general problems of the 2004 Toyota 4Runner

Unknown: excessive frame rust. Frame is excessively rusting to the point where the brakes and suspensions is connected to the frame has been compromised. Brake lines rusted to the point of failure, thus almost causing a wreck. Vehicle is now parked due to safety concerns involving the excessive rusting that is happening to the frame and any components that is attached to the frame.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota 4runner. The contact stated while driving 55 mph, the abs and the brake warning lights illuminated. Additionally, there was an abnormal humming sound coming from the dash. The contact stated while approaching another vehicle, he depressed the brake pedal, but the vehicle failed to respond, nearly causing a crash into another vehicle. The contact immediately shifted into neutral(n) and veered to the side of the road while continuously depressing the brake pedal, and the vehicle stopped. The contact was able to continue driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the abs pump had failed. The vehicle was not repaired. The dealer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 350,325.

I bought my 2004 Toyota 4runner sport edition as a new car, and have been the sole owner of the vehicle. I have taken good care of it the entire time. Regular car washes, service maintenance and necessary repairs over time. I recently had my 4runner in for repairs and spent a considerable amount of money, over $6,000 in anticipation of driving it for many more years. Following the repairs I was told by the mechanic that the frame was extremely rusted and that the entire frame would need to be replaced. There are large holes rusted through in many areas of the frame and a tremendous amount of rust over the entire frame. Rusted pieces of the frame have fallen off. I fear for the safety of my family and me if I were to drive the vehicle at all. I have barely driven it since learning of the dangerous condition of the frame. I've limited any driving at all to my immediate area, and have driven very carefully and slowly, as I am extremely concerned that there might be a catastrophic failure of the frame while driving and I may be injured or killed, or worse. . . . The vehicle might cause harm or death to another person. I am now basically without a vehicle and have been forced to rely on my daughter's car, leaving the family with only one vehicle. This is a major failure of the vehicle. I can provide photos and video at your request. Toyota must be held accountable for the failure of this frame. The vehicle is now useless. I expect Toyota to rectify this situation immediately. Please contact me as soon as possible. Thank you. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

The frame is rusted completely throughout. Very dangerous!.

Seized front right brake caliper caused vehicle to slide off road during sudden stop to avoid debris in roadway. Took vehicle to a brake shop and they found that right front wheel was locked. This is the third time I have had the exact same problem with the brake system. The previous times, the problem occurred during nice weather and with windows open I smelled the burning brake pads and was able to get the problem fixed before it became a hazard. On the first previous incident, the repair required replacement of both front brake caliper, rotors, and pads. On the second previous occasion less than 20,000 miles ago both front and rear calipers, rotors and pads were replaced. This is apparently a known defect in the 2004 Toyota 4runner, yet Toyota has not conducted a recall to fix an extremely dangerous and ongoing problem. Note: I originally purchased the vehicle in new jersey in 2004 and a virginia Toyota dealer (koons Toyota) worked on the brake system multiple times (2005-2006) and finally replaced the entire system.

Our 2004 Toyota forerunner with v6 engine was purchased as a used vehicle in 2019 with 106,000 miles on it. Since then, it has developed more and more areas of rust on the frame despite our efforts to mitigate this issue. We have had to repair the frame, suspension, brakes, and wheel bearings. We continuously inspect the undercarriage and continue to discover more and more areas of significant rust/deterioration despite efforts to clean, treat (with paint, rust inhibitors, welding repairs). We are concerned that this deterioration will soon result in a catastrophic failure and possible accident resulting in property damage, injury, or death.

Truck has been well cared for and has 330k miles on it. Always clean and maintained properly by myself and previous owners. Frame is showing signs of excessive rust in the front between the wheels and at almost all of the welded areas. Some areas of frame are coming off in chunks as it appears to be rotting from the inside out. This is also affecting fuel/brake likes as well as suspension components. Pictures can be sent upon request. Family has the car at the moment.

