When driving the 2002 highlander, the driver side visor dropped down and hit the driver on the nose and obstructed vision of the road. Toyota replaced the visor once years before, but will not do so again because it is out of warranty. No repair is possible, so it must be replaced at a cost of more than $800.00 for the visor (with garage door opener) part only. The visor is now falling down due to a poor hinge, and is a constant hazard. Many other owners of the same toyota report the same problem.
2002 Toyota Highlander visibility complaints
Page 2 of 6: complaints 11 to 40 of 139, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Sun visor on driver's side unexpectedly falls down. I have almost rear ended a few vehicles on the highway and surface streets due to this problem. This is a recurring problem for me and is getting more and more serious. I see that there have been several complaints on this issue for this year toyota highlander. How many complaints does the federal safety agency/toyota have to receive before this is considered a safety issue? How many deaths? I was quoted $750 by a toyota dealership to have the visor replaced.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 toyota highlander. The contact stated that while driving various speeds over road bumps, the sun visor would fall, causing the driver's vision of the roadway to become obscured. The vehicle was not inspected by a dealer or an independent mechanic. The manufacturer was contacted and they offered no assistance. The failure and current mileages was approximately 166,000. *tr...updated 05/08/13
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 toyota highlander. The contact stated that the driver's side sun visor bracket failed. The sun visor detached from the bracket and obstructed the contact's view of the roadway. The dealer had previously replaced the sun visor bracket however, the failure was not corrected. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 70,000 and the current mileage was 140,000.
Driver side visor will not stay in place, drops down due to vibration. Appears to be a design flaw. Visor too heavy for armiture, dealership cost to replace approximately 800.00.
Sun visor does not stay in position. It rotates down to a vertical position, obstructing driver's view and will not stay in horizontal position against cabin ceiling.
While driving both sun visors fall unexpectedly and block vision. This has been a problem from the get-go and we had these replaced already and just over a year later the problem is occurring again.
The driver's side sun visor will not stay down when pushed into place to block bright sun. Instead, it moves partially back up, thereby obscuring the driver's vision. There are numerous reports of the same problem in other 2002 and 2003 toyota highlanders. Toyota's response is simply that the car is out of warranty, and we are welcome to pay $850 for a new visor (it is so expensive because it contains a garage door opener remote control). This is a safety issue. Here is more info from others with the same problem http://www.fixya.com/cars/t594661-highlander_problem_sun_visor.
The sun visor will not stay in the up position. Toyota replaced the visors under warranty after the first occurrence. However, they are not staying up anymore. The drivers side visor falls down when driving creating a safety hazard. Both of them fall down at an angle which could cause head injuries during a crash. In doing an internet search, it appears this is an issue with many other highlanders. I went back to toyota and they would not replace it under warranty.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 toyota highlander. The contact stated that the driver and passenger side sun visors would release downwardly without intent when the vehicle was stationary or in motion. The sun visors would be placed in the upward position upon releasing. The failure occurred intermittently and temporarily distorted the visibility. The vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer and an independent mechanic, who both stated that the entire sun visor would need to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the problem. The approximate failure mileage was 80,000.
The heater would not provide hot air. I pushed in on the switch and the heat would work as long as I held the switch pushed in (not designed to be pushed - rotary selector). Eventually, even pressing the switch in would not work. I went on line and found a discussion blog that discussed my exact issue. I followed the recommendation and pulled the face cover off, removed the control panel and discovered exactly what had been described - a broken single strand wire that ran to the back of the switch. I attempted to make the repair using a multi-strand wire as recommended because the dealer repair option was $1,000. The heater appears to work -slightly, but now I have no AC. I think the circuit board was damaged by the soldering iron heat. Because we live in the seattle area, this causes issues with the window defogger as well as having no AC.
I have a problem with the sun visors on my 2002 highlander. The visors seem overly heavy and due to the normal vibrations in the car they frequently fall down, which is quite disconcerting when driving! I've talked to toyota but they mention there is no way to adjust the tension and I'm going to have to pay 700.00 to get them fixed. I'm concerned as it looks to be a design fault (I.e. Both visors are falling down, due to the weight of the things) and I don't want to pay for new ones to be in exactly the same situation in 18 months time. I have researched the problem on the internet aand many people are reporting this problem with toyota highlanders.
Driver/s side sun visor will not stay up. While driving, it suddenly drops obscuring my vision and putting the driver at extreme risk for an accident (impaired vision of the road). There is no apparent way to fix this problem short of replacing the sun visor (estimated cost of approx. $700 per blogs). This problem has been experienced by many owners of 2002 highlanders as exemplified via "complaint" postings.
This is clearly a design flaw & potentially dangerous. The sun visors fail & drop down in front on you, no longer staying at a proper angle or staying up. I cut one open & found that the pivoting pin is coated in plastic & held in place by a metal clip. Over time the plastic cracks & falls off the metal pin causing the loss of the required friction to hold the visor securely in place. My 1st repair was to reform the pin with epoxy, but the force from the metal clip was too much and it failed in a few months. The next fix was to cut the visor open again & force the part of the pin still covered in the original plastic coating deeper into the metal clip. That repair lasted until now. The replacement parts are ridiculously expensive, but now I can not repair it and not doing so would be a driving hazard. From what I have read online this is a common problem and toyota should have done something by now.
