Lemon 5th gen?

[wfo9]

There have been a few people here with electrical gremlins like you describe. It is almost always a partially bad fuse or ground somewhere. Very difficult to track down....

I remember a few threads but can't remember the exact causes.

Fuses/relays are strange in that they can sometimes test good but will intermittently flake out....

 

[1engineer]

Did you buy the vehicle new or used and if so, was the dealer selling it flooded and/or experienced severe hurricane weather? Honestly sounds almost like the vehicle has water damage regarding the electrical issues.

Also you need to find a new dealer and make sure corporate understands this dealer has been hamstringing you along and hurting your faith in their company.

Exactly this^

 

[mybabydaddy]

~AC frequently does not work/fan noise is awful, frequently shuts off while driving. Dealer says leaves caught in fan that make noise, but its never resolved, only getting worse.

So after all my high praise for the T4R, I will say this.... My A/C fan has seemingly gotten louder and louder over the past year. I’ve sort of paid attention to it throughout, but just recently noticed it being really loud about 2 days ago when I thought to myself “damn, that is now noisy as hell”. I’ll have to find another day I can bring it in and have it checked out.

...well, this, and now I’ve got the dreaded driver seat “PING” back again that I had on my 4th Gen... But, I’m older now, and don’t seem to care about it as much tho.

 

[Large Saints Fan]

I'll begin by saying i love the 4runner. I miss some of the luxury features of prior cars, but I knew that going into it. This vehicle has to be the most problematic vehicle I have ever owned. The dealer can never replicate the issues. I have invested in a GoPro to record all the issues with the Nav/back up cam/HVAC/lighting issues. I show the dealers the videos and they cant/wont resolve the issues. Not only that, most of the time the dealer isnt doing to the paperwork properly to show complaint, there is no specifics mentioned based on my VIN. Toyota corporate has offered a regional rep to come and inspect my vehicle and watch videos, but dealers refuse to have them or when I did get an appointment, the rep wasnt there when I was told, so I took a vacation day to sit and wait, my wife a vacation day to watch our child as I figured it would be troublesome for him to have to sit all day. No show. Dealer says I messed up the days and why was I waiting, why did they take my vehicle back all day and not tell me no rep, after 5 hours of battling I have nothing accomplished but a wasted day.

Am I worried about motor/transmission problems? Nope
Am I worried about electrical issues, you better believe it.

~Paint coming off 4Runner plaque on lift gate (dealer wont work with)
~Nav/radio/back up cam issues (dealer wont work with, 30 hours and 7 trips to deal with)
~weather stripping continuously falls out of track on passenger fromt door and driver read door, new has been put in 2 times at dealer, 1 time at my expense from another shop as my efforts to keep it in doesnt work.
~seat wear is rediculous for a new vehicle considering I dont scrape or wear pants to snag it.
~AC frequently does not work/fan noise is awful, frequently shuts off while driving. Dealer says leaves caught in fan that make noise, but its never resolved, only getting worse.
~While driving, overhead lights sometimes flicker on (even when off)
~clanking sound from steering column when wipers are on (showed dealer, admitted sound, sat in another 3 T4Rs no sound)
~many other electrical flukes that happen here and there with no fix, happened and couldnt record at the time.
~flickering dash lights for a brief moment at random times.

I love this vehicle, but these issues have left me having to buy another vehicle to be more reliable. I bought this to be a family vehicle, client carrier and a sand toy for after warranty is gone so I'll keep it, but I want Toyota to take accountability for this, my Mini Countryman worked better and that is very sad. I still drive this but as a back up, I cant have clients and my child riding around in 100+ degree weather when the AC decides to not work.

I would recommend taking up the cowl cover and checking the bolts that hold the wiper transmission together. Your noise sounds like the wiper arms under the cowl have either a loose component or a bad washer/bolt.
For the electrical issues I would pull up the fuse block under the hood and look for dead ants. We have lost thousands in repairs to these crazy/raspberry ants in the last 2 years. The Caterpillar dealer up the road from me lost 1.6 million in equipment due to them. They are incredibly invasive.
YMMV

 

[BlackWorksInc]

I would recommend taking up the cowl cover and checking the bolts that hold the wiper transmission together. Your noise sounds like the wiper arms under the cowl have either a loose component or a bad washer/bolt.
For the electrical issues I would pull up the fuse block under the hood and look for dead ants. We have lost thousands in repairs to these crazy/raspberry ants in the last 2 years. The Caterpillar dealer up the road from me lost 1.6 million in equipment due to them. They are incredibly invasive.
YMMV

Ants? What are they doing, chewing up the wiring? Didn't think Ants liked soy...

 

[Antman]

Ants? What are they doing, chewing up the wiring? Didn't think Ants liked soy...

:hiding:

 

[Large Saints Fan]

Ants? What are they doing, chewing up the wiring? Didn't think Ants liked soy...

