Owners/service Manual problems of the 2014 Toyota Sienna

On October 15th at approximately 3:30 pm (CT) my 2014 Toyota Sienna was parked in my driveway with the engine on, unattended, when it moved forward up the slight incline of my driveway, struck another vehicle that was parked in the garage and kept moving forward until it struck the front wall of the garage. Prior to the accident, I had reversed the van out of the garage and left the van ignition on and in park as I exited. I know for certain that the van was in the park position since the automatic locks let me exit the vehicle without having to manually unlock them and the alarms did not sound as I exited. The van also did not roll forward ir backward as I exited. I then walked in front of the van to enter my house through the garage. I was in the house for less than 5 minutes when I heard the loud crash of the van striking the garage wall. My Toyota Sienna was manufactured on June 6, 2014. After the accident I discovered there is an active recall (recall: transmission shift cable/rollaway/fmvss 102) for an issue that causes rollaways effecting cars manufactured between June 17, 2014 through June 24, 2014. I took my van to Toyota expecting my issue to be related to this recall. Toyota had the black box inspected and the transmission inspected and determined they were not liable since they were not able to replicate the issue and did not find any defects. When I took my car in originally the technician stated that there was not a good way to determine if the shift cable was defective and they were simply replacing the part as part of the recall, which my car did not qualify for since it was manufactured 11 days prior. A car should never move itself from the park position and something has to be faulty with the car in order for it to do so.

With the car in park and attempting to open the driver side sliding door, it refuses to open and stops abruptly during the slide only opening a few inches (not enough to render the opening usable) because the fuel door is not sufficiently closed to depress the push button that tells the van's system that the fuel door is fully shut. Thus the sliding door stops abruptly (as programmed) to avoid a collision with an open fuel door. However, that is not the case here. Upon further inspection it is noticed that the spring on the push button has such a severe stiffness that the fuel door's hinge system was not designed durable enough to compensate for the outward load exerted by the push button when the fuel door is closed and locked. For this reason, the fuel door hinge, over time, experiences a fatigue failure at the top of the hinge only. That is to say, the lower half of the hinge remains connected and operable while the top half of the hinge shears in twain. Now sheared, the fuel door is pushed freely away by the push button and the top forward most corner of the fuel door protrudes past the van's profile by half an inch or more. It is the failure of the fuel door hinge, created by the overdesign of the spring on the push button, that allows the door to not open properly despite the driver doing everything to keep the path of the door clear. Unfortunately, for embarking, this renders the sliding access point as difficult as you have to manually push against the fuel door when opening the sliding door until it halfway open. For disembarking this is the safety hazard, as there is no way to "rig" the system to operate from the inside and during emergency egress from the vehicle. If the passenger door is blocked or broken as the result of a hazard or crash, occupants in the rear of the vehicle can become trapped inside being forced to climb into the front seat or trunk.

While stationary, the sliding door cable snapped while it was automatically opening and has impeded the sliding door to even open manually which leads to safety concerns as the door will not open up as the cable impedes in its way.

At right around 50,000 miles, the cable on one of my power sliding doors snapped. This I have already filed a complaint for. But then at around 52,000 miles, the cable on the other power sliding door snapped. Now both doors have to be used manually, which would be fine except for the doors are so incredibly heavy that if the car is on any sort of hill, my children can barely get the doors open because they are so heavy. On top of that, they don't always lock open when being used manually. A child would easily be crushed by these doors if they lost control of them or if another child let go of the door. This is an incredibly dangerous hazard that Toyota should fix.

I've been having issues for over a year now with the drivers side rear sliding door not closing all the way. It would close all but the last 6 inches or so and then re-open. I took it to the dealership 3 times and they said they found no issues, but greased the door. 2 weeks ago the door would not open or close at all (even manaullly - thus the reason for my complaint). I turned the automatic feature off and could not get the door to open at all!!! major safety issue! I looked and noticed that the cable had snapped. I took it to the dealership again and they replaced the cable and said that was the problem with the door not closing properly too. That cost me $320. The next day the same issue returned of the door not closing all the way. I took it back in and they diagnosed it again in less than a minute as the roller on the hinge. They agreed to replace it at no charge to me, but did not let me see the claimed bad part. My major concern is that this door would not open at all even in the manual mode and that the door consistently would not close all the way. All these symptoms occurred with the vehicle fully stopped and in park.

Vehicle is a handicap vehicle equipped with electric ramp. Problems with sliding doors unlocking, not locking or doors opening making it an extreme safety based. Interim recall received recommendation received in November to operate doors in manual mode is unacceptable with ramp and handicapped drivers. Contacted Toyota corporate and would not provide assistance or accommodation.

Started having issues with left & right sliding doors not closing on 2014 Toyota Sienna roughly 18 months after purchase. Later received a recall notice for the instrument panel junction block and new wire harnesses as well as warranty enhancements for sliding door front and rear lock assemblies. Brought in to white river Toyota in white river junction, vt for repair and was told that all that could be done was the recall item as they could not duplicate the sliding door issue not closing. Have continued to have this problem and have had to close doors manually. Brought in again to have repaired approximately a year later and was led to believe the warranty enhancement repairs would be done only to be told that they needed to order the parts and that the technician recommended the replacement of both sliding door hinges at a cost of $758. The extracare warranty that I had purchased when I bought the vehicle will not cover the hinges as these were not covered when the warranty was purchased. This vehicle is a 2014 and I started having these issues within two years of purchase. Why isn't Toyota stepping up to the plate and fixing these issues? these problems are well documented and Toyota supposedly prides themselves on customer satisfaction. Are they waiting until these doors can't be closed at all and/or fall off before they will be forced to fix? I will never purchase another Toyota or recommend a Toyota for the simple fact that customer satisfaction and safety does not appear to be their #1 priority.