On the 2ndGen (2004-2010), you have to make sure that you "pause" a few seconds between using either the interior power door lock controls or the remote control key fobs to unlock the doors and actually pulling on a door handle (fronts or sliding). If you don't wait long enough (we just count to 3), you risk messing up the door lock control "logic" and the door lock may become "stuck". Sometimes you just need to cycle through lock/unlock a few times MANUALLY to clear the "stuck" condition. YMMV.

Also, the scenario of an unaccustomed person pulling on one of the power sliding door handles with too much force in either opening or closing the sliding doors (because they are not expecting the motorized assistance and "delay" in reaction time and "slow" movement of the door) has also caused some door handles to break and/or doors to be derailed/pulled off their tracks. This type of situation might occur at elementary school drop-off/pick-up points, valet parking places, and other locations where there are "doormen/attendants" to assist passengers getting in/out of cars. If you turn OFF the motorized assistance, then you run the risk of the other people SLAMMING the sliding doors and possibly damaging the fragile sensors and other components. These are NOT your average commercial delivery van doors/handles. You just can't win....

The door handles (fronts and sliding) have always felt very flimsy to me. And the 1stGen have a very bad reputation for broken sliding door and rear hatch handles.

I don't know if the 3rdGen has corrected or addressed these issues and made any changes/improvements.

YMMV.
Good Luck!! 8)

 

This could be a problem for New York Taxi Transit as they plan on purchasing hundreds of these Sienna's soon.

 

This could be a problem for New York Taxi Transit as they plan on purchasing hundreds of these Sienna's soon.

They better go for the base model then!

I'm going to try this myself at the dealership. Does not sound like the best way to revise this system, if so.

 

mine is doing the same thing, it "pops" when opening it by pulling the door handle manually.. however, when using the remote control the "popping" goes away.
im just gonna tell my wife to use the remote all the time if possible...

 

This could be a problem for New York Taxi Transit as they plan on purchasing hundreds of these Sienna's soon.

They should buy Sienna base model ... less money and less trouble

 

The more I think about it, the more that "pop" sound seems to be "normal".....at least on my 2004 and the particular "popping" that ** I ** hear (regularly). YMMV.

To me, it just sounds like the REAR latch disengaging, and perhaps something is helping to push the rear of the door outwards a bit to get the opening motion going. I don't know. Just guessing.....

I might be hearing an entirely different type of "pop" from my power sliders than you are on your 2011. Mine have always done it. Personally, I never thought much about it before and it never really gave me any cause for concern/worry. Sometimes, it does seem a bit louder than at other times.

Also, occasionally, the motor or perhaps one of the wheels moving along the guide tracks will "whine" or "groan" a bit, but it has never really worried me much either. Sometimes its louder than at other times. I usually don't notice it much. I suppose I should lubricate them.... ??? ;D ;D ;D

As far as the power sliding doors sometimes not reacting to a handle pull.....I think that is just a by-product of "how" the handle is pulled. The door system may have to be able to differentiate between a powered vs non-powered use of the handle and switches.

It might be similar to the rear hatch pull-strap (though, I think the 2011 did away with the strap on power rear hatches and has an actual button to press instead....if equipped). The pull-strap will sense (well.....probably actually the motorized assistance arm and motor) if you are trying to close the hatch manually or if you want it to provide motorized assistance based upon "how" you pull the strap. If you "yank" it, it tends to think "motorized". If you pull the strap steadily/slowly, it tends to think "NON-motorized". Sometimes, it doesn't do what you want it to do because you didn't do it "properly". It may take a few tries to "get the hang of it".

I do realize that at least on the 2ndGen (2004-2010) there is a MASTER door power switch, but perhaps the door handles have a similar sensor/feature as the rear hatch and you just happen to be doing something that falls between the programmed logic parameters of operation. IDK. Just guessing....

YMMV.
Good Luck!! 8)

 

Re: Problem: 2011 Power Sliding Doors Pop, Groan, and Sometimes Fail to Power Op

I thought you guys were crazy. But my passenger side sliding door started making that pop sound too. The drivers side seems ok. If I pull the handle slowly or use the remote, no pop. But if I pull the handle quickly and let go quickly it makes a pop. Maybe it is an alignment issue? Maybe it will be addressed in a TSB down the road?

 

Since there are three of us and all of us have this issue, I contacted Toyota Customer Support to inform them. The lady who answered the phone "noted" it. I have no idea if they'll contact me about this issue or if it was placed in a circular file, but if they get back to me, I'll post.

 

The passenger side sliding door is popping from the front of the door now as well as the rear. Haven't noticed it on the driver's side recently, but I use the passenger side door a lot and rarely touch the driver's side sliding door. I haven't had a failure to open in a long time, but the pops are getting worse. Is this working as intended???

