2005 Toyota Avalon: hesitation when accelerating

Filed Mar 10, 2012 · Engine · 99,750 miles · MD

My check engine light came on while I was driving,and then the vsc light came on,car hesitates when gas pedal is applied then jerks and takes off almost ran in the back of a few people,went to dealer they said it was a ecu computer 1350$ had car for 8mo. Only put 8000 miles on it,was very dangerous driving this car

Filed Aug 26, 2010 · Acceleration · 114,000 miles · SC

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 toyota avalon. The contact stated that the vehicle was repaired under the federal safety agency campaign id number: 10v017000 (vehicle speed control: accelerator pedal). Following repairs, the vehicle began to exhibit signs of potential stalling before abnormally accelerating. The dealer advised that the spark plugs were not properly firing. The spark plugs were replaced yet the failure persisted. The dealer then advised replacing the transmission. The failure was not as constant as before however; sporadically the vehicle would exhibit signs of hesitation. The contact stated that prior to recall repairs, the vehicle was operating as normal. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 114,000 and the current mileage was 120,000.

Filed Mar 4, 2010 · Acceleration · 63,475 miles · CA

I have a 2005 toyota avalon, back on 4/18/09 I took my car in to south bay toyota to have them check out this problem-my car was hesitating b4 take off and it would excel faster. I was able to slow it down. But the result from toyota was: performed inspection could not confirm any abnormalities at this time. No pending malfunction codes stored in computer. No check engine light. Well I took my car back because it was one of the recall model for the pedal and they made the change ,but now it is worst now, it accelerates faster than b4. While waiting for at a signal some times I can hear it slightly raring up.(I then put it in park) and hold the brake pedal down all the way. I am totally afraid of this car. I tried to trade it in to the toyota dealer but for the SUV I want it was to much, and they weren't working with me at all.

Filed Jan 20, 2008 · Acceleration · 34,900 miles · MD · crash

Weather: sunny. Engine warm - driven about 10 miles on the way to small shopping center. I'm in no hurry, stopping to browse in a favorite boutique. Looking for a parking space, slowed vehicle to a crawl while scanning the lot & then turned slowly about 45 degrees to drift into an available space when suddenly the vehicle lurched forward out of control ramming the parked vehicle facing the space I was in. I remember a loud noise - which was the engine accelerating: an unfamiliar sound when the vehicle was just about stopped. Then, the noise of the crash - about 6 ft in front of the avalon at the time of the noise & lurch. The impact stopped the car. I put it in reverse & backed away, then turned off the ignition. My foot was not on the accelerator by mistake as it had been on the brake while drifting down the aisle toward the open space - there had been no acceleration while in that aisle. To come to a complete stop in the space I would have had to apply only the slightest pressure to the brake ; therefore, if I had touched the accelerator by mistake I would have not done so with enough pressure to cause the wild acceleration. With my foot above the brake in that instant when I touched the brake to stop the lurch it didn't affect the speed of the car before impact: there was not any hesitation in the engine. No damage to the other vehicle. The avalon sustained some bumper damage and a bent hood - drivable, but I refused to drive it. While waiting for a tow truck I drove to the empty lot behind the stores and tried to repeat the event, unsuccessfully. I discovered that in order to accelerate that quickly, I would have had to have pushed the accelerator to the floor - an impossibility at the 0 miles per hour I was drifting into position in the parking space. The car accelerated suddenly and unintentional through no action on my part. The toyota dealer found nothing wrong with the car.

Filed Sep 6, 2007 · Transmission · 8,500 miles · OR

Since purchasing in dec., 2005, transmission hesitates when proceeding from idle at slow speeds and sometimes between gears at highway speed when trying to accelerate. Have nearly been rear-ended innumerable times. Original several complaints to dealer resulted in info that "no tsb has been issued to fix that". This last time I complained, I was told that it was natural feature of drive-by-wire, that no tsb had been issued which fixed it, and that toyota was not going to do anything about this known problem.

