Door Latch problems of the 2004 Toyota Sienna - part 1

2004 Toyota Sienna xle limited. Consumer writes in regards to problems with doors on vehicle. The consumer stated the rear lift gate was repaired several times. The consumer was informed there was a recall involving a particular part on the vehicle, and she has been having problems ever since. The consumer stated when she opened the liftgate, it would fly open too quickly and when she closed it, it would essentially crush someone until it finally re-opened. The consumer stated the safety mechanism was clearly faulty. Approximately two weeks ago, the left rear sliding door became difficult to open and close.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact was parked on an incline with the rear driver window opened. The rear sliding door was engaged but would not latch in the open position. The door began to involuntarily close and would not remain in the open position. The contact stated the failure would only occur when the rear driver window was opened. The failure would occur whether on an incline or a flat surface. There was not a recall for the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 68,000 and the current mileage was 70,400.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the rear sliding door malfunctioned and became very difficult to open. The contact mentioned that the latch would not release to open and the handle broke after trying to pull the door open. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who was unable to diagnose the failure. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and did not offer any assistance. The dealer referred the contact to NHTSA. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 120,000 and the current mileage was 160,000.

Defective sliding door and cable on 2004 Toyota Sienna: recently, a cable that allows the side door(s) of the vehicle to open and close automatically, snapped in half. This very well could have snapped in half while a person was standing near the vehicle, creating a serious injury. With the cable now broken in half, the door(s) now will not latch properly when either the vehicle remote or the side door control(s) in the vehicle are depressed. This now creates a very hazardous situation. The side door(s) are also prone to freezing shut in the winter. Until adequate thawing is completed, door(s) will remain frozen shut, allowing for limited access in and out of vehicle. Upon noticing these problems, I took to the internet to find a resolution and found that is more that just a rare occurrence, but a legitimate problem. . Read more...

The contact owns 2004 Toyota Sienna. She stated that while driving 10 mph when she made right turns, the open door light illuminated for the left rear sliding door. The week after the light illuminated she was unable to latch the door shut. She took the vehicle to the dealer and the dealer diagnosis located the failure as the bolts and found that two of them were pulled through the metal sheet and the third bolt was loose. The dealer stated that she needed to take the vehicle to a body shop. The manufacturer stated there were no related recalls and that there was nothing that they could do to assist her. Report 1001129940 was filed with the manufacturer. The vehicle will be repaired. The current and the failure mileages were 75,319. Updated 02/01/10 updated 02/02/10.

The right automatic rear passenger door in my 2004 Toyota Sienna malfunctioned suddenly, rendering it totally inoperable. It would not close all the way. Then it would not open. The dealer got it closed and said it would be $2,000 to repair and that they could not assure me that it's current closed state is safe. The hazard is that the only door for passengers to exit now is the same side as the gas intake, so if there is ever a fire, all passengers will have to climb over and out the front doors. The defective door (it appears to be metal fatigue -- on a 5 year old car!) is impossible to open at all. I have read online of many, many instances such as this. In some cases, both rear passenger doors have failed with the passenger occupants trapped inside.

The contact owns 2004 Toyota Sienna. While parked on a downward incline, the rear driver sliding power door opened and then abruptly closed. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for inspection. The technician ordered the latch assembly because the bottom door latch had fractured. The failure mileage was 60,000. The current mileage was 60,500. Updated 12/09/09 updated 12/10/09.

2004 Toyota Sienna. Consumer writes in regards to vehicle sliding door malfunction. The consumer stated the left sliding door came off track, after the cable system malfunctioned. When the door fell down to the side step, it shattered the left rear window.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. While attempting to open the passenger side door with the door handle, the contact noticed that the cable under the rear window snapped due to corrosion. The vehicle was taken to the dealer and they stated that the central hinge needed to be replaced. The current and failure mileages were 95,000.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the passenger sliding door would not remain closed and the latch would not catch. The vehicle was repaired twice by the dealer but the failure continued to recur. The contact called the manufacturer after the third failure who offered to cover the cost of the part and the contact would be liable for the labor costs. The vehicle was scheduled for a third repair. The current mileage was approximately 64,000 and the failure mileage was approximately 24,000.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that while parking the vehicle the passenger sliding door disengaged which caused damaged to the body of the vehicle. The contact felt that rusted cables caused the failure. The current and failure mileages were 103,000. Updated 07/08/08.

I started having trouble completely closing the driver's side sliding door on my 2004 Toyota Sienna. It has a broken latch mechanism (the door is manual, not power). The latch is held in place in the door with three bolts. Two of them have sheared out of the metal of the door.

