2023 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER Complaints

Transmission failure at 106,000 miles, full replacement under extended warranty and new transmission is begging to fail at 109,000 miles.

Transmission failure under 50k miles. Replaced under powertrain warranty. UA81E incurred a whine that was prevalent at light acceleration over 40 mph. This is a known issue that spans multiple years at some point someone has to admit this is a design flaw.

I own a 2023 Toyota Highlander Hybrid LE, purchased new in 2023, with approximately 55,000 miles. My vehicle is affected by NHTSA Safety Recall 26V-128 concerning the second-row seat recliner assemblies/return springs. Toyota advised that the second-row seat backs may not properly lock into position, increasing the risk of injury in a crash. I received Toyota’s recall notification in approximately April 2026 stating that a remedy was not yet available. Because I regularly transport my children in the second row using child safety seats, I took the safety concern seriously and presented my Highlander to my Toyota dealership on May 1, 2026. The dealership has retained my vehicle continuously since May 1 because the recall remains unresolved. Toyota/dealership has provided rental vehicles, which I have had to periodically exchange. Each exchange requires transferring and reinstalling my children’s car seats and transferring the safety equipment and other belongings my family normally keeps in our vehicle. As of August 23, 2026, my Highlander has been unavailable to me for approximately 114 days. On August 23, I called Toyota’s corporate recall line. The current recorded message continues to state that Toyota is preparing a remedy, that dealerships will replace the return springs free of charge when available, and that owners will be notified when the remedy becomes available. I am submitting this complaint because my vehicle has remained unavailable since May 1 due to an acknowledged safety recall for which Toyota still has no available remedy. I am requesting that NHTSA document and review the length of time this recall has remained without an available remedy and Toyota’s handling of affected owners.

we had a recall on this car for so long and the dealership is not providing remedy date for this recall

I have a 2023 Toyota Highlander XSE with 77,015 miles on it. Last week we noticed that when pushing on the gas pedel to accelerate that the car started making a terrible whinning noise that did not go away. i scheduled a service call with dealership i purchased it from and where i take it for all of its scheduled service and they canfirmed that the transmission was failing and needed to be replaced so the problem has been confirmed by the dealership. In addition i contacted the toyota help line and asked for a Goodwill Warranty Assisstance case to be opened which is now under review. prior to the noise there were no indication of an issue such as warning lights messages or other symptons. To date there was no harm done to me or other individuals

The contact owns a 2023 Toyota Highlander. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 26V128000 (SEATS); however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted, and it was confirmed that the part was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. The contact stated that the second-row seat failed to lock in position as designed. The failure mileage was 39,000.

2023 Toyota Highlander Hybrid Regenerative Brake Transition loss of brake pad pressure resulting in acceleration of the vehicle under downhill conditions. Have momentarily experienced the loss of braking frequently during braking when going downhill. This results in the vehicle gaining speed during this 1 or 2 second period before braking returns. In one case it allowed our car to get dangerously close to the vehicle ahead of us but fortunately I was able to push the brakes harder to prevent an accident but did require aggressive braking. Luckily no one was behind us which may have resulted in the person following us braking hard or possible hitting us. This was a known issue for previous year Toyota Highlander models and Toyota issued service bulletin T-SB-0059-23 which is stated to only be for model years 2020 - 2022. So, Toyota dealers say they do not have a fix that applies to the 2023 model. It has been indicated that the dealer is unaware if any action is being taken by Toyota to address this issue in the 2023 and later models. We have multiple people driving this vehicle and this sudden loss of braking power is very concerning. The loss of braking force occurs upon the transition from regenerative braking to standard hydraulic breaking. Below are words from the Toyota Technical Service notice concerning the problem. "Highlander Hybrid vehicles may be sensitive to the momentary transition from regenerative braking to hydraulic braking under certain driving conditions, such as while driving downhill, or turning with light brake pedal application. The brake actuator control module can be updated to improve brake feeling for this condition. Follow the Repair Procedure in this bulletin to address this condition."

The contact owns a 2023 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while attempting to start the vehicle, the driver’s and passenger’s side mirrors moved downward independently, causing the contact to manually adjust the side mirrors. A dealer was contacted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed; however, the diagnostic result was unknown. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 28,000.

Vehicle has strong gas smell and has gas vapor streaming out from under rear driver side wheel well and gas cap area.

The transmission developed hesitations at take off, a whine at low speeds and over time got louder. Diagnosis by the dealer confirmed yet another bad eight speed transmission failure. This vehicle has 41K miles.