general problems of the 2014 Toyota RAV4

I am filing a complaint regarding Toyota’s handling of a known paint defect affecting my 2014 Toyota Rav4 limited in blizzard pearl paint. Over the past several years, the paint on my vehicle has progressively peeled and deteriorated. Approximately 50% of the vehicle’s paint is now damaged. This issue is clearly consistent with Toyota’s known blizzard pearl paint defect program. However, I was never notified by Toyota about this defect program through mail, email, or phone call. In addition, I regularly serviced my vehicle at authorized Toyota dealerships during the years the program was active, yet no dealership or Toyota representative informed me that my vehicle qualified for repair coverage. I only recently learned about the existence of this program after visiting a Toyota dealership regarding another issue. At that time, I was told the program had already expired in April 2024 and that Toyota would no longer provide assistance. I believe this is unfair because: - Toyota acknowledged this as a manufacturing-related defect. - I was never properly notified. - Toyota dealerships had multiple opportunities to inform me during regular service visits. - the defect became progressively worse over time. I am requesting that Toyota reconsider my case and provide goodwill assistance or repair coverage despite the expiration date, due to the lack of notification and the severity of the defect. Toyota brand engagement center still told me the recall expiated.

2014 Toyota Rav4 awd xle purchased June 2025. Multiple pre-existing safety defects confirmed by dealership personnel were never disclosed at time of sale. Power train: torque converter failure — vibration documented at pre-sale inspection, never disclosed or diagnosed. Axle bracket corroded so severely it was fused to axle and required cutting off — confirmed by service advisor on recorded call. Brakes: aftermarket brake parts installed pre-sale without disclosure. Brake system rated red by dealership within 9,734 miles of purchase. Severe brake pedal pulsation confirmed on multiple invoices. Ody/structure: severe underbody and structural corrosion — subframe, crossmembers, fuel tank surfaces — never disclosed. Swollen lug nuts documented. Prior welded exhaust repair undisclosed. Exhaust flange separation and catalytic converter failure — repair quote $4,745. Seat belt: rock found lodged in seat belt buckle — safety restraint failure — not noted on pre-sale inspection. Recall 23v734000 / 23ta13: aftermarket battery used as recall remedy — oem replacement required — non-compliant — fire risk not disclosed at sale. All defects confirmed by dealership invoices, mpi video, and recorded calls. Vehicle out of service since February 2026. Complete documentation available.

Year: 2014 make: Toyota model: Rav4 approx. Mileage: 60k 2. Incident details date of most recent incident: 9/18/2025 problem: vehicle stalls and loses power steering while turning. Engine shuts off suddenly, causing complete loss of steering control. Consequence: on 9/18/25, my son lost control of the Rav4, hit a curb, and went through bushes before stopping. Previous stalls also occurred while turning, with loss of steering assist. This is a severe safety hazard. Frequency: has occurred multiple times, even after dealership inspection and repairs. 3. Dealer/repair info dealer name: sarasota Toyota address: 7435 s tamiami trail, sarasota, FL 34231 repair attempts: dealer inspected in August 2025, charged nearly $900, but problem persists. Car is now back in the shop (not Toyota) for a second opinion at an additional cost of over $200. 4. Description my 2014 Toyota Rav4 repeatedly stalls and loses engine power and power steering without warning, especially while turning. On September 18, 2025, my son lost control of the vehicle, hit a curb, and went through bushes before managing to stop. This is extremely dangerous and could have resulted in a serious accident. Sarasota Toyota has inspected the vehicle and charged nearly $900 for repairs, but the defect was not fixed. The vehicle continues to stall and is unsafe to drive. I am pursuing a second opinion at additional expense. This issue places my family and others on the road in danger. I am filing this complaint so that Toyota and regulators address this defect.