It would appear that the mount for the left rear door's lock on my 2004 Sienna 8le is broken. The door on the backside has mounts for the female receptable to the u-shaped bolt on the car body. The screws on that mount have torn through the sheet metal and now the door wont close all the way. I think the u-bolt from the body is not sitting completely into that receiver on the door as a result of a small misalignment. The Toyota dealer informed me that he's seen this before and suggested that I take the car to a body shop to hammer and weld the thing back into place. Otherwise, he'd have to replace the entire door.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that both the driver and passenger rear sliding door locks were defective. Previously, one of the doors came off track and caused the glass to shatter. The dealer repaired the door and glass. On July 1, 2008, the contact's children were trapped in the vehicle because he could not unlock the doors. The children had to be removed from the vehicle through the front driver and passenger side windows. The dealer reprogrammed the computer. The manufacturer was notified, but they did not take a report. The current and failure mileages were 60,000.

No significant events occurred up to the failure beyond normal expected use. Defective welds on the driver side door strap result in failure of the door strap mechanism. Toyota has not resolved the problem.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The passenger side door opened while the vehicle was in motion and accelerating. The speed was 4 mph. The dealer stated that the control panel and latch assembly needed to be replaced. The current mileage was 54,347 and the failure mileage was 54,000.

Our van has power sliding doors. In the summer of 2006, the driver side door was opening when the cable snapped. The van was taken to the local dealer who was able to get Toyota to supply the part ($1,000) and charged approx. $300 for labor to install new motor & cable assembly even though the van was out of warranty (approx. 65,000 miles). In the summer of 2007, the passenger door was opening when the cable also snapped. The same dealer told us to contact Toyota directly, which I did. They had us go back to the dealer who informed us that it was out of warranty and would not be covered. Contacted Toyota again but was told the same information that it was not covered and out of warranty. (approx. 90,000 miles).

Driver's side passenger door internal mechanism is broken. Auto body shop states they have seen this failure on multiple Toyota Sienna vans of this model era 2004 and later. Will cost $1,500 to repair including welding of failed metal part in internal door mechanism. Updated 11/1/07.

Door check failure on the drivers side door. This causes loud popping noises when opening and closing the door.

A month or so prior to this incident, I took the 2004 Toyota Sienna to the local Toyota dealer and asked them to check the door latch on the driver's door - it was making a popping sound. I was told it would not hurting anything ,and some time in the future bring it in and they will order the part and take the door panel off to replace the latch. Well, on Tuesday, may 8, 2007 I opened the door and the latch broke in half, and the part connected to the door broken the metal around the latch, and it fell into the door. When I lowered the window several hours later the window fell of the track and down inside the door. - it would not raise back up, so I took it back to the Toyota dealer, and after waiting for 3 hours ,I was told the clips were broken, and they would have to order a new window with clips attached. The window was put back in place, and I was told not to roll the window down or it would fall off the track again. - the service department at the Toyota dealer was going to charge me $106 for putting the window back up. I was told this labor charge and the charge to replace the window/clips, or the door latch , actually the door would have to be replaced, would not be covered under my extended warranty. - I was not informed that it was not covered under my extended warranty until they were charging me for the labor of putting my window back on the clips. So, they did not charge me anything - after I argued with them about this. - the next day, I had someone else look at the clips, window and the track holding the window. - the clips are not broken, just unglued from the window - because the track bent when the broken door latch part fell into the door.

2004 Toyota Sienna passenger side power sliding door stopped working. It wouldn't close the final 18 inches. I had to bungy strap it and drive to the dealership. They said the brackets were bent and motor was no good. It would cost $1400 to fix it. I told them to cut the cable or just figure a way to close it. When I returned to the dealership they were able to shut the door. I asked if I could use the door manually. She said since I didn't authorize them to fix it ($1400) they would not say it was ok to use. I would be using it at my own risk. This still cost me $130.

The two sliding doors on my 2004 Toyota Sienna keep freezing shut in cold weather. Dealer cleaned and lubricated the doors but that didn't help. Dealers next suggestion is to replace the cables in the door for $700/door but can't guarantee that will fix the problem. My two children have to enter the van through the back hatch. If an accident occurred, the kids would have to crawl over the front seats to exit the van since the side doors are frozen shut and the back hatch doesn't open from inside the van.

The automatic sliding door on my 2004 Sienna has been a problem since we purchased the vehicle. At times, we can't open the door from the outside and other times, we can. Also, we recently closed the door with the automatic button and for no apparent reason, the cable broke so that we now have to open and close the door manually. Also, we have had issues with the acceleration of the vehicle if we are going from a stop position or a slow moving (less than 10 km/h) position. The van seems to slow down before shifting into gear. This is a serious problem when driving especially with children in the vehicle. My warranty has expired and I'm looking at having to pay for this on my own. I am dissatisfied with Toyota, I have had this vehicle for only 2 years and I have had three recalls already. This is my 2nd Toyota product and my last.

