Struts on lift gate of 2004 Toyota Sienna failed suddenly, making lift gate dangerous, and causing minor injuries when being used to myself and my children.

- Greenwich, CT, USA

2004 Toyota Sienna, rear lift gate hold open gas struts failed with rear hatch in full open position causing rear hatch to slam shut narrowly missing my wife. Failure may cause severe injury if person struck by falling door. Toyota contacted, vehicle out of warranty by 6 months & 2500 miles. No assistance offered. Parts ordered from local parts dealer.

- New Castle, PA, USA

Rear tailgate struts bind and fail to hold up tailgate.

- Swampscott, MA, USA

Toyoata Sienna rear power liftgate abruptly reverses directions and begins to close immediately after it has opened up. Liftgate will not remain in open position. If liftgate is opened manually the struts provide no lift assistance or support - liftgate door is very heavy. This is a safety hazard & liftgate is not able to be used with this defect. Each attempt to open the liftgate results in failure.

- Ocean City, NJ, USA

The liftgate struts on my 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan failed. The liftgate (manual, not power) slammed down with no warning while I was putting groceries in the back. If I had been in the way, I could easily have been injured. If either of my children had been helping me, they certainly would have been hurt!

- Lakewood, CO, USA

Back door (gate) started to fall down at colder temperatures (approx. 50 F). After couple of month the gate doesn't stay up anymore. It just falls down. Also, whitish spots started to appear on the dashboard in the area where there is an airbag is located.

- Laguna Niguel, CA, USA

Rear lift gate struts fail causing injury to head when door is in the open position. Lift gate does not open to the full position and the problem gets worse during time. If the person opening is not aware that the clearance is not sufficient, the sharp edge of the door can hit user in the forehead.

- Yorba Linda, CA, USA

In December, 2006, my tailgate closed on its own, injuring my wife. Toyota replaced the rear stays (struts) under warranty, including the addition of some brackets. At first everything was fine. But when the weather turned colder (below 20F), the rear hatch would not open on its own unless opening under power. And then a couple of days ago (still very cold), the hatch closed on its own under power again. This time, my daughter and I were both in its path, but fortunately, so was a shopping cart. There were fortunately no injuries this time. I am frustrated that just 45 days after the problem was "repaired" it is already happening again.

- Pewee Valley, KY, USA

- the contact owns a 2004 Toyota Sienna. The contact explained that the rear door liftgate did not stay open when used. The contact would push the key fob to open the automatic rear door and the door would open. After a short period of time they would close without warning. The door normally has a chime to alert the contact when the door is closing, but when it closes in error there isn't a chime to alert the contact of the closing. The contact has been hit several times because of this failure. Updated 2/27/2007 -over the past few weeks the rear door would close immediately after being opened. The vehicle was taken to the dealer but hey did not fix it.

- Newton, MA, USA

- the contact stated that while the 2004 Toyota Sienna was parked in the driveway, and the liftgate was opened, the door malfunctioned and closed hitting the contact on the head and the back of the shoulder, causing his knee to hit the back fender. The impact of the liftgate knocked the contact halfway inside the vehicle. There were no warning signals prior to the incident. The vehicle was taken into the service dealer menlobe Dodge Toyota in bountiful, ut) and they stated that they couldn't do anything to remedy the issue. The contact can provide copy of the invoice from the service dealer. Updated 04/16/07

- Fruit Heights, UT, USA

I own a 2004 Toyota Sienna, purchased new, from the palmer's airport Toyota in mobile, al. In late 05, the back hatch lift struts started failing. First it opened sluggishly, and proceeded to shut spontaneously. These following are the 5 incidents occurring between Dec. 05 - Jan. 07: hatch came down on husband's head; hatch completely closed on my 9 year old son's hand; hatch struck me in the back of head and neck; came down on my father's head; and struck my brother across brow. My husband has notified the dealership of the problem. Husband filed report with Toyota us hq. However, we don't feel Toyota has taken this seriously. We followed up w/Toyota on getting the parts replaced as they have decided this isn't "important" enough to issue a recall. (we researched many similar cases on the internet). We were told these parts were so "new" no one would have them but Toyota. The cost will be $400+ for parts. As a family with an autistic child, we are forced to take money designated for his necessary medical bills to pay for this repair to prevent serious injury! the lifts failure has made it difficult for anyone to open. The door is unpredictable, so as a precaution, I have to get my autistic son to stand in the opening while I load my groceries! I have to do it quickly, because the door is so heavy his arms get tired. If he is not with me than I have to use a 5 ft. Wooden pole, that I carry with me for this issue, to prop open the door. Soon, I will have to load my packages through the passenger doors, forgetting all about the back 3 seats, and cargo area that I paid for. I hope someone will turn up the heat on Toyota to issue a necessary recall on these hatch struts. I don't feel that I should pay for a commonly occurring vehicle defect that people nationwide are dealing with! I hope it doesn't take the death of an innocent toddler before someone intervenes with a timely recall! thank you for your attention to this matter!

- Saraland, AL, USA

Liftgate closes unexpected without any input after being opened. It has closed on my wife's head, my 4 yr old, the bagger at the grocery store, and myself. My 4 yr old had a bruise on her head. This has been happening for about 2 months. It was just once in a while at first, but now it won't stay open at all without being supported by hand. I've gone to the local Toyota dealer and they want to replace the "stays" at a cost to me of several hundreds of dollars. No repair has been made yet.

- Horse Shoe, NC, USA

2004 Toyota Sienna lift-gate struts on the rear hatch failed. Both struts leaked, then completely failed causing the lift gate to fall. Lift gate no longer stays open, but completely drops.

- Columbia, MD, USA

The liftgate on my 2004 Toyota Sienna closes unintentionally and unexpectedly. This problem started a couple of months ago. It has trapped me several times now. I have to use the key (in my hand or pocket) to get it to reopen. It closes silently so that you don't know that it is happening until it is too late. It poses a very dangerous situation for my wife and kids (9 and 12) if they were to be trapped. I now am conscious of this failure and watch for the door closing and simply quickly move out of the way.

- Bowie, MD, USA

Intermittently the back lift door on our 2004 Toyota Sienna xle minivan closes unexpectedly. So far, no one had been injured by the closing door, but we have had a couple of very close calls. This happens when only the door has been raised using the remote control and most often on cool wet days..

- Simpsonville, SC, USA

The power lift gate has twice reversed operation for no apparent reason and without warning. The first time I noticed and was able to move out of the way. The second time, my wife was about to walk under it and ended up hitting her head rather hard on it. The van is almost 3 years old. It is currently at the dealership service center, who initially suspected the cause to be some sensors within the liftgate.

- Pewee Valley, KY, USA

Toyota Sienna 2004 with power lift gate. Opened the lift gate on the van we just purchased and the lift gate started to come back down hitting my wife in the head while she was trying to load something into the van.

- Hermantown, MN, USA

While loading groceries, I opened the liftgate on our 2004 Toyota Sienna and it slammed shut. Apparently the liftgate struts have gone bad.

- Cincinnati, OH, USA

Rear power hatch came down on my back 2 times about an 1 hour apart. About a month ago they replaced the rear struts for the same problem, the hatch came down on a car wash attendant.

- Linwood, NJ, USA

: the contact stated the rear lift gate malfunctioned on a worsening basis and almost closed on the contact's head. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, who determined the rear support device of the liftgate failed and needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was contacted and stated the vehicle was not included in any recall due to the VIN. The vehicle was currently at the dealers for further repairs.

- Germantown, MD, USA