I had a problem like this on my 08. When it ran into something it knocked it out of alignment. The door had to be pushed to close and it would move the whole tailgate sidways when it lachted. The dealership removed the lower latch (on the car not tailgate) and realigned it a little sideways, works fine now. Until about a week ago when the tailgate ECU had a bad day and had to be reprogrammed (90 bucks down the drain). but besides that...:headbang: haha

 

My saga with this issue is similiar and continues (once I find a dealer that knows what they are doing). My driver side hinge has more play than passanger side and the whole hatch seems to sit a tad low. See attached link:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=379132

BTW my 2011 SE is 4 months old and has 5K miles on it. The hatch will auto close if near the end of the power closing I apply very light pressure to the side opposite the power closure (passenger side). For some reason the passenger side trails the powered side and does not latch - giving a warning and thus unlatching the drives side. The dealer was unable to fix it.

My problem started from the factory hatch floor matt sliding rearward causing interferance with the door. I did not want to make a comment about Toyota and their problems with floor matts sliding around........

 

My saga with this issue is similiar and continues (once I find a dealer that knows what they are doing). My driver side hinge has more play than passanger side and the whole hatch seems to sit a tad low. See attached link:
http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=379132

BTW my 2011 SE is 4 months old and has 5K miles on it. The hatch will auto close if near the end of the power closing I apply very light pressure to the side opposite the power closure (passenger side). For some reason the passenger side trails the powered side and does not latch - giving a warning and thus unlatching the drives side. The dealer was unable to fix it.

My problem started from the factory hatch floor matt sliding rearward causing interferance with the door. I did not want to make a comment about Toyota and their problems with floor matts sliding around........

Argh. Seriously, this is a pretty major thing, having a rear hatch that won't close properly. The service tech I spoke with said the same thing, that it may require some type of body repair, and/or the hinges may be pulling away from the body, they just don't know.

This is my first Toyota. I am starting to think I made a big mistake with this because the only reason I bought a Toyota was for reliability. I have owned many German cars before (BMW, VW and Audi) and I accepted their reliability issues because they drive great.

No offense, Toyotas don't drive great, they ARE boring, etc. and I was willing to compromise and give up excellent handling of our BMW X3 in exchange for better reliability.

I'm very disappointed, this is a pretty basic issue. My door closes with a loud "clunk" and it sounds like it is causing additional damage.

Dealer said call us back if the door completely refuses to close...and we'll try to help. WTF?! At that point the vehicle would become completely undriveable, and unsafe....you can't drive around with a partially secured rear door, it will take on water, be ineffective in a rear end collision, etc....

Sorry for the rant, thanks for confirming you have the same problem.

Lets try to keep this updated so we can hopefully get a fix....unbelievable....

 

My rear hatch window seal came in and they replaced it. They also adjusted the striker and now the rear hatch closes. They had it all day and my guess is they had more to do than that but that is all that I got from the service manager.

Hopefully it is fixed for good. I noticed that where the hinges mount there is not as much play as before. The hinges seem bolted down better.

 

My 2011 highlander has the same issue, door would not close, but rather random, sometimes it does sometimes it doesnt, so I just push it by hand to latch properly. Slightly annoying issue. I do not want to visit dealership for many resons, mostly for their incompetence and possily more damage. Hope for recall though.

 

quick update, I finally had some spare time today so I called Toyota and "opened up a case" or whatever, they gave me some reference number. The person I spoke with was very friendly and seemed eager to help...

He did some "research" in his computer but didn't find a TSB or anything else...he did mention that he may not have access to all technical issues so its possible it could be an issue but just not showing in his database.

So....I am going to try to take it to another local dealer for a second opinion....I was kind of hoping it was a known issue and they are working a factory fix....but that may not be the case....

 

I had the same problem on mine (2009 Highlander hybrid limited)

took it to the local dealer, they were real friendly/nice and took care of if for me (still under factory warranty).

They just said it needed "alignment", not sure if it is the hinges or latch or what, but it works fine now.

Granted, its only been fixed for about 2 weeks, but it has been fine so-far...

They also tried to activate the remote open windows/sunroof in the computer, but for some reason, only the sunroof opens via remote, windows never budge, so I guess I will have to go back...

 

I'm another one with 2011 power hatch lift issues. We have 8K on the odo and it began about a month ago. It first occured about a month ago when we stopped to look at a model home. We put some things in the rear of the vehicle and hit the button on the hatch then went on our way. When we came out a 1/2 hour or-so later, the hatch was standing wide open. ooops.

