Door problems of the 2009 Toyota Sienna

The cable broke on the power sliding door due to the plastic coating being worn, exposing the cable to the elements and rusting it. This vehicle is less than 5 years old.

The sliding back door was being closed from the power button near the drivers seat. The door wouldn't close so the button was pressed again. The door then slammed shut with great force and could have injured anyone in it's way. Now it is inoperable and needs a very expensive repair. Apparently this is an ongoing problem with this generation of the Toyota Sienna vans and Toyota refuses to address it.

The contact owns a 2009 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the sliding doors erroneously opened while driving various speeds. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was found that the door mechanism was rusted and was causing the doors to not spring back in place. The vehicle was repaired but the failure recurred. The manufacturer was contacted about the failure. The failure mileage was 49,463. Updated 12/24/lj each time the consumer returned to the dealer, they claimed they fixed the problem. However, the door would pop open again, disabling the security system and causes the battery to go dead. The consumer had to tie the door shut. Updated 12/24/13.

Rear sliding doors won't stay open on 2009 Toyota Sienna. The smallest of inclines will make the sliding doors refuse to stay open.

The automatic sliding door on our van has closed on our 3 year old twice, causing minor injury. The first time, the door hit his head but did not encounter enough resistance to engage the safety open until it had pushed him against the side of the van. Then the safety engaged and the door opened. It left red marks on both sides of his head. We took the van to the dealer on April 12 2010 to have the door looked at, and requested that the resistance be lowered. On April 28th the door again hit our child, this time the door completely latched closed on his hand, pinning his hand in the door. His thumb had a "dent" in it, and is now extremely and immobile the next day. He is being taken to the dr today. I called Toyota corporate 10 minutes after the incident to report it.

Our automatic sliding door was opened but would not close. No amount of tugging, finessing, or cursing would make it shut. Children were stranded in phoenix heat in August because the vehicle was unsafe to drive with a door that could not be closed. There are many mentions of this exact problem on various blogs and all report difficulty in getting Toyota to offer a solution that didn't cost $1-2k. Almost all owners reported the "fixed" doors to have failed in some way again with dealers refusing to cover the cost of the second (or third) fix. The failure had to do with the actuator that unlocks the "u" shaped striker assembly. It seems evident that the cable is either breaking, stretching, or that some solenoid is not doing its job. The outsome of our problem was that a second vehicle had to be obtained, children and their seats moved to the new vehicle and the van driven in an unsafe condition back to our house 10 miles away because the dealership was closed. To complicate this, the Sienna was down to no gasoline and it was the driverside door that was stuck in open position which made it impossible to put fuel in the vehicle. What if this same scenario happened in the middle of the dessert here at a rest stop in 120-degree heat with no tow truck in 100 miles and no way to drive the van with children inside? this is not only possible, but likely. Our van has two (2) automatic doors and this problem has been reported by many people. Lastly, no one who reported the problem, reported the problem permanently fixed by anything the dealerships were able to do. For us, this first incident is probably covered by warranty, but how about future problems? the actuator issue is a design flaw. The fuel door behind sliding door makes it an inconvenient design flaw. That this is on a vehicle that transports children, makes the design flaw a serious safety concern. And that Toyota is not addressing the problem in any substantial way just plain sucks!.