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It sounds like this may be the van you had so many problems with. What color was your van? Do you remember about how many miles it had on it when you traded it in?
We haven't had leakage issues yet, but keep it in a garage and have only been driving it for a few weeks.
I am hoping it's not the same van, but it seems like it probably is:(
do you have the 3rd row up or stowed?
and yes it was baierl.
You mentioned having some information regarding your experiences with Toyota and with the dealers in trying to solve your water problem. Any information you can offer regarding this vehicle and your experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you for posting what your experience was and also what you knew about it being certified and resold. It was pure chance that I came across your post. I'm lucky I did. We did buy the full bumper to bumper warranty, though I don't know if it will apply to this problem.
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It's possible they fixed it and only told me there was no leak in the hopes that I would go away - but it doesn't make a lot of sense if that's the case. All I am going on is what they told me (and which I have in writing so to the best of my knowledge is true)
I have also reviewed them at dealerrater - which caused a statistically questionable number of positive reviews to come flooding in shortly thereafter. Could be coincidence... or maybe not.
While I have no insight into those specific reviews on dealerrater.com, other reviews that we have seen published there have not been accepted here, so we know that their standards for acceptable reviews are, um... different than ours. They may be bogus, or maybe they asked a bunch of satisfied customers to post reviews there to help "bury" your review.
In any case, thanks for taking the time to review them and follow-up with comment on our site. We have seen some issues resolved, and reviews updated, as a result of genuine efforts on the part of dealerships to communicate with dissatisfied customers, and I'm sorry that your situation has not been one of those... yet!
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as for the other reviews, I suspect it is a little of this, a little of that. some of them are flat out made up - too few details, too many praises. some are real, but why do they happen to appear now? and at least one I suspect is the same story being posted twice.
Now I have to say, my 35 month old van with a mere 20,053 miles and in seemingly cherry condition had not lead an exemplary early life. Poor thing must have been built on a Monday. And third shift at that. At first I was taken aback by the issues, but after reading it over in detail and then spending a full hour (at least a half hour of it under the van) going over the vehicle again in excruciating detail, I decided to move on to the closing. We've doubled the mileage, and so far, so good. Fingers crossed....
Net is that I went into it with my eyes wide open. I know they might have hoodwinked you, but you can still have the last laugh with data in hand proving they lied.
The dealer buys you used Sienna for say $14K. He can send it to auction and hope to recoup what he paid you, and if he’s lucky, make a small profit.
Or he can decide to keep it on his lot, and advertise it for whatever the going rate is for a basic dealer used car. Maybe $16k? Remember that he has to offer some kind of warranty, probably 3 months / 3K miles. Some level of reconditioning and any breakdown repairs are out of his pocket – a genuine risk to him given his narrow profit margin.
Or he can up his investment and go for certification. Making the necessary repairs (to meet brake remaining & tire tread remaining standards), doing the reconditioning, plus the inspection & certification fee probably runs $2k or more total, including the flat fee to Toyota for certification. He now has $16k into the van, but the marketability is greatly enhanced by the 1 yr / 12k mile & 7 yr / 100k mile anywhere in the USA warranty, totally on Toyota with no risk to the dealership. He lists the van on the Toyota Certified site and gets great regional coverage. He advertises it for $19k, accepts $18k. He walks away with $2k profit, and absolves himself of further risk.
I found the car on their website 4 days later for $16,988 - call it $17k. It was not listed as "certified" at that point. It actually still had the stickers on the back that I traded it in with which highly points to nothing having been done - just a very quick "Let's get this puppy listed!" When I emailed to buy it they answered immediately and said yes it was in stock and ready for sale. Then when I explained who I was the manager called me and said oops, it's not supposed to be listed.
I had just had new brakes put on and a sort of road-trip check-up as we had just taken a drive to Michigan. It was due for inspection. Other than that it didn't need anything other than a looksie and the the leak fixed.
Once it came up as certified the pictures changed - the car had clearly been detailed, and I know it costs something for the certification, but since they tell me they didn't find a leak, I don't think they put much more into it that that. (Question is still - is car still leaking???)
The buyer says she paid extra for a "wrap" warranty which I assume is above and beyond what normally comes with a certified used car? So I know if you buy a new car you can get an extended warranty and then you have a choice to buy it at your dealer or shop around on line and usually find it much cheaper. So I'm assuming dealers make some degree of profit just from selling an extra warranty.
Does that apply to this "wrap" warranty for a used car as well? She has said it is through Toyota - which if I understand it would mean the dealer might be getting some money to sell the warranty, and then is off the hook for actually paying for repairs as she could now take the car to ANY toyota dealer and they will be reimbursed.