I notice now, the problem is intermittent. I don't recall it ever running into anything except 1 time when we had a bunch of golf clubs loaded in the back and the hatch collided with one of the bags.

Now, watching it, it's almost as-if the hatch is losing power in the latching process, or encountering resistance in the final 1/2" of closing. I suppose it's probably an alignment problem. A slight push by hand fixes it but the latch engagement is alot noisier now too. I put a little bit of axle grease on the latch assy and it seemed to help but it's going in for the 10K oil change next month and I'll have them address the problem then.

Gald to see it's not just me.

 

please let us know if your issue is resolved. Mine is scheduled to go in to a different dealer (Page Toyota, Southfield, MI) this week.

Mine closes with slight pressure. But it sounds like it is clunking/dragging on the latch in the center on the bottom.

its clearly not right.

 

I had to take mine back in for the same issue... First time, they "adjusted the door", this lasted for a week or two I think, and then happened again (intermittently).

This time, they seemed to have fixed it better, spent over 3 hours with their lead tech getting involved adjusting the striker ("U" shaped hook peice at floor of hatch, NOT attached to the door)...

Apparently the tolerances specs from toyota (to maintain a air-tight vehicle) are so specific, a 1/8th of an inch one way or another will mess up the alignment. At least this is what I was told last time....

The tech is going to report the issue to Toyota supposedly.

I HOPE this takes care of it, I am about to go over my factory warranty (its an 09) and this is the only problem I have had with the vehicle so far...

 

I just recently had the same issue for my 2008 HiHy Limited. But in my case, the dealer noticed that the rubber seal around the rear latch was loose in some areas, and I guess it caused the auto latch mechanism to sense the door did not fully close, so it would beep and open back up. They simply glued the rubber seal and the auto rear door closing works OK. They believe the rubber seal got loose after extensive removing of items from the rear (like groceries) and each time, it chafed and loosened the rubber seal. I never even noticed or looked at the rubber seal, so I was glad they were able to solve my problem.

 

update for my situation.....to recap, the rear power door on our 2011 limited 4wd started to fail to close in the last inch or so....it would hang up. when it did close it would clunk.

it would close with gentle pressure/help.

First dealer, Serra Toyota of Farmington Hills, MI...when I arrived for appt...said they know the issue, there is presently no fix and they sent me home.

Called Toyota, they searched their system, didn't find a TSB or anything.

So...tried Page Toyota in Southfield, MI. They diagnosed problem within two hours, said they need to replace both upper hinges, parts are ordered and should be here Mon/Tues.

They seem confident....

I suspect that there may be a batch of 2011s with misaligned/bad upper hinges....but this is just my speculation...

Obviously others problems are caused by other things, like seals, etc.

 

update....got our Highlander back yesterday. Dealer ordered hinges and had their bodyshop install them. I thought it was the "upper" hinges that were being replaced, the ones with large bolts, but it looks like they replaced the lower hinges, I can tell because the paint no longer matches (not a big deal, its on the inside of the vehicle, but you can tell its not factory spray job)

Door seems to be aligned much better, the panel gap on either side is more even now (before one side was larger than other) and the door is closing more smoothly, no clunk.

Have only had it back for a day...so can't speak to long term fix...but it seems to be repaired, closing much smoother and a better fit.

 

Sounds like you found the right service department to do your future work. :thumbsup:

 

"bent hinges"

It makes me feel good to see that I'm not the only one with this rear door issue. I have 2010 limited and our door does not shut all the way... we just brought it in today because this problem is now recurring after 2 months. Originally, body shop at the dealership blamed us for the damage by coming up with different scenarios on how it could have happened. That repair (replacement of both hinges) ended up costing us $500 out of pocket. Dealership did not make mention of Factory warranty. They just quoted us another hinge replacement, for the left-side only this time ($300). I don't feel like we should be paying for this if its a factory issue and I dont feel like making another visit for this same thing. I will call the manufacturer to see if they can provide an unhappy toyota owner with some guidance.

 

It makes me feel good to see that I'm not the only one with this rear door issue. I have 2010 limited and our door does not shut all the way... we just brought it in today because this problem is now recurring after 2 months. Originally, body shop at the dealership blamed us for the damage by coming up with different scenarios on how it could have happened. That repair (replacement of both hinges) ended up costing us $500 out of pocket. Dealership did not make mention of Factory warranty. They just quoted us another hinge replacement, for the left-side only this time ($300). I don't feel like we should be paying for this if its a factory issue and I dont feel like making another visit for this same thing. I will call the manufacturer to see if they can provide an unhappy toyota owner with some guidance.

