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Sienna Owners: Problems & Solutions - READ ONLY

67 messages,  Last post on Apr 29, 2003 at 12:40 PM

You are in the Toyota Sienna Forum.

What is this discussion about? Toyota Sienna, Van

Messages Page 2 of 7

#8 of 67 Sienna Front Wheel Wearing by wiencs

Nov 02, 2002 (2:03 pm)

I have a 1999 Sienna that I bought new. No real problems (busted radio knob and sticking sliding doors that seem to have corrected themselves) but the front wheels/alignment must be whacked. I'm at 29,000 miles and looking at my 3rd set of tires. Early on I noticed a shimmy in the front end at very low speed (like going down the alley). At 10K miles I had it back at the dealership complaining about it (my first pair of front tires was already about shot) and they suggested that the first set of tires wasn't properly balanced. So I spent the money and indeed it was better but still not totally gone. I was watching the wear pattern and the inside and outside edges were going bald way too fast. Today the drivers side went flat and when I changed the tire I noticed that the inside edge was worn all the way through to the steel belts (cut my hand on the nasty little wires sticking out all over the place. I'm sure that I will at least get an alignment, but this seems to me to clearly be a design issue. Has anyone else had this problem and is there any relief from Toyota?

#9 of 67 Radio Speakers and Possible Cruise Control Problem by rc327

Nov 02, 2002 (4:32 pm)

I recently bought a 2003 Sienna Symphony, drives nice have been happy with so far. I recently took a trip and I believe I experienced some sort of periodic engine jerk or bucking while in cruise. There was no sort of pattern to it but I originally thought it had something to do with going up and over hills. Later, I discounted that when I noticed it doing it on flat and level highway. Also, I don't know if I'm hearing things but I would swear my Premium Sound System has a front speaker gone bad already. It sounds like it's blown out or getting there; some sort of cracking sound occurs with the beat of the music and I'm the only one driving it and I don't listen to music that loud. Has anyone gone through this or similar problems. This Van isn't 3 months old yet and this wasn't what I expected from a new Toyota van. I expected door dings and rock chips in the paint on the hood but not mechanical problems such as this. I might have to rethink my opinion of Toyota vehicles because I expected TOP quality and I'm beginning to think I bought a future lemon. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome. RC

#10 of 67 Recurrent alignment problems by toyotaken

Nov 02, 2002 (7:49 pm)

Something that you may want to have either the dealership or an independent auto shop check for you is if the rims are out of round. It is not a common problem, but if they are, it is almost impossible to balance the tires correctly. The other problem may be with the camber of the wheels. Same thing, you may want a second opinion at another dealership or independent shop. Other than that, I have not heard of anything like this on Sienna's.

#11 of 67 To Toyotaken by wiencs

Nov 03, 2002 (7:58 am)

How is camber different/related to alignment. Will I have to ask to have it specifically looked at (like out of round rims which I bet they never check for)

#12 of 67 RE: questions by toyotaken

Nov 04, 2002 (7:48 am)

To check for out of round rims, you do need to ask them to look for that specifically. What they do is actually pull the tires off of the rims and put them on the machine to ballance tires without the tire on them. Camber is usually checked when they are doing an alignment, but not always and not all shops are able to check it. Camber is the angle that the wheels/tires are to the road surface. Optimal is usually 90 degrees or perpendicular to the road. Alignment is how straight all wheels are when you're vehicle is pointed down the road. They should all be parallel to each other. Even if the car isn't pulling, your alignment may be off as two wheels may be out of alignment, and countering each other, but still wearing out the tires. Keep me informed, and feel free to ask anything else.

#13 of 67 Brake Design Flaw by js1111

Nov 04, 2002 (10:14 am)

Our 2002 Sienna with less then 15K miles has squeaky brakes. It started after a recent tire rotation. The dealer has tried to fix it once, and was not successful. The dealer service manager told us it is a design flaw in the 2001 and 2002 Siennas. Although the brakes do stop the car fine, they tend to squeak more than they should. This is very annoying. Thought I was buying a quality car. Any advise?
 
Thanks,
 
Jeff

#14 of 67 re: brake design flaw by jeprox

Nov 04, 2002 (8:49 pm)

well - the sienna is a "quality car" and you have bought a good "quality car". if you expect the sienna to be a 100% perfect vehicle, you will be disappointed coz it's not and i don't think there is a perfect vehicle out there. the squeaky brakes have been around since the first model of sienna (1998) came out, not just 2001-2002 models.
 
you can ask your dealer to fix it free of charge if they will agree to it or replace the pads with aftermarket pads and hope the squeak will go away or just like me... remove the drums every few thousand kms. and clean it and learn to live with the squeak. yes, it's troublesome and annoying but i love the van. its so much better than the caravan that i owned before so i learn to live with the squeak. to me, the squeak is nothing at all compared to having to re-build my caravan engine twice with under 80,000kms. at over C$1000 each time! my sienna currently have 63,000kms on it and its 3yrs. old and the only problems i had with it are the squeaky brakes and alignment of front wheels which is now fixed.
 
just my $0.02

#15 of 67 defective computer for sliding door by cheri12

Nov 26, 2002 (5:56 am)

My automatic sliding door no longer works properly and I was just told that the computer is bad. The mechanic said he checked with other mechanics and they said this is a very frequent and expensive repair for the Siennas. (Over $1200) Has anyone had any luck with the dealer or manufacturer helping out with this problem? This expense seems excessive for a 3 1/2 year old car.

#16 of 67 defective computer for sliding door by sienna01

Nov 30, 2002 (6:18 pm)

See post 1939 in the Toyota Sienna Problems (Vans Board) I had the same problem with my 2001. Look at # 1219, # 1246 and # 1367. It was a real pain for us, but the door has been working great since they replaced the door computer. I have the part number in the other posts.

#17 of 67 CD skids while driving on flat roads by surroundidea

Dec 01, 2002 (1:18 am)

I have a Toyota Sienna 2000 LE with the combo CD/Tape/Radio unit. I bought a few new CD's over the weekend, and the CD player starts skipping the tracks while I am driving on the road above 35 mph. The road surface was even with no bumps.
 
The Sienna has 29,000 miles and it is getting very annoying. If I hit a bump, the CD player will skip one or two songs easily.
 
Should I have the dealer repair it or replace the player? Anybody has similar problem? Thanks.
 
Howard

Messages Page 2 of 7

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