did you have to get the regular in the windshield e-zpass or the outside mounted pass? I had a chevy venture and with the antenna in the windshield needed the outside mounted pass. i was just noticing that the sienna xle ltd we ordered does not have an outside antenna and if it is in the windshield what e-zpass do you have?
In response to Robairto's issue on wind noise, there is a fix for that. I brought that issue to the dealers attention and the body shop Department was able to fix it. I don't hear any noise anymore
Thanks for the Michelin tire info. For the 225/60R17 OEM size, it seems that the next closest size to get for replacement, in order to minimize odometer error is 235/55R17. I see Dunlop has a Sport A2/4000 series that includes a 235/55R17 size. Anyone have good experience with Dunlop tires?
I don't have any experience with Dunlop's, but I would be interested in how 235/55/17 tire size impacts the handling, noise and ride comfort. My wife drives an '04 Sienna with 215/65/16's. One shortcoming of the van is handling at highway speeds. I would consider upgrading to new wheels and tires (with 235/55/17)to gain handling as long as the penalty in noise and ride comfort was not too significant.
Thanks kindly kmead for your info. I'll ask the boys to check out the mixing doors at my next service.
As far as the settings, I don't have the auto feature. Just plain set temperature to extreme cold setting, dial in the front centre vents and turn the fan to a medium or high setting.
Has anyone figured out how to wire the dashboard 12V outlet so that it is always "hot?" I cannot keep my cell phone charged presently because the 12V outlet goes dead when the ignition is off...very annoying problem. Will my local Toyota service department fix this?? Thanks for any comments on this situation.
No the dealer will not "fix" this as it is not broken. This is the way Toyota chose to have the system work, it just doesn't work the way we ALL expect it to. I find it exremely frustrating as well.
My dealer told me that the outlets are always hot. Is that not true? Are only some of the outlets hot - perhaps the cargo one? I'm in the process of deciding on a Sienna and this is an important feature for me due to our travel with an electric cooler.
Carman123, I recently read a comment in an article written by a car reviewer that going from 16" to 17" tires will not give you much of an increase in handling. I currently have the 225/60R17 (OEM) tires and find they are good for handling at highway speeds, little noise and good comfort level. I just am not happy with the Bridgestone tires on the van when it comes to wet weather or in a little snow as they have poor traction. My other complaint is they are wearing out with about 21000kM (about 14000mi.) I have run Michelin tires on other cars (X ones) and they were great. Michelin no longer makes the X ones and replaced them with the Hydroedge which have received good reviews. Unfortunately they do not come in 225/60R17 which is OEM size and I have been wrestling with the alternatives of either 215/60R17 or 225/55R17; since I am not an expert on what the best alternative size would be I am looking for help from the more knowledgable people on this board.
Sarniasting, our van is an LE FWD (OEM tire size 215/65/16). Handling around town is fine. Cruising at 75 mph on the highway is fine too when I am not in heavy traffic. We go to Chicago about 6 times a year, and driving on I-94 in 5 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic at 55+ mph is not what I would call secure or confidence inspiring. I don't expect the Sienna to handle like a sports car, but I would like it to handle better than it does if a relatively inexpensive fix is possible. If you think your van handles fine with 225/60/17's, then maybe mine would handle better by going to a larger wheel and wider, lower profile tire. For me, a 225/55/17 would have about the same overall diameter as my OEM tires (within a quarter inch). For your situation, I would not go narrower than your OEM for fear that it may make handling worse. Thus I would rule out the 215/60/17. How long can you wait before replacing your tires? Maybe some more choices in 225/60/17 size will become available in the next 6 to 12 months.
Thanks for the tip jmess. If the 235/60/16 tires fit on my 16 x 6.5 wheels and there is enough clearance, then you may have just saved me the money of buying 17" wheels. I bet ride comfort would be about the same because the sidewall heights are very similar. There might be a little bit more road noise with the wider tire, but I can definitely live with that for improved handling.
