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Toyota Sienna Maintenance and Repair (2004+)
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My dilemma: I can get a brand new sensor for $130 from my autobody guy, but I'm not sure if replacing the sensor will fix the problem. My Toyota dealer wants to charge me $130 just to look at it.
Question: Is there a software program on the Sienna that needs to be reset when the sensor is bumped? Would clearing this program reset the sensor and negate the need for a new sensor? Is there a sure way to test whether the sensor is damaged and needs to be replaced without having to purchase a new sensor and without having to pay my local Toyota dealer $130 just to tell me I need a new sensor and an additional $130 to replace it?
Any help would be most appreciated.
Because the nuts broke off, I'm suspicious. You say you changed a flat 10mo ago. Did you have a problem with vibration as you drove? I'm thinking if you under-tightened the bolts that might have been obvious before they let go. If on the other hand you overtightened them, then I could see them failing in a different way.
My gut feeling is one or more bolts were under-torqued, since I think it would be much easier to under-tighten them, than it would be to over-torque them to the point that they fail for material stress reasons, but I don't know you or the tool used to change the tire. When it/they failed, perhaps you had a chain of events that took the others out very rapidly as you were turning.
Examining the hub and the lug nut assembly, I suppose the root cause could be independantly determined without too much trouble.
Incidentally, my wife and I are looking for a minivan replacement for our 2004 Honda CR-V. We're leaning more towards the Sienna, but have looked at the Odyssey, but are concerned with many complaints we have read about the Odyssey.
I also have a small vibration in the wheel at 65mph. The dealer rebalanced the wheels but its still there
I had been a Chrysler owner for the past 15 years...now I'm sorry I switched.
By the way...I am experiencing the same lack of cool temperature with my sienna. I plan to get that looked at this week. Let me know how you made out with yours.
this might suggest that the accelerator assembly has too much mechanical compliance and unless applying force in a different manner, a range of motion results in negligable change in accelerator / throttle demand...
if your more of a toe-tip driver, try moving your heel closer to the accelerator so more of your foot is in contact with the pedal and see if that helps.
Has anyone had a similar experience with their rims ? Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks
I have a 2000 T&C Ltd AWD with 100k+ that had some problem with the corrosion that created slow leak at around 80k. The leak on one wheel was excessive such that I had to unmount, clean and recoat the rim to correct the problem. The other wheels were working fine by using the bid sealer.
I am wondering if anyone with 2004 Sienna XLE FWD experienced the same problem.
I have no suggestion at this point since I did not do anything to solve the problem but I will report this problem during the lemon hearing set in September.
I never used cleaning chemicals of any kind on my rims. The dealer told me it was caused by brake dust. You would thing that they would take into consideration when manufacturing the rim that it would come in contact with brake dust. I don't think that it will cause a leak, but it sure looks ugly when the finish flakes off.
How's your gas mileage on your 2004 Sienna XLE AWD ?
I'm not happy with my gas mileage. I've only once gotten to 20 mpg on the highway.
I am wondering if the uneven wear on the RFT and the resulting extra vibration/stress on the rim created unusual amount of fatigue on the protective coating. This is a wild guess but mechanically possible.
this has supposidly helped several people: place your foot next to the accelerator pedal such that more of your foot is now in contact with the pedal... specially if you were more of a toe-tip driver, or sit very far away, or angle your leg/foot. (i'm not sure about this, does your toyota have adjustable pedals - if so try adjusting their position).
anyway, it looks like some people experiencing hesitation have an issue with the accelerator pedal itself having too much compliance and not registering change in demand on the low-end of travel, depending upon how it is depressed with the foot.
if this substantially improves the operability of the vehicle, if it were me, i'd probably request the service department replace the pedal assembly (pedal and sensor).
sit in the passenger seat. She said it was considerably quieter. The wind noise seems to be emanating not from the driver's door window but from the weather stripping between the driver's door and sliding side door. I took it back to the dealership but
they denied there was any problem. My service advisor actually attempted to tell me
that the wind noise is a result of the shape of the minivan. "You're driving a box" is how he put it. He also incorrectly deduced that because I had taken out all the back seats
I had decreased the vehicle's sound absorption capability. Wrong! The noise was the same when all the seats were installed. What made me more suspicious of the service
department was when they also dismissed the vehicle's hesitation problems. "The vehicle actually learns from how you drive it." So when is the vehicle going to learn not to hesitate when the accelerator is pressed? (By the way, thank you to the forum member who posted the advice about the accelerator assembly and sensor replacement.) This dealership even denied that the parking brake needed adjustment. Bottom line. Some dealerships just do not want to deal with warranty issues. Meanwhile all my so called "phantom" problems still persist and I have less than 5,400 miles on the Sienna. I am taking it back one more time and if they still deny these problems I am contacting Toyota and heading for another dealership.
