2022 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER Complaints

December 2022 I was driving to my Toyota dealer which is about an hour away from my home for a routine 10k oil. change. Air temperature here in Minnesota was 20-25 degrees. After 10 minute of highway driving with front defroster activated, all windows including the front windshield had some fogging. The fogging continued to spread on all windows. I made several adjustments to the climate control settings but nothing improved the fogging. By 30 minutes into the drive frost was forming at the top of the windshield and side windows where hot air was not blowing directly on the windows. My wife and I pulled off the road several times to wipe moisture off of the glass and sometimes scrape frost. I reported the issue to my dealer in St Cloud Minnesota and inquired if there was something I was doing wrong with the climate settings. They made a couple of suggestions which I thought I had originally tried, but it didn’t seem to be something they were aware of as being a wide spread problem. I made the return trip home with no improvement of the fogging/frost conditions. The problem continued each time we drove the car. We did not use that car again until January 15, 2023 when we traveled to Arkansas for a week. On the 650 mile trip down we had the same issues as before with defrost on high until the temperature rose to the 40s. Before our return trip home, I began researching my problem and found T-SB-0020-19 and T-SB-0024-22 which described my issues. The 650 mile trip was in temperatures from 28-32 and we needed to use the defrost during the entire trip. I scheduled an appointment with Toyota for February 1, 2023. Temperatures were now below zero and did not feel I could safely drive 1 hr to the dealer for the repair. Having extensive experience with auto repairs, I followed the instructions in the TSB and found the exact defect described. I completed the repair which fixed the problem. The 2022 Highlander is not listed in the TSB used for the repair nor any I could find.

I only have 8500 miles on my car and when driving in when I hit the brakes it vibrates. I went to the dealership to get the brakes checked and they wanted charge an inspection fee when the car is under 36000 miles which should be bumper to bumper warranty. I decided to my car to my mechanic and he told me it was the rotors. The mechanic told me this has to be a faulty rotors because that is not enough miles for normal wear and tear. I have scheduled an appointment tomorrow 1/17/23 at the Toyota dealership in Ontario, CA for inspection. I have extended warranty with -0- deductible and they wanted to charge me $195 inspection fee. I got really mad and they are supposedly doing an exception.

On our 22' Highlander I observed water lines on the passenger side A pillar, one of which was colored pinkish this led me to believe it was dyed from car wash soap. I found that whenever you go through a car wash water leaks into the headliner and down the passenger side A-pillar where the air bag module is. Toyota Bountiful claims that the drainage channels are likely clogged and it failed to drain properly. I ran the test as recommended by pouring water into the corner drainage hole identified by the service advisor. I found the water to exit the drainage port behind the front tire in two different spots at a very quick rate, yet the headliner and A-pillar covering got wet again. Toyota claims this is supposed to cleaned annually by the vehicle owner and is likely not covered by warranty. Obviously, the issue overall is irritating on a 1-year-old car, clean title, no accidents, no windshield replacement vehicle. However, what is most concerning is water is free flowing into the air bag area on the a-pillar.

My mother was killed on 5/27/22 by her brand new 2022 Highlander Platnum with about 2000 miles on it. There wasn’t anyone inside her car at the time of her wrongful death. No person’s car should kill it’s owner in her own driveway at anytime especially when the car was empty. The Police report has not been completed by the local Police department yet. The day before the accident she took her car to her dealership Hansel Toyota Petaluma at 9am where she bought her car only a few weeks earlier bc her front bumper had fallen off on the freeway to ask them to put her bumper back on but Hansel Toyota of Petaluma refused her reasonable request. What they told my parents was to go file a claim with her auto insurance carrier. So they did. The next day my mother was run over and killed by her own car. Why did Hansel Toyota refuse to fix my mother’s front bumper that day? Isn’t that their job? Isn’t that their legal responsibility? Doesn’t the front bumper affect the safety the vehicle? So why did Hansel Toyota of Petaluma refuse service when the car’s warranty was in effect? We feel my mother was wrongly killed by a machine that malfunctioned. Her front bumper was dragging on the ground for a few miles on the freeway when it abruptly fell off and hence exposed a metal part of the car. This unfortunate event should never have happened. Our mother would still be alive today had it not been for other peoples irresponsible behavior. We believe the missing bumper played a role in her death. We also believe her car malfunctioned that led to her wrongful death.