I picked up my 2004 Sienna March 26, 2003. I caught the tail end of the 2003 Canadian winter. My son pointed out to me recently that both my front doors are rusting where the bottom of the door meets the rubber molding. The black molding is now a rust colour and the entire stretch of paint on the inner underside of the doors has rusted. I took it to the Toyota dealer today and he took a quick look and sent me to their body shop to get repairs. He said that dirt can collect on the rubber molding and the motion of the vehicle will cause the paint to rub off (something like sandpaper I guess). I'm not sure that is what caused the problem...it looks to me like it was never painted properly. He told me he had seen another Sienna with the same problem. Since both of my doors have the identical problem, I expect that many other owners will start experiencing the same problem.
After seeing the dealer I took a closer look under the rear sliding doors and noticed a rust colour on the rubber molding as well. It is much more difficult to see inside the rear door but I expect I've got the same problem with my rear doors as well.
When I got to the body shop (different location -but same dealer)the estimator didn't even want to see the van. He said "you have rust on all 4 doors, right?"...I said yes on the front for sure but not sure about the back. He came and had a look...told me this was a known problem and the fix was to repaint and put a mylar coating on top of the paint. It will take 3 days in the shop...free rental car included. I'm booked in for next week.
P.S. I was very disappointed to learn that the vehicle is not made from galvanized steel.
If any one here has an XLE or XLE LTD please let me know if you have the e-zpass in your van do you need the outside mount one or a regular pass. thanks
I purchased my Sienna back in February, have about 3000 miles on it now. It is very interesting reading this board! I have not had any problems with mine. The only thing I can complain about is the shiny black trim on the interior (we got the Desert Sand color), it shows every single speck of dust! I keep a lint cloth in my storage tray and wipe it down atleast once a day - I can't stand it! We do want to get a trailer hitch put on though, for our pop-up camper. I am now alittle worried about that after reading some of these posts, I hope we do not encounter the same issues. Before this vehicle, I had a '98 Camry - I hope this Sienna proves to be as reliable and durable. Never had a problem with my Camry.
I had the same problem of rust on my front doors, nothing showing yet on the rear doors. Had them repaired last week and the manager of the body shop contacted Toyota Canada about putting 3M stripping along passenger doors before the problem developes there. Toyota Canada said they would not cover it because there was no problem yet. Seems a little silly on their part as 2 strips of 3M along the area would be a lot cheaper then repairing and then adding the 3M stripping when the rust developes. I will be keeping a close eye on it as it will be just a matter of time before the rust developes.
I stopped at the dealer today and checked all 3 12V outlets and they are all off when the key is off. The dealer salesman told me the power stayed on. In fact, Edmunds is also wrong since it says the Sienna has 'retained power' when you do a car comparison. The XLE and XLE Limited also has a 110 V outlet but it is also off when the key is off.
The salesman checked with his service department and they will wire the outlets hot if requested, but Toyota doesn't recommend it. He said the warranty on the battery would probably not be honored if it was damaged by leaving something turned on and the battery gets drained.
In our case this is not a problem because our plug-in cooler will shut itself off if the battery voltage drops too much.
Today I ran into a big problem with my 4 month old Sienna XLE. I was turning onto a hill and wanted to see how it would accelerate up the hill so I floored it. The car accelerated well and I took my foot off the gas pedal at about 30 mph. The problem was that the car kept going at full acceleration. There was no one in front of me so I started trying to figure out how to stop it instead of just turning off the car (I needed to get to the top of the hill and I could coast to where I was going). I put it into neutral but all it did was rev to 6000 rpm, I checked to make sure I somehow hadn't gotten the cruise control on and I hadn't, I downshifted into 3rd and kept pressing on and letting off the brake pedal since I didn't want ruin my breaks (I was able to keep the speed between 40 and 50). As I neared the top of the hill (it is about 1/3 of a mile long) I figured I would turn the car off at the top. Just as I was about to crest the hill, the car stopped accelerating as the car leveled out and then ran normal. I tried repeating it later on on a smaller, lesser incline of a hill but wasn't able to. Has anyone else heard of this happening? I sure gave me an adrenalin rush and I don't want to go through it again. I was fortunate no one else was around to worry about hitting while I was trying to make it quit.
....that the power to things like power windows is retained for about 20 to 30 seconds after the ignition is switched off so that one may raise a window inadvertently left open. I do not think that it refers to retained power for the outlets.
