9th Feb 2007, 08:00

Sorry to hear that Toyota is a royal pain to deal with. Try dealing with Ford! This is a tire company issue, not a car issue. Complain to the company that manufactures the tires or the NTSB. Toyota is not the only car company (BMW, Nissan, Acura) that puts run flat tires on their vehicles. These tires have had durability problems, and the tire company knows it. What sucks is that there is no space for a spare unless you have the dealer install a kit that makes the 3rd row seat fixed. It cannot be folded down and have a flat cargo area. This a link for one class action lawsuit.

http://www.autosafety.org/toyota-sienna-run-flat-tire-class-action

6th May 2007, 17:21

May 6, 2007.

I guess I am probably the only one to have a hint of a favorable comment to post, but only after the bad experiences outlined up to this point by others.

The Bad. The first run flat tires on my 2004 AWD Sienna wore out at 18,000 miles two years ago. Several complaints to the dealer and threats to "go upstairs" got the response I needed: My choice, either 4 new run flats or 5 regular tires using the back seat store-away as a wheel well (eliminating the fold down seat option), either choice at Toyota's expense. I choose the 4 new run flats.

The Good. We now have over 25,000 miles with very little noticeable wear on the new run flat tires. I am now wondering if Toyota or Dunlop could have fixed their wear-out-early problems with the run flats?

24th May 2007, 16:29

Late in 2006 Toyota did reimburse me for the cost of removing the runflats and putting on 4 new non-runflat tires. I had replaced the tires 6 months before they sent me the offer and all I had to do was to send in copies of my invoices for the new tires. I got their check came in about 5 weeks. They did not prorate the mileage which even pleased me more. Note that I had called Toyota and complained (see my previous post to this group). I am now a happy Toyota owner.

Don Hazle

Port Matilda, Pa.

23rd Aug 2007, 13:17

Dear Fellow Complainers, Aug.23,2007

We bought a 2006 AWD Sienna and are having the same run around with Toyota and Dunlop. The local dealer replaced all four of the first set of run flats for free. They had about

28,000 miles on them. We must be the lucky ones. The new runflats now have about 27,000 miles and are about worn out. This time, the dealer says there is NO warranty on the replacement tires, only the original equipment tires. I guess we should have done more research before being sucked into Toyota's claims of being customer friendly. No salesperson ever mentioned that the tires were cost prohibitive.

C.P.Hicks in VA!

23rd Aug 2007, 20:21

I have a 2004 Sienna that is not a AWD, and I am on my third set of tires, Michelins and have only 65,000 miles on it. Discount Tires says it is because the wheels are out of alignment yet Toyota rotates and balances the tires everytime I have an oil change, and I get an alignment at least once a year. Now the drifting is so bad I am going in for another alignment. Go figure-Toyota says that is normal, Discount Tire says Toyota doesn't know what they are doing, etc.

16th Oct 2007, 21:52

I found this site to be very helpful - thanks for having it here.

I own a 2006 Toyota Sienna LE Van, All Wheel Drive - AWD.

I got 30,000 miles on my tires (Bridgestone B380) - no vibration or rough ride. Tires wore out on outside edges of front tires. moved them to back and now I have worn out the outside edges on front tires once again. Should get more miles than that - in my opinion. Local dealer here in California had an attitude and said it was my fault for not rotating the tires more often. I told him I expect a better response from a Toyota dealership.

The car came with a Jack, and the place where the back left seat would normally fold down into, has room for a full size spare tire - or so it appears. There is a bracket beneath the carpet to hold the spare in place. I have just ordered a spare rim from the Toyota dealer (cost $90) and five new Michelin P225/60R17 tires from COSTCO, as well.

I don't want to have a runflat / zero pressure tire if it is not going to last better than 30,000 miles, and especially if it is hard to find that time from a dealer and even more especially if it is going to cost me an extra $150 to $200 more per tire.

I will no longer be able to fold that back left seat down so it is flat in back, so that is a bummer. I would have expected more from Toyota in their design and was truly disappointed in the poor attitude exhibited by the Service Rep at the local dealership.

18th Oct 2007, 21:37

I just posted to this site yesterday (Oct 16 21:52) and today I went to the Toyota dealer for warranty work on a broken power outlet. While I was there I asked them to rotate the tires one last time before I put the new ones on that I was buying in COSTCO next week.

See my previous entry that starts with...

" I found this site to be very helpful - thanks for having it here.

I own a 2006 Toyota Sienna LE Van, All Wheel Drive - AWD."

When showing the vehicle to the Service Rep, he said the rear tires were totally shot. I explained that I had failed to rotate the tires every 5,000 as it says in the manual, and that I learned from these internet pages that Toyota wasn't doing anything to replace such tires, so I had ordered conventional tires and would be installing them next week at my own expense. He said "let me look into the matter while your car is being serviced".

An hour later, when I picked up my car, he typed on my work invoice that the " RUNFLATS WILL BE REPLACED GOODWILL Warranty."

I could not believe it!

He said Toyota knows they had a problem with certain tires on this AWD Sienna Van. Apparently my particular tires and situation met the criteria.

He says the tires should be in tomorrow, and I 'll have the new tires on by tomorrow night.

I had already picked up my new spare wheel (it was special order by me the day before) - guess I'll save that, since I will probably be needing it for a spare when I switch over to the conventional tires once these new ones wear out in a copule of years. According to your other writers on these pages, I'll probably get less than 40,000 miles on those new tires, and I know they do cost over 100 bucks more for each of those runflats. I might as well plan on switching.

Thanks again for posting all of this super info on your pages.

PK

California.