2011-2020 Toyota Sienna Buying Guide

hello and welcome to the car care now channel in this video we're going to be talking about some common problems and issues with the 2011 to 2020 toyota sienna they say it is the best minivan to buy and i completely agree with that however minivans are not exactly the most reliable cars not vans they're not the most reliable cars in the world as you will see in this video which will be a little bit long they have some issues but again it's a car designed to carry 78 people plus their luggage for families so there is a little bit of a premium to that but nonetheless if you're looking at a sienna you're probably looking at one of the top minivans to buy but before we get started hit that subscribe button like the video turn on your bell notifications also follow the channel instagram and facebook so you won't miss out sneak peeks for future videos and without further ado let's get right into this starting with engine now this van came with two engines the v6 3.5 and the 4 cylinder 2.7 if you're buying one of these fans please don't buy a four cylinder because they're underpowered and remember you're not buying a van to transport one person you're either going to use it as a cargo van or to haul a large family with their luggage the four cylinder just does not do it it's underpowered for that car great engine but not for that car i don't think it's a great idea to buy a four-cylinder while they are reliable we've seen some oil consumption issues oil burning when they're not maintained right i will link to my how to maintain your toyota video for more information on that but just avoid the four cylinders they're not worth it moving on to the v6 engine and the v6 engine has a few achilles heels overall it's a great engine however it is notorious for oil leaks head gasket leaks coolant leaks more oil leaks so let me elaborate a little bit further the most common oil leak on this engine now the engine was updated in 2017 slightly different direct injection supposedly improved which it is but it does have the same issues let's talk first about the major oil leak front timing cover it's a cover in front of the engine houses covers the timing chain and all the fancy stuff that is notorious to leak and this is how you should inspect it if you're buying one of these cars [Music] [Music] as you can see in that video it's very simple just go underneath the car from the passenger side by the wheel and look up make sure there's zero oil if you see any oil there it's leaking and this is a very very expensive repair so make sure you have a warranty with the car if it does have a leak and you really like it it's a good deal if you own one of these cars you need to pause this video go look for leaks if it's leaking you're under warranty get it fixed if it's not unfortunately this leak is going to be pretty expensive to fix another common oil leak on these and this was generally 2011 very very few 2012s the oil cooler line leaks now this is a rubber cooler line that leaks oil over time the rubber gets hard it leaks oil and it is catastrophic because it'll leak the entire oil of the engine in a matter of i don't know 15 minutes and then the engine will just run out of oil and we've seen some actually get ruined because of this now toyota did have an extension on that so if you own a 2011 early 2012 make sure you contact your dealership have them check the oil line for leaks and replace it now the the replacement part is all metal so you will have zero problems with this if you own a mid to late 2012 and up all the way to 20 you have zero problems with that so you shouldn't worry about that oil leak another common thing with these engines are coolant leaks and they're endless and i'm just going to come out and say this this is probably the most common issue with this van that makes people shy away from them or trade them in or leave them first what is the less minor one is water pumps water pump on that engine looks like this they have two problems first they leak coolant they leave coolant right from here all the way down and the coolant starts going down and if you're not careful and watching it car overheats and now we have bigger problems another problem with this pump is the bearing right here this the engine turns this to circulate the coolant in your car the bearing goes bad you'll have a huge rattling noise raises up and down with engine rpm and again it's a faulty water pump if you let it go like that eventually this will the bearing will seize or completely break and now there's no coolant and all the accessories are gone because the belt is gone so this is very important to check um although supposedly there is an updated part for these that supposedly the 2017 and up had an updated water pump that was stout and built more solid but they still leak i've replaced a bunch of them already on 17 18 19s they leak it's just an achilles heel of this engine now this water pump is a little bit expensive to replace it's possible to do it yourself but it's a little bit of a harder tighter spot to do it so you need to be a little bit more skilled than the average diy to do this now another very problematic coolant leak and this one is definitely not diy is head gasket leaks these fans are notorious to leak coolant from the outside of the head gasket down as you can see in this picture now the problem with this head gasket is the engine has to come down super expensive repair now unfortunately you can't really see this from underneath the car you gotta lift it up in the air and look if you're buying one make sure you have it inspected by a mechanic for specifically for external head gasket leaks they're super common if you own one of these fans and the head gasket you've just been told that the hescat is leaking externally unfortunately you're going to have to bite the bullet and do it because the leak some of these leaks get really bad where now you're adding coolant very consistently and that's just another