Chassis, brakes and all under carriage of 2004 Toyota 4 runner is rusted. Soon the car will not pass inspection. I do not live in a salt water zone. My car has never driven through salt water. I have 71,000 miles on the car. The brakes were so rusted that I had to replace them. The car will be too dangerous to drive soon.

The frame of my truck is complete mush! I've taken excellent care of my 4runner as it has been my most favorite vehicle. I'm being warned to get this fixed due to it being a dangerous situation & wouldn't you know I'm driving home & I loose all control over my vehicle on hellacious mountain roads, brakes completely gone! everything rotten! why weren't we notified how dangerous these trucks truly have become?.

Rumble when over 20 mph and turning slightly right on any surface.

Kings Toyota dealership informed me that the frame is rusted so severely that it is unsafe to drive the vehicle. Service technician says rust is so bad they cannot put it on a lift. .

My 2004 Toyota 4 runner is in the dealer for routine maintenance. Most of the car maintenance have been at this local Toyota dealership. I just had the cv boots and sway bar bushings replaced this past spring and summer. I have the records for these particular maintenance and repair. My service mechanic mentioned there is significant amount of rust on the frame/ chassis. On September 7, the mechanic at the same dealership showed me again the excessive rust on the frame. It is so severe, one of the loops for towing the truck in the front of the frame just broke off. I attached the picture of the broken hook/loop in this document. The truck has 102,000 miles on it. It is mostly in the garage if not being used. I understand that other models in the same years like the Toyota tacoma & Toyota seqoiua have the same excessive rust but there is an already recall program for these models. Do the 4 runner from the same years have the same frames. Why is there no recall for the 4 runner for the excessive rust isssue which can be a safety problem for the driver and the passengers? the mechanic does not reccomend me driving this car due to the excessive rust. The mechanic warned me that rust is so excessive that my radiator can just fall off because the part of the frame holding it in place is so corroded from rust. I am hoping Toyota can address this issue sooner than later. It is a safety issue.

I've put a down payment of 1200 at premier auto sales . In victoria TX I left feel positive about the vehicle . The sales man told me as soon as they get a mechanic to look at it . It didn't have an inspection either . So I took it to p&h all they did was right in a paper an sent it back with me to the car lot after I picked it up from it being dead the battery terninals where horrible the check engine light came on the oil light after a brand knew oil change kept smoking so took it back so they could look at it to find out they just cleared the codes . Picked it out he following Monday well the vehicle smelt like it was burning had to use my emergency brake to stop . Called them and the sales lady in the front said it wasn't their problem still within the 30 day period so took it to the brake place down the road from them my brakes were so back they had to change everything he said I could have caused a wreck because of them being so wore down . I called to make arrangement with them and they were just being ugly about the situation over all . I've tried to be nice and do the right think this was unsafe for me as well as my children .

The fram is excessively rusted from years in �cold weather states.

Driving (slowly), every light on the console lit up dealing with, abs, traction etc. . . Accompanied with a high pitch warning tone, depressed on the brakes to stop. . . Only no brakes, used the emergency brake to successfully stop, no incident. Called a tow truck to take to dealership. Toyota dealer said codes c1223 (abs control malfunction), c1252 (hydro-booster pump motor) and c1256 (accumulator low pressure) appeared. When he checking the codes, there was already a service bulletin showing previous (known) issues with this. I call this a serious design flaw, no component should render the braking system useless and not be a recall. Researched online and many complaints about the same thing happening on automotive forums and such. We were quoted $3000. 00(ish) to repair. We were very lucky to not be traveling at high speeds in traffic. Reported this to Toyota corporate/regional support.

Tl the contact owns a 2004 Toyota 4runner. The contact stated that the check engine indicator illuminated when the vehicle was started and remained illuminated. The vehicle was taken to big island Toyota kailua-kona (808-329-8517, located at 74-5504 kaiwi st, kailua, hi 96740) to be diagnosed, but the failure recurred. The contact also stated that the brake fluid level was above normal. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failures. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 120,000.

