Three problems related to brake abs warning light have been reported for the 2003 Toyota 4Runner. The most recently reported issues are listed below. Please also check out the statistics and reliability analysis of the 2003 Toyota 4Runner based on all problems reported for the 2003 4Runner.
My daughter returned from work two days ago and parked the vehicle, she did not notice anything wrong with its drivability. The next morning she started the vehicle and a loud warning tone was being emitted from the dash. She asked me to look at it and I noticed the brake and abs warning lights were on. I tried depressing the brake pedal and it went completely to the floor instantly. I tried backing up the vehicle to see if repeated braking in reverse would pump up the brakes as it does on some vehicles I have owned. That did nothing and also unlike other vehicles I have driven, the brake failure was total. There was little to no manual braking. Traveling in reverse at maybe 3 mph took four to five seconds to come to a stop. Had this occurred at 60 mph on the rural roads we live on, I don't think we would have been able to safely stop the vehicle. I can't understand why any car would be designed where some kind of electrical/computer failure would render the vehicle undrivable instantly. This could have been a fatal event had it occurred at highway speeds. In searching the internet and your 7 pages of brake related complaints on specifically 2003 4runners, there were overwhelming accounts of the brakes totally failing while driving, and many accidents reported due to this. This vehicle should be removed from the road immediately before further incident and Toyota should make owners whole due to this serious design defect.
Moving vehicle at school parking lot - 17 year old daughter driving about 3 months after getting her license. Vsc trac abs lights all came on, a low tone noise and the brake peddle was hard as a rock when depressing.
Info copy ltr fwd to Toyota regarding front suspension lower ball joint recall, customer dissatisfied w/quality of current Toyota vehicles. **reference 10140998*** on 2 occasions, the starter would only click. The vsc, trac, vsc off and abs lights illuminated and stayed on for a couple of days and finally went off on their own. Two weeks later the lights illuminated again, the consumer took the vehicle to the dealer and upon inspection, they determined a sensor inside the right wheel area had been damaged. The dealer claimed the consumer ran over something. The consumer refused to pay for the repairs. The dealer did inform the consumer if the repairs were not made the anti-lock brake system would not work.