My 2014 Toyota Rav4 (blizzard pearl, paint code 070) began experiencing hood paint peeling in early 2023. I first assumed it was simply a disappointing paint quality issue. However, this past weekend, the problem significantly worsened when large sections of paint on the roof suddenly flaked off completely, leaving exposed metal vulnerable to rust and corrosion. After this severe flaking occurred, I researched the issue online and discovered this problem is widespread among Toyota's with paint code 070. Toyota acknowledged this known manufacturing defect through their customer support program (zkg), but I was never notified of this program, despite receiving other recall notices. Additionally, my local Toyota dealership did not inform me about zkg during a service visit before the program expired in 2024. On March 28th, 2025, I called Toyota’s customer service line to request goodwill assistance and was informed that they are not willing to offer any support or extend the program. I was told that the only thing they could do was “document” my case, and that if enough complaints were received, Toyota might reconsider extending the program in the future. I believe this response is quite unreasonable, especially given that this is a clear manufacturing defect now manifesting in catastrophic failure for many customers shortly after the 10-year zkg window closed. The cost of a full repaint is commonly quoted around $4,000 to $5,000. For many rav 4's currently valued at approximately $10,000, that repair cost represents nearly 50% of the car’s value—essentially totaling the vehicle due to a known paint defect. It’s an extreme hardship for customers that a widely acknowledged exterior manufacturing issue can result in such significant devaluation and repair costs. For this to happen to so many people just outside the expiration window (which only ended recently in 2024), and for Toyota to decline any extension or support, does not seem fair. Thank you for your time.

All four of my door lock actuators are not working properly. All four usually don’t work, however once in a great while they will actually lock or unlock. This is a big safety issue because when I think they lock, they don’t. When I drive at night with my daughter in the backseat I do not feel safe. I always have to check all 4 doors a couple times, because sometimes they will unlock but not lock. Also note that they do not work all at the same time. It always varies by the day. I was going to pay for them to be fixed myself, but it was too costly.

At least three time this happened while driving upon stopping at a stop sign or traffic light I was proceeding while making a turn after getting the clearance to do so. However the engine shut down and I was perplexed as to what was happening. I discovered the car had shut down and I had to restart the car. Additionally this occurred at a stop sign, while trying to make a sharp turn the car once again shut off and I was in the middle of intresection and other cars were behind me, and other coming towards me and I realized this SUV had stopped running again, putting me in direct harms way.

I have just driven the car for about 15 minutes and pulled in a driveway to wait for someone. My car was in park but running, and white smoke started to come out from under the hood. I turned the car off and got out. I walked around to the front of the car and it immediately went up in flames. I called 911 and a police car just happened to be going by and called the fire department. They block off the street and put out the fire but the car was completely trashed.

My car was glitching and stuttering, then one day the transmission did not engage and the car would not move forward or in reverse. This only happened one time, we were told it is not the transmission, it is the torque converter. I checked on this nthsa site and found that many Rav4s throughout the years have had torque converter problems and that the warranty has been extended.

I left to go to work, and the transmission would not engage. I pulled out of the garage, the engine was revving but the car just slowly rolled. I thought it would warm up, but it did not. I was in the street, and I was able to slowly rev and roll the car back into the garage. It was very frightening and dangerous. My husband drove the car, the transmission worked, but sometimes it is still slipping. I'm afraid to drive it. It is only 8 years old and has 126k miles and we maintain it very well. I am so disappointed, we have been driving Toyotas for over 30 years, never had a big problem like this.

As I drive the multimedia system reboots on its own. Also as I was exiting the freeway coming off a curvy ramp, the car shut down as I was driving and the steering wheel locked for a second and then it came back to life. As this happened the dashboard lit up as if it was in accessory mode. Luckily there was not a lot of traffic on the ramp. Also about 5 months ago I had it repaired at the dealer because of a torque converter extended recall.

