1998 Toyota Sienna problems
Owners have filed 352 complaints with NHTSA about the 1998 Toyota Sienna. Brakes is the most reported problem area, at 13% of complaints. Next are tires (12%) and latches & locks (12%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 352 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 13% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 23 and 4
- Injuries and deaths
- 22 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 97,000 miles 89 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 11 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 7 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 4 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 19 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 10 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 16 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 10 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 4 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 2 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 1 |
| 200k+ miles | 5 |
What the data shows
Of the 89 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 97,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 23 complaints mention a crash; 4 complaints mention a fire; 22 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1998 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 23 model years of the Toyota Sienna with enough data (212 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
We were in an automobile accident recently and have a question about needing to replace the seat belts and possibly question of malfunction of airbags. Our toyota sienna van was going about 35 MPH and hit straight-on a car that turned in front of us hitting the driver side with extensive damage with essentially no braking. Essentially the toyota sustained a front impact collision. The airbags didn't deploy and our repair mechanic is telling us this impact was not sufficient to deploy airbags.
Driver in wrong lane hit my van, with most of impact on right front side of van. Both vehicles were totalled in collision. Right front passenger seat belt initially held, but released during collision and passenger ended up on driver's armrest. Neither airbag deployed.
Sliding door handles stick and them sometimes prohibit opening the doors all together. Door handle on right side actually came off in my hand after hundreds of times of sticking, now door can't be opened at all causing a safety hazard.
On numerous occasions since purchasing this vehicle (and most recently, today), the sliding door handle/latch/lock has failed. Usually, the failure is such that the door cannot be opened from the inside or outside. Sometimes, the door can only be opened from the inside and sometimes the door can only be opened from the outside. On at least one occasion, an inoperable door spontaneously opened itself when nobody was near it.