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Comments
As far as brake pedal travel on the 2001 H/L, I agree that the travel is bit more than I care for. I have had the dealership check this item as well as bleed the brakes to insure no air in the lines.
Best regards, Philip
Just 2k miles, noticed this many weeks ago.
Anyone has any suggestion, Thanks
Mine does and has since day 1 both sides front. After 7,000 miles and 4 trips to the dealer they finally found what it was. (what I told them it was at 1000 miles).
The "floating Front pads" on the brakes rattle over bumpy roads. Toyota knows this is an issue since they have a "Fix" for it. Some industrial grease put on the back side of the front brake pads.
They insist this works but in my case it did not cure the problem. It did make it quieter but it still rattles..
The service manager at the dealer said "Its alot better" Ok it was but I dont remember on the window sticker or the salesman telling me "This SUV comes with a bonus, it has a NORMAL build in rattle"
I am not laying down on this one I didn't spend $36,000 for a NEW Highlander which rattles over bumps and sounds like it is 30 years old..
Toytota as of this date says nothing can be done,"Its Normal" well I am not going to accept that..
So now as I have explained my rattle who else has it??
BTW: I live in Fl. I get 19/C and 25/H MPG V-6 2wd
Regular gas.
I also don't like the front suspension "topping" out going over a speed bump
See my msg 7377 on the highlander board
"Has anyone heard a loud clunk come from the front suspension when going over a large speed bump (at 15 mph). I was informed that as the nose of the car is pushed up and the front wheels rebound downwards - the noise is the sound of the front struts extending to their maximum travel and make a loud "clunk".
Sounds pretty horrible. "
I agree - $36,000 is a lot to pay for a rattle and a clunk. My old CRV which cost $22,000 could take the same roads without any brake rattles or suspension clunks going over speed bumps.
Just to pass on my first weeks experiences.
The mirror rattle I referred to earlier - I thought it was the magnetic housing on the mount - well it was actually the mirror. It wasn't installed properly at the port. The securing screw wasn't even tight - the mount was rattling on the dove-tail base. I mounted it securely and tightened the "torks" screw. So far - no more rattles.
The front suspension noise - which happens when the front struts extend to maximum when the front end gets light. I drove another HL from the dealership and the same noise occurred.
I found if I take the bump fast enough - the front body never lifts up - only the wheels move up and down. The noise does not occur. I have to take the speed bump at 35-40 mph and all is well. 5 mph is OK but 10-25 mph causes the loud "thunk" sound.
My first gas fill up at 250 miles averaged 17.8mpg, the second fill up (322 miles) averaged 19.4 but the display read 19.9 mpg (ref: AWD V6 Ltd, mostly commute and a stretch of highway at 85-90 mph).
All I can say - I love the HL. At 85 mph on the freeway - its one of the quietest cars I have been in. The power is good (Still breaking it in - so I am being light footed). The handling is also great - cornering - there is hardly any body roll. Tires are great (Bridgestone HT's).
The only real disappointment is the front strut noise - which should not happen on an SUV of this quality. My CRV never made any noises on the same commute route I have been driving for 8 years
There should be some degree of pad float in the front brakes. What I recall on my Honda CRV - there was a "wish-bone" type spring hooked to the outer and inner pad. This spring allowed the pads to move under the force of the calipers - but didn't allow them to rattle.
Next time you ore out in your highlander - and you can find a stretch of bumps in the road that make the brakes rattle - try driving the same section with light brake pressure applied - you will find the rattle goes away.
Toyota should really fix this problem. It is poor engineering to have the pads rattle like this on a $36,000 vehicle.
When the "I'm about out of gas" light comes on exactly how much gas is left? 1 gallon? more? less? I cannot find the information in the manual!
BTW-thanks to all out there who devote their time to these boards! People helping people...from across the world....now I'm getting all mushy.
Has anyone had the unfortunate experience of running out of gas in a HL, if so how far did you get after the low fuel light came on before running out?
Basically - it is due to the way the glove box is constructed. The outer skin (color matched to to interior) vibrates against the inner box (black tub). I couldn't see any way of separating the two parts without permanently damaging the unit.
The fix I applied - using a self adhesive beige felt pad (my interior is beige) apply it to the frame of the vehicle near the bottom of the glove box on each side of the glove box. The thickness of the pad is about 1/8". I then applied a clear rubber bumper to the black plastic surface of the glove box door (outside the tub on each side. When the door is closed - the clear bumper aligns with the beige felt pad.
You could also just use a thicker felt pad, but using a small bumper on a felt pad provides just enough force to stop the buzz, and not deform the frame too much.
