Quick News About Toyota Avalon Problems

Short stories about Toyota Avalon recalls, lawsuits, and other interesting bits. Signup to have these stories emailed to you for free from CarComplaints.com.

Get Free Email Alerts

  1. A lawsuit wonders how Toyota can keep calling their bluetooth implementation "hands-free" when owners very much need to use their hands to prevent echos on each and every call.

    For years owners have complained about this issue, but Toyota's only suggestion has been to pickup the phone and turn it's volume all the way up after the call has been initiated. Oh, and also make sure the radio volume is below level 45. Sorta defeats the point, don't you think?…

    keep reading article "Illinois Lawsuit Says Toyota's Hands-Free Calling is Unusable"

  2. Poorly programmed control units have led to a Toyota airbag recall for 188,000 vehicles from the 2018-2019 model years.

    The automaker says the airbag electronic control units weren't programmed correctly, causing problems when the vehicles are started and the airbag sensors are disabled.

    Every airbag is attached to a control unit that monitors data from sensors and determines when the airbag should deploy. You can imagine how important it is that these control units are dialed in. Toyota forgot that whole part.

    keep reading article "Faulty Control Units Can Shut Off Airbags in 2018-2019 Toyotas"

  3. Toyota has blamed a musty A/C smell on microbes [i.e., mold] growing o the evaporator surface and now a lawsuit wants them to do something about it.

    The plaintiffs claim the vehicles have defective heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that cause smells and health problems from mold that collects on the evaporators. Numerous complaints have allegedly been filed with the government, Toyota and Lexus dealerships nationwide since at least 1999.

    This isn't the first time Toyota has been sued for musty A/C units.

    keep reading article "Air Conditioner Lawsuit Complains About Mold Smell From Toyota HVAC"

  7. When Toyota switched away from using plastic or glass-based inulation in favor of soy, it invited in some very unwelcome Toyota loyalisits.

    According to the plaintiff, she learned the hard way about the soy wiring when her Avalon wouldn't start and a look under the hood showed wires chewed, so she had the car towed to a dealer. Toyota told her rodents had caused the damage and it would be no problem to repair the problems as long as she could cough up $6,000 to cover the bill.

    The soy-based wiring is allegedly attracting in rodents, who love to chew it up and use it for nesting material. The lawsuit, Heidi Browder vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, et al. follows a similar lawsuit filed against Honda earlier this year.

    keep reading article "Lawsuit Says Toyota’s Use of Soy-Based Wiring is Attracting Rodent Damage"

  8. It's been a while since Toyota announced their extended warranty program for melting dashbord in 3.5 million vehicles.

    So, how are things going? According to [a] lawsuit, when Toyota first announced the warranty program the automaker notified customers and said it could take months to gather the replacement parts. However, Toyota then sent a second notice that removed the information about a timeline for repairs.

    Oh, well it can't be too long before everyone gets their replacement dash, right?…

    keep reading article "Owners Are Still Waiting For Replacement Dashboards"

  9. How hot do you like your seat heater in the winter?

    If you like it really toasty — as in, with an actual flame — you’ll probably love one of 7,700 Toyota vehicles with seat heaters that catch on fire. The vehicles have been recalled because fire and cars don’t get along, what with their tanks of highly flammable liquids and all. All the affected vehicles are equipped with aftermarket accessory seat heaters that contain copper strand heating elements. The recall is being handled by Southeast Toyota Distributors (SET) which is the world’s largest distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles.

    The recall is expected to begin on July 14, 2016 and the seat heaters will need to be disconnected. Owners will be reimbursed.

    keep reading article "Toyota Wants to Stop Seat Heaters From Setting Owner's Buns on Fire"

  10. The occupant classification system (OCS) in some 2016 Toyotas isn't doing a very good job classifying occupants.

    (Toyota) says 41,630 model year 2016 Camry sedans and 16,880 model year 2016 Avalon cars have front passenger airbags, including knee airbags, that can fail to deploy.

    So far there aren't many details about this recall, but Toyota will need to recalibrate the OCS soon. Watch your mailbox for an official notice.

    keep reading article "Airbags Recalled Because of OCS Failures"

  11. In what must seem like cruel irony to owners who have had issues with unintended acceleration

    , Toyota's collision avoidance system is getting confused and randomly activating: The pre-collision system can interpret a steel joint or plate as an object in the road. The steel object will activate the collision avoidance system and identify the steel as a car driving in front of the Toyota or Lexus vehicle.