achilles heel of this engine it seems like the sienna happens to be the worst for this leak we've done so many of them it is an alarming issue this mostly applies to 2011 to 2016 2017 and up with the updated v6 we haven't seen as many problems but i'm worried it's just a matter of time they might be too new for that but all the other models we've seen a lot of them it's very expensive so if you're buying one make sure you look for that the last issue with with the engine is again we're still talking about the v6 is some variable valve timing issues oil control valve contamination clogging of things and that has to do with maintenance starting 2011 the sienna gets 10 000 mile oil change many people have argued oh i'm gonna follow what the engineers say that's fine but please do your oil change every five thousand miles you will have zero issues with this engine ten thousand mile oil change is great but right around 100 120 130 is when the things pro have problems and now you're out of warranty and you're on your own oil changes cheap insurance i always say that so consider doing it every five thousand six months you will have no issues buy the cheap insurance it's great moving on to transmission now if you have a 2011 to 2016 zero problems nothing change fluid every sixty thousand six years and you should have no issues if you are looking at a 2017 to 2020 eight speed transmission you probably have read about it online read about complaints look there is one issue with the hp transmission that is actually an issue 2017 to early 2018 there is an actual issue with this transmission it's an early build problem now toyota did change the internals of the transmission as long as the software and they did extend the warranty and they're taking care of people because this is a factory problem if you're looking at a 17 make sure that transmission has been either fixed or make sure you have some kind of warranty on it the problems with the early 8-speed transmissions our winding noise abnormal shifting jerky shifting and just abnormal transmission operation these are all the issues with the 8-speed transmission so far now starting mid 2018 all the way to 20 we do not have any issues however on a side note on a personal note if you would i drive these cars every single day at work i don't like the 8-speed you know if you're a car guy or a gal you're not gonna like how it shifts it just shifts too much and it's jerky it's jumpy that's how they are it's just too many gears you know there was a day where automatic transmissions had three speeds now we have eight and 10 and just keeps going up from here make sure you drive one if you're buying a 17 to 20 make sure you drive it make sure you like the feel of that transmission because they are not ideal if you don't like the feel of the transmission go with an 11 to 16 you'll have zero problems that six speed is solid there's no problems at all one last thing that people ask about is the all-wheel drive system in these vans it's a great system bulletproof many of the previous theaters have oil leak issues and problems and oil contamination this one does not have these issues it's pretty solid there's only one issue on the rear differential there's a big mount to front of the differential it always goes bad and it's not really super expensive or hard to replace and the common symptom of that is under hard acceleration you hear like a huge rattling or clunking noise from the back on vibration in the whole car again you can feel that very easily it's not something you could miss when they totally go bad but if you're buying an all-wheel drive expect to replace a few of these mounts they're not expensive they're right by the differential very easy to find and see even if you're a diy mechanic super easy to change [Music] moving on to body and the first item we're going to start with is the sliding doors now possibly one of the best features about any minivan is the sliding doors and even better the power sliding doors i mean our kids we all have kids they struggle with opening doors closing them the minivan is great push a button doors open push a button door is closed life is good however if you've owned the minivan before you know that the sliding doors are the best thing and the worst thing the best thing when they work worst thing when they don't if you've never owned a minivan just know that it's not again it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when the sliding doors go go south now there are a few known problems with these sliding doors i'm going to start with some of them first one is this the power most of the problems are power sliding door the automatic opening function the first problem is the door opens all the way perfect as is closing and as it's about to close it just jams and goes back that's a problem with the middle hinge the middle hinge has like a joint that joint gets corroded this is especially common in the rust belt but we also heard reports that it's happening elsewhere that joint gets stiff and now the door can't the motor can't close anymore again the fixes replace the hinge nothing about it or you can lubricate the hinge it'll get a little better but that's a short-term fix the good thing is all the issues we're going to talk about all of them as of the day of this video are covered by toyota under a special policy for some time so as in a general advice before we continue anytime you have a problem with the sliding door always call your toyota dealership and ask for any extended policy because i've seen so many people spend fortunes on their sliding doors fixing them somewhere outside the theater and they fix it right and everything's great but then find out that you could have gotten this fixed for free under warranty but since you didn't take it to the leader or you didn't ask now you paid for it out of pocket yeah sure toyota will reimburse you that's a giant mess of a process so always ask your dealership always ask if there's some kind of extended