Really loud knocking (like someone hammering on the engine block with a sledge hammer) after the car would go over a raised crosswalk, speed bump or turning onto a raised driveway. I would drive over a bump and there would be a slight delay of about one second, then "WHAM" like I had just driven over a log in the road. The sound was reminiscent of the sound old American cars would make when the U-joint was loose or slipping, but louder! I took the car into the dealership 5 or 6 times over the years when the clunking got really bad, but of course they could never recreate the noise. That was the really annoying thing about this problem, it would come and go, but when it came on it was really startling and scary. The performance of the car never seemed to be affected by whatever it was. It was hypothesized that it might have something to do with the suspension, but no solution or fix has ever been found. Now the car is at 80,000 miles and my extended warranty has run out. Beyond frustrated, and of course everyone at the dealership just thinks I'm crazy, and there is no way to contact Toyota directly to see how widespread the problem might be. All I can say is never buy the first year of a new car design change, they never seem to work out all the bugs until a year or two later.
Really loud knocking (like someone hammering on the engine block with a sledge hammer) after the car would go over a raised crosswalk, speed bump or turning onto a raised driveway. I would drive over a bump and there would be a slight delay of about one second, then "WHAM" like I had just driven over a log in the road. The sound was reminiscent of the sound old American cars would make when the U-joint was loose or slipping, but louder! I took the car into the dealership 5 or 6 times over the years when the clunking got really bad, but of course they could never recreate the noise. That was the really annoying thing about this problem, it would come and go, but when it came on it was really startling and scary. The performance of the car never seemed to be affected by whatever it was. It was hypothesized that it might have something to do with the suspension, but no solution or fix has ever been found. Now the car is at 80,000 miles and my extended warranty has run out. Beyond frustrated, and of course everyone at the dealership just thinks I'm crazy, and there is no way to contact Toyota directly to see how widespread the problem might be. All I can say is never buy the first year of a new car design change, they never seem to work out all the bugs until a year or two later.
- Chris M., Sarver, PA, US