Driver's side sun visor keeps falling down suddenly while driving. While searching online, I found out that many 2002 highlander owners have the same problem. Repair is too costly. It is definitely a safety hazard.
Over the past few months the drivers side visor would fall when I press the breaks. Blocking my vision. Recently, the visor will not stay up at all, and needs to be taped up to prevent it from falling while I am driving.
The driver's sunvisor does not work. It won't stay in position or even up. The visor just falls down all the time, blocking the driver's view. There are complaints about the same issue with no solutions all over the internet. I tried talking to toyota - they just told me to buy a new $700 visor. But I have known others with this same year/model/make (2002 toyota highlander) of car and even after replacing the visor, they have the same issue.
Tl* the contact owns a 2002 toyota highlander. The contact stated that approximately two years ago he noticed that the drivers side sun visor would fall and obscure his vision while driving. The vehicle was taken to a dealer who advised him that it needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and offered no assistance. The failure mileage was approximately 70,000. Updated 09/21/11*lj the consumer also stated the passenger side visor failed as well. Updated 09/28/11
I have a 2002 toyota highlander and both sun visors will not stay up. This is creating a safety hazard when they fall down and blocks my view while I am driving. What's it going to take - someone getting killed before toyota will admit that the visor is too heavy and needs to be corrected. Seems with all the negative publicity that they have received lately that they would do what is right and correct the problem on all their vehicles with this problem. I know that it would be costly but it is their product and they should be willing to do the right thing.
Sun visor on the driver's side suddenly falls from its normal position during driving blocking the driver's field of vision. That might case an accident.
Sun visor on my 2002 toyota highlander will frequently fall down without warning. This results in my view of the road being unexpectedly hindered. This could easily result in an accident. This happens frequently - I.e. Almost every time I drive more than 3 miles.
My toyota highlander on both the driver and passenger side sun visors drop down while driving. Research of this problem indicate others are having the same problem which potentially can cause an accident by blocking vision or disturbing the driver while driving. Notified toyota of the problem and got a very prompt standard customer service reply that the warranty has expired and basically it is your problem versus a potential design flaw that may have safety considerations and they at least could of provide assistance to correct the problem other than a replacement at $660. Even at that based on the internet that is not a permanent repair since it is a design flaw. Apparently this is also a problem with other toyota models.
Toyota 2002 highlander limited driver's side sun visor flops down into driver's vision while driving. Obscures view momentarily creating a crash danger. Visor has lighted mirror and garage door opener built in. Reported to dealer and visor was replaced under service plan.
Driver's side sun visor falling into driver's field of vision when vehicle in operation. 2002 toyota highlander limited. Occurs constantly and began about three years after the visor was replaced for the same problem.
Was driving in rush hour traffic when the driver's side visor on my '02 toyota highlander suddenly dropped down to obscure my vision. This necessitated me hitting my brakes and ducking down to the right of the steering wheel in order to view traffic. There were no "events" leading to malfunction. The visor will no longer remain in the "up" position and poses an ongoing safety hazard as it must either be held in place while driving (forcing the driver to use one hand on the wheel), taped in place (where it will still drop down if/when the tape gives out); or force the driver to lean to the right in order to see around the visor (thus prohibiting the use of the rearview and sideview mirrors(.
2002 toyota highlander driver side sun visor will not stay up. It flops down into your view everytime you hit a bump. Toyota dealer wanted $650 to fix/replace here in indianapolis. Car only has 60,000 miles, this shouldn't be a problem that is so expensive to fix.
2002 toyota highlander: both driver's side and passenger side sunvisors will not stay in up position. The visors drop without warning multiple times every day since the problem began to occur. This is a safety hazard as the driver's side sunvisor randomly drops down without warning completely obscuring the driver's vision. Reported the defect to my toyota dealer and they informed me that the only option was to pay for replacements at a cost of several hundred dollars each. This assessment was given without any inspection of the vehicle and in a manner which strongly implied that this was a problem which they were very familiar with. After speaking to toyota, I decided to research this for myself on the web and found many similar incidents. This is clearly a dangerous design defect and needs to be remediated by the manufacturer urgently before someone's family is killed because the visor drops and blocks their view of the traffic ahead.
The driver's side visor on my 2002 toyota highlander will not stay in the up position and falls into the driver's view when driving over bumps.
Defective visor on 2002 toyota highlander that will not remain in "up" position. Any bump will cause the visor to fall, and potentially block the driver's field of vision. Dealer wants $667 to replace the visor - more than I paid for my first car!
My 2002 toyota highlander driver's side sun visor continuously falls down and will not stay in place. The passenger side sun visor stays in place if the car isn't moving, but will suddenly fall down unexpectedly when the car is in motion. The dealer says it would cost $600 to replace each visor, but my question is, why should I or any consumer have to pay for a manufacturer default? I have resorted to placing a velcro strip on the ceiling to keep the sun visor in place, which of course prevents me from using the visor at all.
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