Hatchback/liftgate Lock Problems of Toyota Sienna - part 1

We have an '08 8 passenger Toyota Sienna le. My son likes to play with the lights. . . We kept warning him if they got left on the battery would die. It finally happened. Had to go in through the front door using the key - stuck the key in the ignition and turned it and yup, sure enough - dead. Totally dead. There is no way to unlock the sliding doors. There is no way to open the sliding doors (from inside or out). There is no way to open the trunk (which can't be opened from the inside anyway - another concern) I had gone out to the van because I needed something from the trunk. I am 8 months pregnant with twins - there was no way I could climb back. My son had to. I couldn't even get into the middle row b/c there is a baby bucket in the center. If you were in a front end collision such that the battery was destroyed - the only way out of the van would be out the driver's or passenger's side doors. Maybe this is only true if the doors are locked at the time of the accident. . . But the van locks itself once in drive unless you have this feature turned off at the dealer. No one can get out the back or sides - no one could get in to help you. If the adults in the front were ok it might be very hard o get to anyone in the back if there is a car seat in the middle of the middle row - and then, getting back out would be hard. I totaled a car in college - it is possible for an accident to wipe out battery power. This has me pretty alarmed. It's not something you think of when you buy a car. No one thinks "will I be trapped if the battery goes?" but in this van, I think you would be, and it could be very dangerous. There should be an over ride where if battery power is lost everything automatically unlocks - and there should be a way to open the trunk from the inside! I am freaked out to think of getting in an accident and no one being able to get in to help out my kid(s). This is a huge safety concern!.

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Opened rear hatch on 2005 Toyota Sienna. It opened then immediately closed, hitting me on the head.

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The automatic rear hatch of my 2004 Sienna will not stay open. . The safety feature is not working and it continues to close even if you are standing underneath it. . It will not stay open. . Dangerous for me and the kids!.

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I am having trouble with the side power sliding doors. Took it to the dealer twice and they said they could not duplicate the problem. Service bulletin was performed on a rattle. Dealer always tells me that they cannot duplicate the problem- but the problem is still there when I get home! the sliding back doors open but will not shut once pushing any button and I have to do it manually, meaning that I would have to hit the remote a couple of times to get it to open. Both sliding doors stuck closed. They would not work with the button are manually. At times I can't open it using either inside or outside door handle, nor has jiggling the door lock. There is a noise that the doors normally make. This does not happen every time I try to open and close the doors- only sometimes! so, yes it is hard to take it to the dealer and able to show him the broken part!! I fear that the doors are going to open and have the kids fall out or something! lift gate unexpectedly closed while standing at the back of the van. At one time the rear door light on the dash stayed on when the door was closed. I pushed the button on the b-pillar and the remote inside the vehicle and the door did not open. I manually closed the rear door and the light was still on. Eventually the light when off the automatic control worked. One time the driver side sliding door starts to open when I try to open it using either button on b-pillar or remote. It starts moving but only moves may be about 2-3mm - that's rights, about 1/12 of an inch. I can hear the motor working fine, and no sound is different from the sound the passenger side door makes when opening or closing (passenger side sliding door works fine). Now, when I try to open driver side door using the door handle, nothing happens no motor activation, no nothing. The door has even closed on it own when my wife was getting out of it and I can operate the vehicle with the side door open.

Power back door on 2007 Toyota Sienna limited will open with remote but it will not close with either the remote or the front dash control. I cannot use my legs so it is very difficult for me to close the power back door.

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My wife and I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna xle with a power rear door. This morning the rear door opened normally; however, as soon as the door opened completely it closed immediately hitting me in the back of the head. I attempted to open the door using the interior button as well as the remote; the door closed immediately regardless of which method I used. I also tried pushing up on the door as it closed which worked but took a great deal of effort. If my five year old was under the door he would not be able to hold the door back and may be seriously injured. I opened the door about five times before the door stayed open.

