Toyota Highlander

We bought a used 2008 Toyota Highlander 2.5 years ago. Three weeks ago, it started smoking and we brought it back to the Toyota dealership but they didn't find anything wrong. One week later, it went haywire and nearly died on the interstate. They told us it was oil sludge build up and needed a new engine for $5,000. They cited lack of maintenance because we didn't have it serviced through them. Although, we did get routine oil changes and have never had this problem with any other car we have owned. It only has 80k+ miles and we expected much more from our Toyota. Numerous calls to Toyota have gone nowhere.

I just was told that there is sludge in my engine and that it needs to be replaced. I could not believe that a 2002 Toyota Highlander with 70k miles on, it needs a new engine! I found online the terms of a settlement about sludge build up but that was many years ago and now my car is too old to qualify. Toyota never sent me a letter stating the problems with sludge buildup or a solution. It is no wonder that they settled this so quickly and quietly for 3.5 million as that is only 1,000 ruined engines, burned by Toyota!

I purchased a new Highlander in June 2003. I took it in Aug. 2003. When I put on the brakes, it sped up. I was told it was because I had driven a straight shift all my life (50+) and didn't understand an automatic. I wrote the company and told me to take it to the dealer. Finally, when the caliper had cut a groove in the brake, they admitted a small problem. Then, it kept feeling weird in the front right. On the rack, I discovered a bolt missing in the brake caliper. They had to replace the whole right front brake system, I think they did?

I have had a slow leak in one tire the whole life. When moving to Utah, I had the car serviced at Knoxville Toyota; drove to Northwest Tennessee, spent night, started car next morning and got on interstate. All lights went on. I was near Paducah, KY. I called Knoxville Toyota to get a number, got directions and got to dealer. Both the transmission fluid and brake fluid pitcocks were open (left that way by Knoxville Toyota). Paducah called them and said I could have been killed. They did not charge me. I got to Salt Lake City and second week, I noted a leak under the car. I took it in. Karl ** said they'd never had this kind of leak before and it costs $1500.00 to repair for a $1.00 piece. The lack of transmission fluid could have been the cause.

I needed service for my brand new Toyota Highlander, and I called Toyota Roadside Assistance (supposed to be included in my new car purchase). After several calls, I was told that they could not find me in the system. I would have to pay for a tow truck to take my car in for service. I gave them my debit card number, but then they gave me a higher price than what was quoted, and told me they could not guarantee a tow truck would come on that day. I told them to forget it; I called a tow truck, and paid both for the tow and the new tire. Toyota Roadside then charged my debit card the amount of $129.95 for towing service that they never provided to me. I have repeatedly called Toyota Customer Experience, and have faxed them all of the receipts. This has been more than a month. I want reimbursement for the charge on my debit card and for the charges I incurred in getting service for my car. I have called repeatedly, and sent at least four emails. I am getting really fed up with Toyota

I bought my 2002 Toyota Highlander new. I always had Toyota, or the representative do all the service needed, and on time. After traveling 120,000 miles, I have no problems. The first oil change was when after the oil goes in the top and gone 1 quart one tank of gas.

As a WARNING, check oil daily.

From the complaints I have read, Toyota is ignoring the problem, and refuses to help. Oil sludge build up is an engineering defect, and not a lack of maintenance issue.

Toyota should be recalling these vehicles.

I am an owner of a 2001 Toyota Highlander. Despite having only 88,000 miles on the vehicle it burns oil despite oil changes at intervals not exceeding 4050 miles. The vehicle is no longer operable and I have been advised by Don Jacobs Toyota that the engine needs to be replaced at a cost of approximately $7,500.

I contacted the Toyota Oil Gel settlement hotline, however , my request for assistance was rejected because my claim was not filed be the date required by the oil gel settlement litigation.

As an owner of a covered vehicle I never received any notice of the pending legal action or the settlement not given any indication by Toyota to take extra cautionary maintenance procedures to avoid or mitigate oil gel problems.

