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SUVs Toyota Highlander Toyota Highlander Maintenance and Repair
4692 messages, Last post on Nov 28, 2009 at 3:26 PM
You are in the Toyota Highlander Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: KarenS (May 29, 2001 9:33 am) I test drove the Pilot, Rainier and Highlander and chose the Highlander. 1st - I love the quite smooth drive of all the vehicles. That Explorer (truck base) was about to rattle my guts out. Not smooth at all and very noisy. There are a couple things I'm disappointed in tho. Highlander seems to not to have enough power when you put on the gas, like it hesitates. I asked repair guy about it and they said nothing was wrong with it. But the Ford has power and TOOK off when I'd apply the gas. Once the Highlander gets going - it flies. But I hate that hesitation! 2nd, I was told the Highlander had Auto door locks and that the headlights stayed on 20 secs. at night after I get out. "NOT". I find this ridiculous! Something SO simple to add to this vehicle, but they didn't! I drove a Corolla for a day and it had auto door locks and no hesitation with take off. After 6 years of driving a really nice car with auto door locks and all the wonderful safety features, now I feel like I have backed up to a ghetto car! I have to NOW remember to lock my doors when I get inside and I'm having a very difficult time doing this. I will have traveled 10 miles before I realize I haven't locked my doors. For a woman, we NEED this safety feature. So I have to train myself to learn to do this as soon as I get in the car. It will take me some time after 6 years of not thinking about it. I chose the cloth seats over leather. My Explorer had the leather and in the summer it got so hot and winter it would freeze me to death until the seat heaters kicked in which took awhile. So sitting on cold leather is a shock and you’re very uncomfortable for awhile till the heater kicks in. So I love the cloth seats, this summer they are so comfortable to sit down and not have to worry about being burnt. I do think if Highlander could add the auto door locks and auto head lights and give it a bit more power, they would almost have the perfect car. The front seats aren’t quite as comfortable as the Explorer, I’m having a hard time getting a comfortable adjustment and passenger seat doesn’t have the lumbar and not as comfortable as drivers seat, so I hope I don’t have to take a long trip in it. The arm rest needs to be a bit wider and longer. The door seems further from the seat, so if you are a very wide person – you have arm rest on both side, but if you are small – you have to lean to one side to rest an arm. I’m being so picky! LOL I wish I could design a car – it would be a woman’s car and have our storage we want, comfort and safety. Without the radio I noticed a loud wind sound coming around the car, but noticed someone posted about that and I may ask dealer about it to see if it can be fixed with something. The Rainier’s inside lay out was pitiful! Rainier had no storage room and the 2 drink holders - one was in front of the gear lever, so if you put it in Park - you have to move the cup! DUH! I love all the cup holders in the Highlander and Pilot. The Pilot needs to not be so cheap inside. I felt it was stripped down Highlander. I really wanted a luxury car like the Lexus, but couldn't afford paying over $40,000 for a car and Highlander came pretty close.
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Replying to: lvmyfarm (Jul 22, 2004 10:49 am) |
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The eardrum rupturing helicopter sound has been around for quite some time. It has to do with the standing pressure waves created by the airflow entering the windows and running headon into the airflow that entered a few milliseconds ago and has been REFLECTED from the rear of the vehicle from which it could not otherwise escape. In my 68 and then later my 72 Ford station wagons lowering the rear liftgate glass slightly would always solve the problem. This NOISE can get so loud in my 01 RX300 it becomes extremely painful to my eardrums. But I may, just may, have an answer soon about how to at least reduce the volume of this noise. Last week my RX had been setting out in the hot sun and the interior was like an oven. I started it up, turned on the A/C to max cool and the blower to high with "fresh" airflow enabled with the intention of letting it cool down somewhat before we got in. As I walked away I noticed that I could hear a very definite "fluttering" noise emanating from the drivers side rear quarter panel at approximately the same frequency as the helicopter type noise. For a very obtuse reason I happen to know that the cabin airflow exhauster port is located just inside that quarter panel just behind the rear bumper "bulge" as it wraps around toward the wheelwell. For much the same obtuse reason I happen to have a spare RX300 exhauster port laying here beside me as I type this. It has a total airflow opening of about 12 square inches but what seems to be more important it has a light and thin rubber "baffle" to prevent reverse airflow. Using a small fan as a test we discovered that the fluttering noise I heard is the result of some sort of mechanical resonance of the exhauster port assembly which causes the baffle to flutter from open to close at a fairly low frequency. So is this baffle the root cause of the helicopter sounds in Toyota and Lexus vehicles being so excruciatingly painful? Stay tuned. This coming weekend I will open the bumper bulge area and remove the baffle portion of the exhauster port and then run some tests up and down the road with only the rear windows lowered.
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| Approaching 40k miles now my 01 RX300 has never seem much more than 1 or 2 tanks of 91 octane, always used 87 octane. | |
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Replying to: loucapri (Jul 22, 2004 7:05 am) Just read in a Consumer Guide review that the Honda Pilot took regular gas, but it was "recommended" that premium be used in the v6 HL. Thanks for the replies. |
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Replying to: jrh (Jul 22, 2004 4:34 am) If you read other posts here, and on MSN auto, Toyota has known about the problem since December,03, and refuses to correct it. The dealers can't fix it because it's a design or manufacturing problem. We've been complaining for two months to no avail. I'm about ready to turn it over to our attorney.
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Replying to: wwest (Jul 22, 2004 1:43 pm) keep at it "For a very obtuse reason I happen to know that the cabin airflow exhauster port is located just inside that quarter panel just behind the rear bumper "bulge" as it wraps around toward the wheelwell." where is this? post a pix? more detail? are you saying its like a check valve that flutters?
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that flutters.... Yes, exactly. There is a light rubber membrane covering the outlet flow, exhauster, port. If the cabin interior air pressure it greater than the atmospheric pressure near this outlet then the membrane will "open". If the atmospheric pressure is equal or above the vehicles cabin pressure the membrane will remain closed due to the force of gravity and/or reverse pressure. At this point I'm guessing that the distance between the exhauster port opening and the directly facing exterior body panel, maybe 3 to 4 inches, is causing a low frequency resonance which results in an air pressure standing wave and thereby the membrane flutters "open and shut, open and..." at the low frequency you hear with just the rear window(s) down. |
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Replying to: wain (Jul 23, 2004 5:52 am)  Membrane shown removed 
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where exactly is it???????????? maybe it needs a hole in it just big enought to soften its closing effect and reduce its effectiveness. |
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