Problems with 2011 Toyota Sienna STRUCTURE

Failure of struts on rear hatch. rear hatch does not open on its own. hatch slams shut. risk of injury. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact received a notification for nhtsa campaign number: 14v273000 (structure: body). after contacting both the dealer and the manufacturer, the contact was informed that a remedy to repair the defect had not yet been developed and no estimated time to get the vehicle repaired could be provided.

The air conditioner housing is leaking water onto safety-critical parts. this housing is made of plastic parts that are glued together. water is condensed during the cooling cycle, and it then collects at the bottom and exits the vehicle through a rubber hose. the glue holding the housing together has failed. water is leaking from the housing and running onto the computer module that deploys the airbags. i have been advised by the dealer that it is not safe to drive the vehicle with a wet module because the airbags can deploy while moving, or that they might not deploy in the event of a collision. an identical problem affects toyota models camry, avalon, and venza. this recall can be found at: www.toyotanews.pressroom.toyota.com the recall info is: releases/toyota/recall+camry+avalon+venzaoct17 this will turn into a serious safety issue as these vehicles get older water can leak onto the deployment module without being seen. in my particular case, the water had apparently been leaking for some time - perhaps a year or two - and was detected purely by chance. there was significant rust on the floorboard of the vehicle. i have discussed the issue with toyota, and they refuse to do anything about it. the circumstances of the recall on camry, avalon, and venza appear to be identical to the circumstances i have experienced, yet there is no recall on the sienna. this appears to be an unsafe condition. i would appreciate it if you will take a look. *tr

Within one week of purchase, the driver side, power assist sliding door failed to open completely. after initially opening six inches it would only move four inches in either direction by pulling the exterior handle. only with multiple pulls/jerks could the door be fully opened or closed. this problem would manifest unpredictably, most often with the driver side power door, but once with the passenger side. otherwise the doors functioned properly about eighty percent of the time. this failure appears to involve a safety feature which prevents the door from advancing when sufficient resistance is met. in all cases of failure no mechanism for resistance was found. my fear is that the safety feature may also fail when it needs to perform properly, to prevent an arm or leg from being crushed. *tt

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated that the rear driver's side sliding door would close independently. the vehicle was taken to the dealer where the technician diagnosed that the power door motor was defective and needed to be replaced. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was 68,000 and the current mileage was 92,150. updated 03/31/14*lj updated 04/1/2014 *js

I was trying to park my van inside a campsite, driving at approx 1.2 mph when my van took off like a rocket. i couldn't stop the car even by braking. luckily my van went into a ditch, airbags opened up, van went down the ditch and came up at an angle and stopped. i was badly hurt and passed out for few minutes, taken to a local hospital emergency room. the 16 page report ordered by toyota thru' a 3rd party clearly showed that the car went from 1.2 mph to 31.5 mph, engine rpm went from 800 to 4800 rpm in 4.2 secs. i checked with a reputable auto mechanic. he commented that no one can manually ramp the engine rpm to 4800 rpm. it is clearly an issue with toyota's electronic system. toyota has denied any issue with their car in a letter to me.i want the national highway transportation safety admin to take my case against toyota. i will be glad to email the report and toyota letter to you. please reply soon. *tr

(toyota, sienna 2011) passenger automatic sliding door anti-jam sensor failed. object (macbook) was placed in door pocket compartment. door switch was pressed and door began opening. macbook did not completely clear the doors path completely and door began crushing it. i could hear something wasn't right and saw the door bend the laptop and park in the fully open position. you could clearly see and hear the door had met an obstacle and was struggling, but just pressed through it. door made no attempt to stop or reverse. the macbook was damaged. the whole machine was bent by the door and i can no longer fit a cd in the optical slot because it is now curved rather than flat. these doors are strong enough be bend metal! the "anti-jam" system failed. after seeing that, i really think that these doors have to capability to seriously inure someone.

