Table 1 shows one common equipment related problems of the 2023 Toyota Highlander.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Equipment problems |
While driving down the highway I went over a bridge joint and my sunroof suddenly exploded sending glass both into and off the back of the vehicle. I was able to find the moment of the explosion on my rear dashcam (saw the falling glass) and checked the front dashcam for any evidence of an object that would have impacted and did not find any. Neither I or my two passengers saw an object hit. The front dashcam also confirmed rough pavement near the bridge joint that would have caused some vibration in the vehicle.
I bought this vehicle new in March 2024. I normally use apple carplay for music and more importantly maps. Approximately 1 year after purchase, I was driving along and all of a sudden a new screen appeared with a keyboard requesting that I sign in with my email address. To clear the screen, I had to hit the small "x" in the upper right hand corner of the screen. That cleared and then a new screen appeared in blue saying "experience drive connect" and asking me to subscribe to their software service for navigation and other services. To get back to the map on apple carplay I had to hit another button on the upper left of the screen. I will upload screenshots. This is a safety issue not only in losing the map but more importantly it takes my eyes off the road to resolve (the buttons are small and not easily pushed while driving. ) this happens multiple times a day in short around town drives. I googled this on line and noted many complaints by Toyota owners for the same problem. So I asked the mechanic yesterday when I had the car serviced if he could disable the experience drive connect so I wouldn't have the problem. He laughed and said it's a common complaint by customers and that it's "hard wired" in and cannot be disabled unless you call Toyota and purchase their monthly plan for $15/month or $20/mo for the premium version. This is not only a scam but it's an unsafe feature that could be disabled if Toyota chose to make a software change. I urge you to use your influence to correct this unsafe and unethical feature of their otherwise excellent vehicles.
Air bags did not deploy during accident black box did not record any incident occurred and vehicle was totaled vehicle black box data was downloaded by manufacturer representative accident report was submitted on October 28 2025 a deer ran in front of us and we hit it at approximately 55mph vehicle was determined to be totaled after insurance adjuster reviewed sheriff deputy and tow truck driver both said air bags should have deployed. Upon receiving the pdf file of black box raw data, it states that no incident happened. I asked a relative who works for a major airline manufacturer and the opinion of their analyst for data recorders is that the computer seems to have been defective. Toyota however states the accident did not meet the parameters to register an incident. I find this answer highly suspicious at best.
Some times when I request the rear hatch to open is does nothing but most of the time when I depress the close button, it moves less than an inch and then beeps. I have had to depress the button up to 6 times before the hatch closes. The car is only 3 years old as of this month and the problems stated more than 6 months ago but my mileage was over 36,000 6 months ago so it was out of warranty. This is a joke since my 12 year old SUV has no issues with its powered hatch. There are a lot of online complaints on the power hatches. It is a safety issue of the hatches don’t close. This is almost a daily challenge (it not closing when I ask it to be closed (fob, rear hatch button as well as dash hatch button).
The vehicle's tailgate motor has started to malfunction and is failing prematurely. When opening the tailgate it makes a loud squealing noise. When attempting to close utilizing all automatic features it will stop and beep twice. After multiple attempts the tailgate remains open is unable to be closed via automatic means. This is a safety issue as it compromises the closing an opening functionality if the tailgate itself and could lead to unsecured tailgates or vehicles with an inability to close their tailgates.
Lift gate stuttering at 49k bought new. Available for inspection. Have yet to bring to dealer because they need the vehicle for the whole day. No warnings etc just loud opening. Concerned it could give way when I am grabbing groceries at any time. Seems like a widely reported issue.
I have another issue that has never happened to me before. The front passenger door just popped open while I was sitting at a red light. I had just driven for over 2 hours with it closed and locked and it made a weird sound and shifted. The light on my dash came on and I had to unlock the doors and reach over to try to open and shut the door while I was at an intersection. Help.
