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Toyota Sienna Maintenance and Repair (2004+)
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very interesting the two of you have the same issue.
hmmm.
ask the dealer to put some form of plastic barrier around the radio in the area where it could be getting condensation from the A/C.
if there is two of you with this problem, there are probably more out there. THAT'S GOOD!
did you report this to toyota? wierd is right.
oh wait - maybe it's just cold air in close proximity to the radio. maybe there is some very sensitive traces to the LCD display that when hit with cold air cause it to stop working.
you two need to exchange information so your dealer's techs can talk.
user777...you may be on to something...I don't own a Sienna, but I remember reading that cold can effect the display on the NAV in my new Camry Hybrid...don't have the manual in front of me...hmmm..
I also seem to remember an electronic product I once had with a LCD screen that "went goofy" in temperature extremes, it worked fine, just couldn't read the LCD...
I am not sure what my lawyer obtained or if she really asked about the records but I have a copy of my letter that clearly says problems with the safety (reversing) system. I am sure that they did something to correct the problem since the system became very sensitive after the service. I did not file an incident report with NHSTA.
if the vent duct work runs in close proximity to the radio, or is otherwise situated close to a vent, maybe there is an issue there... my guess would be that there is a poor solder joint or broken trace on the circuit board of the unit, maybe even a poorly manufactured component, and in temperature extremes, there is some change in electrical continuity somewhere as a result of expansion / contraction.
i would think the radio design was tested to run to a range of environmental extremes (sub-freezing to 130F or more), because let's face it, we have to have our tunes or NPR :shades: when we are stressing our bodies to get to work, or get home to the little ones. :surprise: i mean to say, any temperature sensitivity to A/C - well that is a sign of a defective unit because A/C gets cold to what 40F or so? that shouldn't be a big deal for any of the audio's electronics.
it's possible the manufacturer (toyota doesn't make radios that i know of) has a bad batch of units.
which lends credability to the "radio in-op" report. but my problem is this, if cycling power soon after the event where the radio goes inop, i wouldn't see how that would bring the unit back to operation, unless cycling power happened sometime after the unit got back to a more moderate temperature.
i'm sorry with the theorizing. is it just the display that goes bonkers but the audio keeps playing? when this happens, can you select another preset and the radio goes there, you just can't see the display?
Please forward your whatever information you have available to: Ajit.Alkondon@nhtsa.dot.gov
It seems that everytime I remove a CD from an in-dash CD player, the CD is quite warm to the touch. Perhaps the radios in question are getting too hot? But then, the "reboot" wouldn't solve this...I dunno..probably your bad solder joint is more likely.
Any feedback is appreciated.
The government has opened an investigation of 2004-2005 Toyota Sienna minivans after receiving complaints that the liftgate had failed, causing the hatchback door to close on motorists.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a notice dated Aug. 2 that it has received eight complaints and four reports of injuries involving the liftgate unexpectedly closing on a person’s head or body.
The investigation involves 393,313 Sienna minivans from the 2004-05 model years.
In March 2004, Toyota issued a technical service bulletin to owners of the 2004 Sienna saying that the liftgate struts had been redesigned to help prevent seal damage and gas leakage.
Toyota spokeswoman Ming-Jou Chen said Monday that the automaker was cooperating in the investigation but it was too early to know if the problems were linked to the issues that led to the service bulletin.
Some investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lead to vehicle recalls.
I hope this is made public before anyone else suffers from injuries. Toyota's local reps and the dealer have denied that anyone (other than me) has reported a problem.
Our cursory evaluations to date show it fails to stay open 100% and inconsistently attempts to re-open when it encounters an obstraction. So there are really two malfunctions here:
1) Closing on its own,
2) Failure to sense/reverse when an obstraction is encountered.
I have also had the transmission problem where the van lurches ahead when accelerating from a slow (5-10 mph) speed. I was again given the routine about the van 'learning' how you drive.
I am struck by the uniformity of nonsense offered as 'reasons' for their defects.
If you can find a solution, I would VERY MUCH like to know what it was.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060807/NEWS99/60807011
for information on:
"...an investigation of 2004-2005 Toyota Sienna minivans after receiving complaints that the liftgate had failed, causing the hatchback door to close on motorists.
"
35 to 45 miles per hour. It is especially pronounced when going up hill. It is a single
knock that is occurs when pushing on the accelerator. The knock can be felt in the steering wheel as well as in the accelerator pedal. But the knock is also felt when the
vehicle down shifts so I am betting the problem is in the transmission and not in the steering column or front end. Let's see if the Toyota dealer dismisses this new problem
as a phantom like my transmission slipping that he diagnosed as "normal".
I'm sure its a mechanical or linkage thing and am hoping its an easy fix that I can do myself. Although it is under warranty, taking it in for a simple thing is a pain.
Have any of you had this problem and found it to be easy to fix?
It is a manual door on the driver side.
Yes, sounds like its hitting metal and couldn't get the door open fully.
One thing I notice is it only happenes when the car is not running. (no key inserted)
I parked my car in the garage and sometime I need to put thing inside the van and that's how I found out the problem.
Thanks.
We loaded the family into the van to run errands and started to back down the driveway into the street. Our driveway is sloped down to the street, so I usually start the engine, put it in neutral and let gravity slowly roll it back into the street (it is not a busy street). It had rolled backwards about 10 feet, usually where the antilock brakes do the quick adjustment, when suddenly it felt like we hit something and the vehicle slowed (yes, even in neutral). It did slowly roll out into the street, but that's when I noticed that the engine was dead. I cranked the engine three times, but it would not start. My wife and I did our best to push it back into the drive. I continued to try to start it, but no luck -- it just would not fire. We checked under the hood, and, well, with our limited automotive knowledge, we could tell that the engine was still there anyway. Took the keys out of the ignition, unloaded the family and hung out for a while -- fortunately we were not in any hurry. About 5 minutes later, I jumped back in the van, put the key back in the ignition and it started right up as if nothing had happened.