Our 2006 Toyota Highlander suddenly overheated after driving only half mile at a speed of 35 mph. We had our vehicle towed to Crown Toyota to have it diagnosed. They kept the vehicle for 15 days. They tore down the engine and told us we would have to replace the engine due to a warped block leaking water pump and leaking head gasket. Our car had 68970 miles and was no longer under warranty. They wanted $5400 to replace it with a used engine. We paid $654 just for the diagnosis and our car was returned without them reassembling the engine.

We had the car towed to a private mechanic and we were informed the block was not warped just the threads on the bolts of the engine were defective. They did not have to disassemble our engine the way they did and if we wanted them to reassemble it, we would have to pay more money. I have found numerous complaints about the same thing happening to the 2003 Highlander. I am very upset with Toyota for not accepting fault on a manufacturer defect and with Crown Toyota for misdiagnosing the problem and the fact we have to pay to reassemble the engine they did not even have to tear down. I have filed a complaint with the NTSB and hope they look into this and Toyota recalls the vehicle and pays for the repairs.

The window glass in my 2005 Toyota Highlander is falling repeatedly. Two years ago, the first rear window glass fell into the door pocket, and I had to pay roughly $200 to fix it. Now, another rear window glass fell into the door pocket, and I had to pay another $250 to fix it.

The name Toyota was always associated with high quality. Looking at their recent troubles with quality and my personal experience with their highlander, I wonder if that claim is still true.

We purchased a "certified" 2002 Highlander in May of 2004. We financed it through Toyota and also purchased a Platinum Extended Warranty. Remember, this is after Toyota announced they were "aware of a tendency for certain engines to sludge". They had the gall to sell it as "certified". We spent (arguably) at least $2,000 over market for the "extra assurance" the "certified" designation gave us.

Trust me, Toyota sent us monthly statements as to what was owed/paid. Service specials made it to us without fail on at least a monthly basis, but we were never notified of the problem engine lurking under the hood. The owner's manual we finally secured (with much effort, from Schaumburg Toyota) stated 7,500 is the recommended oil change interval. We even changed it (mostly ourselves) more often. We never received the oil-gelling settlement-required glove-box notice, or mailing, or a special letter/notice of any kind, recommending more than doubling the frequency of oil changing from the original 10,000 to 7,500 to 5,000 (rough-service) to the ubiquitous quick-change recommended 3,000 intervals.

In the middle of 2010, (one month after the oil-gelling was secretly covered on our Highlander), my wife and kids were almost stranded as they were on the way to a family vacation. And the oil "panic light" lit up while on the highway. Luckily, a relative who is an auto tech was with them and was able to assist with the adding of 4 quarts of oil! Also, thankfully, they were close to their destination.

When my wife called, under great stress, from the service station, I did a search on the internet about excessive oil consumption in 2002 Highlanders. I discovered that this garnered a couple of million hits on "Bing". This was a known effect of an obliviously defective engine. And again, this was known before we bought this "certified" Highlander from Schaumburg Toyota. Wanting to be "made whole", we appealed to the Ates Law firm. They judged (strictly on the basis of the oil-gelling settlement) that we had no claim through that course since our problem was found just about 30 days beyond what the settlement allowed.

If it were that simple, I would man-up and admit we just didn't appeal the case soon enough. It was/is not that simple. The fact of the matter is that as soon as this problem came to light, I contacted Toyota. The initial contact confirmed the engine was indeed part of the recall, "special policy adjustment". The second contact coldly informed us our claim was too late. All this would "gladly" be shouldered by me/us if we knew about the condition. But how would we have known about it? We bought a "certified used Toyota" from a Toyota dealer. Wouldn't they have refused to sell it as "certified" if they knew about this condition?! Wouldn't they have at least, given it was a known major problem (safety and cost to remedy considerable), made a big deal and given us a statement for us to sign that they notified us of the recommended oil change interval?! Another curious thing, I inquired at our nearby dealer (Grossinger Toyota, Lincolnwood, IL) about extending our extended warranty. They claimed they offered no such thing. I'm curious. How they now offer it, now that most of these problem engines are past oil-gelling mileage, dates, or off the road!?