The front bumper assembly has come off our 2023 Highlander twice since purchase 2 years ago, the first time the entire bumper was pulled off while on the freeway(terrified my wife) and we had to pull it off and put it in the back on the Highlander and bring it to the dealership. Courtesy Toyota of brandon . This was supposedly fixed with Toyota recall campaign 23ta12 . Approximately one year later we noticed it was coming off once again, this time I tried to push it back myself but was unable to hook it up correctly and brought into the dealership. While they do recognize the vehicle is unsafe , and that there was a recall for this issue , they say it is not covered in the safety recall. I believe this is incorrect, and the recall either does not properly rectify the issue or this is a new safety concern.
Tailgate struts failed within 2k miles of the 3/36k warranty. Even with the power back door feature "off", the struts are not simply converted to normal manual hydraulics. To lift the gate and close the gate it takes significant effort and I injured my shoulder while trying to lift it while holding items I didn't want to get wet on the ground during a rain event.
My Toyota Highlander 12. 3 inch display of the instrument panel may be blank at startup. Operating the vehicle with this display blank reduces the ability to see certain malfunction indicators. This safety recall that has been active since September 11, 2025. The problem been acknowledged and confirmed by millers Toyota, in anaheim, California and Toyota in bueno park, California dealers. Their answers, Toyota currently does not have a remedy as of to date, February 17, 2026. The screen goes blank every time I start my car, while driving, or trying to access the applications on my screen. I would greatly appreciate help regarding this recall.
What component or system failed or malfunctioned, and is it available for inspection upon request? emission recall remedy not available. 2. 3 in display of the instrument panel may be blank at start up. How was your safety or the safety of others put at risk?/operating the vehicle with this display blank reduces the ability to see certain malfunction indicators remedy not available. Has the problem been reproduced or confirmed by a dealer or independent service center? yes, dealership Toyota of anaheim and buena park. Has the vehicle or component been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representatives or others? yes, Toyota of anaheim and buena park. Were there any warning lamps, messages or other symptoms of the problem prior to the failure, and when did they first appear? none.
The side mirrors (more on the drivers side) have a vibration in them no matter how smooth of a road in which I am driving. This causes the visual to be blurred and makes me dizzy. I have been driving for 30 years and not one other vehicle I have ever driven or owned has had this problem. I see that there are many other complaints online about this issue and this needs to be a recall as my dealership won’t deem it a problem under my warranty. This is a significant problem.
Instrument cluster.
Driver's side mirror has been vibrating since vehicle purchase. The issues causes vibration / shaking of the driver's side rearview mirror creating blurry traffic (in the mirror) at highway speed and is a serious safety concern. Dealership claims it is due to attachment of a blind spot mirror on my vehicle. However there are hundreds of posts online of other people discussing / complaining about this exact same issue on Toyota Highlanders and rav4. Other people are also reporting dealers claiming there is no fix. The issue can be fixed quiet easily by using a glue / tacky adhesive (or double sided tape) between the rearview mirror glass assembly and the backing plate of the mirror motor. Toyota should issue a recall since the issue is obviously prevalent and poses a safety hazard. Here are some links to other people complaining about the same issue since 2020: [xxx] [xxx] [xxx] [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).
The seat belt alarm goes off for no reason while driving, is loud and distracting and the only way to reset it is to turn off the car and restart it. Luckily, I was on a local street and was able to safely pull over. I've had this vehicle for 18 months and the alarm has gone off over 6 times now. P. S. I'm not the only one. [xxx] information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).
Unable to clear a screen on the navigation/media center. It has a pop-up for drive connect(a monthly fee based service from Toyota) that covers the screen about every 10 minutes while driving. It requires at least 2 touches to the screen to clear, but comes back in a few minutes. It's very distracting while driving especially when using the map function from my phone. I called Toyota support and they said the pop-up cannot be disabled if you dont buy the service. I asked if there was a firmware update and they said no. This is ransomware.
