Purchased 2008 Highlander Hybrid Limited in 2011. I have very few problems since owning. At 104 K miles the check brake system warning light came on when I tried to start car. Was unable to start the car so I had my mechanic identify the problem. Apparently the cost to fix brake system problem will cost over 3500.00. I have not fixed the problem and I'm not sure I want to spend the money to repair it. Appraised value of my car was only $8500.00 a few months ago. Toyota needs to recall these vehicles and fix the problem given that many owners are reporting the same malfunctioning brake system issues when reaching a specific number of miles traveled. In comparison to what others have reported, the mileage on my car is low for such a problem to occur, as it is mostly reported to occur on vehicles with 120 K miles or more.

Driving on secondary road at approximately 35 mph, when suddenly lost power to vehicle and the brakes went soft, the following alerts popped up on the display: Check Brake System, Check 4 Wheel Drive System and Check AVS, all errors had the "stop driving immediately and take vehicle to dealership" message as well. Thank God I wasn't driving on busy highway, it could have been fatal.

I managed to pull over to the side of the road to assess the situation. I was not able to start the car and the same errors kept displaying. At first I thought it was the 12v battery; in the past, as the battery started to get low, the Highlander used to display numerous unrelated errors and wouldn't start. After researching this issue online I found out that this is a common problem for this type of model and year vehicle; especially here in AZ, where the extreme heat is a killer to 12v batteries.

Anyway, so in the past I started replacing the battery to fix the issues, sometimes a recharge would work, but in the end a new battery was the only fix, all the errors would go away and the vehicle would operate normally. I thought this would be the case in this instance as well, so I went and bought a brand new battery from O'Rielly Auto Parts (the original battery was really low as expected). After installing the new battery this time, none of the errors cleared, they remained displayed, and the vehicle refused to start. I would get the green light on the start button but the "READY" light would not come up at all. I tried a few different things, like the bypass/emergency start (which used to work in the past) but nothing would work. My damn highlander would not fricking start at all and all the errors kept displaying. I had to tow the vehicle to the local Toyota dealership, it was Friday afternoon and I was told that I would have to wait till Monday to get an answer (this is a small town with only 1 [one] Toyota dealership that has only 2 [two] hybrid certified mechanics).

Monday came and went and I didn't hear from them, I called them on Tuesday morning and left a message. After a little while they got a hold of me and told me a bunch of technical stuff that basically meant that they did not know what is wrong with my car. They have a few theories about what could be wrong, but they are not sure of anything, they want to take parts from one of their own Highlander Hybrids and replace them on mine (instead of buying new parts) to see if they can pinpoint the issue. I said ok fine lets do that, problem is, they do not have another highlander hybrid on the lot at the moment, so I have to wait until this coming Friday when they will acquire one.

All that troubleshooting as well as their communication with Toyota Corp. have not yielded any results and/or solutions. So here I am waiting in despair, and after reading all these comments my hopes keep getting lower and lower. I think this is enough, if this is a common issue like it is with earlier models then this should be made into a damn recall or something, especially since this is a potentially deadly issue if it takes place on a high speed-high traffic highway. I'm planning on fighting this bs. I will update this post if allowed. Please feel free to contact me if you have any comments or input. Thanks for reading.

We purchased a 2008 Highlander Hybrid in 2012. The car was practically maintenance free until last week. All service except oil changes have been done by the local Toyota dealer. My wife was pulling out of the driveway when the ABS/VSC lights came on and the console said to pull over. A code scan said it was C1391, internal acc pressure leak.

Took it to the dealer. They said it needed a new brake accumulator and a new brake booster for a total of OVER $5000! Researching the issue, I found it is a fairly common issue for these cars. When I called Toyota to ask if the cost of this repair, equal to 1/3 the cost of the vehicle, could be mitigated, I eventually got a woman who told me that since I didn't take the car in to the dealer for nearly a year in 2015, I was not a loyal Toyota customer and they have chosen not to help me. REALLY!!?? The car didn't NEED any service during that time!

I own 5 other cars including a couple of BMWs and I have NEVER had a repair this expensive and have NEVER been admonished by an automobile company representative for not getting a car serviced when it didn't need it. This was our first Toyota and will be out last.

I own a highlander hybrid 2008 purchased used just over a year ago. I took the car to toyota dealership and had it looked at and confirmed car had no issue. All of sudden while in the freeway I got the now infamous error message asking me to stop the car immediately due to brakes/VSC problems. I took the car to Toyota and the said I need the brake booster/brake actuator assembly for the cost of $4970. No warranty, nothing and this has to come from me! on top of that I was handed a list of recommended services up to $5000 dollars. And I still owe about 9K on the car. perfect storm for the service repair to send me to the sales folks to *look into my options and before you know it I am in the parking lot looking for another car. I refused to follow them and took my car home. I am looking into my options right now. the car has under 110K miles on it. This is just not right for toyota to expect me to pay for this stuff that I did not cause. Any support/advice will be appreciated. Thanks