Drivers side sliding door jammed and cable had to be cut by dealer. I have seen this is a common issue in siennas. Seems to be a safety and quality issue. 1500 dollars for repair at dealer.
2004 Toyota Sienna body complaints
Page 24 of 33: complaints 671 to 700 of 962, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Power side sliding door on passenger side of toyota sienna 2004 le van gets jammed, stuck, unopenable, unclosable in both cold and warm weather.
2004 toyota sienna powerside door failure to open /close.
2004 toyota sienna passenger sliding door (automatic),stopped working, scrapes paint off of body when used manually, nearly impossible to open and shut.
Cable and pulley system on rear power door on toyota sienna frayed and broken. Door doesn't slide on track and comes off while driving.
1. A defective weld on the driver side door check attachment caused loud popping noise every time the door was used. Problem progressed into a full failure of strap/check mechanism. 2. Passenger side slider door motor failed, door would not open automatically. Cable on door was repaired under warranty, but since complete door motor failure happened after warranty expired, dealer would not consider it related problem. We got the same $1700 repair quote noted by many others online. After much haggling, toyota reluctantly agreed to repair it for labor costs only and supply the part. Door has chipped the tinted coating off rear quarter window and still sounds balky at times, especially when it's cold out. Looking at other similar reports, this is clearly a design defect. Please make toyota recall these vans and make good on this issue!
Passenger side sliding door cable shredded and no longer operates door.
Passenger and driver side sliding doors freeze shut and will not open.
2004 toyota sienna xle -premature failure of driver side slider door - door diagnosed by dealer with faulty motor, cable assembly and hinge, this is a dangerous condition in that door may freeze in either full open or closed position and not be able to activate to open or close. Tsb el004-00 addresses this issue, but toyota has not notified buyers of defect. Only cover repairs within 36 month or 36,000 miles. Many incidents reported on internet sites about this being a known defect and very high cost to repair (approx $1,700). Request help to compel toyota to support a recall action on this problem.
Driver's side door weld has failed. Door make loud popping sound and has now affected window operation.
Both sliding doors on 2004 toyota sienna le frequently freeze shut in winter. One door is power, one is manual, and both frequently freeze. Only solution so far is to wait for van to warm up. Major safety issue as it prevents easy exit for children in rear of van - they must crawl between the front seats to exit.
I own a 2004 toyota sienna xle. Starting about a month ago (right when it turned 100k miles) the rear driver's side power door started getting stuck closed and would not open. It made a clicking sound like it was trying to open but it was like it wouldn't unlock (even though the orange part of the level still moved inside to indicate it was unlocked). At first locking and unlocking the door a few times would solve the problem and then it would open fine. The problem has become increasingly frequent and now the door won't open at all. I took it to the dealer and they couldn't get it to open and the technician said that just about everyone with this model has this problem and quoted me $1600+ dollars to fix it - and that's if the door will open again. They also showed me how the replacement motor is a re-engineered part which is further indicative of the defectiveness of the original. There are hundreds if not thousands of instances of this very same failure happening to other sienna owners of this vintage yet toyota won't issue a recall. I called toyota customer service and they just kept saying it has a hundred thousand miles and tough luck. Never mind it's a 4 year old car. They said I'd have to meet with the district manager who'd made this decision and that there was no possible way to ever escalate this matter above that individual. I don't buy that. They also refused to give me this individual's contact information. This is wholly unacceptable. . I have many more cars to purchase in my lifetime and they won't be toyota's if this is how they're going to treat their customers. It seems as though they have no incentive to address this issue as the $3,000 it sounds like everyone is having to spend on their defective doors is a mighty lucrative income source for them. Help.
Driver side passenger door on the toyota sienna 2004 vehicle with less than 51,000 miles must now be replaced at a cost of $1,800. This is certainly not normal for a car this new with only normal daily use in a non-weathered environment.
Cable to operate automatic sliding door snapped. I've clipped the cables so it now operates as a manual door.
Sliding doors freeze shut on minivan every time that the temperature gets below freezing and there is moisture in the air. Door handle broke off on the driver side sliding door and had the handle replaced. The toyota dealership put baby oil on the weather stripping to hopefully reconcile this from happening again, however 2 days later the temperature was 24 f and both of the sliding doors were again frozen shut. In order to open the doors you have to climb over the front seats to push against the doors from the inside. It does not matter if the car warms up for 20 minutes they still remain frozen and they have frozen shut after driving less than 10 miles after getting them open.
Originally, rear gate problems began with my gate dropping closed without warning. Similar to other complaints noted on mycarstats.com the struts were no longer functioning safely or properly. I filed a complaint at that time and was contacted for more information. Meanwhile, this issue continued and we used the rear gate function only when there were two adults present, with one to hold the gate up during use. Starting last august, in addition to the previously noted rear gate strut issue, when the rear gate is opened, and reaches the top, to the fully opened position, it then immediately begins closing down forcefully. If anyone or anything is in the way of the gate it continues to close down crushing whatever or whomever is in the way. We will no longer use the rear gate until it is repaired and works properly.