Our check engine light came on while on vacation one day when we first started it up. We have since driven 1500 miles, and it is still on, but there are no noticable symptoms. The light did stay off two times when we first started it up, but came on later. My mechanic said it was a PO771 code, which is the transmission solenoid. The van accelerates fine, shifts gears smoothly, shifts at approriate RPMs, shifts up and down OK, and has no issues that i can tell.
Any danger to letting this go if it turns out to be an expensive repair? I'd hate to start having things changed that maybe won't fix it, when it runs fine. I don't want to lead to a costlier repair either though. At first I was hoping it was just a sensor.
It has 98K miles on it, and I changed the transmission fluid once at around 60K.
Thanks,
Tom
I am well aware of the Honday's weak automatic transmission (some manuals, even) and AC (on both of my parents Accords). It is really the service that differentiates the good from the bad. I can live with an ok car if the service is there to back it up. Sometimes I *almost* wish Lexus sold a minivan. I'd pay a premium for their service.
i've tried googling the specific error code, but don't get too much additional information. perhaps asking a transmission shop or perhaps independant repair shop (specializing in Hondas and Accuras) could be consulted.
In early June, the car would not start in a plaza and had to be towed to the dealership. The dealer ran some tests and informed us that the fuel pump and assembly had failed which was replaced under the warranty. The van was at the dealership for over a week because parts had to be ordered in and where on backorder.
Fast forward (July 3rd) - at this point the van had only done an additional 500 miles and would not start in a plaza once again. The van was towed to the dealership and the dealer has been trying to diagnose the problem but has not been able to. Changed the onboard computer, immobilizer, and a lot of other parts but the van still won't start. They mentioned to us that they had never had a problem like this before.
The Customer Service at Toyota Canada has been most unhelpful. Today, the van has been towed from the dealership to the Toyota Head Office in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Wondering if any of you Sienna owners has had these problems and if so what is your recourse. At this point, Toyota is refusing to buy back the van and replace it. Its to a point where it is totally unsafe to drive this vehicle. Even the dealership agrees that they should do the right thing and replace this van. The van has not even gone in for its first oil change.
Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
This is my first Toyota after having Chyslers, Dodge, Nissan, Honda and Fords which incidentally never gave me any problems.
Thanks,
An unhappy Toyota owner.
Driver side air conditioning vents (left center vent and driver's side door vent(near the door) only) have intermittently been delivering non-cooled air. Passenger right-center vent and passenger side door vent and rear A/C are all normal. We thought it was permanently non-functioning, but we found out when we went to the dealer, that it was intermittent (they did not see the problem until I made them run the engine for a while and then it was more apparrent.) A Toyota factor rep was conviently present at the time I picked up the car, and he could not find any record/report of this type of problem. The dealer talked about leaving the car, removing the dash so the tech could drive it home and then back the next day to re-create the problem and see what is not working. He also said that the interior would probably have more creaks after replacing the dash.
My guess is that the method used for mixing hot and cool air to regulate temperature is going into fail mode - sensors, vacuum or electric actuators to control doors for mixing, etc. Does anyone have any similar experiences or can direct me to a place where I can see the mechanics of the temperature control and heat/cool mixing? If I know how the system is supposed to work , I can probably figure out what is wrong.
We actually switched vans at the last minute when purchasing it, because the van we were going to buy had this problem on our final test drive (it was raining then, too). So, that makes two vehicles with the same problem.
Has anyone else heard of or seen this problem?
The only ones that we didn't see much of a difference was on the black and white vehicles. And I say vehicles because it wasn't only the vans that had bumpers that didn't quite match. Did anyone else notice this on their van? Have I just never noticed that body color bumpers just meant "close enough". :confuse:
Went to Honda dealer first didn't notice on the Odyssey but will definetly be checking when we return.
Consider this: The amount spent to repair a car that determines whether they have to divulge it is the dealer's COST, not market value, and HE determines the worth, often being able to hide or otherwise not include costs such as labor. AND... they don't have to include any work that might have been done by anyone else prior to their recieving it.
Lets say there was a Chevy dealer in Chantilly, Virginia, say.. Pohanka Chevy, and lets say they were trying to sell a white Chevy S10 truck with 6000 miles on it as a "new Demo". Lets also say that it was wrecked to the tune of a new cargo box, rear bumper, tailgate, right door and fender, but the parts were bought used and wholesale and the work done by salaried bodymen. Lets also say that it was not previously sold but leased to a company who's drunk employee wrecked it so it was never really titled to anyone. Would it still OK to call it a "new demo" and not report but in fact deny that it had had work done to it?
It seems to appear whenever the AC is set to MAX and the vehicle is not moving for a while. It goes away once the vehicle is turned off and on again immediately. I had to wait until it appeared and then without turning the vehicle off, took it to the dealer. They switched radios and everything looked good... Until today. It reappeared in the new radio which is hardly 2 weeks old. I'm gonna have to try and replicate the issue and take it to the dealer again. Sure it would happen again. Sucks. Would this qualify under the "lemon law" if it happens 3 times in a year?
I switched from Honda to Toyota and have had nothing but problems.