Sienna parked inside garage. garage door was open. i slammed the trunk door to close it. my 10 year old son complained why i slammed door; i could have closed it gently. i told him because sometimes the trunk door does not close although it appears to have closed. we got in the sienna. i started engine. garage door still open. i reversed the car. then heard small noise from the back. then i saw the trunk door was up and open in up position. i parked the car, went back. the sienna tag plate was broken half in the middle, apparently hitting the garage door. i closed the door down. slowly backed the car out of the garage. then my wife and i had to force the garage to close because the car's backdoor knocked one of its gliding wheels off track. we had to force it back in. the door opener was off the track as well. one day later after trying several times, the door was back working again. we are testing the door now. the car drives fine. ~10 days i dumped books off library and closed the trunk door. after going through a roundabout for 0.7 mile, the signal flashed indicating the trunk door was loose. i had to pull over to close it. my wife also said several times now she had the same problem: the door went loose and then signaled us it was loose minutes or miles after we started the engine and left the parking slot. *tr

The power sliding doors failed on the vehicle and while i was driving down the road the door started sliding open. my kids were safely fastened in their seatbelts but the latch and safety latches both failed and this could have resulted in an accident or injury. the dealer said the latches corroded which cause the failure and proper lubrication could have prevented the defect but i can't find that anywhere in the service manual and i asked the dealer to show me that on their list of checks and he did not have any documentation that they check that. i have heard that many of these latches fail and need to be replaced but toyota doesn't seem to think it is an issue. *tr

The rear hatch struts blew causing the rear hatch to close automatically and forcibly. luckily, only my husband was under the hatch at the time and could stop it from hurting someone. it would have seriously injured one of our children if they were under the hatch. it happened very suddenly and unexpectedly. there is an existing recall on older sienna vans to for the exact same issue. the design change does not seem to mitigate against the failure. we also see that other vehicles including other 2011 vans continue to have this problem. we are asking you to contact the company to discuss the recall with them and see if the recall is not mitigating the risk of this failure. i would not want a child (one of the reasons in purchasing a mini-van) get hurt with a hatch collapsing on them. *tr

Tl* takata recall. the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated that the driver and passenger side sliding doors failed to open and opened inadvertently. the vehicle was taken to three different dealers for diagnostic testing, but the technician could not locate a failure. in addition, the vehicle was taken to another dealer where it was diagnosed that the sliding door motor and the control bottom that controlled the sliding doors failed and needed to be replaced. the vehicle was repaired. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign numbers: 16v340000 (air bags) and 16v858000 (structure); however, the parts needed for the repair were not available. the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 65,000. vin tool confirms parts not available.

Takata recall sliding door behind the driver seat is not working automatically many times. sometimes it doesn't work and left open, so have to push hard by hand forcefully. my nhtsa recall no. is 16v-858 on interim notice but took almost two months to wait and never been received the letter to bring to the dealer to be repaired.

The opening sequence of power sliding doors on both sides of this vehicle is out-of-sequence when opened with the door handle. when using door handle, there is a lound noise when door first open, it caused by the mechanical latch were not completly open before the door was pulled by dorr's motor. this prolonges "jerk" could eventually cause the latch to break or defected to the point it can not fully latched on and may cause door to open while driving. this problem is not detected if door opening using remote control or inside vehicle buttons. *tt

Water accumulating in fold-down compartment for third row seats. standing water noticed under carpet. dealership unable to replicate leak. *tr

Roof rack detachment on highway: we have the toyota sienna oem roof rack cross bars installed when we purchased the vehicle, but never had actually attached anything to the cross bars. while driving down the highway, we heard a bang, looked in the mirror and saw my cross bar in the road. immediately, pulled over and confirmed that the cross bar had in fact detached from our car and fell in the road behind us. the remaining cross bar was still on, but was cocked and the tightening mechanism was loose. our concern: the special installation practice has been explained to me by the parts manager. apparently, this new clamp design requires the user assure perpendicular alignment of the lower clamp plate to the roof rack, otherwise when you tighten the screw you can get a false tight sense, when the plate is cocked and not true. so, i see many things wrong with this design: (1) too much reliance on following proper installation to assure product is safely secured. (2) how tight is tight on the screw? no instructions provided? (3) excessive reliance on the owner to check this part for the life of the car - service manager says this must be intermittently tightened by the owner? where is this in the service manual? (4) it also appears that toyota may have introduced this "easy to remove" design to appeal to those customers which complained on how long it takes to remove the earlier model roof racks (<2011), but in turn have compromised on quality and more importantly safety. (5) not only is this a unique design for the toyota lineup of cars, it is also a unique in the industry design, which has for many years now established a history of having positive locking and redundant installations for roof rack cross bars. i wrote letter, and toyota said our insurance covers such things, and for us to work with our dealer, rather than main company. updated ivoq 03/20/12 *tr