They are attracted to the electricity and they crawl into the fuse block and die.
They are full of formic acid and it shorts electrical components. Google it, they are becoming a significant nuisance in the south to any and all electrical equipment. Laugh all you want but insurance doesn't always cover the damage and they are extremely difficult to get out of a vehicle. He said he lives in Florida and has unexplained electrical problems.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

They are attracted to the electricity and they crawl into the fuse block and die.
They are full of formic acid and it shorts electrical components. Google it, they are becoming a significant nuisance in the south to any and all electrical equipment. Laugh all you want but insurance doesn't always cover the damage and they are extremely difficult to get out of a vehicle. He said he lives in Florida and has unexplained electrical problems.

Interesting, that's the first I've heard of it. Strange about the attraction to electricity, I don't think I've ever read that about ants...

 

[Large Saints Fan]

Interesting, that's the first I've heard of it. Strange about the attraction to electricity, I don't think I've ever read that about ants...

This breed seems to be particularly attracted to it. They are also known as Rasberry(SP) ants as well. If you ever hear someone from west Texas talk about WD40ing their ac unit outside you will know why. They can't crawl on the lubricant so we used to use WD40 or silicon spray to keep them off after cleaning up a unit.

 

[stir_fry_boy]

Has anyone encounter a lemon 5th gen? I think my neighbor has one.. it's a 2016 silver SR5 bone stock. Yesterday we was going to the store. Truck started fine as usual then he puts it in reverse and the truck won't move it's like it's in park.. got it towed to the dealership... he got a call from the the dealership and they stated notting is wrong and it works now..


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My 15' TRDP did this at 4700 miles. Took it to the dealer 3 times before it failed on the shop foreman. Transmission replacement and no more issues. There was only specific parameters in which it would not go into gear. Hot, sat 20-30 min, then restart the truck, and it would do it randomly. Any other time, nope.

 

[KalihiRunner]

My 15' TRDP did this at 4700 miles. Took it to the dealer 3 times before it failed on the shop foreman. Transmission replacement and no more issues. There was only specific parameters in which it would not go into gear. Hot, sat 20-30 min, then restart the truck, and it would do it randomly. Any other time, nope.

Did the dealer fix it for free? I assume you didn't mod your trans... so your trans was under warranty..


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[Ike64]

This breed seems to be particularly attracted to it. They are also known as Rasberry(SP) ants as well. If you ever hear someone from west Texas talk about WD40ing their ac unit outside you will know why. They can't crawl on the lubricant so we used to use WD40 or silicon spray to keep them off after cleaning up a unit.

Happened all the time to my heat pump outside in lower Alabama I absolutely heat those ants. I think I sprayed enough pesticide around that AC unit to make the area a hazardous waste zone


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[stir_fry_boy]

Did the dealer fix it for free? I assume you didn't mod your trans... so your trans was under warranty..


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Of course they did. Under warranty. The shop foreman has 30 years wrenching on Toyotas and never had seen this model of transmission fail this early. He had to call the Toyota district shop manager, he said the same thing.

 

[jmmec]

Crazy Ants

Regarding crazy ants:

Had a 'crazy' infestation of these at a house in the mountains of Southern New Mexico. They were nesting in the large pine trees around the property and were especially active at night. They'll even crawl across the power line that goes directly into your house.

They are not attracted to baits at all.

The only product I could find that would extinguish them and their multitudes of colonies was "Termidor SC" (available at Amazon and DoMyOwnPestControl and elsewhere). They walk through the dried spray, and it contaminates them but does not kill them immediately. When they return to their colony they transfer it ant-to-ant and within a few days the entire colony is wiped out.

Termidor is amazing stuff....

 

[alyx_kat0913]

Even if you have the parking brake on you can back out of a driveway, trust me on this one. The truck will be annoyingly loud though beeping at you. I've done it a couple times.

I still occasionly do this still. And i did this when I first bought my 4runner with step on parking break after driving a rav4 with a pull up parking brake.. still getting use to it. Definitely seems like user error but anything is possible like he thought it was in reverse and it was actually in neutral! FYI first time reversing I thought it was stuck but it was just the parking brake.

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[Knight-Errant]

Clearly the problem is too much friction...

 

[turbomw]

~AC frequently does not work/fan noise is awful, frequently shuts off while driving. Dealer says leaves caught in fan that make noise, but its never resolved, only getting worse.



So after all my high praise for the T4R, I will say this.... My A/C fan has seemingly gotten louder and louder over the past year. I’ve sort of paid attention to it throughout, but just recently noticed it being really loud about 2 days ago when I thought to myself “damn, that is now noisy as hell”. I’ll have to find another day I can bring it in and have it checked out.



...well, this, and now I’ve got the dreaded driver seat “PING” back again that I had on my 4th Gen... But, I’m older now, and don’t seem to care about it as much tho.

Your fan shouldn't have leaves in it, the cabin filter prevents this. Unless when it was replaced, leaves fell in. It's a poor design. I had this happen.
Easy 10 minute fix, only need a Phillips screwdriver and your vacuum. Underneath your glove box there is a panel that pulls out. Pull it down and disconnect the footwell light. There's the blower motor right there, 3 screws hold it in place. Take them out and unplug the wire, now you can get a vacuum in there to clean up any debris. Then just reassemble.
If your dealer can't fix something this simple, I'd really question their customer service and ability to work on any car.....

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