It is shown in the 'convenience' section and not the 'power features' section and is listed a few lines below the 12 V outlets. It is labeled as: 'Retained Accessory Power'. There is no explanation of the line.
I will report this to Edmunds and let them figure it out.
I am wondering if anyone who has been monitoring this issue of wiring a 12 Volt outlet to be "hot" all the time has actually had their Toyota Service Department perform this service...I am already expecting some furrowed brows and head scratching and negative looks from my local Toyota Service Personnel when I request this, and would like to be armed ahead of time with the knowledge that others have had this performed by their Toyota Service Departments!! Thanks.
Mattd10, first things first. Sounds like you kept your wits about you when this happened and thankfully were not hurt.
I recommend that you file a report of this with NHTSA. It’s easy to do, just go to their web site for details.
With the recent implementation of the drive-by-wire systems, a new crop of unintentional acceleration reports is beginning to show up. I’m not leaping to any conclusions as to whether there is a defect, but it would be good to log your experience and help make NHTSA aware of the actual number of occurrences. It’s possible that not all of the bugs have been worked out of the drive-by-wire systems yet.
Mattd10, had a little more time so I looked up what's already been logged with NHTSA regarding unintended acceleration in the 2004 Sienna. There is a report that may be on point with what you experienced, including the hill climbing situation. In this case, cruise was engaged. Here's a brief summary:
ODI ID Number 10040049: "When cruise control is engaged while driving uphill, the vehicle runs out of control. Brake pedal needs to be depressed to stop the vehicle."
There are 3 more reports that may be related, but seem to deal more with erratic throttle response than with sustained unintended acceleration.
Freebird, After you mentioned the gas pedal may have gotten caught in a wrinkle, it made me wonder so I went and checked. There aren't any wrinkles and when I moved the floormat back so the gas pedal would catch it, it lifted the floormat off the floor and would not have kept accelerating.
Grapevinetx, Thanks for looking that up for me. I drove the hill again yesterday and wasn't able to recreate the problem. The hill is different than I first described. It goes up sharply for about 0.15 miles, levels off and goes downhill slightly for 0.15 miles, and then goes uphill again for 0.1 miles when it levels off again. It was on the second leveling off portion that the van stopped accelerating. I will file a report at the NHTSA.
are you sure it wasn't pedal misapplication (aka AUDI 5000 syndrome)? IIRC, it has been proven that the brakes are stornger than the engine. That is, if you push hard on the brakes, it will stop the car, even at WOT, even easier if you are going uphill.
Heck, drag racers (and test drivers) do this all the time: put their foot on the brake, rev it up to launch RPM, and let off the brake to take off.
I was just wondering because i still have the outside mount e-zpass and am going to replace it as soon as i can get to the e-zpass place in my area. thanks again.
i just picked up my 2004 XLE LTD must say i love it for the two days we have had it. But I am concerned with the moonroof. Is there any type of gap in the top of your sienna it looks like a space where the moonroof is right behind the moonroof. i was wondering if water would get in there I am not even sure if there is a gap there I thought it was for the tilt feature. just wondering . also did it take you some time to get use to controlling the moon roof it seems to be tricky to me to tell if it is actually closed all the way. maybe i am just being nuts huh?
the moonroof . love the car i hope it's reputation proceeds it . three days old and still learning all the buttons forgive me i am a little nuts about my cars.
I bought my Sienna in November and have just started using my A/C on a regular basis. And I've noticed what I think is a problem. The temperature of the air coming out of the front vents varies, seemingly on a regular cycle, from cold to not-cold and back again. It can be at a comfortable temperature for a minute, then the temperature will go up for maybe 15-20 seconds, and then it will cool down again. It's almost as if it's going through a defrost cycle or responding to a set desired temperature in the cabin, but the LE has the manual A/C, not automatic.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is this the way it's supposed to work? I've noticed it when driving conditions are constant - maintaining a steady speed on flat road, not adjusting any of the A/C controls, etc.
Maybe it is working on the same comfort principle that my brothers and I used when growing up. We would sleep with one leg under the covers and the other out. One leg was too hot and the other was too cold. But, on the average, we were comfortable! ;-)
post my first issue on the board. Have had my XLE LTD w/ NAV for about a week now. love it. every part of it.
has anyone experienced any episodes where the NAV/Radio/info screen blacks out ? Mine does this unannounced. When it goes black, none of the controls will work on it at all. No tilt, no open, nothing. It seems like it just loses power altogether. But then it comes right back on, and resumes wherever it was when it went out.
