2011 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER — Complaint #939994
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ELECTRICAL SYSTEM:STARTER ASSEMBLY:SOLENOID filed September 18, 2012
NHTSA complaint #939994 (ODI reference 10475808) concerns a 2011 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER and was filed on September 18, 2012. The owner reports the failure occurred on September 23, 2011. The vehicle had 3,467 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as electrical system:starter assembly:solenoid, 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 electrical system:starter assembly:solenoid 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 2011 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2011 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE CHECK ENGINE WARNING LIGHT ILLUMINATED CONSTANTLY AND THE ENGINE EXHIBITED AN ABNORMAL ROARING NOISE. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN BACK TO THE DEALER SEVERAL TIMES FOR THE FAILURE WHO ADVISED THE CONTACT THAT NOTHING WAS WRONG WITH THE ENGINE AND THE NOISE THE ENGINE WAS EXHIBITING WAS A NORMAL OCCURRENCE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT IN AUGUST 2012 WHILE DRIVING 65 MPH, THE VEHICLE MADE A CLUCKING NOISE AND THE VEHICLE STALLED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT WAS ABLE TO PLACE THE GEAR INTO REVERSE AND INTO A PARKING AREA. THE VEHICLE WAS TOWED TO THE DEALER WHO LOCATED THE FAILURE AS THE TRANSMISSION SOLENOID CLUTCH ASSEMBLY. THE TRANSMISSION SOLENOID CLUTCH ASSEMBLY WAS REPLACED HOWEVER, THE FAILURE WAS NOT CORRECTED. THE VEHICLE WOULD NOT ACCELERATE AND THE ABNORMAL NOISE PERSISTED. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 3,467 AND THE CURRENT MILEAGE WAS 20,896. UPDATED 10/03/12*LJ UPDATED 10/3/2012*JS
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 939994 |
| ODI Number | 10475808 |
| Date Filed | September 18, 2012 |
| Failure Date | September 23, 2011 |
| VIN | 5TDBK3EH8BS |
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.