Tl* takata recall. the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign numbers: 16v858000, 16v340000, and 11v560000 (structure, air bags, equipment). the parts to do the repair were unavailable. the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the dealer was not contacted. the manufacturer was contacted three months ago and stated that they would send the parts to urbana, il. a case number was provided. the contact had not experienced a failure. parts distribution disconnect. updated 11/01/17*lj *tr

The power sliding doors on both sides stopped working. must open and close the sliding doors manually. none of the open buttons on the car or remote responds to opening the sliding doors. just a beep is heard when the key is pressed. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated the driver's side automatic sliding door jammed and failed to release open until body force was applied to the door. the failure occurred fifty times. the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer twice and they were unable to duplicate the malfunction. the contact planned to notify the manufacturer of the defect. the approximate failure mileage was 8,000.

During the test drive and inspection of 2011 toyota sienna van the driver's side rear sliding door would close without touching the button or handle. the dealer (rep) told me that he had pressed the close button too many times and that's why it shut during the inspection of the vehicle. after taking the vehicle home the driver's rear sliding door shut on me while i was getting a small child out of a car seat-i did not touch the button or door handle. after the same thing happened 4-5 more time i took the 2011 sienna van back to the dealer and told them that i would not take the vehicle back until the problem was fixed. the dealer replaced the motors in both sliding doors. the problems has continued and after research have found that this is a common complaint regarding the sliding doors on the sienna vans. between tire problems and door problems it's not worth the time or hassle. *tr

Purchased our new 2011 sienna xle awd in july 2010, from koons toyota in westminster, md. in early september 2011, my wife complained of a bad odor in the van. on 09/10/11 i combed through the van, thinking that one of our children had spilled or dropped something that was causing the smell. instead, i found that the floor of the van, under the carpets, was soaked throughout. i immediately called the dealer, and they picked up the van on 09/12/2011. the following day i received a call from the dealer's service advisor, who informed me that the problem was worse had been immediately apparent: water was actually pooling under the carpets. he also said their mechanics had spend all day on the problem and had not been able to determine how the water had seeped into the car, and that the next step was for a toyota regional specialist to look at the van, that week. a few days later, that happened, but that technician, too, was unable to solve the problem. as a result, the dealer essentially said it was my problem. i then called toyota usa hq and, too, my insurance company (usaa); with the former, i initiated a case/complaint, with the latter, a comprehensive claim. on september 22, i sent toyota hq a certified letter which, 1) requested that the company replace or buy back our van, and 2) gave notice that i was filing a lemon law complaint with the maryland attorney general's consumer protection affairs office. in the meantime, my comprehensive insurance covered the water remediation effort of carpet and materials replacement, notwithstanding the fact that the source of the water intrusion was never diagnosed. on 10/07/2011, i received notice from the dealer that the "repairs" (i.e., carpets, sound-deadener replaced, car "oxinated" (sp?), and detailed), but that the smell was still there. after one month no answer to why a new $40k van is soaked inside. *tr

Satellite buttons overhead console for sliding doors are now inoperable for driver's side sliding door. took to dealer who after seeing the issue came back and said unable to duplicate.very concerned...... *tr

After arriving home with my 2 kids yesterday, we were getting out of the vehicle (2011 toyota sienna xle)- my 2 1/2yr old daughter was getting out of the passenger side power door while i was about to get my 3 month old son out of the driver side power door. my 2 1/2yr old daughter pushed the power door button to close her door after getting out of the vehicle and was holding onto the van to gain her ground, at which time the power sliding door closed entirely on her right hand! it did not open with the door sensor as we were told it would do if anything was in the path of the door closing. when i frantically tried to pull open the door from the inside, and push the power door button, the door would not open and she just kept screaming from the other side. i had to put the keys back in the ignition just to open the door and free my daughter! it was a prolonged, scary and traumatizing ordeal that i hope no one else ever has to experience! when you are told the power doors and windows are on a sensor they need to actually function 100%, not only for a large object like a body obstructing the door/window, but also children's hands- after all this is a family vehicle that i was under the impression was built on safety! *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact received a recall notice for nhtsa campaign number: 16v858000 (structure). the parts to do the repair were unavailable. the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the manufacturer was not notified of the issue. in addition, the contact observed an abnormal noise and movement from the rear seats. the dealer was unable to duplicate the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was unknown. vin tool confirms parts not available. updated 04/19/17 lj *cn

