30th Jul 2010, 23:39
I have the 2006 Toyota Sienna, and have had to buy several sets of new tires and new brakes yearly.
My problem now is the third row power seat back won't come up. Now, I can't use the seat and Toyota wants to charge me $800 to fix it. There was a technical service bulletin sent to the dealerships regarding this problem in June of 2009, but they won't fix it unless it is still under warranty. I rarely even stow the seat, so it is not from overuse. Why should I have to pay when Toyota admits it is faulty seat equipment? Any suggestions?
27th Sep 2010, 21:23
We have a 2005 Sienna XLE. It is great in the snow, we live in the MI snowbelt and have owned a Jeep Cherokee, a Grand Cherokee, a Suburban, and a Mitsu 4wd. For general highway and city handling on snow - the Toyota is great. We have had the following problems, though, and our vehicle is only at 100,000 with regular scheduled maintenance.
We have a leak of unknown origin in the back door seal, so when it rains, the back door accumulates water inside of it. We just had to get one of the mechanisms for the power side door replaced at a cost of $900.00.
We have peeling aluminum alloy wheels (50% of finish gone). Blaming this on the snow/brake dust is bull - we have always driven our vehicles to high miles in the snow belt, and this has never been an issue until now.
A leaking radiator seam, for which we have been quoted $900.00 by the dealer. (Leak started at 60,000). And of course the run-flats... they wore out and were replaced by the dealer once, then we replaced the second pair with non-run flats and now go without a spare. For a vehicle which cost $32,000, we expected better. No more Toyotas for us.
3rd Mar 2010, 14:35
2005 Sienna LE AWD owner. The van is "OK". The run flats are an issue. I also put winters on, and since my run flat tires outlasted the warranty period, I won't get a dime, even though I argued relentlessly over it.
I've just bought new tires, Pirelli's and not run flats... cheaper and should be quieter.
To solve the non spare issue, I bought a self sealing/self inflating unit from my local automotive store $50. Cheaper than run flats!
The rear doors have creaked every since I got it, and they've tried fixing it for years.. I gave up.
Also the A/C unit clunks unusually loud upon start up. Dealer replaced the A/C compressor clutch, but it still does the same thing.
I've got 60K Kms on the van and have already had 3 brake jobs, and this week they charged me $400 to replace a $15 gasket seal for the rear differential.
I bought this van because of Toyota's reputation... next time it's going to be a Honda.
Fun in the snow though!