warranty once you get the car diagnosed because as of today as of the filming of this video there is a lot of extended warranties and all the items that we are going to talk about in this video the second problem and this is another one that's uh very annoying the door opens all the way great once it stops all the way open you press the button it just moves and it doesn't close or the door closes but then when you hit it it just moves jams and then it doesn't open again this is more common in the rust belt states however we've heard reports that is common everywhere so let's just not say that anymore they're common on these siennas the issue here is either the front latch or the rear latch the rear latch is a very very expensive part to replace again they're covered under a special policy but they're notorious to go bad they just get rusty on the inside start seizing a little micro switch breaks inside of them i'm pretty sure someone will take one apart and figure out because it's just a little switch that goes bad and causes it to do that but again it's very common problem for the latches to go bad on these minivans another issue with the minivan sliding door again broken sliding door cables now the cables break because the door jams either because of a bad hinge or it's stuck somewhere and the motors keeps pulling in the cable until it snaps and the common thing to know when when you have a broken cable is you'll see the cable hanging off the side like right over the rear tire you'll see just a cable hanging there all of a sudden the door doesn't work anymore you try to open it manually sometimes it'll just jam halfway and doesn't want to open now if you've owned a previous body style sienna that was the worst nightmare because it was super expensive to replace that cable now on this body style sienna toyota very gracefully really reduced the cost of the cable now yeah it's a cheap flimsy cable but hey i think it's like less than 40 50 bucks versus the old one it was like six seven eight hundred bucks so not really hard to replace definitely diy but again they have an extended policy on this so before you attempt repairs call your dealer ask about it and they could cover this for you for free one more issue with the sliding door which is the last one i promise this is limited to the 2011 model this was an early build problem every time you open the door or every once in a while when you open the door especially with the handle you hear a big pop noise the whole door shakes then it opens that was an issue with the motor again this is limited to early build 2011's we've we've seen cases where it does that and people just kept going and nothing really happened very expensive to fix because you gotta replace the motor the computer everything in the door not really worth it if you have in 2011 you have this popping noise just keep going pretend it's not there nothing will happen and another thing with the sliding doors is always call the dealership first before you attempt any repairs i said this multiple times i'm going to say one last time i promise always call the dealership not necessarily fix it at the dealership but if a dealership is going to fix it for free why are you paying outside i don't want you to pay i want it to be fixed for free you get back in your minivan and life is great so always call the dealership for the sliding doors before you attempt any repairs moving on from the sliding doors to the other door the back door the hatch door or whatever you want to call it we've seen an alarming number of problems with these doors and they're usually related to bent doors the reason they bend is the motor lifts the door on one side and if you're really rough with the door it's a little it's a lightweight door it bends very easily and especially when you jam and i see people put a lot of stuff in the minivan close the door and then they're fighting with the door to close please don't do that this will cost you so much it is not even funny please don't do that to your minivan and if you're looking to buy one make sure you close the door open it multiple times with the power and make sure it's not moving to one side as is closing common problem for these they get bent you close the door you look at the gap between the tail lights one side is super small one side is huge unfortunately that's going to need bodywork and sometimes even replacing the whole door because the hinges are bent and everything is bent and you'll never get it right again so always make sure you treat that back door gently and when you're buying one make sure that the gaps are even and the operation is good multiple times not just one time moving on to the last two issues in body one of them is these fans are notorious for rattling noises from the third row seat and the second row seats again if it's under warranty take it to the dealership we'll try to insulate everything and change and there's like a multiple technical service bulletins on this but in the end as soon as the car runs out of warranty guess what's going to come back the rattling noises it's just it's just too many seats too many movements of the seats they're going to make noise yes it drives me crazy too but you know what don't spend your money on this stuff if you're buying one of these vans sure bring it up lower the price of the car say hey the seats are rattling that's no good but if you own one of these and you are a warranty you don't have extended warranty don't waste your money it's not worth it it's not worth it you're gonna spend small fortunes to fix the noise that i almost can guarantee you it's only a matter of time that it'll come back sound worth it don't don't waste your money on that please another issue with body is headliner leaks and i know that doesn't sound right but let me elaborate 2011 some 2012 with the double sunroof usually the limited models they had a very bad windshield washer leak on the headliner and people asked windshield washer leak well there is