2007 Toyota Highlander Hybrid: jerking or lurching

Filed Feb 24, 2015 · Brakes, Visibility · 105,000 miles · MD

I am reporting two issues with my highlander. The first is in regards to the brake system. While looking at another complaint that had been filed, I realized that my car did the same thing. Brakes become momentarily unresponsive when stopping. Car lurches forward and additional force is needed on pedal to regain control. I copied word for word what the other person wrote, as that describes it perfectly. My second complaint regards the windshield wipers. The wiper on the left has stopped working well, and will not wipe back and forth properly on the window. It stops or gets stuck mid-wipe, obscuring my vision. It is very dangerous, and I am having them repaired tomorrow. Thank you.

Filed Jun 6, 2014 · Brakes · 96,000 miles · MN

Brakes become momentarily unresponsive when stopping. Car lurches forward and additional force is needed on pedal to regain control. Appears to happen when braking system switches over from regenerative to friction. Happens at various speeds when trying to stop.

Filed Jul 1, 2010 · Acceleration, Brakes · 35,643 miles · MN · crash

I have a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid. On 1/26/2009 I was stopped at a light, behind another vehicle, waiting for the light to change. I hadn't been doing anything but sitting there, waiting for the car in front of me to start moving, when my vehicle went forward (lurched) and I rear-ended the car in front of me! I have never done that in my life. My car hit the vehicle - a minivan, in front of me very hard, (felt like 10-15 MPH) causing a lot of damage to the rear cargo door. However, because the event was so odd, and happened so fast, (and this happened before toyota ever recalled anything except the prius), I assumed I must've done something to cause it. So when the police got there, I told them maybe I wasn't paying attention, and maybe I accelerated before the light changed (but even at the time, it didn't make sense to me, because I wasn't first in line at the light, I was waiting, patiently, behind another vehicle). In fact, I don't even remember looking at the light, I was just waiting for the vehicle in front of me to move, as I usually do - did. I went in to my toyota dealer a few month ago (march 2010) and told them what happened, and the service advisor told me that because my vehicle is a hybrid, sometimes, when you're stopped at a light, it switches from the electric motor to gas, and if you don't have your foot on the brake petal hard enough, it can lurch forward. Please can you look into this further, it was quite scary. I bet allstate and other insurance companies have many claims where a toyota highlander rear-ends other vehicles, and people assume it's their fault, not assuming the vehicle might have a problem.

Filed Feb 18, 2010 · Brakes · IL

When braking, if a pothole or bump in the road is hit, the car seemingly jerks forward/accelerates. This occurs every time when braking on a bumpy surface.

Filed Feb 4, 2010 · Brakes · 65,000 miles · SC

We have a 2007 toyota highlander hybrid that is exhibiting the same braking problems that are being reported with the prius. When pressing the brakes the car begins to slow then it feels that the brakes momentarily release, causing the car to lurch forward, before they re-engage and finish stopping the car. I haven't noticed if it happens more over bumps but it does happen on a fairly regular basis. We have spoken with the toyota dealership about this multiple times and each time have been told that it is working how it should and the pausing in braking is caused by the engine switching over to electric. This cannot be the problem as the majority of the time when this has happened the engine has remained on during the problem. I would like to get the current investigation extended to encompass all hybrid models and not just the prius. The date entered below is the approximate date of the last time I noticed this, however it has happened relatively regularly since we have owned the vehicle.