    About 31,000 cars are at risk of a sudden slam of the brakes. This includes the 2013-2015 Avalon and Avalon Hybrid as well as the Lexus ES 350 and ES 300h. Toyota doesn't have a solution other than to deactivate the system for now. A more permanent solution will likely involve a software patch. I'm sure Toyota dropped off a case of Red Bull, locked the door, and limited bathroom breaks for it's software development team until this is figured out.

    keep reading article "Toyota Cars Suddenly Stopping on Their Own"

  12. Toyota doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation when it comes to unintended acceleration.

    And so, when Corolla owner Robert Ruginis petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to investigate low-speed surging in the 2006-2010 Corolla, it seemed like a slam dunk, home run or <insert sports cliché here>. Go sports team! But instead NHTSA said no to the investigation. The agency said they analyzed data from an event recorder cited by Ruginis in his petition and came up with a completely different conclusion. Ruginis said his Corolla moved forward with the brake pedal pressed, NHTSA said it didn't. Ruginis said Corollas can move forward even with the brake pressed to the floor, NHTSA said they can't.

    Instead, NHTSA placed the blame on Corolla drivers in most cases. They also said an investigation wasn't worth their time:…

    keep reading article "NHTSA Says No to Unintended Acceleration Investigation"

  13. Like something out of a bad music video, the subwoofers in the 2011-12 Toyota Avalons are catching on fire.

    The problem doesn't have anything to do with how loud you crank the volume or how many times your local station plays that Taylor Swift song -- although let's be honest, it could use a break[1]. Instead, it all comes down to the subwoofer's exposed wires. When something in your trunk slides around it can knock the speaker's wires out of position. Once that happens, if they come in contact with the woofer's metal frame you could be singing come on baby, light my fire on your next commute.…

    keep reading article "Avalon Subwoofer Fire Recall"

  14. It's Friday, so in the immortal words of Loverboy I feel I can say that "everybody is working for the weekend."

    That is, unless you're one of the defective airbags in over 2.1 million vehicles. Those suckers don't work at all. The airbags have a nasty tendency of randomly deploying due to electrical noise and have been recalled. If that sounds familiar, it's because they've been recalled before. Unfortunately 40 of the recalled vehicles still had a random deployment after they were "fixed", according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That's unacceptable, even by government standards.…

    keep reading article "Electrical Noise Causing Random Airbag Deployments"

  15. One of the automotive world's worst science projects is coming to an end. Toyota dashboards have [long been known to melt and warp][19] under the heat of the sun.

    The deformed dashes have also been known to extrude a strange, goo-like substance that is oddly shiny and sticky; like something you'd find in a toddler's coat pocket. This led to some understandably upset owners and a couple of lawsuits. Feeling the heat of pending litigation, Toyota announced they will extend warranty coverage on the dashboards in 3.5 million vehicles rather than go to court. I guess they wanted to avoid a sticky situation (I never promised that the jokes would be good, folks).…

    keep reading article "Toyota Tries to Get Out of Sticky Dashboard Situation with Warranty Extension"

  17. Toyota thought the scourge of unintended acceleration was finally behind them.

    They had, after all, recalled millions of cars, paid hefty fines to the government, entered talks to settle hundreds of class-action lawsuits and even paid out $1.6 billion to owners because the trade-in value of their vehicles had diminished. Besides, the world's attention had turned to GM's ignition switch fiasco. So are Toyota's problems with unintended acceleration in the rearview mirror? Not so fast, or in this case ... slow.…

    keep reading article "New Unintended Acceleration Petition Filed"

  18. Pop quiz -- name two things that don't mix well because they're highly combustable.

    Go ahead, I'll wait ... if you said flammable liquids and sparks you're absolutely right! Bonus points to anyone that said republicans and democrats which is also 100% correct these days. Toyota recently announced it is recalling 20,000 vehicles that could experience gas leaks. Anytime flammable liquid is somewhere it shouldn't be, there's a chance for fire. Here's a breakdown of what you need to know:…

    keep reading article "Popular Models With Bad Welds Are Leaking Gas"

Having car trouble?

Tell Us What's Wrong With Your Toyota

The best way to find out what's wrong with a vehicle is from the people who drive them. Not only do owner complaints help us rank vehicles by reliability, but they're often used to spark class-action lawsuits and warranty extensions. Plus, they're a great way to vent.

Add a complaint