2016 TOYOTA TACOMA Complaints

I am reporting a persistent and unsafe issue with the factory-installed Entune infotainment system in my 2016 Toyota Tacoma. While driving — whether locally or on the highway — the system frequently freezes, becomes unresponsive, or abruptly resets itself, often multiple times per drive. This directly affects my ability to safely use the navigation, backup camera, and audio controls while in motion. The system’s crashes divert my attention from the road, especially when I’m relying on navigation and it either stops functioning or forces me to interact with the screen to regain control. These interruptions increase the risk of distracted driving and could easily contribute to an accident. I have attempted to install the software update provided on Toyota’s official website, but the update is older than the version already installed on my vehicle (0101A0), so the system blocks the update. There is no way for a consumer to reinstall or flash the current version, and any potential resolution is only available at a dealership for a fee, effectively putting the fix behind a paywall. Toyota has not issued a recall or service bulletin for this issue, despite dozens of reports from other owners on Tacoma and Prius forums describing the same crash behavior and software version conflicts. This is a significant safety concern, especially when the infotainment system is used for navigation during high-speed or complex driving conditions. The inability to maintain consistent functionality puts drivers and others on the road at risk. I am requesting that NHTSA investigate this widespread issue and press Toyota to issue a free repair or software patch for all affected vehicles. Symptoms: •Frequent infotainment restarts while driving •Frozen or unresponsive touchscreen •Glitched navigation system and lost GPS routing •Driver distraction due to repeated system failure

I have experienced two major failures on my 2016 Toyota Tacoma TRD Sport with less than 90,000 miles: a leaking coolant crossover pipe, which required partial engine disassembly and cost me approximately $2,500, and a leaking timing chain cover, which required a full front-end teardown and cost over $4,500. Both issues are known problems across 2016+ Tacoma models with the 3.5L V6 (2GR-FKS engine), yet Toyota has not issued a recall or warranty enhancement. These failures present safety risks related to overheating and oil loss and result in significant financial burden to owners. Toyota needs to be held accountable for these premature, design-related failures.

During a safety inspection, it was found out that the steering rack was leaking. In a quick research on Google, it appears that many people that own this particular year and tacomas are experiencing the same issue. It is the first time for any car that we own and we keep our cars for more than 10 years. To us, this could be a manufacturing defect that should be investigated and a recall issue. We had it fixed so it can pass inspection, but something just doesn't make sense.

When using four-wheel drive, the vehicle was unable to make a left turn. I disengaged four-wheel drive, and the vehicle was stuck in four-wheel drive. This happened on two occasions. The first time was approximately August 2022 and the second time was last year. When I took it to the dealership, they said here was nothing wrong with it and they told me that I probably used the four-wheel drive incorrectly. Luckily, I was able to get the truck into a parking lot. The way that I was able to disengage it was to put the truck into reverse and back up a few yards then go forward a few yards and repeat until I hear a loud thump.

Heated seat had stopped working, checked and found the problem. The module that controls the heated seats had a melted connector and wires, causing the seat to no longer be able to have heated seats.

Upper Intake manifold flap actuator ( part: Toyota 17190-0P101 ) brakes in the intake resulting in wrong air reading and forcing vehicle into limp mode causing the vehicle to rapidly decrease speed, and creating a potential accident with other vehicles and semi's. this will continue to happen but this will give a person a false sense of security since error codes will reset once vehicle is turned off and on, a reassurance to a person that the issue has resolved itself since this will only happen at high speeds. the part is designed for fuel efficiency, as the flap opens and closes air is controlled properly for emission, but once broken will throw error codes, and force vehicle into limp mode this part is not be repairable, the part needs to be changed completely. this would happen to me while accelerating on highways, up mountain passes and pushing vehicle over 4000 rpm.

Rear Coolant Bypass Joint leak. Coolant leaking through this pipe and accumulating.

Paint is chipping off in several places and have read this is a major problem with tacomas in the white color

The paint on my 2016 Toyota Tacoma is failing after a few years of owning the truck, it has been well maintained and washed but the problem keeps getting worse. I have searched online and it seems to be an issue with white and magnetic grey colored Toyota cars but no recall on magnetic grey paint.

Seat heating module for my driver seat has melted and is further irrepairable without buying the entire harness to fix the issue. There are multiple reports of this happening across forums.