2021 Toyota Highlander

Entering the freeway a mile from home the car would not properly excellerate, only reachind 40 mph before exiting the freeway in favor backroads to my appointment. Shaking back and forth while driving, exacerbated when braking and coming to stop, I needed to put the car into neutral to calm down the shaking while waiting for the light to change. I just went through experiencing a brake failure and reporting of that to this Agency and now see another of many defects associated with the 2020-2022 Toyota Highlanders and Siennas Toyota is not addressing through Recalls as they should be, and further frustrated this Agency has or chooses to have no means by which to enforce Toyota's responsibility to the public

Transmission in our 2021 Toyota Highlander required a full replacement due to a known part defect (front carrier assembly front pinion shaft). Toyota will not cover any portion of the $8k cost. In looking into the issue, this is very widespread with even our dealership confirming four transmission replacements by customers in a short period of time. The transmission is also back ordered (ours took 3 months), but the dealership has seen up to six months. I am guessing this is do to the high demand.

At 119,000 miles, the UA80F transmission in our 2021 Toyota Highlander XSE started making a whining noise. A dealer confirms the transmission needs to be replaced. After much research, this is apparently a known issue and Toyota will not warranty the repair after the 60,000 mile warranty expires. Estimated repair cost is $11,000.

Complete failure of transmission at approximately 53k miles. No warnings. No lights. Car had just had its 50k miles service appointment. My safety and that of my family was jeopardized when I unknowingly took this car to/from our family vacation out of state- the gears started jumping a few days after we returned, quickly followed by the grinding, whining noises. Come to find out there is a service bulletin that has been out for 4 years! T-SB- 0008-21 issued on February 9, 2021, for select 2021 Highlander models equipped with a UA80E or UA8OF.8-speed automatic transmission. Why wasn't this a recall? How is this not a safety issue? Why wasn't this disclosed by Toyota when I was sold a car with 30k miles on it for $35k miles?

The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at 40 MPH, there was an abnormal whining sound coming from the front of the vehicle. There was no warning light illuminated. The dealer was contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 49,729.

My Highlander is making a whine noise due to the issue described in T-SB-0008-21. I was never made aware that this was a potential issue. My car is making the whine noise, but Toyota Of Capistrano refuses to cover the cost of fixing it because my car has 86,000 miles. I would have taken the car in sooner had I known of this issue.

Started hearing a whining noise when I would accelerate and then my car bucked a couple of times. I brought it into Toyota on 8/07/25 to be checked out and I was told that my transmission would need to be replaced. My car is 4 years old, bought brand new in April of 2021 and have kept up on regular maintenance. In researching this I am finding out that there is a large number of people who are experiencing this same thing with their Highlanders. I have also come to find out that in February of 2021 there was a TSB put out with regards to this same issue. This was 2 months before I even purchased my car. It for some reason does not include every vehicle and only some vehicles are included leaving others with this problem out of luck. I do not understand how that can be. If I have that UA80F transmission in my car and that is what is being named as one of the transmissions that have this problem then why is that certain vehicles are not being taken care of and why is Toyota not issuing a recall? My warranty has expired so I am being expected to pay out of pocket $8,000 (not including labor) and on top of that they do not even have the parts as they are on back order. We have to hold Toyota responsible for this.