To me it looks like the reason they wouldn't sell my car back to me was not liability on their end, but there was too big of a chance to make a much bigger profit off of someone else. I knew what they paid me for it, I knew what work it needed (or not), and I wouldn't/couldn't have bought the warranty. I'm sure there's got to be some sort of wrinkle with getting a new warranty on an old car you just happened to buy a second time, but who knows?
I can't even figure what this extra warranty is - I thought all certified cars came with a year warranty, but I can't quite tell from Toyota certified website if their "highest level of warranty coverage" is something above and beyond that or what. Do you know anything about an extra warranty for a certified toyota? I thought it already had one built in and that was the point of buying a certified car?
So as I said, the basics used warranty would typically be 3 month / 3k miles.
Certified bumps that to 12 months / 12k miles bumper to bumper, and 7 yrs / 100k miles powertrain - nation wide.
You can certainly buy more coverage, and I did so on my CPO van. On the day of sale I negotiated a 7 yr / 100k miles Toyota Platinum, $0 deductible (almost a bumper-to-bumper) plan for $1,100. That wasn't a bad deal (did some homework up front), but after my wife and I talked, we realized that with some of my concerns on the van, plus our projected use, we might benefit from more coverage. I called them back to ask about the 8 yr / 125k mile Platinum plan, but the manager didn't want to withdraw and redo the paperwork.
I made a few calls and found a dealership in Danville, Illinois that sold me the 8/125 / $0 deductible Platinum plan for $1400, and cancelled the dealership purchase. I saved $100 in sales tax buying out of state.
Buying more coverage is a purely personal decision. Irrational, maybe, but I like to have a cap on my liability, so it works for me.
For Toyota:
It does require a vehicle inspection completed by an outside party not affiliated with the dealership. (So exactly how ‘independent’ is that agent??? I was told it was dealership staff, but maybe they consider an independent on retainer that does this daily as one of their own??? Who knows....)
Not all Toyota dealers participate. Participation is currently around 95%.
The fee paid to Toyota is only $450 per vehicle. (Quite a bargain, when you consider the liability the manufacture is assuming.)
Dealer must sign a Participation Agreement – legal T&C’s.
Vehicles can be up to 7 model years old, and up to 85k miles, and have a clean Carfax history.
While each program has their own specific checklist, the generic one published in this report lists “Odors”, “Carpet”, “Weatherstripping”, and “Water Leaks” as points of scrutiny.
Toyota certified over 330,000 vehicles in 2011.
So it has been confirmed the car was sold still leaking. I don't know who did the actual certification. I know that if you sat inside the car you could go through carwash after cawash and not realize the car was leaking if you didn't know where to look. They could have passed this car on to another party and casually said hey look it over - and the 3rd party might not have caught it if they weren't told to look for it. There was some discoloration to the carpet and some smelliness to the pad but it wasn't too bad as mostly we kept it pulled back to keep from getting wet with a cloth diaper in the well to catch the leak (this was the 2nd carpet). They could have cleaned the carpet first then sent it to the 3rd party, who knows.
The dealership stands behind their right to refuse to sell a car to any person they choose, and insists that this (not selling my car back to me) was done to protect me - they also say the car was sold leaking due to a "miscommunication."
I'm usually pretty good - possibly to the point of being overly lenient - about giving people the benefit of the doubt but it is hard not to see this whole thing as entirely profit motivated. Even if you want to argue that the service records don't make the issue too clear - they are kind of cryptic, and I had the car to independant places that would't report it the same as well - I have emails with the dealership mentioning the leak when the car first went up for sale, predating the sale to the new owner by over a week. I don't understand how they can get back to me with a straight face and tell me the car didn't leak. That would be one heck of a thing for me to have been imagining for the last 2 years. Lousy, lousy experience all around. It's all well and good to say the warranty will protect the new owner but what if the problem ultimately can't be fixed or what if the new owner doesn't discover it until the warranty is up? Garage-kept, that could very well have happened.
And this dealership is HUGE. How often does this happen?
It takes on water when I drive thru standing water (not floods, just your typical large puddles during rainy weather)--it seems to be coming in on the right passenger side. Any suggestions?
Any idea what this costs to fix? I emailed Toyota Corporate & will call my dealer Monday--if this is a known defect (and it seems to be) why should I pay for the fix?