Secondly - You need to check the stopping distance from 60 to 0 for the Highlander compared to other vehicles. I have never heard that the stopping distance is too great or that it is unsafe. The brake pedal has more travel distance than some drivers are used to, but I am not aware that it is a problem. I have an 02 Highlander and am very happy with the way the brakes work.
flowerman, the wind "noise" is actually buffetting and, yes, with only one or both of the back windows down, you will experience an extremely uncomfortable buffetting. Though I personally haven't confirmed it myself, many have stated that this is a common occurance due to the body style, and that a similar effect exists in other SUVs today as well.
Regarding the brake issue, I also have noticed that the system is different than other vehicles I have driven, including our '97 Avalon. Is it dangerous? IMO, not any more so that one having to adjust to a new vehicle. IIRC, and I wish I could recall where I read this, I think I read somewhere that the power assisted braking system on the HL is a "progressive" one, meaning that it applies varying brake pressure dependending upon other factors such as speed, etc. Either way, the only brake issue that was involved in a recall was on the '01 models (such as ours) which required replacing the seal on the master cylinder cap. Now, I highly doubt that Toyota would respond with " they were disign flaws and they could do nothing to remedy the problems". I'm not saying that that's not what was posted, but honesty, do you really believe that ANY manufacturer would make such an admission and not expect to be sued?
"p.s. there were several injuries due to the brake problem from posters. these were all on the 2003 model. "
Really? I didn't read about any injuries on the '03 posts at all. Then again, I only read the summaries.
"the highlander is on the national lemon list."
Please share that site with us. I'm curious.
On a final note, I went thru the NHTSA TSB (2), Recall (1), and Consumer Complaint (25) sections for the '03 Highlander and notice that several in the final group were duplicative, using the exact words for the same complaint. I don't know if this is an issue with the NHTSA data system, or if the complaintant simply made multiple posts, but clearly this would leave one with the impression that there are more complaints than truly exist.
Would I buy another Highlander? Probably not, but only because I want a different type of vehicle the next time around.
Over all the HL is a great car. I suggest you read the discussions on Honda, Nissan etc. and you will see if the HL is for you.
Of all complaints filed to date on the Highlander, for all models years, I found a total of 3 injuries out of a total of 110 complaints for '01 (49), '02 (36), and '03 (25) model years.
One ('02 MY) was for an alleged stuck accellerator, causing the driver to go up a driveway and run into a brick area. A second ('01 MY) was for a airbag deployment failure when they were struck from behind. The third ('01 MY) was for the [wind buffetting] issue we've already discussed.
I guess I'm missing the reference you're citing, because I saw nothing about injuries from failed braking systems, and found NO injuries having to do with '03 models at all.
On the brakes, I don't find that I have to push especially hard, only that there is more of a "mushy" feeling. In reading posts here from long ago, I accepted the explanation that it's because the brakes are controlled by the computer for anti-skid and anti-lock both, therefore accumulators and other plumbing make this system "feel" different than traditional braking systems.
I was able to put in 16.54 gallons into the tank. Doing some simple math here: 19.8 gal tank size, minus the 16.54 gal put in, equals 3.26 gal left in tank at time of fill up, and I figure we use about 1 gal getting home when the warning light came on, so... I figure that I had approx 4.25 +/- when the warning light came on. Now logic tells me that some of that gas will stay in the tank, and if I assume that is 1 gal +/- and we get 25mpg highway in our H/L, I would have approx 80 miles to find a gas station.
Just my 2 cents worth and trying to be helpful.
Best regards,
Philip
To those that have complained about increased travel and a "mushy" feel, have you thoroughly bled the brake system and have you had the recall work completed? Even a slight amount of air in the system will lead to the "mushy" feeling some have complained about. Don't count on the dealer always doing this right the 1st time. Bleeding has to be done more than once sometimes.
Yes the Highlander has ABS and VSC, but these systems don't activate unless called upon so I highly doubt posters should be contributing the overall brake feel to these systems. The Highlander does have Electronic Brake-force Distribution, which I understood is a system to apply equal amounts of pressure to the 4 corners of the vehicle (I may be wrong on this so someone can correct me).
This is getting too lengthy but like I said at the beginning, I'm tired of reading complaints about a non-existent problem. Try driving a Ford Taurus before complaining about the Highlander brakes...
Just my two cents worth.
Why did you buy if the brakes feel 'mushy' AND there is too much pedal travel AND it takes too much pressure to stop the vehicle???
My wife and I both test drove the HL on 3 separate occasions before buying....
I had to do this to get my front mudguards replaced as the 1st dealer treated me like a piece of dirt (SF Toyota). The next dealer (City Toyota in Daly City) checked a used HL in their lot and found the same problem with the mudguards and then went ahead and replaced mine under warranty.
I pay attention to LOTS more important things when I drive (cars in front, cars behind, road conditions, lighting, etc.) than pedal-travel. I just hope some of you aren't behind ME when you're gathering "data" on this issue!