2007 Toyota Sienna: fire, smoke or burning smell

Filed Jun 25, 2026 · Engine, Transmission · 170,000 miles · NC

The contact owns a 2007 Toyota Sienna. While the contact’s wife was pulling into the parking space, the transmission shifter was shifted into park(P), and the vehicle suddenly rolled forward approximately four feet. The parking brake was activated, preventing the vehicle from crashing into a parked vehicle. The vehicle was towed to the residence. While examining the vehicle, the contact determined that the shifter cable bushing had failed and needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure. Additionally, previously while driving there was smoke coming from the engine compartment and the vehicle stalled. The vehicle was towed to the local mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the oil cooler line had failed causing engine oil to spill from the engine. The rubber oil cooler line was replaced with an updated improved oil cooler line, and the vehicle was repaired. The failure mileage was 170,000.

Filed Jul 29, 2024 · AL · fire

Something under the hood caught on fire while I was driving with my son, and I pulled over. I was stopped at a red light when I first noticed smoke when I was looking in the rearview mirror. The gauges and lights never indicated anything was wrong, which I was looking at while the car was smoking and I was trying to find a place to pull over. There was smoke billowing up from the hood and all around and in the back of the van. By the time the fire department got the fire out, most of the front was melted. When pulling over the brakes were hardly responsive. The vehicle is at the wrecker and has not been inspected.

Filed Jan 6, 2020 · Engine · 144,000 miles · CA

As I was driving the van, I noticed a smell like burning rubber, although all gauges were normal and no check engine light was on. Since I was close to home, I pulled into the garage and noticed smoke coming from under the hood and a trail of oil on the drive way. Within a few minutes, there was a large puddle of oil under the vehicle as well. I had it towed to the mechanic and was told the oil cooler hose had broken. The mechanic said if I had driven it to the shop, I likely would have ruined the engine because the oil loss was so significant (out of 5 quarts, only .25 was remaining). The mechanic also said that toyota was aware of this issue but did not issue a recall, even though the replacement hoses are now steel and not rubber. This is a safety issue as the engine could have seized up while running (due to the quick loss of oil) causing potentially serious accident and injury.

Filed Dec 4, 2017 · Engine, Steering · 81,000 miles · CA

Oil cooler pressure hose explode while driving with my kids back from the church oil were leaking all over the street the car was smoking in front drivers were honking and scream your car is on fire and a nasty smoke where coming out of it. If I was not alerted by a good samaritan my kids and I will pay our lives. I called main office toyota and made a complain but they refused to help although this part 'hose is not used by toyota company for lack of safety. The supervisor was not listening and does not care about his consumers lives instead he said oh luckily some body told the car is smoking and we will do something about if it caught on fire or there is life lost. This respond is totally unacceptable he also refuse to email me a letter saying this part of the car was not recalled although it did.

Filed May 3, 2017 · Engine, Steering · 100,600 miles · VA · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 toyota sienna. While driving 60 MPH, the contact noticed smoke coming from the rear of the vehicle without warning. The contact pulled the vehicle over to a nearby fuel station. The vehicle was towed to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the engine oil cooling hose needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. While driving 25 MPH, the steering wheel failed to turn left or right without warning. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the drive belts in the tensioning system needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer stated that they extended a warranty, but would not pay for the repair. The failure mileage was 100,600.

Filed Jul 26, 2016 · Transmission · 158,000 miles · CA

I was driving my husband to work, when we pulled into his work, all of a sudden I had smoke coming from under my hood. We shut the vehicle off, I had oil everywhere. We couldn't tell where the leak was. I had the vehicle towed home and then to elk grove toyota. Well it turns out that the oil cooler line broke. This is a design flaw in 2007 to 2010 toyota sienna's. There are technicial service bulletins but no recalls. I had to rent a vehicle before I could even get it to a dealership. That bill was $365. This is my only vehicle. The first time ever buying a toyota. I researched for 4 months before I bought this vehicle.

