Problems with 2005 Toyota Sienna SEATS

Passenger seat warmer was on the other day while i was driving and began smoking and melted the seat in the shape of a dime. for a couple weeks it was causing burning feeling in legs from being too hot. i turned off seat warmer and hit the seat until the smoking stopped.

I was completely stopped in my sienna awd at a traffic light at the top of a freeway on-ramp in a major city, and rear-ended by a vehicle beginning to travel down the on-ramp at an unknown but high rate of speed and not heeding the traffic signal. on impact, the rear cargo compartment of my sienna crushed inward so far that it caused the third row bench seat to move forward and propel the seat part of the bench seat into the backs of the second row captain's chairs in front of it. this would have crushed the legs and maybe whole body of anyone seated in the outer two seats of the rear bench seat, and perhaps in the middle position as well. i found a piece of paper bag caught between the bottom seat edge of the bench seat and the back of a captain's chair, and i could not pull that piece of paper free. i had to pull really hard to remove the large pack of toilet tissue, shown in the uploaded photo, in order to dislodge it from the rear bench seat area. the tissue pack likely is narrower than the trunk of an adult human body which could have been caught there, with legs also crushed by the lower portion of the bench seat as it impacted the back of the captain's chair in front of it. i believe the cause of this safety problem is a poor design; inadequate rear-crash protection for third-row passengers, who usually are children. as a parent and vehicle owner, i was never warned about the great danger my children could be in if they seated anywhere along the third-row bench seat during a rear-end collision. i'm traumatized by the thought of a child or anyone having been seated in the third row at the time of this collision, which fortunately they were not in this instance.

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 toyota sienna. while operating the vehicle, the front passenger heated seat became extremely hot to the touch within minutes of activating the seat heater. the contact later discovered a burn hole in the left leg section of the front driver seat. there were no injuries. the cause of the failure was not diagnosed. the vehicle was not repaired. the manufacturer was notified of the failure. the vin was not available. the failure mileage was 110,000.

Seat warmer on drivers side burns my leg if left on for more than 2-4 minutes. understand there is a recall for this year and model but was told by toyota the recall does not apply to factory installed models(xle) , which mine is, only vehicles which had seat warmers installed by southeast toyota(set) as an option. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 toyota sienna. the contact stated that a two-year old child was secured in a child restraint by the vehicle seat belt system. the child was able to unlatch the seatbelt while sitting in the child seat. the contact believed that the design of the seat belts were unsafe to use in securing a child in the vehicle with a child seat. the contact consulted with the dealer about a seat belt cover to prevent the child from unlatching the seat belts, but the dealer advised that no such device existed. the failure and the current mileage was 123,000.

Tl*the contact owns a 2005 toyota sienna. while the contact was driving approximately 35 to 45 mph the middle row passenger seat detached, when brakes were engaged abruptly to avoid an animal in the road. the failure also caused the seat to tilt forcefully in a forward position striking the driver. the driver sustained injury to the neck and shoulder. the contact was able to continue driving the vehicle with caution to her residence. the vehicle had not been diagnosed or repaired when the complaint was filed. the mileage was approximately 72,000. 11/15/10 *cn there is a lever that is use to adjust the angle of the seat back, including folding flat. there is a strap that can be pulled to release the seat allowing the entire seat to tilt forward in order to be removed. the problem is, the lever that allows the seat back adjustment can unlock the seat from the floor. this happens when the set back is tilted forward 15 or 20 degrees. the consumers wife was driving, when a deer walked into the road. when the consumers wife applied the brakes, the seat behind her tilted forward and the headrest struck her in the head. the consumer stated the seat tilt lever should not be allowed to detach the seat from the floor. updated 11/24/10

Driver's seat loose. i found a bolt (a shoulder bolt) on the floor of our 2005 toyota sienna. the car had approximately 48,000 miles on it at that time. the seat is loose and when the position is changed, forward or back, there is a grinding noise like the gears (it is electric seat) are not meshing. my concern is if i am in an accident the seat will come loose (as it movers around now) and i will take the force of the seat as well as my body if it comes loose. there is also the possibility that the seat will change position if there is an accident and i will not be restrained by the seatbelts properly because the seat shifted my position and in addition i will not get the full effect of the air bags and air curtains when they deploy. when i found the bolt i immediately took the car to the toyota dealership and was told there was nothing they could do because it is out of warranty. i had never mentioned warranty the service writer brought it up.. i spoke with toyota customer service after the dealership said there was nothing they could do and toyota said the same thing. they suggested i buy a $125 repair manual if i wanted to fix it myself. i asked if they would send me a copy of the page that pertains to the seat and they said they would try. (i was subsequently told by another person in toyota customer service that the person wrote that i had refused to buy the service manual. apparently he just said he would look for the pages and e-mail them to me to get me off the line. his note certainly indicates he had no intention of helping me get copies of the pages from the repair manual. ) it is obvious there is either a design issue or flaw or the shoulder bolt was not assembled or torqued properly. bolts do not simply fall out of their own accord. if this were not an important bolt toyota would certainly not have gone to the expense of installing a hardened shoulder bolt as opposed to a regular bolt that is much less expensive. *tr

Driver's power seat stopped operating properly. took vehicle to don joseph toyota, kent ohio. they advised that the seat frame/motor assembly, part number 71120-ae100, was defective and would need to be replaced. service manager further advised that the item appeared to be a result of faulty engineering, but toyota has yet to issue a recall. service manager further advised that the vehicle could not be operated safely in its current condition. *tr