2016 TOYOTA RAV4 — Complaint #2131636
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about LATCHES/LOCKS/LINKAGES:HATCHBACK/LIFTGATE:LOCK filed September 18, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2131636 (ODI reference 11688133) concerns a 2016 TOYOTA RAV4 and was filed on September 18, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on July 9, 2024. The vehicle had 108,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to South Carolina based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as latches/locks/linkages:hatchback/liftgate: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:hatchback/liftgate: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 the liftgate failed to properly close while pressing the electrical buttons on both the key fob and the two liftgate buttons located inside or outside the vehicle. The contact stated that the liftgate had to be closed manually to securely close the liftgate. The contact stated that after her daughter had loaded groceries inside vehicle, the liftgate failed to latch properly but was closed after several attempts. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, and the contact's daughter was informed that the hinges and liftgate needed to be replaced. The contact was provided with an estimate for the repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and provided the contact with a case number. The contact was then referred to the NHTSA Hotline to report the failure. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 108,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2131636 |
| ODI Number | 11688133 |
| Date Filed | September 18, 2025 |
| Failure Date | July 9, 2024 |
| VIN | 2T3WFREV5GW |
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.