a hose that runs all the way from the front all the way in the back for the rear wiper washer that hose was notorious to burst or come loose and leak washer fluid all over the headliner headliner is the roof part of your car so if you're buying one of these early ones make sure you check that headliner if you see any giant blue green stains yep it's leaking and you want to stay away from that one because the cost to fix that is monumental and it's not worth it just walk away from it so most of them were fixed under warranty but in case you happen to find that one straggler that you're looking to buy that has a giant stain walk away not worth it if you own one of these vans and you have that leak i try to fix that hose lower the headliner and live with the stain because you do not want to know how much that headliner cost both parts and labor not worth it move on from it moving on to chassis and we have a quite few things to cover here if you're gonna buy one of these fans or you own one you're gonna be replacing a lot a lot of struts and strut mounts struts love to leak on these models i mean it's almost like every other one i get in the shop has leaking front struts the front's primarily not the rears you know they're they're a little bit expensive but it's a reoccurring item almost for me to say it's gonna be a maintenance item you know every minivan i get in if the struts are not leaking go over bumps there is a noise it's the struts and when you replace the struts if you live in the rust belts the sway bar links are likely bad as well so it's going to add that much more to the cost that's just something chronic with these fans it's gonna happen the reason this threat mounts go bad is the way the water channels when when it runs down the windshield goes into the cowl it goes right on top of this threat mount and sits there rotting everything from the inside out i've seen as bad as completely separated front strut mounts they make a horrible noise when you go over bumps you cannot miss them if you're buying one of these vans i mean yeah look at the struts make sure they're not leaking make sure there's no abnormal noises when you go over bumps but expect it you're gonna be doing strut after strut after strut it's just the way another achilles heel of this van another new common problem on these fans that we haven't seen in the past but now they're starting to pop up and getting pretty pretty heavily common is front lower control arm bushings they're wearing out an alarming rate the common way to find this is drive the car at low speeds then snap the brake you'll feel the steering wheel just jump to one side i don't like to be a typical mechanic or dealer florida person say oh this is a safety concern it could be a safety concern if this if the bushing is completely separated now the steering wheel is just loose and the wheel is just moving in and out as it at its own will so if you're buying one make sure you do the brake snap test drive at a slow speed take your hand off the wheel but kind of like feel the steering wheel and hit the brakes hard that wheel jumps one side abruptly like that either left or right yeah you got lower control arm bushings that are worn this is pretty expensive you're gonna replace those this is actually a bushing it wears out in all cars but on the siennas because of the way it's designed how heavy it is it's it's gonna go bad and that's just another achilles heel with these things although this is this next issue is not as common and it's very limited to the rust belt vans we've seen some rear coil springs break i mean we're not talking you're driving also in the car just drops on the ground in the back but they do crack and break and now the car is leaning down on one side in the back again they're semi-expensive if you go after market get an independent shop they're not really very expensive to replace but if you're buying one make sure you have an inspected bio mechanic if you're not very knowledgeable with cars if you are make sure you look at them very closely make sure they're not cracked can drive on the tire until you get the service station to fix it replace it whatever they are the worst product ever put on a toyota the all-wheel drive models because of the additional driveshaft and the rear differential and all that they don't have space for spare tire underneath the van so there is no spare tire in the all-wheel drive models hence the run flat tires if you own or you're looking to buy an all-wheel drive car van sorry you're gonna have problems with these tires they wear prematurely they don't last very long and yes people will say oh i have one it's an alignment problem they wear uneven sure spend more money to do more alignments and more things to change and the suspension than the this and the dead and then guess what thirty thousand miles later the tires are worn off unevenly and now they're super expensive to replace of course and most of them you can't really fix because you drive them flat they're pretty much done just avoid them if you must buy an all-wheel drive please do yourself this favor or at least try it don't take my word for it just try it put regular tires if you're worried about the spare tire get triple a or buy a spare tire from a non-all-wheel drive minivan throw it in the back yes it's an inconvenience but you could not use it every day if you're going for a long trip then throw it in there but if you're just driving around town going working back get triple a i mean if you break down far away from the dealership on that run flat i doubt you're going to drive it very far because if you've driven a flat run flat tire you can't really drive them that far so if you can avoid the run flat if you have to have an all-wheel drive which is which is a great choice i think if you live in areas like chicago with a lot of snow and bad weather try to put regular tires your gas mileage will go up life will be good throw that spare tire without triple a and you'll have no