general problems of the 2003 Toyota RAV4

Takata recall" I was driving on a city street on my way home late afternoon. . . Auto started to jerk and felt like something was pulling at it. . . It slowed up then jerked again. . . It continued on. . . I was driving at 45 speed limit. . . As I was turning the shifting was sounding like it was sticking. . . I parked it at home and next morning I had it checked and diagnosed as solenoid problem causing transmission burnout. . . Also Toyota revealed problems with the ecm and transmission failure.

My Rav4 has been shifting hard making me feel unsafe as well as putting me in dangerous situations on highways and freeways and in town. Now has been in the shop for past 3wks now leaving me stranded while they replaced the ecm and and replaced transmission with refurbished one and they have been dealing with sha ings in transmission among other things and it's gunna cost over $5700. 00 possibly more that I can't afford. It's still not fixed yet and still. I don't have extended warranty cuz I can't afford it. . And also my seat belt has been fraying away to where I don't feel safe with that neither.

March the vehicle started jerking and was no pulling out correctly at stop sign and red lights. The transmission wouldn't down shift so you were trying to pull out in 3rd or 4th gear. It felt like you were pulling a house. I was pulling out onto a highway and the vehicle would hardly go. . . It caused three vehicles to bow up and stop in the middle of the highway because my vehicle was out in the roadway moving at less than 1 mile per hour. I never pulled out on to the highway after that. I always pull out onto the should of the road in case the vehicle done that again. So the transmission was rebuilt March 2017. After about 36 miles was driven on it started acting up again. I puled out fine on the shoulder of the highway as eased over into the south bound lane when the vehicle changed to first it felt like someone hit me in the rear-end of the vehicle. I looked to make surer. Then it switched to 2nd gear and jerked me do hard that I pulled over turning the vehicle off and having it towed to the transmission shop. So, back to get the transmission looked at I have a one year warranty on the transmission. They took it apart and looked at it again. They said there wasn't anything wrong with the transmission it was the ec module. So it stayed parked until I could save some money to get that fixed. Took it to Toyota June 7th 2017 they replaced the ec module and I took it home the following Wednesday. It drove fine all the way home. The next day it started doing the exact same thing again. So I took it back to the Toyota dealership that repaired the ec module. No they tell me that the transmission is bad and I need a new one. $2958. 00 plus tax. Toyota corporation will not help you out on the fix. Due to the recall being 10 years or 150,000 mile. My vehicle was a low mileage vehicle with 105,894 on it and I miss the recall because of the mileage.

While driving my vehicles rpms cut out and the throttle would not respond it started to slow down and then died in the middle of the hwy in lawton oklahoma. It took me 2 and a half hours to get the vehicle home in ryan oklahoma because I had to constantly put the vehicle in neutral all while coasting and let it die then turn it off and try several times to get the vehicle to stay started and even then it would only review to 2000 rpms and die. I had to guide it to the side of the hwy several times and let it set for 20 to 30 minutes before it would drive at around 60 mph for only 2 to 3 minutes. I was almost hit several times because of how the throttle would not respond while the rpms cut out and the vehicle would not get up and go.

Harsh shifting, jumping from gear-to-gear, sluggish acceleration and transmission/electronic control module failure. Called Toyota regarding the extended warrenty. They refused to honor the extended warranty despite not providing notice to the correct address.

The car jerks when I try to accelerate. Toyota reccommends that I replace the ecm and because my car has 101,000 and is more than 10 years old I am not covered under the warranty enhancement program (customer support program). I just bought my car 3 weeks ago. This should be an ongoing warranty offerred to all 2003 rav 4 owners. The out of pocket cost for ecm is $1590. 00 and $3750. 00 for the transmission. This is a safety issue where the transmission can lock and drive a car off the side of the road. Toyota is aware of the defected ecms and the damaging affects it has on the transmission.

The transmission started shifting erratically and it wouldn't accelerate. I took it Toyota and they told me I had to replace the ecm and then if that didn't resolve the issue I would have to replace the transmission. Found out Toyota had faulty ecm's in some Rav4s. Replacing the ecm & the transmission if its damaged costs $4,000. 00 or more. Unfortunately I didn't buy the vehicle until after the warranty extension period had passed & this vehicle was never repaired.