I "did the right thing" by pursuing the oil-gelling settlement. My engine wasn't technically covered under the hidden oil-gelling settlement (hidden, in that we were never properly notified!). It's because one of the points of certification on this "Toyota certified used" car is that the rear defogger was to have been operating properly, and it wasn't. It didn't properly qualify as "certified". Amit ** issued us a printed "IOU" for the same. Also, by their own records (and even though they want all the records that we properly maintained the oil change intervals), they can't certify this auto ever had one (yes, their own records prove) oil change in the first critical 34,000 miles of ownership!

Well, I am trying to be nice. Toyota offered a "good will" offer of correcting the oil consumption problem. There was no written estimate of what the procedure/s would be, what the decision points would be, etc. They basically are saying they would only fix the excess oil consumption, not any adversely affected parts (sound like we have developed crankshaft knock at times). All this after Grossinger put us through 3 oil consumption tests, and after we gave them the estimate, that the car burns through 1 quart of oil every 400 miles. About that time, we were going on vacation. I told them that it might take us a little beyond the requested 1,000-mile "oil consumption test". We were told, "As long as you have any oil added at a Toyota dealer and they document it, it will be okay." Well, Steve **, director of fixed operations, ex-service manager, and one who is not (he admitted) familiar with the fact that oil develops acid qualities as it breaks down, said he wouldn't accept the oil consumption test as he couldn't trust the results! Yes, the test he wouldn't accept confirmed my own records that the car burned through 1 quart of oil about every 400 miles.

So, thanks to a little thing called retail auto fraud in the state of Illinois. Since it was just discovered in the middle of 2010, we have 5 years. We are covered by law. Let's hope Schaumburg Toyota/Toyota North America owns up to what they did to me. And thank their lucky stars the engine didn't seize (as has happened to many others) throwing my wife and my little boys into harm's way! I am currently open to any and all reasonable solicitations by those who could ably help us secure a settlement, which would make us whole as concerns this ongoing problem. We were able to secure and find any and all documents, which prove we likely are victims of a fraud perpetrated by Schaumburg Toyota and Toyota Motor Sales, USA.

This is in addition to the fact that Grossinger acts puzzled about our airbag warning light, which activates in cold temperatures. They still haven't said that it is safe or unsafe to drive while this warning light is on. All they say is "there is no code" so "we can't fix it". Well, a simple "Bing" and millions of hits are declaring this is another problem Toyota knows of. But the fix is about $600-$800 and they are reluctant to fix it. Well, geniuses they are: it is recorded in their own records that we complained of this, while under warranty, no less. And they wouldn't/couldn't fix it. Can you imagine if we were (God forbid) in any speed front end collision and the airbag didn't deploy/deploy correctly? And all they say is (in spite of all the credible evidence on the internet) "there is no code that shows". So, in spite of all the reports recorded on the internet, they are not aware of the issue and what the fix is.

I had my 02 Toyota Highlander sludge problem. The service manager accused me of not changing my oil on a regular basis. It was not their fault that the oil was 3 -1/2 quarts low after a recent oil change performed by their service department. I would like to know if I can get my engine replaced free of charge and how do I make that happen? I purchased the vehicle end of January 2003.

We own a 2002 Toyota Highlander. We just got it out of a repair shop for oil sludge which damaged the engine. We were unsuccessful in trying different things on our own to fix the problem. It just got worse in using a quart of oil in less than 200 miles it was being driven. Our repair bill came to $3,103.79 and we just picked it up on 5-4-2011. It was in the repair shop three weeks to this day. We would like to see Toyota cover this engine repair.