2024 TOYOTA GRAND HIGHLANDER — Complaint #2163558
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM filed January 6, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2163558 (ODI reference 11709124) concerns a 2024 TOYOTA GRAND HIGHLANDER and was filed on January 6, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on August 16, 2024. The report was geocoded to California based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system, 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 GRAND HIGHLANDER cohort independently describe similar visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system 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 2024 TOYOTA GRAND HIGHLANDER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The defroster on the vehicle does not work properly. When starting the car and the window is frosting, the drivers side of the front window defrosts normally but the right side does not defrost properly and it lags by 15-20 minutes. You cannot operate the vehicle safely with your entire passenger side frosted over. I reported this to Toyota as well as dealer and they are advising that it is working normally. I have pictures that show that the passenger side does not defrost properly, it was reproduced by the dealer, and Toyota's thermal imaging scan confirms lack of heat on the far side. However, Toyota is standing by that it is working as designed despite their testing showing it isn't working properly.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2163558 |
| ODI Number | 11709124 |
| Date Filed | January 6, 2026 |
| Failure Date | August 16, 2024 |
| VIN | 5TDAAAB51RS |
Similar VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM Complaints for 2024 TOYOTA GRAND HIGHLANDER
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.