Our 2014 Rav4 le with 37k miles caught on fire while parked in a shopping plaza parking lot. The fire department says I was lucky that I wasn't driving the car or I wasn't in the car with children, pets, or elderly parents or we could have died. If my car was parked next to others this fire could have spread and been absolutely catastrophic. We've had our car fully inspected once within the last 6 months, and a limited inspection during an oil change within the last 3 months. I believe the fire started with the battery, we think we were affected by this. . . Read more...

Vehicles transmission torque converter has issues and makes entire vehicle shake while driving. It causes issues when going up and down hills and shifting gears to maintain appropriate speeds. Vehicle shakes aggressively when at high speeds making highway travel impossible and unsafe. Toyota dealerships quote $3000 in repairs to replace defective part.

My 2014 Toyota Rav4 had an accident (front end collision) no air bags deploy.

On Sunday, Aug 29th, our Rav4 caught fire in our driveway. The vehicle was off/parked at the time and required the fire department to extinguish. The fire spread to our truck which was parked next to the Rav4. Both are a complete loss.

All but one lock has now failed. The truck is not able to be opened. There were no warnings/indications, and now the company is telling me that it is no longer under warranty and it cannot be repaired unless paid for. I do find similar stories online and that the locks fail a second time in some cases.

Lift gate struts quit working. The lift gate is no longer is accessible or responsive to the proximity key commands to open or close, even after changing proximity key batteries. You cannot open the lift gate by hand because of the resistance of the hydrolics of the struts. I have complained to Toyota, and the dealership where it was purchased. Both said they would contact me if there was a recall and suggested I file a complaint, which I am doing now. The is a huge inconvenience when grocery shopping, or traveling to spot events, or trying to get the dog to the vet. Luckily I don't use a wheelchair yet. I'm very late in filing this complaint, as the liftgate failure took place in April of 2021. I cannot afford to get them replaced on my limited income. I'm just looking for a little help.

Rusting inside vehicle and bolts for hatch back is rusting out.

Shortly after I purchased the vehicle, the entune application began sending “movement alerts” and frequently showed that it was in a different location. The dealership said that an update was required, but that did not fix the problem. About a year later, it began to drain batteries repeatedly (4 in one year). The Toyota dealership could not find a problem. After the last battery replacement, I noticed that the entune app shows that I have over 960,000,000 miles on the vehicle (when the odometer isn’t even at 85,000) and the battery voltage was 14. 6 volts! my car was broken into and the front window was broken, but the app failed to inform me of that! about a month ago, I left home and all of the lights on the dash started flashing. The engine temperature was rising (according to the temperature gauge), and then the gauges stopped functioning. The tachometer showed 0 rpms and I was unable to see the odometer, temperature, or even my speed. After disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables, it appeared to solve the problem. I am afraid of what may happen next and would trade it in if I could afford to.

Navigation/bluetooth/media function screen no longer works, it happened when I started it about a month ago at 65,750 miles on my car. I've read that this usually happens around 65,000 miles to 70,000 miles for this model and can cost up to $2,000 to $3,000 to get it fixed. It starts off as a black screen then lights up like its downloading something then goes black again. Its a safety issue because driving at night or early morning when its dark no matter how low of a setting you have for your dash lighting setting when it lights up its extremey bright. And even though I know it will happen it still make me take my eyes of the road to look at it. And living in the country that is a couple of seconds I can't afford, luckily I have yet to hit a deer or other living thing.

My vehicle's factory applied paint which is blizzard pear 070 is failing and peeling on entire vehicle in multiple areas including roof, hood, interior doors, side panels, and rear door. This started as chipping back in 2019 and then peeling around late 2019 and has progressively gotten worse with even being garaged. This is a know issue acknowledge by Toyota customer support program that has since expired. The paint is delaminating down to the primer with bare metal exposed. Yes it is available for inspection and actually had my local Toyota dealer who I purchased from take pictures last month and tell me the peeling paint is from the know manufacture defect. This is a could pose a safety risk as peeling paint can detach while driving and and also the exposed metal is susceptible to corrosion which could lend to body panels deterioration over time. Toyato manufacturer was contacted and I was told the customer support warranty is expired. Although toyato said they sent out recall noticed I never received them. Back in 2019 I approached the dealership service dept with issue but they didn't document it and at the time told me it was general wear and tear. Now toyato manufacturer is not standing behind it. They dealership also told me there are many others having the same issue when I took my car in to get assessed. If there are this many people toyato should stand behind the paint defect and extend the opportunity for it to be fixed.