The brake get hard and abs, brake vsc and trac sign came on with alert whistle while I was driving in the neighbothood luckily. . Mechanic said it is rare to go bad but it is brake booster assembly goes bad. Is this the same issue as prius?.

When I returned to my home and pulled into my garage, an alarm sound went off in the dashboard and all of the dashboard warning lights came on. The car was driving fine just prior. The next morning I went to try to drive it to drive it to the dealer and noticed that my brake pedal was very hard to push and had virtually no braking ability. After getting the car towed to the dealership, they said it needed a new abs actuator assembly (aka an abs module). The brakes themselves were replaced within 2 years prior to this incident. On the day that the incident happened, I did some research online to see what the alarm and warning lights were indicative of. I saw that this had happened to other people most of which had it happen while driving and were therefore left with the inability to brake. I feel fortunate that this did not happen while I was driving, possibly leading to a serious, if not fatal, accident.

I was driving home at around 50 mph and had to brake and suddenly the vsc/abs brake dash indicator lights came on and a loud alarm started to sound. I did not hit anything, I just pressed the brake pedal and whole system went off. I was very close to the exit to a Toyota service center, a couple blocks away, so I drove very carefully to it and parked the car. When the service representative started the car again, the vsc, abs, brake dash indicator lights illuminated with the audible alarm once again. She also said the brakes were hard and that I should not drive it anywhere. Replacement of the system cost me around $3700, out of pocket. Since there was no accident or collision, my insurance company said they don't cover maintenance repairs. After checking if there had been a recall on this issue, which there wasn't and reading about other Toyota owners experiencing the same problems with the vsc/abs brake dash electronic system, I truly believe there should be a recall on the Toyota vehicles using this vsc/abs brake system. A faulty brake system is a very dangerous issue that needs to be addressed. My car has only around 60k miles on it and I am the original owner of this Toyota 4runner.

Rear breaks - left and right (both) sides ceased up.

8/6/14-started my 2004 4-runner to leave work and a high-pitched alarm sound started and the vsc, abs, and other dash light symbols came on. I reversed out of my parking spot, and braked, and nothing other than those things was out of the ordinary. I pulled forward and pulled into another spot and called my husband to let him hear what was going on to see if he knew what it may be. He asked me to reverse, pull forward, and see what else I heard/saw, so I did so driving a short distance (about 5 parking spaces away) attempting to exit the 4th level of the parking garage I was in. I started to brake to turn left and no brakes. I pushed the brake petal as hard as I could with both feet and nothing, so I pushed the parking break and as it came to a stop, I panicked and threw it into park. I was within 1 foot of the concrete wall 4 stories off the ground. Got it to a local dealer and told them I just got new brakes 6 weeks ago, could they have possibly gone bad? they called and said it was the abs module that needed replaced and the used part and labor is $3000 and the new part and labor is $5500. 00. This is not normal wear and tear. Others have had this issue and are being told "rare defect". This "rare defect" could have barreled me through a concrete wall or worse. Thankfully no one was in the parking garage with me at the time and I was at a minimal speed. I was leaving during a lunch break. Had I been leaving and this occurred after work, I would have hit someone. What will it take to get Toyota to fix this "rare defect"? I have a call into them and of course, no call back yet. So, I'm currently stuck with a vehicle that had a recall for an acceleration issue and a "rare defect" for a brake issue.

