Ask the Car People.SM


Toyota Highlander Maintenance and Repair

5315 messages,  Last post on May 21, 2013 at 11:28 PM

You are in the Toyota Highlander Forum.

What is this discussion about? Toyota Highlander, SUV

Messages Page 246 of 532

#2449 of 5315 Highlander Brakes by stantonb1

Mar 10, 2005 (5:18 pm)

It is going back quite some time when I last posted regarding my 2001 Highlander and the constant problem with soft braking. I went crazy with Toyota, their dealers and factory service representatives. Toyota insisted that my Highlander was performing up to factory specifications. I did not agree then and I still feel that the vehicle has poor brakes. I wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and wanted to bring a class action suit against Toyota. I did have an independent mechanic drain the system and refill it with DOT 4 brake fluid and also had brake hose yielding corrected. I was told that the master cylinder being used in the Highlander is not adequate and should be larger, of course Toyota denies this. The Toyota dealers and the Toyota service network can care less about this brake problem and are arrogant. The vehicle now has 30,000 miles. I did replace the front brakes with Thermo-quiet premium semi-metallic asbestos free severe duty brake pads, with sound insulators. These were replaced even though the original Toyota pads were still good because the Toyota brakes were making noise and we couldn't stand it. The vehicle still requires increased brake pedal stroke when stopping.
 
My solace is that I purchased a 2004 Mitsubishi Endeavor. Consumer Reports just ranked the Endeavor the most reliable SUV, with Highlander finishing third. The Endeavor's 1st year reliability has been outstanding according to Consumer Reports.
We take the Endeavor back and forth from Phila., PA to NH a round trip of 800 miles and love it. The gas mileage is much better then we ever got with our Highlander and the Infinity sound system puts the JBL to shame. I hook up my iPod and am in heaven.

#2450 of 5315 Re: Highlander Brakes [stantonb1] by hmurphy

Mar 10, 2005 (7:34 pm)

Replying to: stantonb1 (Mar 10, 2005 5:18 pm)
Sounds like you made the right choice to move on to something else.
 
I had a similar problem with the brakes on my last car, and I didn't feel better until I traded it in.
 
Best of luck with your new car!

#2451 of 5315 Re: 1 yr ownership review, steering and heater ques. [yft] by mikefm58

Mar 11, 2005 (5:49 am)

Replying to: yft (Mar 10, 2005 10:20 am)
" After I had my HL tire rotated, the low tire pressure light went on. The mechanic who rotated the tires told us that a lot of the Toyota's tire pressure sensor went bad. We brought the SUV in the dealer to have it reset. They've done it twice so far and the light came back on with in half an hours driving. The dealer had mentioned that they need to download something from the internet to reprogram the sensor but when we brought the HL in a different service guy said he never heard about the internet thing....sounds like the dealer has different stories about it. Anyone can shed some lights? "
 
I had the same problem, see the fix in msg #2310.

#2452 of 5315 Re: 1 yr ownership review, steering and heater ques. [mikefm58] by yft

Mar 11, 2005 (7:59 am)

Replying to: mikefm58 (Mar 11, 2005 5:49 am)
Thanks hmurphy and mikefm58! I saw mikefm58's low tire pressure series yesterday after I posted my message. Read the manual last night and did the reset this morning with a close to an hour drive to work. So far the light hasn't come back on yet. Hope this is it!!
 
In addition, I normalized the moon roof after reading some postings on the subject. It works beautifully (We always thought it's a design flaw to have to guess whether the moon roof is closed completely).
 
Love this forum!!!

#2453 of 5315 VSC Message by herzogtum71

Mar 11, 2005 (8:38 am)

Isn't this the light that comes on when the computer system senses slippage in your drive wheels? Or am I confusing it with something else?

#2454 of 5315 Hesitation (Camry SE V6) by commish1

Mar 11, 2005 (1:26 pm)

So I make my complaint with Toyota about my hesitation problem. The guy on the phone sounds puzzled about the problem but later admits to the problem. He tells me that my compliant was taken. I then get a call from my dealership in ref. to my call. They set me up an appointment with the service mgr. (We both know this is a waste of time but a necessary evil). I go in that day and take him for a test drive. I drive and he acknowledges that there is a problem. He then asks to drive the car and acknowledges it again. On the way back to the shop he tells me again that it is the "drive by wire technology" and that Toyota needs to come up with a fix. As we are getting out of the car I ask him if he can give me a receipt to show I was there on that day. He says no I will send you a copy of the letter that I am going to send Toyota. Well 3 weeks goes by and oddly enough no letter. I call him and he says "oh you didn't get the letter, I will send you another copy". Well I of course knew he never sent or wrote the letter but was going to be happy just to get it. I didn't call him out on it, just a mental note. A few days later my envelope arrives. I breath a sigh of relief and open it. He sends me a copy of the reciept that he said I didn't need because there was going to be a letter. This tells me that he definetly didn't write the letter. I'm sure he'll deny it but if you weren't writing a letter you would have just given me a reciept then and there like they do for all customers. Then I read the reciept and he has the nerve to say that he hooked it up to the machine and there was no problem. He also wrote that we could not replicate the problem. Now i'm pissed and he won't return my calls. I owned a Dodge all of my life and went to Toyota because of their reputation. Boy was I duped!

#2455 of 5315 Re: Hesitation (Camry SE V6) [commish1] by cmuniz

Mar 12, 2005 (5:50 am)

Replying to: commish1 (Mar 11, 2005 1:26 pm)
I recommend that your write a letter to the dealership with a copy to Toyota USA with the info you provided in your post. You need to make them aware of the lies and the lack of service you have received. Not sure that it will solve any of your problems with hesitation, but at this point the dealer needs to know that you won't tolerate being lied to and that you are an unhappy first-time Toyota owner.

#2456 of 5315 Re: Help! Highlander or Accord???? [buckeye10] by havok

Mar 12, 2005 (5:54 pm)

Replying to: buckeye10 (Mar 08, 2005 2:04 pm)
Go for the HL. The 6th and 7th generation Accord V6s (>1998) have well-documented trany failure rates. This is a design flaw in all tranys connected to the V6(J30 series) engines found in the Accord, MDX, Odyssey, Pilot, CL, RL and TL. Engines are awesome but tranys are POS.

#2457 of 5315 Re: Help! Highlander or Accord???? [havok] by mikefm58

Mar 12, 2005 (6:45 pm)

Replying to: havok (Mar 12, 2005 5:54 pm)
The last info. I heard on the tranny issue you mentioned was that it was traced to a part within the tranny that was produced by a supplier. Honda extended the warranty on affected trannys to 7 yr/100K miles.

#2458 of 5315 highlander vs accord by kads

Mar 12, 2005 (8:56 pm)

We've got an 04 v6 highlander with the transmission problem toyota is trying to ignore.
 
Drove an 05 V6 Accord with 5 speed auto today and it really puts toyota to shame—in fact, absolutely no comparison. Imagine this--it actually accelerates WHEN you push the accelerator, not a few seconds later. Always downshifts smoothly and immediately to the right gear on demand also.
 
If toyota really can't figure out how to fix their problem, they need to fire their management and just send their engineers out to copy Honda's far superior drive by wire/5 speed auto transmission.
 
If you’re considering toyota vs Honda, Honda wins every time—by two or three seconds!

Messages Page 246 of 532

To POST a message, please Sign In.

Advertisement

Browse by Category

Browse by Vehicle
   View All Vehicles

Browse by Board
Browse by Topic
View All Topics

Edmunds Community

Advertisement