toyota sienna LE '04 power door problems

Call the Toyota customer relations hotline back and ask them to open a CR case. At this point, the dealer should be contacting the tech hot line if they are having trouble fixing the door and it sounds like they are not doing so. Also, a long delay in parts could be a blessing in disguise because it often means the parts are being re-designed.

I assumed the long delay for parts was a way of putting me off until the warranty expired!

I'll do as you suggest. Thanks for the feedback.

If you have repairs documented under warranty and it is not fixed when the warranty expires, you are covered by the service parts warranty, which is 12 months, 12,000 miles from the time of repair, or the balance of the factory warranty, whichever is longer.

I have learned, that in order to get attention from a dealer, become an asshole to them. Not at first, but where you are right now, for sure.

I would not try that approach with the folks at the Toyota Customer Relations hotline. I've spent time sitting in that seat and you will be much better off gaining their sympathy than their ire.

yeah I am talking at the dealership, within an earshot of other customers... but only if pushed to where the OP is. I had about 6 trips to the dealer for my 2005 Sienna.. all seems well now... but it was a big pain in the arse...

Any dealer that makes a customer come back 6 times to have the same problem fixed needs a screaming customer in the service department! They should have called the technical hot line after the second trip back!

Why scream? Filing a complaint under the federal lemon law would be the more prudent course. The federal law allows for only three shots at correcting the defect. ;)

mike hunt

Good point, although I believe most lemon laws are state laws, not federal laws, or at least they were state laws when I got to take my shot at fixing the cars. Most lemon laws require the vehicle to have a defect which negatively and substantially affects the use, safety, or value of the vehicle. I'm no legal expert, but I suspect that a door that does not close or open properly would fall in to this category.

I was calm when I picked up the vehicle this afternoon. And the door seems to work. The question is, for how long?

When I was waiting for my hub to pick us up this morning, the boys and I browsed the showroom. A sales rep came up and asked if I needed help. HA.

I looked at him over the top rim of my glasses and said, just I stated above, "Let me tell you . . .I have my car in for the fourth time to fix the same problem. If it isn't fixed properly this time, I'll be asking you for your VERY BEST trade in price." He simply said, "Understood."

So do I go ahead and call the customer relations hotline even though the door is supposedly fixed, or do I wait and see if it malfunctions again?

It was 2 same things, and 4 different things... so no lemon law, but it was stupid crap.. like the moonroof felt like it was falling off, etc...

You will have to wait until it malfunctions again because the dealer and customer relations people will have to assume that the dealer got it right this time. Next time though, contact the CR dept.

Good luck!

This whole thing makes me wonder about the difference between the mechanisms of the Sienna and my Ford Freestar. I notice that the Toyota has one additional move when the electric door closes. You can hear this screw turning to lock the door shut after the main closer has finished. With the Freestar and, I believe, the GM minivans, all there is is a door opening or closing mechanism. The latch works the same as for their manual doors. Click, and that's it.

I was jealous of the screw tightener downer until I read your post. With yours, if the electric mechanism fails, you're screwed - so to speak. With mine, it works just as well on manual as it does on electric. If something fails, or if the electric comes off track, or whatever, you can work it manually just as well.

Does yours ever work on manual if the electric fails?

Gary Eickmeier

I have used the door on manual before, but I don't think it works as well for whatever reason. I mean, the door is closed, the door can lock, so I can't say why I think it doesn't work as well.

Many times we've simply had to disable the door between repairs. There is a button to disable the automatic feature and make it manual. When we have to reach that point, though, we just don't use the door.

My 5 yr old sits on the passenger side of the van in his booster seat. He loves opening and closing his own door. I like that he can open it and he and the 3 yr old can get out on the CURB side of the street rather than climbing to the front or getting out of the vehicle on the driver's/street side!

Let's hope the repair "takes" this time since they did make a slight body adjustment.