I have a 2003 Toyota Rav4! on July 21, 2015 my vehicle started harsh jerking and slow performance when coming from a stop and red light! I accelerated the pedal to the floor and the vehicle still were performing slow! I could have got hit since it wouldn't move any faster! on July 22, 2015 I drove my vehicle to loving Lincoln-Mercury. They perform a test and told me that the ecm needed to be replaced! the service manager told me that Toyota had a customer support program to replace the malfunction ecm! I contacted the Toyota customer assistance center and informed them the problems I was experiencing with my vehicle! I was informed that the customer support program that was replacing the ecm and transmission for free had expired on my vehicle! I was informed that the customer support program was for the first 10 years or 150,000. 00 miles whichever came first! I was informed that my vehicle expired in 2013! I asked the Toyota customer assistance center why I didn't receive a letter stating that the ecm and possible transmission need to be replace in my vehicle and I was told that they would check to see if a letter had been mailed! I have been living at my address for 30 years and I haven't received anything informing me about replacing anything on my vehicle! now I'm facing $5,551. 60 plus tax to replace the ecm and transmission on my vehicle! I'm on a fixed income of social security monthly and I can't have my vehicle repaired because of this expense! they didn't mail me a letter stating I need to replace the ecm and possible transmission under this free program for the customer support program! I'm informing you about this situation with Toyota because this is a safety problem! anyone who has a Toyota Rav4 and it's doing harsh jerking with slow performance can certainly get hit which can caused a bad accident!!!!!.

I was driving to work on Monday morning, June 1, 2014, when the engine shut off in the middle of an intersection. There was no warning, no hesitation, no noise. I had pressed down on the gas pedal to cross the intersection and midway through the engine died. I was able to coast across and pull over to the side of the road. I waited a few minutes, restarted the car, and was able to finish my route to work. I took the car to a certified mechanic who inspected it thoroughly but found no problems and was unable to replicate the problem. He cleaned the throttle which he said was dirty. It's been 2 days and while the engine hasn't stalled again, there's some occasional hesitation - which I've never encountered before. It was running perfectly before it stalled in the intersection. I'm now afraid to drive it but it's my only transportation. The car has been serviced according to schedule, oil changes every 3k miles, Toyota replaced ecm in June 2013; water pump, alternator,and 02 sensors have been replaced. I've read a lot of complaints on the internet about this problem and unsuccessful and expensive attempts to try to correct it.

Harsh shifting, jumping from gear-to-gear, sluggish acceleration and ultimately transmission failure.

Car sitting in my driveway. Took emergency brake off, stepped on brake, put car in reverse. Car gave a violent jerk backwards. Backed out of driveway, put car in drive and stepped on accelerator. Car jerked forward a little, engine revved up, slow acceleration after pressing on accelerator. Had to put more pressure on accelerator to gain adequate speed to pull forward. Stopped at stop sign, tried to accelerate, car jerked forward a little, engine revved up, but there was little to no acceleration after pressing the accelerator. More pressure on accelerator resulted in an adequate speed to pull forward. Same series of events after stopping and/or slowing down while driving. Same hard jerk when putting car in reverse for any reason followed by forward jerk, engine rev and slow acceleration when putting car in drive. Took vehicle to Toyota service on 11-26-14. Problem with ecm (electronic control module). Module had to be replaced. The transmission was not replaced. Cost to me was $1590. 63, including tax. Due to my in service date, Toyota customer service advised my car was out of the extended warranty. Toyota customer service advised me the very best they could do was to offer me $500 towards a new Toyota, but not towards repair.