Purchased a 2011 toyota sienna limited on june 25th. next morning, after the car had been in dry weather and garaged overnight, i pulled it out to find the entire rear storage area by the back door was soaking wet with water standing in puddles and the rear welds corroded. it is apparent the water has been there for some time. after wringing out 4 beach towels, i put an industrial fan on it for 5 hours. it's still wet. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. while driving approximately 15 mph, the rear passenger sliding door opened without warning. the failure recurred numerous times. the vehicle was taken to the dealer, but was not diagnosed or repaired. the contact received notification of nhtsa campaign number: 16v858000 (structure) and stated that the part needed for the repair was not available. the contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. the manufacturer was made aware of the failure. the approximate failure mileage was 1,500. vin tool confirms parts not available.

Both power-sliding side van doors on my 2011 toyota sienna xle awd do not function properly or safely in all instances when using the exterior door handles. approximately 25% of attempts to open the side doors using the exterior door handles to activate the power slide mechanism fail. the failure results in the doors only opening about six inches, then stopping in place while an audible alarm sounds. the gap is large enough for an adult or child to put arm through the gap. after the audible alarm ceases, the door can be manually closed in a "jerky" fashion. the door failure only happens when using the exterior handles. when using the key fob, interior controls located in the ceiling above the rear view mirror, or interior controls near the sliding doors, the doors work correctly. *tr

My 2 year old daughter got her leg caught in the back part of the sliding door of a 2011 toyota sienna. she was inside the car. the door was opened. her leg fell into the space while the door was opening. the door opened as far as it could and constricted her leg. her leg was so tightly constricted we could not reposition her body to open the door. averill park fire dept and sand lake ambulance arrived on the scene. she was trapped(screaming) for 20 -25 minutes. her leg was cold and turning blue before it was removed. we went to the hospital concerned for internal bleeding, broken leg, and other complications. she is doing fine but i'm very concerned about the design of the door. i've looked at other minivans (even the same make and model but different year) and they don't have the gap in the back part of the door like the 2011 toyota sienna. updated ivoq 07/27/11 *tr

Side power door does not open. handle is used to open door during normal operation. power slider opens about 6 inches and then sticks. a alarm sounds. power slide motor stops door from opening. door jumps back and forth and will not open regardless of amount of force used. door will close if pushed shut. problem is intermittent and has not been dealt with by dealer which has been complained about and documented throughout the last year. dealer unable to repeat issue. dealer has accused owner of not using handle correctly. in an emergency situation this failure could result in passengers being trapped in passenger compartment because of this hazard. this problem is documented by other owners on toyota forums and other nhtsa safety complaints. *tr

Driver side power door is not opening on its own. with very few miles the door refused to open and close on its own power. as time progressed the door is now not functional in power mode. the van currently has 20000 miles. dealer blamed customer for problem as the car was "too dusty". dealer is going to attempt to fix under warranty but warned customer if the van is continually driven on gravel roads that the customer will need to wash the car after every dusty trip to ensure the doors do not fail again. the passenger power door is now starting to fail. it was never disclosed to customer that car cannot be driven on gravel or dusty roads. the customer must drive on gravel roads daily so the van is now all but useless for its intended purpose. additionally the lack of the driver side sliding door to open is a safety concern for rear seat passengers. if the passenger door were to become damaged in an accident the rear occupants would be unable to safely exit the vehicle. *kb

Tl*the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the vehicle was parked with the rear lift gate open; however, the contact pressed the button to close the lift gate and she attempted to take an item from inside the vehicle and nearly sustained an injury when the lift gate continued to close. the contact thought there would be an automatic override system in place to stop the lift gate from closing if an object was obstructing its path. the vehicle was not taken to the dealer for diagnostic testing. the manufacturer was notified and advised the contact that the vehicle was not equipped with a feature to automatically stop the door from closing. the failure and current mileages were 6,400. the vin was unavailable.