I picked up the van Tuesday. It is Friday afternoon. The door isn't working. At least this time it is stuck in the closed position instead of open.

I called the customer hotline and when I was looking for the number in my van's manual, I found the reference number for the first time I called. Yea me! She had the record of when I called on Aug 31, 2005, which was two weeks after the first malfunction when the motor burned out because the door was stuck in the open position.

I explained that I was very upset and just needed to make sure Toyota knew about this problem. She put me on hold and called the dealership. When she came back she said that M. was very apologetic but that of the 4 times I had brought the vehicle in, it was a different problem "nearly every time." Bullshit, I said (on the inside).

She also explained that since the car had over 40,000 miles on it, it was no longer under warranty and that the dealership had done me a favor by not charging me for repairs they made on Tuesday. EXCUSE ME, but they put me on hold for over 2 months for a part to come in, so it was only over the warranty because of THEIR delay, not mine.

And this business about it being a different problem each time--she said once was electrical, twice was because it was off track. Now, I don't know what caused the electrical short except that it was open and would not close, so I believe the motor burned out because it kept trying to close the door. After that, it has been the same problem--the door gets stuck in the open or closed position and I bring it in to get fixed. The two times it has been off track is because it was stuck in the OPEN position and I had to take it apart to get it closed, so of course it was off track. If the only fix they've been making is to put it back on track, then they are not fixing the problem. It's the equivalent to pumping up a flat tire but never patching the hole.

The customer service rep said I had two choices: I could bring it back to the dealership and have them look at it or take it to another dealership (which will be at least an hour away). I don't have a lot of confidence in my local dealership now, so maybe I should take it elsewhere.

Yes, M. in Toyota service has been very nice every time I've called or brought it in, but nice or not, I still have a car with a malfunctioning door. I can't even use it in the manual position at this time, so my 3 and 5 yr old kids have to get out of the car on the street side when we park in town (lots of parallel parking situations where we live). Color me livid.

All I can think of is to appeal to a higher authority. Don't they have these factory reps who come around checking on the dealerships? Call Toyota at some level that seems appropriate. Are you too late for the lemon law?

Gary Eickmeier

I don't know what higher authority I can call. I called the customer relations line as suggested by Ray. That was when I realized I had called them before when the door failed the second time. So they have it on file that the issues started August '05.

Unfortunately, the car was 18 months old and had about 25K on it by then. Technically it does not qualify for a lemon under PA lemon law.

I know it's not the transmission or brakes or something vital like that, but I paid to have a working power door and even though that is more of a luxury than a necessity, it was part of the price of the vehicle that I paid for and I don't think I'm being unreasonable to expect it to be fixed. We've had the car for 2.5 years, brand new off the lot, and the door has not worked for the majority of the past 7 months, nearly 25% of the time we've owned the car. If the problem started in August, I KNOW that I am within my right to receive repairs without cost to me until the problem is solved.

Would it make any difference if I contacted the dealership who sold me the van? We have moved 800 miles away since then.

There are district service managers that are supposed to make visits to the dealerships in their districts at least once a month. The only way for the district service manager to get involved with a customer is either through referral from the customer relations hot line or at the dealer's request. The catch is that not all DSM's have a technical background and so depending on the individual DSM, they may or may not be able to help out. In t he case where the DSM doesn't have the technical solution, the dealer can contact the tech hotline or if that doesn't work, the field technical specialist can take a look at the car. The FTS' should be able to fix any problem in any Toyota.

I'm surprised that the CR person didn't open a case for you. Unfortunately, the CR analyst is an entry level position and the people who work it often have little or not technical background. In order to get multiple warranty claims paid, the dealership will list different failed parts or causes for the repair so to someone who doesn't know how to read between the lines of a warranty claim, they will appear to be unrelated repairs.

I don't know how successful this will be, but you may want to try to contact the regional customer relations manager at the office that covers your dealership, probably Central Atlantic Region in MD.

Good luck!