Yesterday, my wife opened the power rear door of our 2004 Sienna xle to get some items from the inside of the van. As the door got to the apex, she started to reach into the car, but the door slammed down violently hitting her in the back. We had never had a problem before so she tried it again, but stood back this time. The power door slowly lifted up and then suddenly slammed down. This is a heavy door so you would not want to be hit in the head or body when it slams down. I got the same results when I tried it. Apparently Toyota has a service bulletin out about this problem and there is an ongoing investigation. I sure hope this gets figured out before a child gets hurt! Toyota dealer acknowledged the problem and is working with to replace necessary parts for little to no cost.

Rear hatch closes on person without warning. Rear hatch does not stay open.

The powered liftgate of my 2004 Sienna doesn't stay up when open. It closes regardless of someone being under. I personally got hurt when the door closed one time and my son almost got pinned down as well. I am seeing on the internet a lot of people having the same problem and yet I am surprised that Toyota has not issued a recall for such a serious issue. I am taking my car to the dealer to get this fixed since I cannot open the liftgate anymore due to this issue. I believe this is a problem with the gas struts that are defective. After talking to my dealer, this one doesn't seem to think this is a serious issue and that they should take care of it at no charge. Fyi I already replaced these gas struts once (yes this will be the 3rd set in 4 years!).

2004 Toyota Sienna xle limited awd. Power liftgate does not fully open up when I try to open the liftgate with the switch at the driver's console. Manually open the liftgate does the same. This problem started happening sometime in October, 2007 and now the liftgate opening is getting lower than first experienced. I hit my head on the liftgate few times.

The rear hatch opens fine but starts closing automatically (it is electric) a few seconds after it opens all the way when cold even when no buttons nor the door are touched.

I have a2004 Sienna xle. Last Sunday October 28,2007 the lift back door when opened (powered ) and reach it's highest point when all of a sudden it jerked downwards forcefully nd hit my husband(-trying to put grocery). It should have stayed up. The mileage is just 17,000+ even though it was bought July 2004. It has since never worked. It does open but jerks back down again when it reached the top.

About a week ago, the rear lift-gate on my 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan (xle) started to drop down unexpectedly after being opened. If pushed, the lift-gate would go up, only to drop down again. A few days later, while I was unloading items from the back, the lift-gate started to close automatically and would not go up when I pushed it. I had to escape under the lift-gate or else I would have been crushed between the lift-gate and the car. Now, the lift-gate opens and then automatically closes; it doesn't stay open. I cannot use it - it is too dangerous.

I have a 2004 Toyota Sienna and the power liftgate is closing unexpectedly. My wife's arm was squeezed the other day because of this liftgate closing by itself while she was getting groceries out of the car.

I own a 2005 Toyota Sienna. The automatic back hatch/tailgate began to not work. When it opens it immediately falls down and even though there is some supposed safety feature that is supposed to have it pop up when it meets an obstruction,one must push with all their might to get it to stop closing. Although there have been no serious injuries I have been hit in the head and have strained myself to keep it closed. If a child ever were caught in it,my fear is it could be deadly. My mechanic called the dealer for parts and not only were they ridiculously expensive,but they are hard to get. I called the Toyota consumer line and was told they were unaware of any problems with the back hatch or any on going investigations. Because of high mileage on my vehicle,this is not covered under warranty any longer. I believe this is a potential fatal accident waiting to happen to somebody and Toyota should be responsible for fixing the problem. Updated 3/4/08.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the rear lift gate fails to remain open at the appropriate times. When the lift gate is opened automatically, it rapidly falls and closes. When opened manually, the lift gate closes automatically and without hesitation. He emailed the manufacturer, but has not yet received a response. The contact stated that there is a NHTSA defect investigation (pe06029) in regards to this failure. The current and failure mileages were 75,000. Updated 08/29/07.

Rear hatch support cylinder failed. I purchased a new cylinder and replaced it myself. At a cost of $150. 00 for one. I started to notice the problem when my automatic rear hatch would only raise the hatch half way and then re-close the hatch. 2004 Sienna xle limited. 45k updated 10/03/07.