Has happened on my wife, and on me this morning while driving to work.
I noticed that the Prius has an A/C economy mode wherein the A/C evaporator temperature is allowed to drift up and down. Most systems keep the evaporator at a reasonably constant 34F and the reheat/remix the airflow to get a sensible, not chilling, outlet temperature.
Check if the dealer used C-best to set the system in economy mode.
On the other hand you may simply have air bubbles, vapor lock, in your engine coolant system.
Sounds like your A/C is fine. The compressor is cycling on and off because it is not hot enough to be needed on 100% of the time. You'll hear and feel it cycling on and off more at 75 degrees outside than you will at 95 degrees, when it will be on most of the time.
I've had my LE for a few months now and just recently tried to use the fold and tumble feature of the 2nd row seats to haul a large piece of furniture. Much to my dismay, I found out that the straps that you are supposed to use to keep the tumbled seats in place did not reach the side handles. The reason is that the straps are attached to the seats closer to the center of the van rather than the outside of the van, which means that my 2nd row seats are on the wrong sides. Just wondering if anyone else had this problem and came up with an easy solution.
I looked at mine and yes, the straps do come out closer to the center. This is probably for stability. But the straps do have an adjustment so that you can make them longer. They were too short the first time I tried to tumble/tilt the seats and I had to lengthen them. You can tell if the seats are in the right position by the shoulder harness part of the seat belt. On the drivers side the 2nd row seat has the belt coming off the wall. On the passenger side the shoulder harness comes out of the seat back itself. This is probably because the passenger side 2nd row seat can be moved to the center position and it would be too far from the car wall column for the seat belt to reach (it would also block passengers from getting in to the 3rd row seat.)
The Toyota/Lexus system has a liquid refrigerant reservoir and once it is filled the compressor will shut off until the reservoir is (almost) empty. If the compressor were to run continuously it would be a sign of low refrigerant or an exceedingly hot day in death valley.
But do remember that if the engine water jacket begins to overheat, too much idling with A/C on and a hot day, the A/C compressor will be disabled until the water jacket temperature declines back into the normal range.
It appears that the steering wheel on our 2004 Sienna XLE is rubbing against the steering column. The steering appears to be working fine, it just has an annoying rubbing/squeaking sound everytime you turn it. The van has about 4,500 miles on it. Anyone experience a similar problem?
Our a/c was acting in the same manner more or less, probably worse than yours by the sound of it, but we ended up needing a new radiator. The tech said that he has seen several of these, the a/c shuts itself off so the engine will not overheat. Just something to keep your eye on.
Thanks for the replies. I realize it's normal for the compressor to cycle on and off - I've experienced that with every air conditioned car I've owned. But the thing I'm not used to is the significant change in the temperature of the air coming out of the vents when this cycling happens. I don't recall ever feeling such a difference in temperature in previous vehicles (including the '91 Previa I traded in for the Sienna). But if that temperature range is normal for the Sienna, I can live with it. It just took me by surprise.
No one else has reported the kind of variation you are asking about in air temperature out of the vents with the A/C on. It does not sound normal to me, and the lack of "that's the way it is on mine" responses tells me it isn't normal for the Sienna either.
It could be something as simple as a stuck external air vent letting too much outside air into the mix. Or maybe it is a bad sensor or low coolant level (as was mentioned). In any case and IMHO, it is worth complaining about and asking the service department to fix.
At least on mine, the bottom part of the strap itself (towards the seat) is two layers and there is a buckle shaped clasp (rectangle with rounded corners and a cross piece). Just slip the strap up through the buckle to give yourself more slack (like you are adjusting the length of a camera strap or a dog collar)and pull more length out.
Comments
As far as the settings, I don't have the auto feature. Just plain set temperature to extreme cold setting, dial in the front centre vents and turn the fan to a medium or high setting.
Barry
After seeing the dealer I took a closer look under the rear sliding doors and noticed a rust colour on the rubber molding as well. It is much more difficult to see inside the rear door but I expect I've got the same problem with my rear doors as well.
