general problems of the 1998 Toyota Sienna

1998 Toyota Sienna cannot lock and unlock both rear sliding doors electronically from the lock-and-unlock buttons of the front drive and passenger car doors.

The push-button on the inside of the sliding side-doors fails to release. In the case the door is unlocked, this prevents to door from closing. If the door is locked, the button does not release, keeping the door from being unlocked and thus the door cannot be opened.

My 98 Sienna xle has had intermittent problems with the (manual) sliding doors not opening without and adult pulling outside. Then mysteriously the problem goes away. Today my wife and kids were about town and couldn't get the driver's side sliding door to close. The locking mechanism is locked in the closed position. She had to drive home in traffic holding a bungee cord to keep the door mostly closed while the kids were in the very back seat. I worked on it for a while when I got home but there isn't a way to get the mechanism to open. It will rotate further back (downward, away from the latch loop), but nothing more.

1998 Toyota Sienna van - rear passenger sliding door handle broke off when attempting to open the door (the door stuck). This is the second handle that has broken on this van. The rear door hatch handle broke about two years ago. This appears to be a design flaw and is a potential safety hazard. There are numerous complaints posted on bulletin boards about this problem. Toyota has not addressed this concern through a general recall and appears to be blaming the owners. I have had my van serviced by a Toyota dealer on a regular basis, so this problem is not a maintenance issue.

The push-button on the inside of the sliding side-doors fails to release. In the case the door is unlocked, this prevents to door from closing. If the door is locked, the button does not release, keeping the door from being unlocked and thus the door cannot be opened. This can be remedied by sliding a flat blade under the button to release it. This affects the 1998 Toyota Sienna.