Dan
I have reported the incident to NHSTA, but my report doesn't show up on their website. I have talked to a NHSTA safety engineer who stated they have received other similar complaints, but he would not divulge how many, when or if they were all Siennas.
Toyota denies this have ever happened before and the local dealership is now antagonistic towards me.
What was your experience? Has this happened to anyone else out there? Has anyone ever noticed their remote opening anyone else's hatch (I haven't).
Thanks
it sounds like perhaps there is inadequate handling of the condensate from the evap coil. do you have an issue with the passenger or footwell being damp?
if so i'd say maybe the condensate isn't collecting in the pan and exiting via the drain tube.
another possibility is there is some poorly fitting duct work between the evaporator and the vent and the fan is pushing very moist air onto the radio.
this I could see causing the radio to shutdown as a self-preservation tactic. water/moisture and electronics don't mix.
maybe the dealer should try looking for a poorly connected vent, then perhaps placing a shield of some form behind the radio such that condensate when the AC is running hard doesn't hit the radio.
I thought that mine was a freak incident, but after the second occurrence and the posting of a fellow member, I'm not sure what it is. I'll leave it to Toyota (or enlightened posters) to figure it out as I neither have the inclination or the skill to fathom the cause.
if you have a condensation issue, it's probable that traces (fine layers of conductive material) or component pins/leads on the motherboard of the radio will short together, and it's then probable that the central processing unit (CPU) will go to some odd-state, and in a means to protect itself, go into a power-safe state and shutdown the amplifier and tuning sections, and gosh knows what else.
so much is computerized these days. that said, if you had a very old analog radio, condensation would probably short something, and perhaps draw a lot of current, but with the circuits all powered up - cause a little heating in the way of a fire. nice huh?
a restart of the vehicle - much like CTRL-ALT-DELETE (or the "three finger salute" is akin to cycling power. most CPUs (central processing units), otherwise called MPUs (multiprocessor units) will sense the power cycle and boot-up or re-initialize themselves to a good state (one where things work again).
i know it seems crazy but it fits the observations. the toyota engineer was on the right track i believe, but didn't test the theory.
one way to test it, is to physically remove the radio from the dash, but leave everything connected. i wager the radio when turned on keeps working and working and working when moved from it's close proximity to the A/C / Fan / VENT.
OK - that experiment is a bit hard on ya right? here's an even harder one if you are in a hot / humid climate. run your radio for a few weeks but leave the A/C off. Does it continue to work as designed? If so, what changed? :surprise:
"Nonconformity."
A defect or condition which substantially impairs the use, value or safety of a new motor vehicle and does not conform to the manufacturer's express warranty.
I guess radio not working can be construed as impairing the value of the vehicle, but I'm jumping the gun here. Let's see what my Toyota dealership says about this issue.
Thanks
Dan
I had a similar problem with the automatic rear hatch on my 2004 Ltd AWD and received a service few months back. The door stayed up ok but was not opening up all the way in cold weather and the safety (reversing) system was not working at times. The system needed a major resistance to create the reversing too.
I also experienced the kind of pinch you illustrate. I thought that the reversing mechanism will kick in if I block the move, while picking up a stuff after initiating the closure, but it was not.
After the service, it seems working fine.
The safety system for the automatic doors, however, seems not designed for young kids or babies. We are extra careful to make sure that our 4 year old twins clear the area around the automatic doors (in & out).
I will be having an independent automotive engineer evaluate my vehicle, it would be nice to know how other failures occurred.
We have friends who are very wary of the power doors with small kids, but we don't know too many with power hatches.
Hey, there's noone else responding to your request for help, so I thought I'd wag a possibility. It is only a possibility to help you locate the root cause. I know free advice from a forum like this. Go figure.
However - I've provided two ways you can test my theory. The first was to pull the radio and leave it out of the dash. Cosmetically and theft non-centric I agree. The second was to try to survive the heat wave and avoid using the A/C. If the radio keeps working for a month with no issues, well that's a good sign you've determined a causal connection. It doesn't rule something else out, but its a good piece of information to have which currently you do not.
If the radio dies without the use of A/C, i'd be inclined to think the voltage regulation from your alternator isn't very good, and sometimes you are exceeding rated output; radios will also shutdown when provided a voltage supply that strays pretty far from nominal.
Sincerely, besides the fact I am an EE - I have seen moisture cause problems like this with computer systems over the past 2.5 decades.
But I had another reason motivating my post - first-hand experience.
I've actually witnessed what can happen with a clogged evaporator pan drain in a Honda Accord which I owned. When the level of the water topped the pan, the fan blew enough water droplets that they hit the radio, and yeah, the radio would go out. Happened 3 times in 3 days before I got the pan drain unclogged. Each time, restarting the car temporarily reset the radio until the next blast of water vapor. See, the pan would empty into the passenger footwell on hard left turns.
I am lucky the radio didn't permanently die, huh?
I'm glad you prefer and trust in the Toyota mechanic's explaination.
If he / she replaces your radio a second time and if it does it again, perhaps you'll try the theory for the heck of it.