota 'feature'.
I got the van to my local mechanic and he confirmed that the rotor was toast, pads non existent and caliper had seized. He replaced the brake pads on the rear tires and put new rotors on both. We opted, due to cost, to replace only the right-rear caliper. He thought we'd be good.
Three weeks later my wife calls me that the hot brake smell was in the air again. This time it was prevalent from the left-rear tire. I was back at the shop once again with a seized caliper, but now on the left. This one was caught plenty early and everything checked out OK, but the caliper was replaced.
Is 42,000 miles too early for this type of work? The van has only lived in Southern Maryland and Virginia. It did haul a UHaul trailer almost nearly one year prior when we moved from Maryland to Virginia. It hasn't hauled anything since then.
I called a Toyota consumer line and they pulled up my information. They said there was nothing that could be done for us and it was just generalized as "wear and tear". I don't know about you, but I have owned many vehicles in my life and haven't seen such a wholesale failure of all the replaceable components like that. It was like they were on a timer.
We are also dealing with sliding door issues, which I understand there may be coverage for at a dealer.
Anything similar out there?
1) Inspect the sliders, pins & boots for signs of corrosion or lack of proper lubricants. This would impede the release of the brakes. That would (possibly) indicate an original factory assembly issue.
2) Check the fit of the brake pads in the carrier for the same thing. If they fit too tight, they won't retract well. Ever have the rears serviced prior to this?
3) Does the piston move within the caliper easily? Pull the piston out of the caliper and check the inside for rust. That would indicate contaminated fluid. Given what happened, make sure your mechanic thoroughly flushed the entire system.
4) I once owned a Corolla that did this to the fronts. The new caliper seized up too within a week. It turned out to be bad rubber hoses that collapsed on retraction, trapping fluid pressure on the caliper.
5) Remote possibility, but it could be a master cylinder, ABS or proportioning system issue that is trapping pressure and causing the rears to drag.
No boat ramps or immersion of the rears in standing water?
I'm sure there are other possibilities, but that's what comes to mind!
The mechanic said last night that though it was unusual for calipers to fail this early, it wasn't as uncommon as I'd think. He wishes he had replaced both calipers three weeks ago and not just the one.
1) He made no note of any corrosion.
2) The brakes have never had to be serviced in our 42,000 miles. I was tracking pad wear for an upcoming replacement, having had our tires replaced last May. When I'd go in for the free rotations, we were monitoring brake pads. I knew pads would need replacing in the next 10k miles.
3) When the van was in the for the first failure (right side), the mechanic checked out the left side caliper and reported all pistons were working well. I neglected to say that during that first job, he flushed the brake fluid and filled with new, mostly due to the heat that generated during that 3 hour drive.
4) There was no discussion of hoses being checked. Unsure.
5) Mechanic spoke of this, but also said words similar to it being a very remote possibility.
In the end he feels now that we have replaced all parts in pairs, we should be good to go. He kicked himself for not insisting we change out the left caliper at the time. But he felt for us and the bigger bill we were paying with having to change out everything at that time.
No standing water or boat hauling. Just the one UHaul trailer for our move to Virginia from Maryland in January 2012. The mechanic had seen our trailer hook and questioned me on hauling as well.
At this point you write it off to a random freak run of brake components bearing an original equipment defect with unusually precise timing. Maybe you should play the lottery this week? Hopefully, we'll never hear from you again - and I mean that in a good way!!
I hope it was just a freak coincidence. This van was supposed to be our 200,000 mile vehicle. I had never had seen such a brake failure in any vehicle I have ever owned. I started to doubt my 200,000 mile goal. We'll see what happens now.
Guess I'll be taking some time off of work tomorrow to see if the brake place can give me a caliper check.
They have taken to discussing my outcome and meanwhile the dealership is continuing to make the necessary repairs.