issues we'll touch briefly on brakes they're super common to wear out prematurely on these fans again they're heavy vans expect the life expectancy on these brakes is anywhere from 25 045 if you get more great but don't be surprised if you have 25 30 000 miles on these fans and oop you need brakes that's just common on these it's a very heavy car it's a especially if you use it for its intended purpose you have eight people seven people in the car with their stuff with everything with baby seats with strollers with everything and that you should do that because that's what the fan is intended for it's a heavy van it's gonna wear down the brakes so if this is something you don't want to spend too much money on maybe this is not the van for you another very common issue on these is a clunking noise like at low speeds you're driving and you're turning the wheel slowly off saying you're clunk clunk clunk clunk and it's just scares most people it's like oh my god my steering wheel is going to fall apart not 3d this part is called the steering intermediate shaft this shaft have little splines right here all the noise you're hearing is these splines at a certain angle they make a clunking noise now there are two fixes for this problem you can either put grease here move move the grease everywhere and you're good to go or replace the whole shaft replacing the whole shaft is a permanent solution put in grease it's going to come back again you have to do it again and again and again this is one of those problems that is a scary problem when you feel it but you know what if it doesn't bother you pretend it's not there nothing will happen just keep driving the van two three four hundred thousand miles and nothing will happen it'll just stay exactly the same so if it doesn't bother you don't spend too much money on this if you're buying one of these vans and you feel that negotiate the price but don't walk away from the van if it's good otherwise just has this moving on to electrical and there's only one item on this list these vans other than a sliding door fiasco they really don't have a lot of electrical problems most of them are either after-market add-ons that induce the problems or neglect or water intrusion or [Music] issues that are not related to the car build itself the only issue we have is 2013 all the way to 20. radio problems you got that right that's a problem every single new toyota now problems range from rebooting freezing up to flat out radio don't even start the radios have problems that's just a thing with toyota these days you're gonna need constant updates from the dealership to fix the problems the problem is your phone gets updated from its manufacturer now the car needs to be updated so it would work right with that software if it doesn't then they both clash and now you have problems now there's a lot of aftermarket options to upgrade to a different radio some features will be disabled but you know what cost wise if you're out of warranty that might be a better option but again if you're buying one make sure the radio works make sure you connect your phone to the bluetooth and use it for a little bit make sure it doesn't start freezing or rebooting if you have one of these cars before you take your car to the dealership with a problem with the with the radio bluetooth erase your car from your phone erase all the data from the from the radio in the car delete personal information or data and then re repair everything and see if that that seems to fix most of the problems but some of the problems unfortunately you need an update the best years to buy are 2015 2016 if you do not like the feel and the way the hp transmission drives if you don't mind the 8-speed transmission then i would stick with 2019 2020 mid to late 18 but if you want to play it safe 1920 sienna with the 8-speed transmission but one thing i will say about these you gotta do your due diligence on the inspection do not just buy blind or trust that oh it's a toyota it's reliable run forever sure so is the hole in your wallet will run forever make sure you do your due diligence if you're not a car person you already know the used car inspection procedures you can hire a mechanic go to a dealership tell them i would like a used car inspection or pre-purchase inspection all dealerships will be very familiar with these cars yeah it's a little bit of an expense but you know what it's money well spent because if you're buying one that has all these issues it'll never end and you're gonna hate to say you bought it trust me i've seen this uh make sure you do your due diligence do the inspection this video will help most of the common issues here are issues you will see in multiple vans that you're going to look at make a decision what issue are you willing to live with which issue is not too big for you and you can make a right choice i hope this video is helpful and informative for you i hope i can help somebody if you have any questions you have any comments you'd like more information or something leave a comment below or you're welcome to email me at thecarcarenet gmail.com i personally respond to every single email every single comment in a timely fashion so don't hesitate to email or comment may the lord bless you and keep you and i wish you have a wonderful day and good luck with your cnn purchaser ownership

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 256,244

Keywords: sienna buying guide, Sienna guide, toyota sienna, sienna problems, toyota sienna problems, 2017 toyota sienna transmission problems, sienna strut, sienna control arm, sienna steering noise, 2021 toyota sienna, sienna oil leak, sienna head gasket, sienna run flat tire, sienna sliding door, toyota sienna buying guide, 2019 toyota sienna, 2018 toyota sienna, 2016 toyota sienna, 2015 toyota sienna, 2013 toyota sienna, 2012 toyota sienna, 2011 toyota sienna, 2014 toyota sienna

Id: BSI_iA6I4_4

Length: 33min 39sec (2019 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2020