I have had the same problem with my 2001 toyota sienna with the water on the passenger floor, and the wife bickering about it, so I tore out all the molding on the passenger side front, then did the water test, and found the water coming from the top from under the head board, so upon further inspection I pulled it down and found the sunroof drain hose had came off, due to the factory clamp being faulty, I ran to autozone and bought new clamps and reinstalled the hose and did the water test again and wow no leaks at all, had to dry all mold trimmings that were acting like a river to the floor, then did the water test again, and found the drain was clogged to which maybe the case for the hose to come off! Tride a wire to clean it out but didnt work, so I pulled the fender wall to find a and I mean a lot pine needles and dirt and leaves, but it still didnt unclog the drain since I cannot find where it drains to???? anyone know where to find the end of the drains to the sunroof?????
Ours is pushing 200,000 and still runs like a champ, have not had any problems with the ac drain since our van is basically undercoated with a rino like liner but that may be the suspect to some our water issues. like drains clogging all the sudden, like the sunroof it has 2 drains that run to the back of the van, might want to check there first and see if the drains back up, or drain really fast, if it is really fast then there might be a problem with the drain hose to the sunroof!
2001 Sienna XLE with sunroof w/150,000 mi. Read every post here. Been putting up with the moldy smell for seemingly years until no one will ride in my car. Sometimes that's a good thing but thought it was time to get to the bottom of it. Driver and passenger side front pans are wet and felt padding under the carpet is 75% saturated. Vehicle is usually parked outside and exposed to the elements. Parked at about a 15 degree angle with the front lower than the back and angled slightly to the driver side so a tailgate weather seal leak would flow forward. Pulled the entire carpet. Whoever said allow one hour has done this more than once or doesn't have an XLE. I try to keep the front sunroof drain holes clear but debris had them plugged again. Peeked under the headliner and drain tubes are connected. Used a tire air compressor and blew them out. Cleared the drip channels of acorns, leaves, etc. The only water under the carpet is in the front, no sign at all of a leak in the rear. Cleaned the seal around the sunroof since dirt had collected and may have allowed water to enter. Used a very light abrasive to remove oxidized rubber. Then ArmorAll to seal and protect the rubber around the sunroof. I have no idea how to check the rear sunroof drains since they are inaccessible. I'm guessing that they drain down the B pillar. Put the stripped van in the driveway during a thunderstorm with front and rear A/C on full cold and outside air open to see if A/C condensate drain is the problem. First hour - no water anywhere. If the problem turns out to be just the sunroof front drains, it just means more vigilance and more frequent cleaning of the drains. Hope that's all there is to it. Will update if anything changes.
2001 Sienna update. Reversed the position of the van so the front was higher than the rear. Jacked up the left side to force any drainage to the right rear (inaccessible) sunroof drain. Drained correctly. Jacked up right side and repeated. Drained correctly. Used a garden hose at full pressure aimed directly at the sunroof seal perimeter from about 6 inches above for five minutes. Got myself soaked. Opened the sunroof and there was minimal water in the front drip rail and whatever little got through drained immediately. Aimed hose at windshield seals for five minutes. No leaks. Door seals for five minutes. No leaks. Ditto for tailgate.
Tried to dry the felt padding under the carpet (front only) but the stench of mildew told me that it was pointless. Tore the felt pads from the front section of the carpet underside to use as templates. Bought a gallon of Microban anti-bacterial and mildewcide spray and sprayed the bottom of the carpet as well as the front floor pans in the van to kill spores. Next, went to Lowes and got some stain master caplet padding and a can of 3M spray adhesive. Have to double these up to get to the correct thickness of the previous felt which was about 1". Used the old material as a template, cut the carpet padding to match. Steam cleaned the top surface of the carpet. Let it dry in the sun (85 degrees). Flipped it over and attached the new padding to the bottom. Sprayed top and underside of the carpet with Microban.
Re-installed everything. Van smells new and clean. Have friends again. Conclusion:
1. Keep seal around sunroof and mating surfaces very clean and free of debris to reduce seepage from rain/carwash.
2. Check and clear front sunroof drip rail drainholes regularly.
Nice job of diagnosing the issue and good advice on how to reduce the seepage!
Looks like I was wrong about that.
Now whenever I wash the van or it rains, the carpet in the seat storage compartment at the very back of the van gets soaking wet and stays that way. I have vacuumed it, put a portable dehumidifier in the van overnight, etc - it just gets wet again the next time. I guess I will have to purchase the weatherstrip as mentioned in a post above and try to fix it.
I love this van for the most part, but it has already lost the power doors due to the (stupid) way the door cables were designed, leaving them open to the elements so they corrode and break, now this lovely leak in the back....
I'm a die-hard Toyota fan, ever since I owned a Previa decades ago - but the quality has dropped so far since then.
Real tail light gasket above lift gate (CENTER) rubber seal needed to be resealed!
This only took me six months to find! LOL
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