I'm shocked you had to pay for this repair out of pocket, isn't your truck under the manufacturers warranty? Unless there was specific, concrete evidence of misuse/abuse on your part, they should have covered the repair, no questions asked.

I would never pay for such a repair out of pocket, I would just take to a different dealer. The first dealer I tried (Serra Toyota, Farmington Hills, MI) said we know of this problem but we don't have a fix, come back in a few months. The second dealer (Page Toyota, Southfield, MI) said we know what it is, we'll order parts and fix it ASAP, and they did.

This is a known issue to the dealers and manufacturers, certain models were shipped with defective hinges from the factory.

Please post the name of the dealer that made you pay for a warranty repair, that is outrageous!!!!!!!!

 

And ninjacomplaint, call Toyota Corporate to complain about paying out of pocket for a covered warranty item (with known problems). They'll reimburse you since it was a warranty item and the dealership screwed up making you pay for it.

 

currently working with case managers at Toyota HQ. #1 case manager who has been totally unhelpful and a 2nd one which seems to have taken over my case while #1 was out of the office for a few days.

#1: immediately contacts the dealer and persists to lay the blame on our misuse of the rear door. i had to assert myself to get her to agree to look into other similar complaints. It didn't seem like she went through the exercise. they called back after 2 weeks to tell me that they will neither cover the 1st repair nor the 2nd one because it was our fault for having an obstruction in the rear door which led to the hinges bending...she was rude and lacked willingness to get to the bottom of the issue. She called after #2 took over and didn't seem to be on the same page.

#2: she was much more aggressive about the whole thing and went on to schedule a call for tomorrow after when looked into some research. she didn't try to make this about us and said that this whole thing "didnt sit well" with her and she will try to do whatever she could to make it right.

i'm waiting for #2 to call me back, but she gave me hope.


If anyone else out there has had similar problems, please do us all a favor and at least report the problem to Corporate so they have this on record.

thinking about next steps:
- unless they adequately address this long-term, I'm trading in for another non-Toyota vehicle
- looking into Florida Lemon Laws/Federal Lemon Laws.

 

currently working with case managers at Toyota HQ. #1 case manager who has been totally unhelpful and a 2nd one which seems to have taken over my case while #1 was out of the office for a few days.

What are the names of the two people you've dealt with? If you need additional action and/or want to grease some skids you might try contacting Robert Carter who is Group Vice President and General Manager for Toyota Motor Sales in Torrance. S**t rolls downhill, and sometimes it helps to contact a higher-up to help your case. Shoot me a PM if you want to discuss it further.

 

seems to me like the hinges area is a weak point that will bend if the door got jammed.

Ninja, good luck and keep us posted. Seems like you had an idiot for the first one.

 

Hinge

Hope you get some resolution with the rear door issue.

I had an issue with a 2006 Corolla that I had to replace my on board computer (ECU) and found Toyota to be useless. My first ECU was replaced at around 27k miles, then that one went on me at around 89k. The first was under warranty but the 89k was out of pocket at the cost of $900. I was not happy and wrote a letter directly to the two Toyota execs who testified in front of congress for the acceleration issue. I got a nice phone call from Toyota saying sorry it's out of warranty. They didn't even write a letter to me saying no. I guess it's better to not have a paper trail. A few months later there was a recall and I got a new corrected ECU ( problem was traced to bad solder joints) installed and reimbursed for the one I paid. By the way the only reason they did a recall was because the government agency had many complaints and forced them to do it. When I called them about the recall and told them about my registered complaints they told me, " See we're taking care of you." That it took the strong arm of the government to get them to do it not their new and improved commitment to customer service.

I still think they make a great vehicles but quality is going down and it shows, however they have a really bad attitude towards their customers, who can make or break them. When are they going to get it?

 

I still think they make a great vehicles but quality is going down and it shows, however they have a really bad attitude towards their customers, who can make or break them. When are they going to get it?

Unfortunately in today's world you would be hard pressed to find any auto manufacture that gives a damn about customer service.
The 1-800 numbers go to a bank of level one support people that just look your problem up in a computer knowledge base and give you a stock answer.

If there is none they give you the "your local service department knows what is best for your vehicle" answer.

If you are fortunate enough to have a service department manager that goes to bat for their customers with the corporate regional service office you are lucky.

 

quick update, got a call back from my #2 case manager. She has not cited any cases where weak hinges have caused problems with highlanders rear door malfunction and has informed me that we were the 'cause' of the damage and that it will not be reimbursed. She was nice enough to send me forms for arbitration and lemon law filing for a Buy Back but she did not go to bat for me. At this point we have no advocate in our case. I need to seek legal counsel.