While approaching a red stop light, the abs, brake! vsc off, vsc trac lights all came on along with a loud buzzer. I had no idea what was happening. 1 block later I pulled into a parking lot that was luckily empty, because when I went to brake to stop the truck, I had no brakes. . . Zero!!! I had the truck towed to my mechanic. I have come to find out, that it's the abs module and unattanable with Toyota at $2500 plus the installation. We are trying to find a used one, but apparently they are in high demand and very hard to find. This sends off a few red flags in itself. I have read countless stories about people in the same situation, some have not had an outcome as mine, and have had crashes and injuries and I wonder how many deaths have resulted from this. I have also read that Toyota has turned their backs on this problem, doing nothing for the consumer, no recalls, no warnings and no accountability. I find this frightening and wonder how many injuries and deaths it will take before Toyota opens their eyes and steps up to remedy this very dangerous problem. My truck is now worthless and undrivable until we can hopefully find a part, and am forced to rent a vehicle until the situation is resolved. I'm hardly in a position to pay for this very expensive repair when it really is a faulty item on the vehicle and there are countless others who are dealing with the same issue. It's revolting that Toyota issues a recall for front floor mats, but nothing for a faulty brake system. How many injuries/deaths does it take before Toyota takes accountability and does something for the consumer aside from charging a small fortune for a part that is not readily available? I am thanking god daily that I wasn't on the highway. . . I wouldn't be writing this, had I been. I'm done with Toyota and will take this to any level needed for resolution before someone else is injured or dies.

I experienced a terrifying "acceleration problem" this past week as I was parking my car at a local store. I'd already slowed down to almost a halt, but as I put my foot on the brake to come to a complete stop, it suddenly lurched forward with shocking speed. I instinctively threw the gear into park; it stopped as it crashed into the steps leading to the store entrance. The cause had nothing to do with a floor mat (I don't have any) nor "sticking" gas pedal (the car had already come almost to a halt before it suddenly accelerated). The brakes were useless and felt like they were disengaged; acceleration may have occurred after depressing the brake pedal (this is still cloudy in my mind). I bought the car new, in 2004. This is the first time I've had any problem. I wondered what I might have done to cause the problem after so many years without any. I realized I'd never used the cruise control feature, until recently, only in the past few months. I was not using the cruise control feature when the incident occurred, but the sudden forward surge felt exactly like what happens when the car is on cruise control and drops beneath the speed at which it's set; it surges forward, on "its own. " I believe there's a causal relationship. My concern is two-fold: fixing a potentially deadly problem in my own Toyota, and helping identify the cause of the problem so it can be fixed by Toyota before another tragedy.

I opened the passenger side door to place my bag down. The car rolled out of gear down my driveway with my daughter in the front seat. Then I had to jump into the rolling car to put it back into park and the keys were not in the ignition.

Vehicle was being parked alongside the curb when it suddenly jumped the curb, the sidewalk onto the uphill grassy landscape, hit and severed a tree, and almost crashed the house inches away, then bounced back to the street- all in about 3 seconds. The tires spun violently and left a thick residue of rubber and thick smoke throughout. The brake was hard and stuck , as I managed to put the stick to neutral and then to park. I was truly shocked and shaken that I could have hurt or killed myself or others. This is the second time this happened- the first in July 22, 2009 when the same acceleration happened when I was moving the vehicle into the garage, surged in about 2 secs. Crashing into the storage and the garage walls. Reference: Toyota claim no. [xxx] (2009) and no. [xxx] (2012). In both cases Toyota disowned any responsibility. While Toyota assures me of the safety of the vehicle, I cannot in my right mind continue to drive this vehicle nor pass it on to somebody else except to return it to Toyota. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Drive shaft is clanging, banging, causing slamming with the braking action surging forward several feet before stopping.

2004 Toyota 4runner limited, has excessive chassis rust and rotted out at some point on the sub frame, contacted the dealer and there is no recall available also called Toyota and recall is not available. I am afraid that the chassis will break and cause an accident.

Brake pedal spongy, not stopping like it should ( extended stopping range) uneven brake pad wear smell of hot brakes when used hard.

Dirt road, moderate braking, slight skid, abs/trac/vsc lights illuminated, second time happened. Reset the first time manually by tricking computer to reset. Second time, no go. Vsc/abs/trac computer may be bad.

The driver took the vehicle in for maintenance. The mechanic noticed the brakes and other parts needed replacing because they were rusted and corroded.