2011 toyota sienna le power sliding doors have jammed multiple times. has happened 4-5 times now with only 285 miles on it. this is potentially a very serious malfunction that could cost a life. all passengers should be able to evacuate if needed. called toyota but they say they have not gotten any complaints? will take it in and see what they say. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated that the vehicle was included in nhtsa campaign numbers: 11v560000 (equipment) and 16v858000 (structure). the dealer (gateway toyota, 395 nj-37, toms river, nj 08753, (732) 240-2000) made no mention as to when the remedy and parts would be available. the vehicle was not repaired. the contact stated that the sliding doors failed to open and close properly. the manufacturer was informed of the failure and the recalls to determine when the dealer would be able to provide a solution. the failure mileage was not available. parts distribution disconnect.

Driver side power sliding door on 2011 toyota sienna repeatedly (but intermittently) jams upon opening -- happened almost immediately after purchased. because the problem was not replicated by toyota service and no computer error code was registered, they were prohibited by toyota from attempting to solve the problem. this was despite that fact that i had phone video documenting the problem, a toyota salesperson observed the door jammed, and previous toyota technical service bulletins related to the sienna power sliding door problems (bo010-01). i was told that until enough people complain, toyota won't recognize that there is a problem and won't do anything about it. this is reminiscent of the toyota accelerator problem that they refused to address until they were forced to. *tr

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated that the passenger and driver side sliding doors were becoming jammed intermittently. the vehicle was inspected by the dealer and they advised the contact that there was no remedy for the failure. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was approximately 1,310. the vin was unavailable.

Tl*the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact stated that upon opening the passenger sliding door he heard a loud popping noise. he also noticed that the drivers side sliding door was also making the same noise. the vehicle was inspected by a dealer who informed him that they were aware of the failure, but they do not have a current repair for it. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was approximately 8,000.

Purchased 2011 sienna le van in october 2010. almost immediately the power sliding doors intermittently open an inch or less & alarm sounds. you can't open or close door at this point. you have to man-handle it to close. even turning off the power door with the switch does not help. took it to the dealer & they said toyota corp. knows about it but no idea how to repair. i should just check back at next 5000 miles check. what if door gets stuck open & it's raining.... only option is to shut off the power doors & use manually. i bought this model because of the power sliding doors! *tr

Tl*the contact owns a 2011 toyota sienna. the contact noticed that the rear sliding door remained stuck in an open position intermittently. the failure occurred while using the manual operation or power assist button. the vehicle was taken to the dealer on five occasions and they were unable to duplicate the failure. a complaint was filed with the manufacturer and they advised the contact that a remedy would be available in march 2011; however, when the vehicle was taken to the dealer to be repaired the dealer informed the contact that the part was not available. the current mileage was 5,200 and the failure mileage was 100.

We bought our first minivan - a toyota sienna xle 2011- barely two weeks ago from toyota laurel, md. the second day, the steering started to creak when making turns. now, the trunk door has stopped working and the local new jersey dealership dch toyota is telling us it has been "bent". they are refusing to fix it or replace the vehicle and are telling us our insurance company needs to pay to fix it. the door is not damaged or dented/dinged in any way. it's perfectly fine, except it doesn't close anymore with the remote closing/opening buttons. we believe something is wrong with the electronics, or that the door was not correctly put in when the car was being manufactured. we have a child and would like to know what else is going to break down in this new car through no fault of our own. *tr

We have owned a 2011 toyota sienna for 1.5 weeks. yesterday our 3 year old's hand became stuck in the sliding door. he had just exited the car and his hand was in the path of the door as it was sliding closed. the door did not retract. it closed tightly and a minute or so passed before the door was able to be opened. we took him to the emergency room. no break was evident on the x rays but the doctor said an exam by an orthopedic doctor next week, after the swelling has subsided, will confirm whether there is a break or fracture. the er doctor put a fiberglass cast on his arm and told us to follow up with an orthopedic doctor after the weekend. *tr

2011 toyota sienna: the floor rug on the rear right side of the passenger seat keeps rolling up, causing an unaware passenger entering or exiting from/to the third row seat of the vehicle to trip over it. it's a safety hazard. *tr