general problems of the 2021 Toyota RAV4 - part 2

I was parked at a store, engine off. Was in there 3 minutes and another customer ran inside and said a car was on fire, the employee asked if it was mine. I ran outside and it was indeed mine. The rear tail light was all melted and on fire, billowing smoke was coming out the sides of the hatch so I opened it quickly to get the fire out. The store employee put the fire out with his fire extinguisher. No prior warning lights were present when driving it before this occurred. The car is at Toyota dealer presently while they determine the cause.

We were on a drive back from nashville like normal. My mom had picked me up from work at around 07:15. The car started making strange sounds as we were driving down the highway. It started yelling at us to pull over to a safe spot and slowing down. All of the lights had come on flashing at this time. It didn’t even make it to the shoulder; we made a stop on the triangle area for when cars come in from the exit. As soon as we stopped, smoke started engulfing us and 2 guys who saw this happening parked on the shoulder and came running out of their van with fire extinguishers and started telling us to get out. When we went around the car to check what was going on, we noticed the fire that had started from the bottom of it. They fired the extinguishers a couple of times to the bottom of it where we could see the fire but it didn’t help much so we had to retreat to a safer spot. We called 911 to ask them to send assistance. Not long after, the front half of the car was engulfed in flames. 10-20 minutes later, the fire department came to extinguish the flames. Once they got the fire under control, they towed the car to the shoulder of the road where we proceeded to salvage anything that was salvagable from the car. Where I got my hands cut up from broken shards that were littered all over the interior. We waited for awhile for another form of transportation to be able to make it home and it took a little bit due to the traffic that this incident had caused. We got the car towed back to Toyota for evaluation of the incident. It was supposed to be done within 2 months, but we still hadn’t heard anything about it going into 3. We called them to inquire about the car and the situation, and they said that they had closed the case and had to reopen it for further investigations. They had closed the case and not told us anything about it. We received an email on the 23rd of January that stated the vehicle was too far damaged for them to be able to evaluate anything.

The contact stated that the owner of a 2021 Toyota Rav4 was driving approximately 35 mph when the odor of burning rubber was present inside the cabin of the vehicle. After stopping and exiting the vehicle flames were present coming from the engine compartment. The fire department was called to the scene and extinguished the flames. The vehicle was destroy during the incident. A fire report was taken at the scene and the vehicle towed away. The cause of the failure was not determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were not notified. The contact indicated that vehicle had recently been repaired after a front end crash had occurred. The contact also reference a NHTSA open investigation(pe21005) for the same failure that had occurred. The failure mileage was 30,000.

In the driver's side, rear therr was smoke coming and before that occurred the lights flickered several times. There may have been steering issues before the rear fire and blinking likes as smoke started to show. The safety is due to fire risk. There is some media information on the same vehicle yet 2017 vehicle year that similar electrical issue occurred. The vehicle has not been inspected by anyone as it just occurred a few days ago. There were no warning lights or prior failures.

To whom this may concern, I have had many problems with the Toyota rav-4. I had so many problems with my 2017 rav 4, that I under pressure upgraded to the 2021 le version. I have had many problems with the breaks. I have brought it in (3) times to be serviced since I purchased it in March of 2021. The breaks are still squeaking. I have also had problems with the electrical system. The dash panel comes on, and abruptly shuts down when it feels like it. My wipers also come on intermittently. Every time I try and talk to Toyota about this they tell me there is nothing wrong. This same thing happens with the 2017, until my breaking mechanism stopped. I am looking for someone to look into this matter because these are dangerous conditions and unacceptable especially for new cars.

I had 2 sudden acceleration incidents. The first occurred 10/6/21. My car lurched forward & hit a pole. I was with my mom who saw me press the brake, which did not engage. My car has an auto-braking system which did not function as designed. I took it to Toyota. They determined there were no issues w/the vehicle. I insisted there was something wrong & warned this will happen again & could be much worse. I felt defeated but hoped it was an isolated glitch & hoped for the best. Fast forward 2 months to 12/13/21 I was in a drive-thru using the hold button, which is a feature that holds the brake in place, so my foot was not on any pedal. All of a sudden, my car began to accelerate & the brakes would not engage. An error message on the dash said “brake malfunction”. I could not stop the car. I put in park, but it did not stop the car. The car jumped the curb & drove into oncoming traffic & hit two cars. They were traveling north, I was traveling west. It’s a miracle another car did not hit & kill me. The most frightening experience of my life. I had the car towed to Toyota as the front wheel blew out & could not be driven. Another inspection was done & once again Toyota came back with “they could not find anything wrong with the vehicle. ” and added that the brakes were never engaged, which is an outright lie & utterly insane. I spoke to an attorney & what he told me was quite eye opening. He has been practicing product liability law for 30 years. He told me the letter received from Toyota was a standard letter that all car companies respond with. They never admit a problem unless forced to, usually by the govt, to do a recall after enough people file a complaint. I really believed Toyota would tell the truth. I never imagined they would lie & participate in a cover-up. They would rather fight you in court. As mentioned earlier, my car has an auto braking system, so why didn't it work? clearly it malfunctioned. My hope is that this deceit by car manufacturers ends.

Me (michelle alfaro) and my 3 children went on a trip from July 25- July 30 to sequoia national park & yosemite national park . On Wednesday , July 28 around 1:30 pm we were at yosemite park and I pulled over to take some photos of the beautiful park(nature) . I made sure my children , the car and myself were in a correct parking spot , I put my Rav4 le in park position (p) and the car automatically put on the hand break and it makes a loud noise, letting me know it's safe . The Rav4 does not have a hand break like other cars , it only has a small pull button. Anyways the car was in park position with the automatic break , I stepped out the vehicle and walked toward the front of the car and my Rav4 just stared to roll down and hit a tree . I ran inside the car to stop it but it was too late . The Rav4 had crashed into the tree with my 3 children, they were all asleep when it happen and lucky no one was hurt. The car has a alot of damages in the front area and on the drivers side . The dash was all lit up with messages saying system fail(pre collision system).

When driving the car and stopping at a stop sign or stop light, the engine will shut off. The automatic restart occurs and with the headlights on the climate temp control display flickers while all the other dashlights remain bright. Many people are disabling the system. Since there is a switch you can press, defeating the system. Toyota sent a technical specialist who inspected the system. And since he couldn't find how to fix it, declared it normal. Apparently Toyota designed the car to do this for some unknown reason. He stated that lights will dim when the car restarts. It is not dimming as if a current draw, it flickers every time. This of course, affects the fuel economy of the car, defeating the system, which many people do and creates a concern of why that one component flickers. Toyota installs a heavy 605a battery to operate this system since there are so many restarts. Will this create a car fire at some point? I would imagine that it makes a difference in the cafe reporting since so many people disable the system.

There is a rattling sound coming from the driver's door when the car is stationary and the door is swung closed. The rearview mirror of the door has significant shaking while the car is in motion, so this is a safety hazard. The speaker in the driver's door makes a static or crackling sound when music is off.

Car makes a whining noise Toyota pinellas park said it was normal but the transmission is jolting/slipping not accelerating vs the first test drive. Both cv axles were bad tires were bald when sold to me tps sensors were bad. Had to get a new set of tires and paid the Toyota for work on the vehicle.