The multimedia center keeps poping up "experience drive connect". This covers up the map and to try and remove the ad you have to take your eyes off the road push multiple buttons on the screen to return to the map. This is dangerous at any speed. The dealer states this ad is part of a subscription service and cannot be removed. This will cause wrecks. The multimedia screen is a disaster.
I am writing to complain about the app called experience drive connect. It is a push ad for a subscription that I do not want it interferes all the time, and is a safety issue. I can be using a navigation app like waze and this blue ad will pop up, taking the place of my waze app. It will also pop up if I am listening to a podcast and want to make a change. I always have to delete it to make it go away, but then it comes back again within a minute or so. It is driving me crazy and making me hate Toyota since there doesn’t seem to be anyway to get rid of it. Please help as this is a dangerous safety issue. I have reported it to the branding service at Toyota and encouraged other people to also report it. Thank you for your help aloha, [xxx] . Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).
The car absolutely reeks of gas after driving for a while on warm days. You can visibly see the fumes around the filler neck. It has been the the dealer multiple times and they say they can't find anything. It seeps into the car causing headaches and dizziness. I personally know of 2 2023 Highlanders and 1 2024 Highlander that have this issue. I am extremely worried this will cause a fire and/or explosion at some point.
I am on carplay maps following direction and suddenly a pop up come up on the screen advertising the Toyota driver experience connect subscription or asking me to reset the Toyota apps pin. In order to come back to the maps, I need to take my eyes off the road to click a couple of times to carplay. This is dangerous as it happens every 5 to 10 minutes.
I own a 2023 Toyota Highlander, purchased in December 2022 (VIN 5tdxbrch0p568108). After an initial trial period of a service called "drive connect" expired and I chose not to renew and pay for the service, I get an advertisement popup on my multimedia screen every 5-10 minutes while driving. The popup closed out of my apple car play, which I use for navigation, it is very distracting and a safety concern. I do not want this service and when I reached out to Toyota to opt-out of the advertisement, I was told there was nothing they can do. Toyota is using disruptive marketing practices that cause safety concerns while driving. Toyota needs to remedy this situation by either removing the advertisement or providing this service without a fee. I have uploaded a picture of the message I get every 5-10 minutes while driving, this message continues to appear every 5-10 minutes after I dismiss it, regardless of how long the drive is and how many times I close out of it. I have reached out to Toyota, they have stated that it cannot be removed. Having to take my eyes off the road to dismiss this message and get back to my driving directions is akin to texting and driving. This is unacceptable. Thank you for your help in resolving this issue.
The plastic bumper cover on the front of the vehicle came detached as I was driving 60mph in a construction zone. It got sucked underneath the front of the vehicle and was grinding against the front tires. There is even damage to the driver side bumper from this. I pulled over as soon as we were out of the construction zone, and we pulled the bumper out from under the car. This could have been a much bigger issue! it could have caused an accident that could have injured or killed someone. What if the bumper flew off into another vehicle and caused the driver to lost control? what if the bumper hit the tire just right and caused me to lose control and have an accident? it is my understanding that there is a safety recall for this very issue. However, I was made known of the safety recall in October of 2023. It is now March of 2024, and there is still no “official” remedy available. This is unacceptable! I am told by the dealership and the manufacturer that I am just supposed to drive around without my bumper attached for an unknown amount of time until a remedy is available. I am very concerned about the safety issues at hand and I would urge that a remedy be made available for this matter immediately.
While driving on the freeway, the sunroof just spontaneously exploded. The hole was right on the center of the sunroof. I am suspecting the explosion is due to weak material used on the vehicle not withstanding thermal expansion. In any case, this is very dangerous and can cause accident. How many more incident to you need until you investigate this matter. Please investigate this matter, so the issue can be remediated. Thank you stephanie abcede by the way, sunroof option for issue is not even an option on your list. Please put this on your radar.
I took my car for recall inspection because I want to work on turo car rental. Dealership is denying an inspection on my car. I visited Toyota elgin dealership.
