Rearview System Braking Problems of Toyota Sienna

1. The vehicle displayed the rear cross traffic alert (rcta) warning light along with the blind spot monitoring (bsm) warning light on the dash board. The vehicle was brought to Toyota of ann arbor for an inspection. After inspecting the vehicle, Toyota of ann arbor reported that road debris (snow, dirt, mud, etc. ) was trapped between the bumper and the sensor resulting in the sensor to malfunction. The vehicle has been taken through a car wash with an underbody wash option, but due to the position of the sensor, the sensor is not able to be cleaned from a car wash. The sensor can only be cleaned by removing the bumper. But when the bumper is removed, the sensors have to be re-calibrated and the re-calibration of the sensors can only be completed by trained professionals. 2. Due to the malfunctioning sensor, the driver's safety is put at risk by not being alerted of obstructions (both objects or persons) behind the vehicle, nor oncoming cross traffic, nor detecting vehicles in blind spots. This could cause collisions or worse, fatality, due to the malfunction sensor not alerting the driver. 3. This vehicle has been able to reproduced the problem multiple times and as mentioned above, the vehicle was inspected and confirmed by the Toyota of ann arbor dealership. The dealership (Toyota of ann arbor) mentioned that there are multiple reports of this issue on other vehicles of the same make and model. 4. The vehicle or component has not been inspected by the manufacturer, police, insurance representative, or others. 5. No prior symptoms were seen or displayed prior to the failure.

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While driving approximately 25 mph my dash lit up with the cross traffic sensor is unavailable and my blind spot monitor is unavailable. I got out and cleaned off my sensors on the outside of my vehicle all around the vehicle front and back and the warning has stayed on. It was not raining or snowing and I was on dry pavement at the time. My vehicle was not hit nor did I hit anything. There is no damage what so ever to the sensors or anywhere on my vehicle.

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Today in the morning while driving on normal road, suddenly rear cross traffic alert and blind spot monitor became unavailable according to a message on the dash. This message persisted after restarting. In the afternoon another message gave these two company. The vehicle informed me, that the parking support brake is now unavailable as well. Funny is, that these messages are not documented in the alert history of the vehicle, although they still persist. Mileage of first occurrence was 9800. Another user in a Sienna forum reported a similar problem and said this might be related to the poor design of the rear bumper that allows ingress and accumulation of dust, dirt and mud around the rear radar sensor. The vehicle was driven the week before the incident and about 700 mi before the incident on a dirt road (county road) in michigan. This was pretty dusty and a bit muddy, but nothing a normal non-off-road vehicle couldn't stand.

I got the software recall fix last week. Today is the first time I have had any issues. 2 time today the emergency braking activated. First time I was leaving mcdonald’s parking lot. I waited for a car to pass then I took off to get on the road. The emergency braking system activated leaving me halfway in the parking lot and part way in the road. I thought that was weird. The a few minutes later I arrived at home and started backing into the driveway like I always do. As I was backing into the driveway a car started to pass on the road in front of me. The car emergency braking system activated leaving me part way in the road and driveway was the car passed. I have saved the ring camera footage of me arriving home in case it is needed.

Wire harness section which controls the parking collision warning and rear cross traffic warning is frayed, causing failure. This failure was determined by the dealer to be caused by mud packing into the rear bumper cavity. Dealer wanted over $1,000 to fix. Denied warranty, due to the cause being "an outside influence". There is no way to effectively wash the inside of the bumper without removing the bumper. If I pay for a new wire harness, the issue will re-occur. This poses an elevated risk to my family and any occupants of the vehicle, as key safety features must be disabled.

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We are not talking about malfunction, since it's underperforming by design. Rcta and bsm don't make any audible alert. Every other vehicle I owned had this. Here bsm is silent and rcta can't be heard, because volume can't be adjusted. This is dangerous, since relying on visual with rcta doesn't make sense, when you try to watch you back in reality through the rear windows. Please recall this Toyota safety issue because it doesn't utilize its potential and poses an unnecessary risk for everyone.

While operating the vehicle in the city of helena, montana, foreign matter entered the interior of the rear bumper. This caused the rcta and bsw systems to fail because the sensors were obstructed by mud. This failure condition happens to my 2022 Toyota Sienna every three weeks. Toyota has designed the vehicle to allow the ingress of debris to the *interior* of the rear bumper, therefore the failure of rcta and bsw is inevitable. Toyota can and should know that this failure is inevitable but has offered no repair, nor has it offered advice on how to restore operability after failure. Yes, mud can interfere with safety sensors on any vehicle, but only this 2022 Toyota Sienna intentionally allows mud to accumulate on the *interior* of the bumper resulting in this otherwise avoidable failure.