2008 Toyota Sienna
Complaints about this year name oil far more often than the other years of this generation — 10% of them, about 4× the usual rate of 2.4%.
Generation 1 of the Toyota Sienna, which began in 2004 and ran to 2010. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.
NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.
| Complaints filed | 428 |
|---|---|
| Median for this model | 162 |
| Involving a crash | 37 |
| Involving a fire | 4 |
| Recalls | 9 |
| EPA combined | 18.5 mpg |
What the complaints were about
- line — 7.7% of this year's complaints, against 2.3% across the other years of this generation (3.4×). Owners wrote it as: line, engine oil, cooler, oil cooler.
Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.
What owners wrote
LOWER OIL COOLER LINE DEVELOPED HOLE AND LEAKED ENGINE OIL WHILE IN MOTION ON COUNTY HIGHWAY.
THE LEFT REAR COIL SPRING BROKE. NOT SURE WHEN IT BROKE, WAS ADVISED IT WAS BROKEN BY A MECHANIC DURING AN INSPECTION.
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.
Recalls for this year
- 14V743000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 16V396000 SEATS Fixed free of charge.
- 14V273000 TIRES Fixed free of charge.
- 13V429000 POWER TRAIN Fixed free of charge.
- 09V223000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 10V036000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 09V234000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
- 10V035000 EQUIPMENT Fixed free of charge.
Showing 8 of 9. The rest are on NHTSA's site.
How this was worked out
Every year of the Toyota Sienna was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.
This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.
Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.
Own a 2008 Toyota Sienna? What happened to yours?
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