Brake Sensor problems of the 2004 Toyota Highlander

2004 Toyota Highlander has 57,000 miles, since I owned the car the following occurs; on slippery conditions the vcs light would come on and it would take a second or so for brakes to engage. Today on a dry pavement surface (no rain or snow) the vcs light suddenly came on when traveling 20 miles an hour locking my brakes for no apparent reason making it difficult to steer. I immediately pulled car over to the side of the road tried driving again but breaks immediately locked up once I hit 10-15 miles an hour and steering wheel was also loose causing dangerous situation. I had car towed to Toyota dealership and it is currently being diagnosed, technician said the steering angle sensor is faulty and needs to be replaced $500. Not sure if this will correct the 1 second gap in break engagement on slippery surfaces which has been an issue since I first bought the car in 2004.

The car's vsc (vehicle skid control) system activated on a dry straight road. The brakes went on and reduced the speed to about 5mph, making the car undrivable. Glad this didn't happen in traffic. The car was turned off, and restarted, and I could get it to about 10mph, and then it would apply the brakes quickly and reduced power no-matter what the throttle position was, and the car was limited to about 5mph. Once this happened the car has not been able to be driven, unless the fuses for the anti-lock brakes are removed. I did this just to get it to the dealer. . . It had buzzers and warning lights going off. The dealer looked at it and thought that it was the anti-lock brake & vsc "ecu", which was going to cost $2,400, but there could be extra sensors that needed to be replaced too. This seemed very excessive so I didn't have the work done. Now the car is sitting. I've heard there is a service bulletin out on this but I haven't been able to find it. I've heard that it can be the steering angle sensor, or the wheel rotations sensors, or the g-center (accelerometer). Each one is several hundred dollars apiece. A failure in the skid control system should just stop working and not cause the brakes to be slammed on, leaving the car undrivable. And the repair cost should not be $2,500 to over $4,000. This is ridiculous.

I purchased a Toyota Highlander 4dr 4wd 4ect as a previously owned vehicle with a previously owned vehicle warranty. After owning and using the vehicle for a few months while driving in a traffic situation, the right side rear brake suddenly locked up intermittently accompanied by swerving, by panel vsc light flashes and an audible warning. This situation fortunately occurred near our residence on dry pavement. By driving very slowly we managed to get the vehicle to a safe location. It was then towed to a local Toyota dealer where it was inspected and the following diagnosis or similar was provided: customer states that the vsc lights are coming on and the brakes are locking up, yaw rate sensor is out of calibration. Recalibrated yaw rate sensor. The vehicle was released to us as repaired. The precise same vsc failure situation occurred on October 11th of this year and again we were lucky to have been in a reasonably safe location and driving under good road condition when it happened. The vehicle was picked up and towed again to the dealer facility for analysis and repair. We received the diagnosis: ?electrical repair, customer states that the vsc lights are coming on, and the brakes are locking up, yaw rate sensor is out of calibration. Recalibrated yaw rate sensor?. I was told by telephone that ?the previous repair lasted two years?. Any reasonable person would consider that the potential useful life of this vehicle should exceed two additional years. Furthermore, the failure could potentially reoccur immediately. After being told it was test driven and pronounced safe to drive I think that this is an unsafe situation waiting for another event to occur and that an accident could result from another instance of the vsc system failure. The problem was not properly located or properly repaired in each of the two occurrences. A proper repair of the vehicle after the first event would have prevented the second.

The steering sensor on the anti-skid system shorted out causing the anti-lock brakes to engage while the car was in motion. This caused a very dangerous situation. Car had to be pulled of to the side of the road in a heavy traffic environment. Car could not be driven without the anti-lock brakes engaging. Car was towed to the Toyota dealership. I asked the dealer to disconnect the anti-skid system, because this system was more dangerous than the problem it was trying to address. The dealer said that was not possible and if the steering sensor was not replaced, the car would not be drivable. If a sensor in a control system fails, it should not cause a dangerous driving situation. If a sensor fails, the brakes should not engage, the system should just become inoperable. The logic in their control system is faulty and the computer should be re-programmed to eliminate the problem. Toyota motors was informed of the problem and they choose to ignore my complain. The dealership replaced the stirring sensor for a ridiculous price and the car is able to move forward again without the anti-lock brakes engaging. My wife is again driving a car which is inherently unsafe. We are considering selling the car because of the ongoing safety problems.