The hatch will not close fully unless I push on it. It's a self closing door. Now it stops 3/4 of the way down and stays open. The vehicle is being loaded and then closed. It is stationary. . I've had it in the dealership 3 times. I've queried on-line and others have had this problem.

Rav4 2014 caught a fire when was driven. The steering wheel was suddenly stuck when was driven on the local road at speed less than 40 miles, so pulled over to the shoulder on the road. Suddenly the smokes came out under the hood, and turn to flame. The car burned all front windshield, engine, battery, and hood. Fire truck comes up and policeman help to extinguish the fire. It was no accident, no high speed on local road, and no rainning day.

Dunlop grand trek tires tread seperation.

Recently I was driving my 2014 Rav4 near downtown tampa on adamo drive and was taking a left turn, and suddenly I heard some kind of noise and felt like my vehicle went dead without any electrical power and it started reversing on it's own and spun to right. Fortunately since I was taking a turn I was hardy at a speed of about 10 mph and hence my front right passenger side door & head light etc. Got damaged and there was a very minimal damage to the front fender on the driver side of the vehicle behind our Rav4. For the same reason none of us - either myself, my front CO-passenger or the driver of the vehicle behind our Rav4 were physically hurt and were very safe after this incident. The driver of the vehicle behind our Rav4 informed that he heard a kind of strange sound and saw our Rav4 reversing & turning right, and he moved away into the right lane. The police officer, who has come also informed that she has come across this kind of incidents with Toyota vehicles recently, and did not give me citation after reviewing my incident free driving record and also she could not find reason for this freak incident which looks more like a mechanical defect of my Rav4, and advised to take to Toyota dealer for further investigation & resolution. On further research we found that there is a serious recall - "electrical power assist system" (eps) for 2014 Rav4 which was identified & documented by Toyota on 03/13/2015 but was not notified to the customers. We have contacted Toyota company, complained about this incident, informed the recall and we are waiting for a response from Toyota after a thorough investigation, computer data analysis from our Rav4. I am herewith attaching the documentation for the recall. I am very much worried & concerned about this incident, since it is of very serious safety issue. Please review and reply as soon as possible. Thank you in advance.

I was driving on I-82 between selah and yakima at approximately 65 miles per hour. The wind was blowing fairly aggressively outside that day and the temperature was roughly 70 - 75 degrees. While driving my sunroof suddenly exploded. No rock hit the car and I was not driving under an underpass where anyone could have thrown something at my car. The sound was like a gunshot. I sincerely thought I had been shot at. Glass flew every where. My sunroof visor was open so the shards rained down into my car and all over me. I had glass down my neck, in my hair, and even found a piece on my eyelid when I rubbed my eye and cut my eyelid and the skin near my inner eye. There was nothing I was aware of that occurred on the road that day that would have caused the sunroof to break. But it blew out with extreme force.

My name is adam schultz. The Toyota service history of my vehicle from Toyota. It states in February 2017 brakes is good with 8mm on the front brake pads. Next service is in June 2017, with 5,174 miles later brakes are at 3. 5mm and needs to be replaced. I was not told that the driver side is at 3. 5 and the passenger side was 6. 0 mm. The issues started when they were replaced on 12/4/2015. John elway stated it was on my driving and not the brakes. It continues from the first brake service till today. If you want any more of the service history I do have it if you need it.

