This is a complaint to NHTSA regarding VSC/ABS skid control ECU failure within a 2003 Toyota Sequoia. We bought the vehicle used around 160,000 miles and, unfortunately, the dealer claims no responsibility for this, nor will they cover/repair the part, although numerous complaints have already been made by other Sequoia owners about this same issue. I cannot make new keys since all we have is a valet key and if we lose it we have no way to start the vehicle. A master key cannot be made until the issue with the ECU is corrected. We brought the Sequoia to the dealer where they tried, but were unable to flash the ECU. I have spoken to the dealer about this issue, and they said there was nothing they could do about it until there was a recall. The dealer wanted $700 to replace the ECU. It isn’t right for Toyota to ask me to pay for a part that Is clearly defective.

I purchased a used 2003 Toyota Sequoia in April 2014. Since that time, the vehicle stability control system (VSC) activates randomly causing the anti-lock brakes to be applied at random. This was a minor annoyance at first, but soon became a regular occurrence. The regular activation of the brakes by this system had caused the anti-brakes to lock up and the vehicle is unable to accelerate properly as a result of this constant friction. In addition, in December 2014 I had to install new front brakes pads, rotors, and calipers because they were frozen as a result of the constant activation of this system. The thing is that this vehicle had new brakes installed just before I purchased it 7 months earlier.

When inclement weather hit in December 2014, this vehicle was unstable to drive in even light snow; even when I had it in 4 wheel drive. A few dangerous incidents occurred as a result of this issue. The first incident occurred in January 2015. It was snowing and there was approximately 2 inches of snow on the road. I was driving this vehicle in 4 wheel drive and I could feel the VSC activate the anti-lock system causing it slide left to right and the vehicle spun out of control into the opposite lane. It was late at night so there were no other cars on the road. If there had been, I would have surely hit other vehicles resulting in a crash or potentially a roll-over. The vehicle continued to slide intermittently on the rest of the drive home.

The thing is that this vehicle has off-road tires and this combined with the 4 wheel drive system should make it extremely stable in any weather. The other major safety issue occurred in February 2015. My wife was driving the sequoia with our children and the vehicles brakes locked up in the middle of a two-way stop preventing it from moving forward. There were other vehicles approaching at a high rate of speed and they had to stop to prevent a collision. A question: What if there was snow on the road at that time? I cringe at the thought because my family was in this vehicle.

I had my Sequoia looked at by Vanderstyne Toyota in Rochester NY and they found that the Yaw rate senor had a short resulting in constant application of the VSC system and quoted me $660 to "fix" the issue. I proceeded to research this issue on the net and it appears to be widespread with owners of Toyota Sequoias, Siennas and some 4 runners. Many of the owners who had the Yaw rate sensor replaced continued to have the same issue.

I will not have this work done if there is not a guarantee that it will fix it and the dealership would not guarantee this 100%. I am furious because Toyota does not stand behind their vehicles and have yet to issue a widespread recall on the yaw rate sensor/electrical shortage in many of their vehicles. They need to implement this recall because it is a major safety issue. My concern is that this defect in the VSC/yaw sensor systems will cause a fatality. I am in the process of filing complaints with the National institute of Highway safety, BBB and the New York State Attorney General office.

All of you who are having this issue need to do the same or we will not get a resolution.

Update from Apr 14, 2015: I called Toyota Corporation on 4/16/2015 and I got nowhere this this issue. The representative stated, "I am sorry sir but since your vehicle has over 200,000 miles on it, we cannot cover this repair". I argued that the yaw rate/VSC system defect is widespread and not isolated to just my vehicle. I stated that I have been doing research on the net into this and found hundreds of owners who have this same issue and it can be deduced that this is only a sample of Toyota owners who are experiencing this issue. I said that many sequoias, 4 runners and Tacomas have VSC/abs issues that are not resolved with replacing the skid control computer, yaw rate sensor etc, etc etc. In addition, I told the representative that I found one reported sequoia fatality (on web forum) that was caused by the activation of the vsc system when owner attempted to pass another vehicle. The representative concluded, "I am sorry sir but we cannot help you". Needless to say, I will not purchase another new or used Toyota vehicle because Toyota does not stand behind their product and to issue recalls to fix electrical shorts that appear to be common in many of their vehicles. In the meantime, I am going to pull the abs fuse which will disable the vsc and stop this system from activating. I will eventually sell this vehicle (with full disclosure) and get a Hyundai or Honda instead of which I have owned both and were great vehicles. I have said this before....you all need to file a complaint with the national highway safety at www.nhtsa.gov/ to get a widespread recall on sequoias 2001-2007 otherwise nothing will be done.