Filed Jun 1, 2015 · Fuel system, Transmission · 108,210 miles · UT

I was northbound on interstate 15 in utah and noticed smoke coming out from underneath my car. I pulled into a firestone service center where they diagnosed the issue to be a faulty oil cooler hose assembly on my 2007 toyota sienna mini-van. I contacted toyota dealer who said that the part had been upgraded from a rubber hose to a metal hose that would not burst like mine had. I was not informed of the option to upgrade prior to this incident and in fact had had my car into the dealer for an oil change the week before this incident. Firestone said I was down to two quarts of oil remaining in the oil pan. I feel lucky that I did not burn up my engine by stopping before the oil pan ran dry. Also, I am lucky that I was driving and not my wife with a car full of kids as there seemed to be a risk of a car fire based on the smoke. I am wondering now just how safe and reliable my car is and what other problems toyota is aware of that they have not yet told me about on my year make and model. By the way it kind of ruined the family vacation we were just starting.

Filed Feb 12, 2015 · Engine · 98,382 miles · CA

The front lower oil cooler pressure hose (toyota part no. 15767 31010) started spraying oil out while the van was being driven under normal operating conditions in a residential neighborhood with young children in the car. Had this occurred at a higher speed (on a highway), all the oil would have sprayed out and the engine would have seized. This could have caused an accident or the van could have caught on fire. This is a well known problem with this part that toyota has done almost nothing to fix or prevent. We were extremely fortunate to have discovered this problem immediately.

Filed Nov 6, 2014 · Engine · 99,000 miles · VA · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 toyota sienna. While driving approximately 20 MPH, flames appeared underneath the engine compartment without warning. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 99,000.

Filed Oct 31, 2014 · Airbags · 100,000 miles · VA · crash · fire

Tl* the contact owns a 2007 toyota sienna. The contact stated that while driving 15 MPH, another vehicle crashed into contact's vehicle from the rear and the air bag failed to deploy. The vehicle also caught on fire and was later deemed as destroyed. A police report was filed and no injuries were sustained. The manufacturer was not notified of failure. The approximate failure mileage was 100,000.

Filed Sep 8, 2014 · Engine · 97,302 miles · NC

My wife was driving our 2007 toyota sienna on a major road when she noticed smoke coming from under it. She pulled into a parking lot and shut the engine off, avoiding engine seizure because within just a couple of minutes it had lost 2 qts of oil onto the ground due to a rupture in a rubber oil vvt-1 line. After reading online I found out this is a very common problem which toyota has refused to address properly. In 2009 siennas the line have been switched to all metal leaving the rest of their earlier customers with ticking time bombs. This type of failure is unacceptable, an engine seizure at 70mph will be deadly and the spilt oil on the road posses hazards as well. A toyota dealership wants to charge over $500.00 to replace this $23.00 hose.

Filed Apr 1, 2013 · Brakes · 58,500 miles · NY

While attempting to drive to work while on a parkway (with no shoulder to pull over on) suddenly there was a dragging feeling as if the parking brake was applied. I immediately pulled off at the nearest exit and pulled over, my brake pedal felt extremely hard like it was stuck down. I put the car in park and pulled the brake pedal up with my foot, then pushed down on it several times again, at this time it seemed fine but I decided not to go to work but drive directly to the toyota dealer which was not far from where I was. The problem continued and I again pulled over and repeated the "pulling up of the brake pedal at which time I smelled something burning, I then continued about a block and a half to the dealership service department. Upon arrival that is when my dashboard lit up with several warning lights. After the service department diagnosed the problem of a bent bracket on my brake pedal assembly I did some research of my own and discovered that there was a factory recall of the 2011 toyota sienna's for the exact same problem (the part number 47110-08080). Neither the dealership, toyota motor company or toyota extra care (the very expensive extended warranty that I purchased) wanted to take responsibility for the problem. I was told that the brake pads and rotors would not have been damaged if I did not excessively drive the vehicle, when I asked them what they considered excessive they could not answer. I explained to them that there was no shoulder on the parkway that I was traveling on, but I did exit at the first possible one and drove approximately 1 mile to the dealership/service department. I am extremely unhappy and quite honestly not comfortable with the vehicle and the toyota motor company itself. I hope that toyota will accept responsibility for this faulty part and take the proper measures to correct this very unsafe issue!