Driver door hinge is defective. This is a know defect in the first model year 2004 Toyota Sienna. Our dealer said this is a common problem and the only repair is to replace the door at our expense (~$1,000). We are very concerned that this defect will continue to get worse and cause the door to either not open or to separate from the vehicle in an accident. We feel that this know defect could be repaired at Toyota's expense and not the customer's expense. We are talking about a 2 year old vehicle and it is unreasonable to expect such a costly repair as a "owner maintenance". We would like to know what information is available about this defect and how we can encourage Toyota to take responsibility for this defect.

: the passenger side power sliding door locked and would not open. There were six ways to open and close the sliding doors and none of them worked. A couple of days later the door would open. This problem occurred intermittently. The door closed on its own while attempting to get the children into their child safety seats. The only way to keep the door from closing was to push on it manually. The dealership could not duplicate the problem.

Passenger sliding door mechanism sometimes closes but most of the time it starts to close and then opens on its own. The driver's side sliding door began doing the same thing recently. I usually have to throw my body weight into the door to actually close it. It's supposed to be automatic.

Power sliding doors are dangerous. Several times, when parked on slight incline, door will close by itself and has closed on myself and family. The door is supposed to be designed to pop back open when it feels resistance but has squeezed me several times. Once my five-year-old was getting out of the car, closed the door with the button and then got his hand stuck in the door. It did not open back up, I had to open it, resulting in a dislocated elbow and a broken wrist (both bones). I contacted Toyota, they sent me to the dealer, the head mechanic checked it about 100 times and put his own arm and head into the door, which of course did not lead to anything. Not two weeks later the door closed on my body, and squeezed me very hard before bouncing back open. I have called Toyota, they are very nice and apologetic. I feel that because he wasn't injured worse or killed they won't do anything.

The sliding door on my 2004 Toyota Sienna was not opening properly, only opened about 3 inches. I took it to the dealership for oil change and to check the door on March 14th. Wheni called 90 minutes later to check the staus of the work, marco, the service rep informed me that the door was not fixed because it need a recall part, and the car need 2 other recall parts that need to be fixed. He advised that I make an appointment to bring the car back to have all the work done at the same time. The appoinment was made for March 21st. March 20th, one of my children went to open the door, forgetting that it was not work, the door flew open. I went to close the door, and it was off the back hinge, the only thing holding it to the car was the top wheel/runner apparatus at the top of the door. The door had to be tied to the inside to get the car to the dealership for repair the next day.

(1) 2 year old daughter pushed the button to close the automatic sliding door on our 2004 Toyota Sienna. It closed on her hand. (2) the door failed to reopen automatically, compressing it for approximately 30-60 seconds until it could be opened manually. Her hand was so swollen it was unusable for a week. Nothing was broken. (3) corrective measure was to disable the automatic door.

- the contact stated that he owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna with failure mileage of 38,000 and a current mileage of 69,000 miles. Two years ago the drivers side sliding door would not completely shut, it would be half latched and half unlatched. He took the vehicle to the dealership, and they informed him that the vehicle was out of warranty, but they agreed to pay for half of the repairs. As of today that door was working fine, they replaced the door latch assembly. Presently, the passenger side sliding door would not close completely with the remote or by hand. While driving the door was continually ajar. He contacted the dealership, and has a scheduled a repair appointment for 04/16/07. He took the vehicle to a repair shop, and they informed the contact that the door needed an electric door lock assembly. He called the manufacturer, his case number was 200704130436. They informed him that this was a safety problem, but that he would be responsible for the cost of repair.

Automatic sliding door struck the consumer when closing. Door will not stop even with total pressure. Dealer duplicated the problem, and could not stop the door. The vehicle door will only stop sliding when pressure is put on it from the outside part of the door. The bulk of the door ( inside thick part) has no safety mechanism.

Manual sliding door does not stay open when window rolled down. On my 2004 Sienna le, the manual sliding door on the driver's side does not latch open if the window in that door is rolled down. This allows the door to slide forward on even a slight incline and run into occupants exiting the vehicle. The power sliding door on the passenger side does not have this problem, and there is also no problem if you first open the door and then roll down the window.

When the sliding door window is rolled down on the driver-side non-powered door, the sliding door does not latch in the opened position. . Thereby making the sliding door to slide close automatically causing injury to passengers especially children getting off the van.

Rear manual passenger door in Toyota Sienna le (8 passager) does not latch under certain conditions ( we have narrowed it down to when windows are left opened). In texas due to heat conditions, windows are left open during spring and fall seasons. My dogs have been struck numerous times by "non-locking" doors and it has also caught my hand once (when parked at an incline). This is very dangerous and we have instructed our kids to only use the right side power door due to this safety issue. Dealer has indicated they cannot fix the problem. For a vehicle designed for family use (including kids), this issue needs to be resolved before kids get hurt.

While driving driver's side sliding door locked and unlocked for no reason. Vehicle was taken to the dealership, were they replaced the motor latch and a hinge.