When I got to the body shop (different location -but same dealer)the estimator didn't even want to see the van. He said "you have rust on all 4 doors, right?"...I said yes on the front for sure but not sure about the back. He came and had a look...told me this was a known problem and the fix was to repaint and put a mylar coating on top of the paint. It will take 3 days in the shop...free rental car included. I'm booked in for next week.
P.S. I was very disappointed to learn that the vehicle is not made from galvanized steel.
Before this vehicle, I had a '98 Camry - I hope this Sienna proves to be as reliable and durable. Never had a problem with my Camry.
Putting wider tires on the factory 6.5" wheels might lend itself to the "wobbly", instable, feeling.
The salesman checked with his service department and they will wire the outlets hot if requested, but Toyota doesn't recommend it. He said the warranty on the battery would probably not be honored if it was damaged by leaving something turned on and the battery gets drained.
In our case this is not a problem because our plug-in cooler will shut itself off if the battery voltage drops too much.
Barry
Matt
Anyway, if there are errors on the site, please Contact Us so we can fix them. Thanks!
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I will report this to Edmunds and let them figure it out.
Barry
I recommend that you file a report of this with NHTSA. It’s easy to do, just go to their web site for details.
With the recent implementation of the drive-by-wire systems, a new crop of unintentional acceleration reports is beginning to show up. I’m not leaping to any conclusions as to whether there is a defect, but it would be good to log your experience and help make NHTSA aware of the actual number of occurrences. It’s possible that not all of the bugs have been worked out of the drive-by-wire systems yet.
ODI ID Number 10040049:
"When cruise control is engaged while driving uphill, the vehicle runs out of control. Brake pedal needs to be depressed to stop the vehicle."
There are 3 more reports that may be related, but seem to deal more with erratic throttle response than with sustained unintended acceleration.
After you mentioned the gas pedal may have gotten caught in a wrinkle, it made me wonder so I went and checked. There aren't any wrinkles and when I moved the floormat back so the gas pedal would catch it, it lifted the floormat off the floor and would not have kept accelerating.
Grapevinetx,
Thanks for looking that up for me. I drove the hill again yesterday and wasn't able to recreate the problem. The hill is different than I first described. It goes up sharply for about 0.15 miles, levels off and goes downhill slightly for 0.15 miles, and then goes uphill again for 0.1 miles when it levels off again. It was on the second leveling off portion that the van stopped accelerating. I will file a report at the NHTSA.
Thanks again to both of you.
Matt
Heck, drag racers (and test drivers) do this all the time: put their foot on the brake, rev it up to launch RPM, and let off the brake to take off.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
Has anyone else experienced this? Is this the way it's supposed to work? I've noticed it when driving conditions are constant - maintaining a steady speed on flat road, not adjusting any of the A/C controls, etc.
Have had my XLE LTD w/ NAV for about a week now.
love it. every part of it.
has anyone experienced any episodes where the NAV/Radio/info screen blacks out ?
Mine does this unannounced. When it goes black, none of the controls will work on it at all. No tilt, no open, nothing. It seems like it just loses power altogether.
But then it comes right back on, and resumes wherever it was when it went out.
Has happened on my wife, and on me this morning while driving to work.
anyone have this same issue ?
Check if the dealer used C-best to set the system in economy mode.
On the other hand you may simply have air bubbles, vapor lock, in your engine coolant system.
The Toyota/Lexus system has a liquid refrigerant reservoir and once it is filled the compressor will shut off until the reservoir is (almost) empty. If the compressor were to run continuously it would be a sign of low refrigerant or an exceedingly hot day in death valley.
But do remember that if the engine water jacket begins to overheat, too much idling with A/C on and a hot day, the A/C compressor will be disabled until the water jacket temperature declines back into the normal range.
No one else has reported the kind of variation you are asking about in air temperature out of the vents with the A/C on. It does not sound normal to me, and the lack of "that's the way it is on mine" responses tells me it isn't normal for the Sienna either.
It could be something as simple as a stuck external air vent letting too much outside air into the mix. Or maybe it is a bad sensor or low coolant level (as was mentioned). In any case and IMHO, it is worth complaining about and asking the service department to fix.