2004 Sienna Major Problems. Its A Lemmon Options

[burned01]

At 65K miles my air conditionig compressor started to make a horrible noise. Turns out that the AC compressor needs to be replaced. It has now seized at 67K miles. Toyota has no sympathy. I have read about there being an internal Toyota issued service bulletin that basically acknowledges a design defect and recomends adding an inline filter screen (to filter out all the remaining metal after the compressor chews itself to bits)when replacing the compressor. COMPRESSORS ARE SEALED COMPONENTS. THEY CANNOT BE MAINTENANCED, AND THE SHOULD NEVER SELF DESTRUCT IN UNDER 100k MILES! Toyota does not want to help me. Even worse. There are no after market parts. The compressor is $700.00 and only available from the dealer and that does not include the clutch which is an additional $250. The drier is molded to the condenser. They have to be replaced as well. That is another $350.00, only available from the dealer, and does not even begin to cover labor. If I repair it (remember the old one has torn itself to pieces and I actually saw what was left of one at an AC repair shop the other day) it will not stay working for long as there is absolutely no way to guarantee that ALL the little metal particles will be flushed out and the new one will be destroyed by the first little metal particle that gets in. Not to mention that I have been told that the whole system is poorly desinged from the start and wont last any longer, another 65K miles, if replaced.

I have spoken with the manager at my local Toyota dealer, a guy named Cliff at Toyota of Tampa Bay and he outright told me that even though I had bought my last two Toyotas from his dealership, I was not a loyal service customer and therefore Toyota would not help me with this matter. The car is out of Warranty by 35K miles. This was again reiterated by a customer service manager for the Toll Free Toyota complaint line.

This should not have happened! The van is now basically worthless for trade in value. Its not worth fixing. It has other issues as well, such as leaky front struts that need replacing before the first set of tires even wore down.

This vehicle is a Lemmon! Toyota's attitude is horrible. I have spoken with 4 mechanics locally who have seen this same problem a total of 11 times in the past few months in my local area alone.

My email address is lengold@tampabay.rr.com.
If there is anyone out there in the same situation or that can help, please contact me.

[jjjlll]

I am really mad.. i am posting alll my problems to all the toyota board to let other people know.......we were a toyota fan for the last 25 years.

I have so many problem with this 2004 Sienna van.. used to be a Toyota man... not now and not in the future

********problem list.**********************

All these problems happened after the 3 years blah blah .......warrenty... except the fuel tank.....

replace gas tank and gas lick after the replacement ( with 4 kids in the Van) . took them 2 weeks to fix the lick. ( recall)

driver side door welding is bad making popping noise ( toyota extend its warrenty to take care of this)

passenger seat belt being replace ( recall)

Brake pads need to be replaced every year in the first two year. when u ask the toyota pro ( dealer) they said it is because where we live... very familiar huh......Took it to a local repair shop and it is because the caliper were bad. ( 400 us for both)

driver side seat belt is hard to release.. require 300us to fix ( not fix yet). Don't they care about safy issue!!!!!!!!

electric door not working properly, it is scratching the side of the door. Toyata said it is the drive belt unit (??????)
and need to be replaced ( 900 us) ( not fix yet)

lower control arm bushing worn off and making squeaking noise ( thought it was the brake again). Took to the shop and they said I have to change the left and right arm not just the bushing. cost 1500 usd ( not yet fixed). The bushing is a tiny little f$$$king rubber ring that usually cost 30.00 dollars from other automobile manufacturers. The Arms cost 200.00 and up. Why Toyota has to design this van so that we have to replace the entire arms ( both arms left and right) to replace the bushing. They knew they have problems with previous model of the their sienna.

This van is made out of paper.. it has no quality.... what so ever...

I can go on and on......