While driving at 60mph, manufacturer installed sunroof exploded. Outside air temp was 88deg. Sounded like a gunshot, and caused me to swerve off road thinking my car had been hit. No other cars or people on roadway at the time of the incident. No overpasses or trees, either. No rocks or debris were found in the broken glass. Cover was closed, or I would have been covered in glass. Toyota has had complaints about this problem, and refuses to accept responsibility for this known defect.

I was sitting in heavy stop & go traffic on the highway. All three lanes were stopped. And alternately inching forward due to accidents further down the road. I was stopped with my foot on the brake. My vehicle - the rave 4 suddenlysurged forward and hit the vehicle in front of me. I stood on the brakes as hard as possible but could not stop the vehicle (rav 4). All my airbags deployed. I had an infant in the back seat in a car seat. I was extremely in shock and shaken and had trouble getting out of the vehicle and back in to get the baby out. My vehicle was declared a total loss. I also question why all airbags deployed. Takata airbags.

On may 2, 2015, at about 10:00 a. M. We were driving to the scranton, PA, area. We had just entered the on-ramp to I-81 north from rt. 309 when we heard a very loud bang and roaring sound similar to a door on a jet blowing off mid-air in a movie. There was nothing on the road to run over and the closest vehicle to us was a truck tractor at least 500 yards ahead of us and not driving on an angle that would send anything airborne to our area; nor were we near an underpassr. We put our flashers on and pulled over at the first safe area. Upon checking our vehicle, we discovered our sunroof glass had ¿exploded� with an approximate 8-10 inch circular hole dead center and the rest of the glass fractured. We had the interior sunroof covering pulled closed when this occurred. The edges of the hole were bent slightly upward indicating an upward force. We didn¿t run over anything and nothing struck us, so we were fairly shocked. We checked our cell phones and discovered independence Toyota, hazelton, PA, was about 5 minutes away at our next exit. We pulled in and both the sales people and service people examined the damage and were as surprised as us. Nothing was found in the glass debris that would indicate something struck the glass. Independence Toyota was great by cleaning up the glass, placing two layers of heavy plastic over the sunroof opening and taping it shut. I am a retired police lieutenant. I know what impact damage looks like and this was not it. Upon checking online, this occurrence appears more frequently than one would think in various makes of vehicles. Price Toyota in new castle, DE is declining to cover this under warranty citing this is normal glass breakage. I have had windshields struck before. This is not remotely close. It is not okay to be driving your vehicle and suddenly have the sunroof "explode" with no causing factors present.

After getting t-boned at an intersection, my Toyota Rav4 immediately caught fire. The car was hit on the passenger side by the right wheel and right to mid section of the hood. When I got out of the car it was already on fire.

I just got a leased a brand new Rav4-2014 on July 1, 2014. I reported to the dealer the following issues: on 7/6/14, I called the dealer to reported. I was told to wait until Friday, while they ordered the part. However, another issues I reported: a( on 7/1/14 while driving towards my home the left front hubcap, came off. Is defective. B) rear hubcap, passenger side, with damage, anytime is going to come off while driving, may hit a pedestrian or another car. C) rear back body of the car, a plastic piece is peeling back, may come off while driving and hit a pedestrian or another vehicle. D) front door passenger side. Beneath the handle there 2 large withe, deep scratches. E) interior door panel, passenger side, it looks dirty and with spots. F) two tires have been marked with big red dots. I have no idea why, is the first time never on my other previous cars. I am afraid that the dealer gave me a lemon car. However is full the manufacturer's responsibility to fix the car, and make sure that there are no other future issues. Finally, nobody at the dealer is showing any interest to take care of my complaint. I've left several messages to call me back. Up today nobody has tried to call me back, either to answer the phone when I call any of the managers. Last Friday, I received a call from the dealer but only to pick it the plates and the new registration. I brought copies of the damages, nobody even try to talk to me, was like say, they just look at me, as if saying "whatever". I need your help. Thank you.

Large black area at top of windshield while driving at night. Mainly on dark roads. This is while driving with headlights on.