I have a 2004 Toyota Sienna, which overall I love. In the past 3 months, the trunk hatch has started to not hold when open & resist opening at times. It used to hold for longer, making me delay the repair. It has progressively gotten worse, so that now it closes within moments with a lot of force. I have no choice but to repair it now, at a cost of $400, or risk serious injury to myself & 3 young children. My husband & I have already been bonked on the head & back repeatedly. Toyota is aware of the defect, & the obvious risk to car owners (a majority of whom have young children I would guess as it is a minivan), but has not issued a recall. Instead they are profiting over the defect. I don't fault the service dealer that we deal with, as they have always been helpful & honest. I am upset that the Toyota corp. Won't issue a recall.

Rear liftgate on 2004 Toyota Sienna failed. It was in up position and suddenly came down and I was unable to get it up while I was under it loading groceries. The weight of the door hit my shoulder first and knocked me into the back of the van. I was then able to push it back up after I dropped the grocery bags. The door came down very fast and forceful,ly. I was sore but very thankful that my 4 year old wasn't under the lift gate with me.

The lift gate has fallen unexpectedly on several occassions. My wife, my mother-in-law and my child have all been "hit" on separate occassions by the gate during this malfunction. The dealer has advised that the struts need to be replaced.

The rear hatch handle just snapped in my hand as I tried to open the hatch. Dealer initially estimated repair costs at $350-$600 because they had to "break into the car. " actual repair cost was $250 for a poorly designed part. Mechanic told me the design and placement of the hatch handle is subject to constant exhaust fumes from the rear of the car, weakening the plastic handle. No inside hatch release is available making this a safety issue in the event the side doors are damaged in an accident. Poor engineering.

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Relating to current investigation of 2004 Toyota Sienna rear liftgate strut failure NHTSA recall campaign number: ea06020). My wife has a 2004 Sienna xle with the power liftgate and the struts just failed, causing the liftgate to close and requiring help from a friend standing nearby to help her hold it up to remove our children's stroller. I looked at it this evening and noticed grease around one of the cylinders where the seal had obviously failed. While I was looking at the struts I took my hand off of the hatch for a second mistakenly thinking that the power assembly would hold it up and it immediately came down and hit me in the head, causing luckily only a headache. After researching the problem and finding the ongoing investigation I wanted to add my name to the list of complaintants and suggestions that Toyota be required to fix the defect and replace the struts. Note: I entered 2 in the number of failures box since both struts failed and I entered 1 in the persons injured because it did hit me in the head hard enough to give me a headache ,and I am a 200 lbs man. My fear was that if it would have closed on one of my children that it could have caused serious injury. I will be shopping tomorrow for replacement struts from an aftermarket dealer because in my research I have found people on their 2nd, 3rd, and even 4th sets of struts replaced under warranty. Unfortunately, my Sienna was conveniently at 39,000 miles, 3,000 miles out of warranty.

Sliding door latches get stuck sometimes in the open and sometimes in the closed position. When doors are closed we are unable to push the button inside or use the outside handle to release the latch and open the door. If the door is open when this happens we are then unable to close the door as it will not latch. When the door remains open this is an obvious safety issue and the van is undriveable as doing so would put the passengers at risk. When the door is stuck in a close position it makes exiting the vehicle difficult which would be a safety issue if there were an emergency and a quick exit were necessary. It also makes it extremely difficult to fasten or release a child from a safety seat located in the back 2 rows of seats. The back hatch latch has also broken. A light squeeze of the handle while trying to open the hatch caused something to snap (a small plastic piece fell out) and since this is the one and only handle/latch to open the hatch I am no longer able to use the hatch nor open it to see what part needs to be replaced. The two side doors work occasionally but the back hatch is now completely unusable. Simply put I have had 3 out of my five doors fail within a month which I find absurd. Please note the vehicle is in good shape otherwise and has never been in an accident. 2001 Toyota Sienna le/xle.

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The back hatch of my 2004 Toyota Sienna xle minivan came down on me without any beep or notice when I was removing groceries out of the back. I went and got my husband who insisted that it would not close on me, that the safety feature would stop it from crushing me. I had him go out and try to open the hatch with the inside button and remove the groceries. I pressed the button, when the hatch opened, he got under the hatch and when it reached the top, it suddenly started to return back down. This time the warning beep did go off. When the hatch reached my husband, it did not stop and go back up. He had to physically hold it up as he got out of the way. Since that day, the hatch will not longer stay in the up position even if you turn off the automatic feature. Sometimes the hatch will not even reach the half way point before closing back down, when in the automatic feature is turned on.