Filed Nov 9, 2006 · Body, Transmission · AZ

2005 avalon transmission problems. *ts the consumer stated the vehicle exhibited excessive wind noise. The consumer was told the vehicle was operating as designed. *jb the transmission had a hesitation up to three seconds. Updated *jb the consumer stated wanted to know the status of the complaint.

Filed Oct 25, 2006 · Transmission · 21,340 miles · WA

Noticing hesitation at low speed gear shifting . Results in no acceleration in spite of pressing the accelerator and after a lag car suddenly responds. Had trouble while merging from the ramp on to the highway now several times, but not daily. Concerned that this may result in an accident specially while merging or driving at low speeds in heavy traffic. This problem has caused me to bump into a truck resulting in damage to my right front fender.

Filed Jul 18, 2006 · Acceleration · 16,888 miles · PA

There seems to be a hesitation when stepping on the gas peddle, it takes a couple seconds before the transmissions responds. When it does, it doesn't seem to know what gear to put it in. Sometimes it accelerates normally. But other times it is unpredictable....can be very dangerous when merging or turning onto major roads.

Filed Apr 18, 2006 · Acceleration · 5,800 miles · KS

Dt*: the contact stated upon initial acceleration the vehicle hesitated. The problem has been present in the vehicle since the date of purchase. The vehicle was taken to the dealer who determined the vehicle was operating normally.

Filed Mar 14, 2006 · Fuel system, Transmission · 7,300 miles · NY

I have filed a complaint with toyota regarding the hesitation and erratic shifting of our 2005 avalon. I was told that it was due to the way the computer controls the new 5 speed transmission in conjunction with their electronic fuel injection control. In researching this problem,I have read where many other avalon owners have also experienced this. On sun.,03/12/06,I had just exited route 80 eastbound (exit 27) in n.j. And proceeded to merge with traffic on route 206 and had to immediately make a left turn. As I pressed on accelerator,the vehicle simply did not respond (hesitation) and, when it did engage after a second or two,lunged forward. This startled all in the car (myself and 2 passengers) and was a very unsafe occurrence as traffic was heavy and moving fast. The vehicle has approx. 7500 miles on it and will be a year old in june,2006. I have an appointment for service with my dealership on tues.,03/21. They are to go over the car and check to see if there are any tech. Service bulletins. I have been checking on existence of tsb since shortly after buying the vehicle. I am not optimistic. This is a serious problem and toyota should be doing something about it! Thank you.

Filed Dec 20, 2005 · 5,000 miles · AL

I have a 2005 avalon and there is a hesitation between the pushing of the brake pedal and the actual braking of the car, the same is true for the gas pedal. The service manager at the dealership went on a test drive with me and told me that these actions were found in other toyota products and there was not yet a fix on them. I had taken the car back three times and on the final repair trip the service department wrote that the car was to manufacturer specs. I have filed a complaint with toyota and have not received a response as of yet.

Filed Dec 3, 2005 · Acceleration, Transmission · 18 miles · MO

Since purchasing the avalon in early june, I have been frustrated with how the car operates between 20 and 40 miles per hour. The car does not always know what gear it needs to shift into. It will frequently race 1000 RPM ahead without any change in speed. Then suddenly it will accelerate and the RPM's will drop back to normal RPM. It seems to happen most often in rush traffic when trying to change lanes. The hesitation in acceleration will cause me to lose most of my margin of safety in the process of changing lanes. In this regard, the car is not safe. There is no way to predict when the problem will occur, and therein, lies the safety hazard. It would seem that the last effort by the service department to update my computer programming failed to achieve any level of improvement to my satisfaction with one exception. Since the first computer upgrade, I have not experienced the complete loss of gear at high speeds. Is this a problem in all 2005 avalons? Is toyota aware of the problem and do they have plans to resolve it? Serviced on friday, october 21. Toyota reset the computer learning back to factory default. Technical support in ca explained that there are no current plans to address the issue. Once the learning process develops a bad pattern, it must be reset back to factory default and the relearning started over. The problem started all over again and there is no "unlearning" the problem.