2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER — Complaint #2177187
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN filed February 16, 2026
NHTSA complaint #2177187 (ODI reference 11718225) concerns a 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER and was filed on February 16, 2026. The owner reports the failure occurred on February 16, 2026. The report was geocoded to Maryland based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train, 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 HIGHLANDER cohort independently describe similar power train 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 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
I purchased my brand new Highlander on January 31, 2021 and was told today that I need a transmission replacement. My vehicle started about two month ago with a whining sound while accelerating. My vehicle currently has 78,000 miles and is out of the extended warranty of 60,000/5 year. I learned that Toyota released a bulletin on February 9, 2021 stating transmission issues for particular Toyota models, the Highlander being one. After researching the issue, there are several stories of Highlander owners who are experiencing the same issue. Itâs a shame that they knew of the problem in February 2021 and with the transmission replacements on vehicles less than 5 years old and havenât issued a formal recall for this known defect.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2177187 |
| ODI Number | 11718225 |
| Date Filed | February 16, 2026 |
| Failure Date | February 16, 2026 |
| VIN | 5TDGZRBH5MS |
Similar POWER TRAIN Complaints for 2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER
The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, there was an abnormal whining sound coming from the transmission. The contact was concerned ab
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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.