I purchased a 2003 Toyota Rav4 from the Toyota dealership that only had 13 miles on it in August 2003. In August of 2014, I started having trouble with the automatic transmission shifting harsh when changing. The car would strain to change gears, then all of a sudden it would jerk into gear. No lights came on at all. I took it to the Toyota dealership to have the problem inspected and they told me about an extended warranty of 10 years or 150,000 miles. This was the first that I had heard about this warranty. Toyota never contacted me to let me know about the warranty. After inspecting my Rav4, they told me that I needed to replace the ecm and if that didn't solve the problem, I would need a transmission. I feel like Toyota should have informed me of the problem sooner. (before all that time had gone by. ) I was very disappointed with the outcome. I see from this website that I am not the only one with this same problem and feel that Toyota should be held responsible for the repair.

Vehicle driven by elderly widowed mother (josephine beasley, age 70) no more than 6,200 miles per year and began experiencing harsh shift in transmission in March 2014. Aamco informed us that a malfunctioning electronic computer module (ecm) caused the damage to transmission. . Read more...

Often (and unpredictably), vehicle does not accelerate from stop. It creeps forward as tack jumps, then with a loud "clunk" it jerks into 2nd (or 3rd) gear and suddenly leaps forward. Check engine light goes on and off. Took vehicle to Toyota dealer more than once and told "no problem found. " when this issue was finally demonstrated, the Toyota dealership reported that solenoid b is faulty and entire transmission needs to be replaced starting at $4600. Now I read that many owners of 2001-3 Rav4s have exact problem caused by a faulty emc that should have been replaced when Toyota originally admitted the problem in 2006. Instead the damage to my vehicle has progressed to a repair 4 times that amount. I have found no reasonable repair rate so far.

I purchased my veh in Jan 2003. Next day, I noticed my veh was not able to drive uphill. At 50k miles in 2010, I went to dealer with a recall letter. My complaint:cust having difficulty driving uphill-won't accel-get stuck at 45-50 mph. Veh is shifting harsh & cust stated that she is having problems with trans. Cust thinks that this is part of the ztl letter she got in mail. Their response was:test drove veh & duplicated the lack of power found veh had 3 floor mats under the accel pedal not allowing full travel removed mats & veh ran & shifted fine. I left disappointed & they charged me. Problem grew & my car started acting strange even though I was keeping up with maintanence. In March 2013, my car wouldn't even start & I thought it must be the battery, & got it towed & had battery replaced. When I was driving, it started shaking. It was strange but I didn't read into it until late April 2013, I was waiting for green light to make l turn & my car resisted & pulled back harshly. Since then I was scared of driving my veh. One day it was fine mostly but another day similar issue, stopping & driving was scary & it couldn't go higher than 20 mph. The last time I drove, I could hardly put my car in the garage. I had it towed again to Toyota for service. My car has 65k miles & they told me ecu has to be replaced & if doesn't work, I should pay for a new trans. I contacted manufacturer, they said they will pay for the ecu but not for transmission (if necessary) nor for labor cost. I'm frustrated with this issue, they should replace my trans even if new ecu makes it look like my car is repaired but I don't believe it. The defect shortened the transmission's life. I will never feel safe again in my car with the existing trans. The manufacturer should take full responsibility, pay for damages, not demand on warranty, inform customers & apologize for acting like nothing is wrong.

This is a general concern question re the ethics of the Toyota corporation. I have had continuous trouble with engine lights coming on with the result being O2 sensor problems. This continued to happen with approximately 8 changes (I have the majority of the records. In 2010, I received notice of problems with "harsh shifting". I called Toyota to inquire about this, and I was assured I was not having a problem or I "would know it". At this same time, I was having yet another engine light problem with O2 sensor codes and brought my car in. . The O2 sensor replacements went on continuously for quite some time without any explanation of the cause. . . Even to the point that they were sending the sensor in to the "main office". Unfortunately, last week my car totally failed, and they are now telling me it is failure of the ecm and/or the transmission as well! I recently reviewed complaints about the ecm and that Toyota actually extended the warranty because of the numerous complaints. It was then I learned that the O2 sensors have a definite impact on the ecm, etc. At no time whatsoever did they ever check this or inform me. That these may be related,so I am wondering if they "put off" checking this possibility until my car passed the 10yr/150,000 mile extension of the warranty on this component so that I would then not be eligible???.