Van has less than 40,000 miles and so far all doors on van have failed. Sliding door cable snapped and pieces came flying out and hit me. Sliding doors freeze shut in cold weather making getting a child in or out of the in the case of an emergency impossible. Both seat heaters have failed. The van has required 3 brake jobs and 2 sets of tires in less than 40,000 miles.
My 2004 toyota sienna sliding door fell off the track. It has less than 40,000 miles on it. I have to drive it home with the door hanging by a cable. It was kind of dangerous, especially with my daughters in it.
My 2004 toyota sienna sliding doors keep freezing up. I start to open the door but it wont open more than a few inches. And it wont' close. The doors are frozen. So my door is partially open, stuck, and the interior lights are on.
Door welds on driver side and passenger side are damaged. Never received information from toyota. Brought into dealer in december. There is some sort of modest service program, but my car is too old, although under the mileage rules. Currently I am waiting to hear from regional rep, with no reply from 1/14/09 call. Ours was a very early purchase of the new model in its first year, so excluding a few early vehicles and covering the rest seems totally unfair. There ought to be a recall of all models to fix this obvious defect.
The automatic sliding door does not open & close automatically like it should when the door open/close button is pressed. I have to get it started manually, and then open/close it like a manual door. Also both sliding doors (even the manual sliding door) freeze shut on a daily basis in the winter. This is a huge safety issue as I have children in the rear of the van.
Gas struts for rear lifting door gave out suddenly. Now door slams down unless physically held up. Happened day after we returned from skiing in lake tahoe for 3 days.
The cable of the motor on the right side of door (second row passenger side), which is automatic door had snapped! Could barely open and/or close the door after that. I went to toyota and they told me there was no warranty on it, so since I could barely open the door, I had to pay to get it fixed. Over $1600! I should mention, we have had problems with this door in the past. It would stick, not open properly, so we'd have to close it and re-open it. I brought this up to toyota dealership many times, but they checked and said there was nothing wrong with it. Also, on the right side, which is manual, it sometimes would be "stuck" or, it would open, but would not "latch". It is supposed to kind of lock when all the way open, but it wouldn't. I have complained about this in the past also, but of course when I get to the dealership it works fine. I have called and complained today to corporate and will receive some sort of response tomorrow. So, both doors have problems, where the cable literally snaps and they cannot just replace the cable. They have to replace the entire motor.
Cable broke on passenger side sliding door. Cable shot up between door panel and window. Nearly striking a passenger.
The powered rear liftgate struts were replaced as part of the federal safety agency recall campaign on 12/18/2008. The new struts no longer lift the tailgate to its previous height. The tailgate now opens about 2" to 3" lower than the maximum extension. The tailgate must be manually pushed to its full extension. At its lower height, it is easy to get bumped in the head as you assume the door will open fully. The dealer states that the tailgate cannot be adjusted for greater travel to open all the way.
Right sliding door cable snapped and stopped opening automatically. This happen right after warrranty ended and they would only repair it for 2000 +.
We own a 2004 toyota sienna xl. When temps get cold the rear doors freeze shut. Even after letting the van warm up for 20 minutes the doors are frozen and they stay frozen the entire trip. I have to climb into the back from the front seat. I drive 25 miles to work and cross a river what if the doors are frozen and I am in an accident how would they or me get my baby out of the back!!!! Toyota dealer said toyota is aware of the problem!! Are they waiting for someone to die before they fix it. Please help! Kim stokes
I have a sienna 04 van. The power slider door would not open completely. We took it to the dealer and found out the cable in the power door was bad, they want 2,000 to fix it. I can't afford that. We had them cut he cable so we could close the door. We have young kids who can not open the non power door creating a safety issue. Reading the auto discussion sites it is obvious how much of a common failure this is. For me a couple months out of warranty. This should not be a regular occurrence but it most certainly is one. Never mind how much toyota makes on this issue. You can not get an oem part and you have to buy the whole motor assembly with it for 1200 dollars. What a markup. They will make as much on redoing these doors as they do selling the van, maybe more. And I thought toyota was good, I have had many repairs and call backs on this van. Somebody needs to get toyota to repair their doors and fix the design, which not a new issue.
I received a recall notice regarding my 2004 toyota sienna van to have the rear liftgate support struts replaced. I was advised that there had been reports of failure resulting in potential injuries. I visited the dealer 9/08 and had the struts replaced. Following the replacement a problem developed. My liftgate is power operated and when I opened the liftgate it immediately reversed and closed repeatedly. I returned to the dealer on 10/20/08 and they replaced the struts again. The problem remained and on 11/3/08 the dealer insisted the motor had probably worn out and I had it replaced. The solution seemed to work until 1/09 when again the liftgate would go up and immediately back down. Worse yet, the safety feature would not work (if the liftgate meets resistance; like someone in the way). If the liftgate meets resistance it is supposed to reverse. On 1/13/09 an employee of a retailer was almost injured while loading merchandise into the vehicle. The liftgate would not reverse and I had to pull him away. I went back to the dealer and they explained they have had many complaints. They went on to explain that apparently cold weather is to blame resulting in the struts not functioning properly. The dealer went on to explain that toyota to date does not have a solution. I'm amazed, this is a potential hazard.
Control arm on driver's side door makes a load noise upon opening and closing door. Took to dealer and informed that I needed to take it to an autobody shop to repair the broken weld.
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