The system designed to prevent lane departure has a particular issue with the dashed road markings that denote the entrance to tapered deceleration lanes or right-hand exit ramps on Oregon freeways. I have not noticed an issue when similar markings are on the driver's side. In particular, the in section 360, figure 360-A of the ODOT Traffic Line Manual (https://www.oregon.gov/odot/Engineering/Documents_TrafficStandards/Traffic-Line-Manual.pdf) the line marked "WD" is consistently able to fool the lane departure system and allow the vehicle to drift or steer toward the "Physical Gore Point" as shown in the figure. On November 11th, 2022, I very briefly took my hands off the steering wheel to unscrew the cap on my water bottle while lane centering was activated on the lane departure avoidance system and the vehicle steered to the right without warning while passing an exit lane having the "WD" markings. This nearly resulted in my Highlander leaving the road at freeway speeds. Now, I understand this is not responsible behavior on my part, but these things occur, and it may result in accident or death in the future if it hasn't already. The system is otherwise quite reliable. However, I was previously aware of the issue as it has happened for as long as I've owned the vehicle. This is the first time it nearly caused an incident because I normally do not remove my hands from the steering wheel completely and can correct the steering manually. No warning lamps or messages were observed, but the lane departure warning may have sounded after passing the "WD" markings. The issue has not been reproduced by any service center on my vehicle, nor has it been inspected by another party. On carcomplaints.com another Oregon resident mentioned a similar issue as an additional note about an unrelated braking issue: https://www.carcomplaints.com/Toyota/Highlander/2022/brakes/service_brakes.shtml I would be willing to make the vehicle available for testing/inspection.

Wipers quit working. Available for inspection. Unable to see road because it was raining. Wipers haven’t been inspected. No messages or warning lamps. I was driving in rainy weather with the temperature slightly above the freeze point..

When I drive at night time, the opposite driver complains on low beams that looks like high beams. They are too bright.

While driving at a constant speed of approximately 45 mph the vehicle suddenly skidded sideways and launched to the right, causing us to nearly hit a guardrail. I dropped speed to 30 mph and this continued to occur at random for the next 10 miles until destination was reached. Road conditions were patchy snow up to fully covered in snow. Other vehicles passed at 50+ mph with no issues. No warning lights/messages or traction control light turned on. Today the same issue occurred while driving 15mph that caused the vehicle to almost run into a parked car. This has occurred at random over the past two days. All instances occurred while driving at a constant speed, no brakes were being applied and while driving in a straight line. This isn’t the first time the vehicle has been driven in these road conditions but first time problem has occurred. This is a safety hazard for my wife and child due to the fact the driver looses control at random and vehicle veers off to the side. Putting them at risk of impacting objects near the road or veering into oncoming traffic, putting other drivers at risk. Car was brought to the Toyota dealer 11/14. They plugged it into their computer and no codes were active. No open recalls either. I went for a drive , was given 5 minutes of their time, with the shop manager and the problem didn’t present itself. They said there was nothing else they could do. There was a recall on the VSC, vehicle stability control, but that was fixed on this vehicle in July 2022. Vehicle acts like a sensor or module isn’t calibrated correctly and causes either/or braking and acceleration to be applied in a manor that will result in a crash. Vehicle is not safe to drive.

While driving on the highway the entire dashboard warning system came on all the ADAS and messages saying braking failure to loss of control. This vehicle is not even three months old and is a platinum AWD vehicle fully loaded version. Toyota Dealership never mentions or stated this vehicle had any issues, even today they seem not to know what caused the vehicle to underperform. This is dangerous and this vehicle going at 65 MPH and unable to stop is a real danger to the occupants and others. They say its safe to drive, I disagree for the safety of all indivduals on the roadways.

I was traveling at highway speed with five passengers, luggage, and bike rack with five bicycles and without warning the driver's side rear tire sidewall completely blew out. The vehicle fishtailed but I was able to move over to the right emergency lane to change the tire. We did not hit any debris. This was a Bridgestone Alenza A/S Sport 235/65R18 tire that was original equipment with my 2022 Toyota Highlander Hybrid SUV. The tires were inflated to 38 lbs. I called Bridgestone and they told me to take the tire to a Bridgestone dealer in Charlotte, NC. They replaced the tire at no charge. I left the failed tire with them but took photos.