Two issues on my 2001 Toyota Sienna with 113k miles: 1) rear latch handle broke apart while attempting to open the rear hatch. The part that broke is plastic. The break occurred while trying to open the latch under normal operating conditions. Consequence of this part failure: unable to open the rear hatch. Correction: Toyota dealer had to replace the entire mechanism (costing me $200). 2) while investigating the broken latch issue, I observed that the mechanism that physically latches the rear door (to the minivan body) was loose. The three screws that secure/attach this latching mechanism in place where backed half-way out. Failure: no failure had occurred. However, if the three screws loosened more, I fear that the rear hatch could open while the van was in operation. Correction: Toyota dealer tightened the three screws.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact opened the vehicle's rear hatch and it immediately shut. When the hatch attempts to close automatically, the electric motor kicks in for fifteen seconds before it can be lifted up again. The hatch must be held open by someone or propped open by a stick. This failure occurs in both wet and dry weather. The engine size and # of cylinders were unknown. The current and failure mileages were 80,000.

Liftgate hazard -- I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna, with manual liftgate. The liftgate struts/supports have failed. I was hit on the head and shoulder, but was not seriously hurt. Jb.

The liftgate on a power liftgate 2005 Toyota Sienna will not stay open. It has come down and wacked my wife and I on the head many times. I found out the replacement is $450.

The rear door on the 2004 Toyota Sienna van camer down by itself. The motorized hatch went up and then almost immediately came down. I was getting items out of the back when it hit the top of my head. It kept closing until I hit the remote button , but as soon as it reached the top,it started to close again. I contacted Toyota, and they told me the warranty expired, and it would cost $470. 92 to fix it. This was a safety issue and could cause major injury, especially to a small child. I think they should be responsible.

The power liftgate on my 2004 Sienna closes on its own after I open it. The liftgate has struck me on the head and shoulders on several occasions. About a year ago Toyota replaced the gas pistons but the situation has reoccured, especially in cold weather. Today, it closed on its own three times.

Hatch on my 2004 Toyota Sienna van comes down by itself. It is the limited edition version with motorized hatch raising and lowering. It goes up and then comes down by itself. I was standing underneath and it struck the top of my head and gave me a stiff/sore neck. It does this intermittenly, not all of the time. I contacted Toyota and told me my warranty is out of date and would not repair it. This is a safety issue and could cause major injury especially to a small child and I think they should be responsible. This is not like a fan belt or alternator where the failure cannot actually injury someone. I understand this has been corrected on the newer Siennas that still have the same body style, so they obviously know it was a problem.

Struts on rear liftgate failed, injuring my back.

- the contact stated that when he opened the rear liftgate of the 2004 Toyota Sienna using the remote control access the gate will rise to the top and immediately come down without warning. The contact stated there was an updated door stay replaced on the vehicle in januar 2006 under warranty. The rear liftgate will only lower without warning when opening using the remote. The gate did not lower without warning when it was opened manually. The contact spoke with the dealership, and was informed they would not replace or fix until they received something from Toyota. The failure mileage was 28200, and the current mileage was 28400. The consumer stated the rear lift gate somtimes lowers without warning during the opening cycle. Updated 03/19/07.

In December, 2006, my tailgate closed on its own, injuring my wife. Toyota replaced the rear stays (struts) under warranty, including the addition of some brackets. At first everything was fine. But when the weather turned colder (below 20f), the rear hatch would not open on its own unless opening under power. And then a couple of days ago (still very cold), the hatch closed on its own under power again. This time, my daughter and I were both in its path, but fortunately, so was a shopping cart. There were fortunately no injuries this time. I am frustrated that just 45 days after the problem was "repaired" it is already happening again.

The contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact stated that the rear lift gate closes unexpectedly and on its own. She stated that it closes with such force, that it makes it very difficult to re-open. The dealer and the manufacturer have not been notified. The failure has caused the contact's husband to sustain a strained back. The VIN and engine size were unknown. The current mileage was 20,000 and failure mileage was 15,000.