Toyota RAV4 Complaints (2014)

207 consumer complaints on file.

#11505219February 2, 2023
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
I left to go to work, and the transmission would not engage. I pulled out of the garage, the engine was revving but the car just slowly rolled. I thought it would warm up, but it did not. I was in the street, and I was able to slowly rev and roll the car back into the garage. It was very frightening and dangerous. My husband drove the car, the transmission worked, but sometimes it is still slipping. I'm afraid to drive it. It is only 8 years old and has 126k miles and we maintain it very well. I am so disappointed, we have been driving Toyotas for over 30 years, never had a big problem like this.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11491642October 31, 2022
STEERING, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
As I drive the multimedia system reboots on its own. Also as I was exiting the freeway coming off a curvy ramp, the car shut down as I was driving and the steering wheel locked for a second and then it came back to life. As this happened the dashboard lit up as if it was in accessory mode. Luckily there was not a lot of traffic on the ramp. Also about 5 months ago i had it repaired at the dealer because of a torque converter extended recall
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11488966October 12, 2022
POWER TRAIN
The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated while driving from a complete stop at 10-15 MPH, the accelerator pedal was depressed and the vehicle started shuddering, jerking, hesitated and responded in a surging manner. The contact stated that the failure stopped while driving above 25 MPH. The contact stated that the failure had been reoccurring increasingly. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the torque converter needed to be replaced. The dealer informed the contact that she would need to pay a repair fee as Toyota Technical Service Bulletin Number: POL17-06 had expired. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the contact to the NHTSA hotline. The failure mileage was approximately 130,000.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11484459September 14, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated that while her husband was driving at an undetermined speed, an unknown vehicle crashed into the driver's side front quarter panel. There were no warning indicator lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent body shop. The vehicle was taken to another independent mechanic for tires who stated the battery was losing power and surging and not working efficiently. While at the mechanic's, they noticed smoke underneath the hood and the vehicle caught fire. The battery bar compartment was burnt. They were able to extinguish the fire. There were no reported injuries or police reports filed. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact had previously affixed a group 35 sticker on the battery. The manufacturer was not contacted. The approximate failure mileage was 87,000.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11482714September 3, 2022
ENGINE, FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM, SUSPENSION
The engine make noise and it leaks under the car inside the car by your passenger side
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11481267August 25, 2022
STRUCTURE:BODY
Power lift rear hatch shocks. It's no longer available for inspection because I had the parts replaced on Aug. 24, 2022. Date of first incident UNKNOWN. Before the pandemic began, the rear hatch became inconsistent on opening and closing. When I took it to the dealership, they would reset it. I also took it on 2 occasions to another dealership with the same results. In a day or in a few days, it wouldn't open or close. I was doing grocery pick up so it could have been a hazard not only to me but to the grocery store staff. I couldn't rely on it. I'm a senior citizen. 50% of the reason I bought the SUV was for the power lift hatch. I could have injured my shoulders or my back trying to force it open or closed. Or I could have been injured loading and unloading groceries onto the floorboards behind the front seats. On Aug. 23, 2022 I spoke with the Service Advisor at the dealership and said I need it to be repaired. Do you have the parts? They did the repair the next day. These parts didn't have lamps or messages that were available to the driver. I don't know if there were any for the service technicians. Service Advisor said they have replaced power lift rear hatch shocks on other vehicles.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11479937August 18, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, STEERING
Steering and brakes quit working while driving. Able to safely get off road. Took to Toyota Service Department. Per invoice "improperly installed battery caused everything to melt" battery installed by AAA in March 2020. Size 35 battery. Extensive damage.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11473081July 9, 2022
STRUCTURE:BODY
Color stricken
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11459853April 6, 2022
SERVICE BRAKES
Driver [XXX] was driving down roadway and entire dashboard lite up. Attempted to apply brakes to stop vehicle, but the brakes wouldn't operate causing the vehicle to rear end another vehicle around 25 mph. The vehicle was deemed a total loss and is now with Copart PA-Pittsburgh North 2200 River Rd. Ellwood City, PA 16117. Phone number: 724-758-0480 INFORMATION Redacted PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
1
Deaths:
0
#11459901April 6, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Our 2014 Rav4 LE with 37k miles caught on fire while parked in a shopping plaza parking lot. The fire department says I was lucky that I wasn't driving the car or I wasn't in the car with children, pets, or elderly parents or we could have died. If my car was parked next to others this fire could have spread and been absolutely catastrophic. We've had our car fully inspected once within the last 6 months, and a limited inspection during an oil change within the last 3 months. I believe the fire started with the battery, we think we were affected by this... https://www.consumerreports.org/car-safety/toyota-rav4-under-investigation-due-to-battery-fire-concerns-a8630737173/ Our battery was inspected recently during an oil change and it was fine. The car has very low miles. Prior to parking the car I noticed a sulfuric rotten egg smell which I thought was coming from one of the nearby restaurants in this plaza. I turned the engine off, rolled up the windows, and put the in-car ventilation on at which point I noticed the smell coming from the vents. I rolled the windows down and was going to pop the hood to investigate but I decided to wait a few minutes for the car to cool down. There were no check engine lights or attention lights on the dashboard. As I got out of the car to walk to the plaza I noticed a small amount of steam coming from between the cracks of the hood. About 45 seconds later when I walked to a nearby storefront I noticed a flame coming from between the windshield and hood. I promptly called 911 and the Skokie fire department arrived on the scene about 5 minutes later. They put out the car fire in about 3 - 4 minutes, but the car was a complete loss.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11459056March 31, 2022
