2024 Toyota RAV4: windshield wiper failure

Filed Sep 19, 2026 · Engine, Steering · MI

I was stopped for one minute in a drive-thru, and when I took my foot off the brake to accelerate, the vehicle stalled. It told me "Engine Stopped Power Steering Low". I moved out of the drive-thru in neutral, turned off the car then turned it back on. Everything was okay and had no issues. At the time of the accident, my windshield wipers were on. My eninge's auto stop/start was also on. There was a safety risk because my car stalled out when starting up, causing me to have to turn off the car and turn it back on while stopped. I have not been able to reproduce the problem with my dealer yet. I have not had the vehicle inspected by the manufacturer, police, or insurance representatives? I did not have any warnings of this incident. I got a "Engine Stopped Power Steering Low" message when the issue occurred.

Filed May 19, 2026 · MI

I apologize if this does not meet the federal safety agency bar of a safety hazard. It does reduce the ability for hands free navigation and acts as a distraction for drivers. Toyota Rav4s have very poor GPS tracking which makes the directions in the integrated head unit and guage cluster very distracting because they are consistently incorrect. There are dozens, maybe 100+, reports online of people having similar issues. Toyota dealership has looked at it many times, escalated for troubleshooting, and as of today they say there is no fix. I have many videos to demonstrate the issue is not a fluke. There are no warning signs and the GPS will just start giving poor directions. The "danger" is in the fact that the only workaround now is to engage with a phone or other device while driving. In theory a human can rise above this and be smarter than the car but isn't that true of many safety components like non-functioning wipers(drive slow) or blind spot protectiong(check your mirror). The car is giving bad directions that the user is relying on as a navigational aid.

Filed Aug 16, 2025 · Electrical, Engine · MI

When idling with intermittent wipers on, the vehicle began smoking under the hood, engine light came on dash as well as “steering power low” warning, then engine shut off. The vehicle was unable to be started again after waiting a few minutes. The gear shift could not move from parked. The vehicle was purchased new and had only 20,000 miles on it. I ended up having it towed to a Toyota dealership but by that time the battery was drained from leaving the hazards on too long. They could not identify any other problems and sent me on my way with a working vehicle. After talking to a manager at another Toyota dealership, they identified that this is an occasional problem with this vehicle. The manager was able to contact Toyota who suggested they replace the air intake tube and bezel. Hopefully after these new parts are replaced I will not experience a random shutdown again. It’s such a specific set of conditions to cause the problem but a quick search online showed that other people have encountered similar situations with the wipers on intermittent while idling. Someone mentioned pressing the switch to turn off the automatic engine shut off as a temporary fix. I was blocking traffic and police had to direct traffic around me while I waited for the tow. Thankfully the traffic was not moving fast.

Filed Jul 13, 2025 · Visibility · MD

Small stone hit front windshield exactly in middle where window wiper sensor attaches and windshield split down the middle in two. Something is defective with these windshields. This is NOT normal to completely split like this.

Filed Jun 28, 2025 · Electrical, Visibility · FL

Wipers turn on by them self, the radio shuts down on its own and then comes back on

Filed Apr 2, 2025 · Electrical, Engine · OH

This is a follow up of an incident reported on 3/30/2025, after the vehicle was driven approximately 30 miles in the rain, then stopped for 5 to 10 minutes idling with windshield wipers on intermittent setting. Engine began to shudder, engine rpms increased/decreased erratically as the engine shook. The vehicle was turned off. After approximately 5 minutes, restarted vehicle and engine again ran erratically and then stalled, displaying “Engine Stopped, Steering Power Low” on the message center in the driver’s display. After the engine stalled, the vehicle would not restart and had to be towed. After being towed, the vehicle started and ran smooth. A short while later, the vehicle was started but again ran erratically, but did not stall right away and was turned off. The next day, 3/31/2025, the vehicle was taken to the dealership service department. The dealer stated that there were no diagnostic trouble codes stored in the vehicle computer, the battery was good condition, and the charging system was operating normally. They had no explanation for what happened. The service advisor suggested that when the gas tank was filled, it was overfilled after the gas pump clicked off. This, in fact is not the case. The gas tank was not overfilled. The service advisor was informed that there are other complaints online by other owners of the same symptoms under similar weather conditions while the vehicle is idling. The advisor stated that if it happens again, have it towed to the dealership service department

Filed Mar 30, 2025 · Electrical, Engine · OH

On 3/30/2025, I drove my 2024 Toyota RAV 4 Adventure about 30 miles in the rain with the wipers on. I then put the car in park, with the wipers still on intermittent setting and the engine still running. After sitting in park like this for approximately 5 minutes, the engine began to shudder, with engine RPMs decreasing and increasing erratically, and the engine was also shaking as the RPMs increased and decreased. I then turned the car off for approximately 5 minutes. When I restarted the car after 5 minutes, the erratic RPM resumed, and then the engine stopped running, and my display screen showed the following message: “Engine Stopped, Steering Power Low”. The check engine, check steering, and check battery lights were also illuminated on the dashboard. The vehicle would not restart after several tries and ultimately ended up having the vehicle towed 30 minutes. Once the tow truck dropped it off, the engine started right up and the error messages were no longer displayed.

Filed Feb 6, 2025 · Engine, Steering · VA

While parked car engine stopped and got a message that said “ Steering Wheel Power Low”. Windshield wipers had been on for a while. Car will not start.

Filed Dec 28, 2024 · Electrical, Steering · IA

My 2024 Rav 4 showed a power steering level low message on my dash then powered off, after I was sitting in a parking lot for 10 mins in park, windshield wipers had been going that day. Tried restarting - vehicle did restart but seemed to have issues, was shaking slightly, let me drive for about a minute more in the parking lot then had a message showing to park in safe place and power steering level low and vehicle shut off again. Started vehicle about 15 mins later and everything was fine, did not experience issue again that day or next day so far. I feel I have an unreliable vehicle - what if this happened on the highway and my car just shut off in traffic, how dangerous this issue is. Several other complaints online also regarding use of windshield wipers and electrical power steering issues happening in correlation with one another. I took my vehicle to smart Toyota after this happened but no techs were left for day. Manager said power steering is all electrical / no actual fluid. I have appt with my Toyota dealership in town for next week but without the issues on my dashboard any longer (no error message on my dashboard now) I was told they don’t know if they’ll be able to find anything wrong. This is extremely upsetting and I worry about my safety and others that this is happening to. It is a serious concern.

Filed Apr 4, 2024 · Electrical, Engine · KY

After driving the vehicle in the rain, pulled into work and the car died. Would not restart, it popped up with power steering low error code. After leaving work car started right up and drove normal. Searching online and a lot of other people are having same issue, causing there cars to die and not restart when they are in traffic. Most people reporting the same issue have had their cars die on them while on the highway in stop and go traffic, which could lead to a wreck. I don’t want this to happen to me or anyone else as I travel a lot with my two small children in the vehicle. Other items to note, almost all the people I found online with same issue have said that it was also raining, with their windshield wipers on and the start stop function turned on. Thank you for looking into this for me and other customers.