Unknown.
The warning lights go on for no apparent reason. Dash instrumen just disappear for no apparent reason and then reappear randomly. Such as compass disappearing and reappearing throughout the drive at long stretches at a time. The forward and rear collision warning system just come on when nothing is close to vehicle. The blind spot monitoring system doesn’t always show up on right side of vehicle. Doesn’t matter speed or road conditions. It randomly happens throughout our regular commute and not. The warning buzzer goes off but doesn’t say what is the problem. Went off for over half an hour even when car was stopped and car turned off. Dealership not able to figure out why. Said to bring it in while doing it. By time I get there it’s done. I live 1/2 hour away. They drive it and say blind spot working like supposed to. I showed them videos of how it’s not working and they tell me it’s fine. Yet even a semi truck didn’t show up in blind spot or a ups truck. They say unless it throws a code every thing is fine. Yet I’ve had clear roads, no rain no traffic nothing and had my collision warning lights and sounds go off and not stop for up to 5-10 minutes.
Toyota has a software program called drive connect. This is built into their 2023 and 2024 vehicles. This program has a navigation system and some other features that Toyota offers for about $200 per year. Toyota gives you 12 months free when you buy a new car. When that year is up, they have a built in advertisement that pops up repeatedly and takes over the display screen. The “experience drive connect” screen blocks everything on your screen including other navigation systems, phone, audio, etc. So, the driver must take their eyes off the road to touch the screen multiple times to make the ad disappear for a few minutes and then it returns a few minutes later. So, the driver has to repeat the process every 5 to 10 minutes. Obviously this is annoying, but more importantly, it is distracting and dangerous. The dealers cannot fix this because it is built into Toyota's software program. I have written to the ceo of Toyota, tetsu ozawa, but have not received any response. Please require Toyota to fix this because there are hundreds of driver out there driving distractedly.
The right side blind spot warning does not always show a vehicle is in blind spot. The forward collision will alert will start and keep beeping for up to 3 minutes when nothing is in the area. I pulled into driveway and the vehicle started to beep a warning but no warning message showed up on dash. It continued for 30 minutes even after I turned off car. Then started it and drove it a mile and parked it again. I get on the overhead view a generalized warring. But doesn’t say what it is then goes away. This has happened a couple of times when driving. All doors shut, all seat belts locked if someone is in seat, it starts after driving for some time. No apparent reason it starts and stops but is a hazard if trying to drive and figure out why it’s beeping like something is wrong. I also have paint chipping off back bumper on the top for no apparent reason. The back liftgate doesn’t always close even when nothing is in the way. It doesn’t always open when you push the button the first time. The crossbars for luggage installed by Toyota does not keep end cap on on drivers side front and I had to pay to get new ones. The problem is the rail does not hold the cap tight.
While driving in rain, I noticed drops of water coming into the car near the sunroof. I immediately drove to jim norton Toyota. The service technician told me that sunroofs are not waterproof. I went to bob howard Toyota for another inspection/more details. They informed me that it was a new design flaw. The sunroof sealant and gasket to do not align with the sunroof perfectly as older models do. Small drops of water will occur when it is raining. The "drip pain" underneath the back part of the sunroof will catch the water and the drain tubes will remove those from the car. They said drain tube cleanings are needed to not damage car from leaks. I had a 2009 Highlander hybrid - same car, different year. It never leaked or had water droplets anywhere. The seal and gasket met tightly against the car. I have never had any car that leaked. I would not have purchased a vehicle that purposely leaks water into a car.
Still they have yet to come up with a fix to the problem they sent out for their safety recall. 23ta12 (interim notice 23tb12) certain model years 2020-2023 Highlander-highlander hv-front lower bumper cover assembly may detach while driving. This is something that has caused severe damage to vehicles lowering the value of their vehicles and causing harm to passengers and pedestrians at times. This is something that they should have done by now. This is a cause for concern and extreme anxiety every time I drive my car and I already deal with anxiety issue as does my husband.