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Audio System, Navigation. Cannot enter and use set up Menu for Radio, CD. The Panel continuously displays the screen of the software, hardware, Entune starting and restarting.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11450140February 3, 2022
SEATS
I have been experiencing a strange burning smell in my RAV4 for the past week but was unable to locate the source. No warning lights were active on the dash and the vehicle was functioning properly. Because I live in a colder climate I generally use the heated seat function daily, but would like to clarify that the use of my vehicle amounts to less than an hour a day with my combined morning and afternoon commute. Today I noted that there is a sizeable hole in my driver seat that is burned and melted from the heated seat function. I have not turned the heated seat function back on for fear of a fire.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11442707December 5, 2021
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM, UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Shortly after I purchased the vehicle, the Entune application began sending “movement alerts” and frequently showed that it was in a different location. The dealership said that an update was required, but that did not fix the problem. About a year later, it began to drain batteries repeatedly (4 in one year). The Toyota dealership could not find a problem. After the last battery replacement, I noticed that the Entune app shows that I have over 960,000,000 miles on the vehicle (when the odometer isn’t even at 85,000) and the battery voltage was 14.6 volts! My car was broken into and the front window was broken, but the app failed to inform me of that! About a month ago, I left home and all of the lights on the dash started flashing. The engine temperature was rising (according to the temperature gauge), and then the gauges stopped functioning. The tachometer showed 0 RPMs and I was unable to see the odometer, temperature, or even my speed. After disconnecting and reconnecting the battery cables, it appeared to solve the problem. I am afraid of what may happen next and would trade it in if I could afford to.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11440729November 16, 2021
AIR BAGS
My 2014 Toyota RAV4 had an accident (front end collision) No air bags deploy
Crash:
Yes
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11440515November 15, 2021
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
Vehicles transmission torque converter has issues and makes entire vehicle shake while driving. It causes issues when going up and down hills and shifting gears to maintain appropriate speeds. Vehicle shakes aggressively when at high speeds making highway travel impossible and unsafe. Toyota dealerships quote $3000 in repairs to replace defective part.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11439947November 9, 2021
POWER TRAIN
My husband made sure he took the car into the dealership before his current deployment & records showed nothing was wrong. About 2 months ago I noticed the vehicle would jump from 2 to 3 RPM. He changed the spark plugs and battery. The drive improved but soon started revving again. In September, I called the dealership & described the issue & noted that there was no check engine light or any light indicating anything was wrong. The maintenance personnel said to drop it off for further diagnosis. On October 15, I took the vehicle in for a diagnostic it came back with another clean report and was advised to bring it back in if the problem persist. The next morning, I noticed the vehicle was still behaving the same way. I called the dealership and told them I will bring the vehicle back in. I was insistent on finding out what the problem was & showed them a video of what I was describing the vehicle was doing. The dealership said they would keep it overnight to try & figure out what was wrong. The following evening October 21, I got a call stating that my transmission fluid was black with metal shavings and it was supposed to be red. The transmission fluid could no longer be changed at this point but instead the entire transmission needed to be replaced for $8,947.95! Keep in mind that the average cost of changing the transmission fluid is $250. If my vehicle was properly maintained when took it to Toyota dealerships since 2014 for ALL the recommended maintenance, we would not be having this issue. We TRUSTED the dealerships to tell us what maintenance was needed. The transmission fluid should have been replaced at 60,000 miles & it was not. Now we have to replace the entire transmission. Toyota needs to take ownership of their mistake; not properly maintaining our vehicle. It is no fault of our own that it was never indicated to us that the transmission fluid needed to be replaced. His family with no vehicle, exactly what he was trying to avoid before he deployed.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11431159August 31, 2021
ENGINE, UNKNOWN OR OTHER, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
On Sunday, Aug 29th, our RAV4 caught fire in our driveway. The vehicle was off/parked at the time and required the fire department to extinguish. The fire spread to our truck which was parked next to the RAV4. Both are a complete loss.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11430946August 29, 2021
STEERING
The first thing that happened was while driving in the day my dash board lights shut off and back on three different times with in 5-7 minutes. Then the next day while driving down the road by vehicle electrical dash board system shut itself off and came back while I was driving. The warning symbol for the electrical steering power flashed on and my steering wheel locked up as I was turning and caused me not to be able to steer normally. Also, my air conditioning shut off and back on during these incidents.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11429690August 19, 2021
STEERING
The contact owns a 2014 Toyota Rav4. The contact stated while driving 20 MPH, the power steering assist message displayed, and the steering wheel became very difficult to turn in either direction. The next day the vehicle was towed to the local dealer who was unable to duplicate the failure. The cause of the failure was not determined, and no repairs were performed. The manufacturer was contacted regarding the failure, but no assistance was offered. The contact was informed that the vehicle was not included in the NHTSA Campaign Number: 15V144000 (Steering). The contact indicated that the vehicle had experienced the same failure listed in the recall. The failure mileage was 74,800.
Crash:
No
Fire:
No
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0
#11425497July 19, 2021
ENGINE, ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:12V/24V/48V BATTERY
The contact owns a 2014 Toyota RAV4. The contact stated while driving 15 mph, the vehicle stalled without warning. After multiple attempts, the contact was able to restart the vehicle. Soon after the vehicle was restarted there was smoke coming from the vehicle and the vehicle stalled again. The contact stated that the battery had caught on fire. The battery was destroyed. The fire department was not notified of the fire. There was no injury sustained. Due to the failure, the contact had the vehicle towed to an independent mechanic for repair. Neither the dealer nor the manufacturer was notified of the failure. The vehicle was not repaired and remained in the possession of the mechanic. The failure mileage was approximately 135,000. The VIN was not available.
Crash:
No
Fire:
Yes
Injuries:
0
Deaths:
0

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