 

You know, the more I read about these Toyota attitude problems (similar stories on 3 other Toyota forums I'm on) the more I'm compelled to look at other alternatives. :headbang:

And believe me, I have been! :naughty:


MD

 

No offense, but this seems really strange. To recap our story, I have a 2011 Toyota Highlander...with around 5,000 miles on it, and my wife accidently hit the close button while was I standing under it, and that may have thrown off the hinges such that the door wouldn't close properly, (see above).

First dealer I took it to didn't ask how it happened, just said they have seen it before, were aware of the problem and were waiting for fix from Toyota (Serra Toyota, Farmington Hills, MI)

Called corporate, opened a case number, they weren't aware of issue, and suggested I take to a second dealer.

Took to second dealer (Page Toyota, Southfield, MI) and they diagnosed, ordered new hinges and repaired. Now it works perfectly.

Neither dealer asked me what happened, nor did they care.

1. Why are the dealers even aware of what is going on with your door? Just tell them it isn't working right, its under warranty and it should be fixed.

2. Is there something obvious that demonstrates misuse, abuse, etc.? I'm not trying to question your story, it just seems really fishy that two dealers would start accusing you of causing the damage...

I have NEVER had that experience with ANY car I have ever owned, where a dealer accused me of breaking something and denied a warranty repair.

I mean, how does this topic even come up, the dealer just assumes and/or starts accusing you of abusing the vehicle? It just doesn't make sense...

Why not take it to a third dealer and just tell them it doesn't work...I can't imagine why they would even think to blame you for the problem.

Are you anywhere near Michigan? I called a third dealer near me (Waterford of Toyota) just to test your theory and told them I was having problems, etc. They said no problem, bring it in and we'll fix it, no questions asked, its under warranty....

There must be more to the story here....Doesn't anyone else think its strange?

Please post the dealers names....I'd like to know if dealers are accusing customers of misuse/abuse and then denying warranty claims.

I am a commercial litigation attorney in Detroit area and I have handled a number of lemon law cases over the years...but have never heard of anything quite like this.

 

The hatch motor has a safety feature that reverses the motor if the hatch is obstructed.

How could there be abuse? The dealer would have to show me signs of abuse.

My dealer started down this path and backed off. First he asked if I was in an accident or if someone may have hit it. The car does not have a scratch on it. He than stated that with rubber bumpers they bounce back and you would not see the damage. I said ok - the car is up on a lift - lets go out and check for damage. They would have to show me signs of damage to prove miss use.

 

Dealers are nothing but crooks. I really love it when some asshat tells me is my fault and is clearly a poor design or bad QA from the top.

 

Hi wanted to share our experience.

We were having similar issues with the rear tailgate. it wouldnt close automatically and worked very sporadically. Took it into the dealer and it was a half hour fix. They said they just had to adjust the rear tailgate. it was interesting they were quick to ask if i'd been in an accident or do anything to suggest abuse. but on inspection im sure they could see the car was in excellent condition.

anyways as of now its working fine...we shall see. but f you are in SoCal and have this issue pm me for the dealership and service consultant info.

 

My hatch repair (adjusting striker plate) and the automatic closing of it seemed to have worked.

However new my rear hatch window seal is shrinking and pulling away again.

Time for a second window seal replacement at my 10K service. I'd advise everyone to take a look at theirs. If you can push it toward the outer frame with your fingers it is shrinking and not seated properly.

 

Rear Hatch Window Seal

Caf,

I just noticed a few days a go that my seal was doing the same thing on my 2010 Limited. It sounds like this might be a chronic thing. I worry that water might get in over time.

What has the dealer said about it? Has anyone else experienced this?

It sounds like this is going to be a repeat event until they improve the quality of the seal.:ugh3:

 

Rear 2010 Hatch Seal

Just came back from the dealer from getting my rear hatch seal replaced. I was close to the factory warranty expiring, thankfully I read on the thread that the rear seal shrinks. Thanks guys!

I have a feeling that the rubber used in the seal is just of inferior quality and therefore this will most likely happen again. I have an extended warranty and asked if it would be covered under it but the dealer I went to ( not my regular dealer, I'm from Pa on vacation in NC) did not know. I have the Toyota platinum plan and he was not even aware that Toyota had such an extended warranty. Strange.

He did however tell me that the installed seal was covered for 1 year from today. I plan on checking me seal often to see if it continues to shrink. Hopefully this info helps you guys out.