The only thing I could possibly think of is that the sensor for the engine immobilizer that detects the engine key malfunctioned temporarily. I'm interested to hear if anyone else has ever experienced a problem like this, or if there could be other possible causes. If it happens again, I'll check the security light on the dash to see if it is blinking, which would suggest that the immobilizer has been activated even with the key in the ignition. I didn't think about checking that until long after the problem occurred. I'll post an update if I am able to recreate the problem.
Just a thought
Again, thanks for the idea!
Insofar as refusing to "fire" afterward I could see the episode resulting in one very confusing group of ECUs.
You also said something about the "happening" being at about the ABS where you are used to having the ABS do its checking.
I don't think that is a normal action of the ABS. But then the vehicle rolling backwards in neutral with the engine running is clearly outside the design envelope for the firmware specifications of any of the controlling ECUs.
Huh? I do this all the time with several different vehicles with no problems. Or did you mean to say "inside" instead of "outside"?
If anyone wonders why we'd do a neutral rollback, it is actually because the reverse on the vehicle (especially when the engine is cold and has high RPM) combined with the grade of our driveway gives us a little too much backwards force. We have small kids in the neighborhood that use our sidewalk and they could be hidden behind the van, so we prefer a more gradual backup in case we need to stop quickly.
Also, I do not experience the knock when accelerating from a dead
stop. It happens at between 35 and 45 MPH and in 3rd or 4th
gear.
The van has 50 miles on it, could it be because of new engine?
When I slow down to 55 or 50 miles the noise goes away. Has anyone experienced this?
:confuse:
So he bought a new left side headlight unit ($357.00) and he installed it.
However I now find that the fog light on the left side doesn't work and worse the new headlight unit does not shine as far up the road as the right side unit, and in fact on dim it shines bright on the highway about 20 feet ahead and is not much different on high beam.
I took it to the dealer and had the 18000 klm checkup and asked him to have someone re-aim the unit. I picked the van up later and the service mgr. was still as harried as he was when I brought the car in. There was nothing on my bill to show that the aiming problem had been addressed.
I asked him about that and he said it was all right. I don't think anyone looked at it at all.
They were very busy and I can appreciate the problem as it is a brand new building and has more employees working.
What should I do? Take it to another dealer. There is another one 40 klms to the west. I really like the Service Mgr. and know he is doing all he can and I don't want to give him anymore problems :confuse:
I took it to the dealer and the mechanic took the test drive with me, as soon as he shifted the gear to “ D” not “4” were I kept and was driving like that causing the rpm to hit 2500 and was not shifting to overdrive gear, hence constant hum.
Thank god for that, now I am worried that I drove 100 miles that at 50/55 miles per hour (city driving) hopefully did not cause any damage to the gears and anything like that.
Toyota is supposed to be better than American cars, not equivalent to them...perhaps my minivan was made in an American plant (I think most of them are now anyway?)
Thanks
I have owned other toyota's (sedans mostly.. camry/lexus) and found them to have a feature to prevent rollback. that is even if I released the brake when Idle( while in Drive(D))the car didnt back, someting prevent it from doing that.
Has anyone else noticed this , or does anyone else have this problem? or is htis normal for a Sienna?
I am interested to know if you have any resolution. I have a 2005 Sienna XLE AWD. At about 15,000 miles, I noted corrossion on all four wheels. The dealer claims they spoke to the zone representative, who told them if I purchase two rims at $904 plus tax, they will "give" me the other two. I am unwilling to do this on a van that was under 1 1/2 years old, went through only one winter, and cost over $35k. When I called the customer service line, they said they stand by the zone rep. I am going to continue to pursue, especially since I now see I am not alone. This is definitely a manufacturing defect in my mind - too little paint along the edge where the corrossion starts and then spreads outward. Now I know it is something Toyota has known about for two model years. It should be covered under the terms of the warranty. There are a couple of folks I have seen on the web where the dealer replaced all four of their rims. Don't know why they don't have a standard practice and desire to maintain customer loyalty. This is my first Toyota, and might be my last.
thanks. :confuse:
Highlander, camry, sienna, Element....
Input anyone?
I did not follow up the issue yet even if the problem was informed to the Toyota service in April 2006. The Toyota service who was working on the problem supposed to get a call back from Toyota Tech Support, according to the invoice dated 4/18/06, but I did not receive any calls from either of them. Mine mostly have the bubbling or peeling at the boundaries of the inside holes (close to the outer rim). I will be concerned more if it peels off at the rim near the tire since it will eventually develop slow leak once the corrosion spread into the mating surface (I had the corrosion problem with my Town & Country after years of usage at about 70k miles). I also think that the corrosion problem at 20k miles is not acceptable. The wheel should be covered by Toyota's basic warranty since it is not a normal wear item that they exclude. It supposed to be a life time part. If I have to keep this vehicle for long and if Toyota does not provide a solution on this problem then I may have to clean and repaint the area to stop the spreading.
The upper range sienna (Limited)with adaptive cruise control will also apply the brakes in an emergency situation such as when the driver is nodding off and a vehicle slows ahead of them.
thank you all for discussion
Unfortunately, I don't remember if I was driving with the cruise on. I do know that I was using the brakes, so I would guess that would disengage the cruise. Maybe it's a combination of braking downhill with the cruise intially set that starts the downshifting?
Don't know what to tell you.