I purchased a 2023 Toyota Highlander 2. 5 turbo in June of 2023. This car was bought for my wife so I had not noticed a operation issue until I had a opportunity to drive it, at about 1,500 miles on the odometer. Upon accelerating from a stop, the car slightly hesitates then surges followed by slight bucking. My wife acknowledged the issue when I mentioned it. I have to state that the problem does not exist from every acceleration from a stop. I took the car to the dealer where I bought the car to investigate the issue. They said the mechanic did not experience the issue. I've read of many like minded comments from owners on Toyotanation. Com. I do believe this issue if not resolved may eventually lead to a accident.
When driving the vehicle will hesitate and pause when trying to accelerate. This normally occurs when trying to make a turn. The delay is a safety concern since the lack of acceleration frequently causes near accident with oncoming traffic. The dealership recreated once but said there is nothing they can find/ do about it.
There is a significant hesitation / stuttering when the gas pedal is pressed (I. E. The vehicle doesn't move properly when the gas pedal is pressed). This is especially dangerous when pulling out into traffic, making turns, etc. This appears to be a known problem with this model and Toyota is working on a TSB (supposedly). Doing a google search for this problem shows that a number of consumers are having a similar issue. . Read more...
The vehicle hesitates when accelerating from a stop. Dealership technician says he noticed the hesitation when accelerating, but since there are no dtc’s and no data found saying that there is a malfunction.
At about 3500 miles the car has started lagging really bad. I have almost been hit in stop and go traffic and have almost hit the car in front of me because I never know if when I put my foot on the gas if I’m going to go or not. When pulling out into on coming traffic I have to make sure the cars are really far away because again I never know if the car is going to actually get up and go. It lags, shakes like of it has no power. Once you get going it ok but to actually get going it’s awful. I’m really nervous the almost getting hit or hitting someone is actually going to happen because you have to floor it to get it to actually go and randomly sometimes it actually does get power that when it does take off it’s to much. There is no smooth to this car. Dealership says nothing wrong.
While driving from detroit to chicago I was in a single lane traffic due to construction. I started getting message "engine coolant temperature high, pull over when safe to do and contact dealer". The coolant temperature needle will jump to high then go back to normal. I stopped 5 different times before I could get the car to the dealer. Only once during this ordeal the gage temperature stayed at high for couple of minutes. The Toyota dealer ran all the tests and couldn't find anything wrong other than the coolant level was a little below full. The outside temperature was 90 degrees fahrenheit, air conditioning was on high and speed was between 40 and 60 mph. This hybrid car had just gone past the 5000 miles mark when this started happening.
The car lags, stutters, and hesitates on acceleration and in consistent speed situations. Sometimes doesn't respond quickly to gas pedal and sometimes it does. It is very unpredictable and unsafe. I never know which response I will get. Has also almost completely died after putting the car in park.
I bought Toyota 2023 Highlander in January. But I found water damage on roof of interior. So I went to dealership service center ( midland Toyota ). And they told to me . Sun roof glass angle had wrong angle. And fixed it. Ater 3 monthes same problem was appeared in this morning. So I went to jim hudson Toyota to fix it. But jim hudson Toyota pic told to me. Reason is that I parked my car angled location. I asked to him again is that reason? he told to me. Yes !!! you should go. I don't believe this. I think that Toyota must explain that Toyota car can't be parked on angled location.
This car when I’m driving it has a loud wind noise I went to dealer couple time but they told me that they can’t hear any noise but I have evidence and video about the noise when I’m driving 45 mph. It is still loud noise.
My 2023 Highlander limited hesitates and lags when pulling out into the roads and highways! I almost have gotten hit several times. It has so called been inspected three times and they all tell me it doesn’t show on our computer so it’s fine ! no messages or warnings ever come up. This is so very dangerous and I could be killed along with others.