2016 TOYOTA RAV4 — Complaint #1896120
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:TAILGATE:LOCK filed May 19, 2023
NHTSA complaint #1896120 (ODI reference 11522897) concerns a 2016 TOYOTA RAV4 and was filed on May 19, 2023. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 1, 2017. The vehicle had 13,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:tailgate:lock, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same TOYOTA RAV4 cohort independently describe similar latches/locks/linkages:tailgate:lock failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2016 TOYOTA RAV4 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Toyota RAV4. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving, the tailgate was heard opening. The contact also stated that on various occasions while the vehicle was parked, the tailgate ajar message was displayed. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer however, the failure could not be duplicated. The contact stated that the failure recurred and that the tailgate failed to open. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that lubrication needed to be applied to the tailgate. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure persisted. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 13,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1896120 |
| ODI Number | 11522897 |
| Date Filed | May 19, 2023 |
| Failure Date | May 1, 2017 |
| VIN | JTMWFREV8GD |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.