 

I just went out and confirmed the driver's side is popping at the front too. :-[

 

Re: Problem: 2011 Power Sliding Doors Pop, Groan, and Sometimes Fail to Power Op

My passenger side is making the popping sound ( not the drivers side), but the door always works. It must be an alignment thing. The door only pops when you manually pull the handle, when you use the remote there is no pop. So I think long term It will be a Toyota TSB ( Technical Service Bulletin ) but we have to complain if we have the problem. Please everybody who has this problem go on record with the dealer before 3 years 36 k miles. I have 3,000 miles on my car already.

William

 

I have a 2005 limited with 71000 miles. Both my doors squeal, pop, groan, and make other various noises while opening. These are not quite noises either. I just assumed that was normal.

 

you have to pull the door handle slightly and dont let go... no more door popping for me.

 

Re: Problem: 2011 Power Sliding Doors Pop, Groan, and Sometimes Fail to Power Op

Maybe frequent car washing is rinsing the grease out of the latch mechanism? I am thinking about greasing the latches.

 

New to this forum, and new to the Sienna. I have a few problems to report, I'll start another thread with those. But I DO have the door pop issue on a 2011 Limited. It's at the dealer now getting fixed (maybe). Will report if it was successful.

 

I just purchased XLE AWD 7 Passenger. At 75 miles Passenger side Sliding door would not open either by power or manually.
Returned to dealer the next day for service. Dealer said the cable was not attached properly inside the door at the factory.

The door works fine now, but we have only own the van for a week. I have two other Toyota's 2002 Highlander 193K miles and 2003 Camry 125 miles no problems. Makes me a bit nervous about the current quality of Toyota.

They have claimed that the 2011 Sienna door design is new but I have already had 1 problem.

 

New to this forum, and new to the Sienna. I have a few problems to report, I'll start another thread with those. But I DO have the door pop issue on a 2011 Limited. It's at the dealer now getting fixed (maybe). Will report if it was successful.

Got it back from the dealer. They claimed to have adjusted the door, but it still does the "pop" thing. As noted by other posters, this happens mainly when the handle is pulled and let go quickly. A slow pull or a remote release does not make the pop noise.

 

I have been told by my dealer that there is a service bulletin for the popping noise on the 2011 Sienna sliding doors (I have that problem - doesn't always happen as other people have noticed it). However, there's no fix from Toyota for now so no need to bring your van to the dealership if you have the issue... Not just yet.

 

I have been told by my dealer that there is a service bulletin for the popping noise on the 2011 Sienna sliding doors (I have that problem - doesn't always happen as other people have noticed it). However, there's no fix from Toyota for now so no need to bring your van to the dealership if you have the issue... Not just yet.

I'm test driving an Odyssey today. I'll listen for noises when I open the doors. It won't fix the Sienna problem but will tell us whether this is a problem common to all sliding doors (powered).

 

Slightly off topic, but when I had an automatic door fail on my '00 Ody (same symptoms as described here about the Sienna doors, except I had water leaking into the 3rd row cup holders, and a scratch down the side of the van), I found out that there is a regular routine for care and maintenance of the doors that was not mentioned in my owners manual (I guess you were supposed to hope that the mechanics at the dealership did it when -ha- you took your vehicle in for maintenance?). I wonder if the Sienna has a maintenance routine for the doors too that would prevent the popping noise? For the Ody, it was cleaning/ greasing the track, and cleaning the contacts with a soft pencil eraser. Though it does sound like a different issue (mechanical vs. maintenance), I just thought I'd toss it out there just in case.

 

Had my first full all door power failure, I was so p***ed off, I couldn't even open the rear hatch manually and needed to go pick up some furniture. Went back in the house to look for solutions on the web and in the owners manual. The manual has no cure but says you can rip the interior panel off the back hatch and pull an emergency lever. Meanwhile on the web, someone said disconnect the neg terminal on the battery to reset the systems. at first I did this - no success because I didn't wait long enough, next time I waited a full 10 minutes and it worked unfortunately all radio stations, clock etc had to be reprogrammed but now I don't want to reprogram in fear of future failures.
I put a 10mm wrench in the glove box in case I'm on the road and this happens, I would recommend other owners do the same-you never know.

 

Oh yay, I've had 2 power door failures, and the popping on occasion already (we've had the van a whole week as of today). Both were on the driver's side. The first failure I thought my daughter may have bumped the door, and caused it to stop halfway, since I shut it easily after I turned the power doors off. The second time, however (and of course, we weren't at home, and it was freezing), it stopped halfway, and I had to work the door shut after I turned off the power doors (in both instances, the power door options- none of them- would work).

Does anyone know if there is a solution yet? I've got to call the dealer we bought it from on Monday because we are missing a piece of paperwork to get tags, and I'll mention it then, but I'll have to have any work done through a local dealership. Wee. Oh, and I've checked to make sure there is grease, and nothing bumping/jamming the doors, etc. and it's all good.

 

This problem seems to me like a small issue that is easy to fix and by no way it compares with the sliding door problem of the Town and Country 2008-2010

I recently sell a Town and Country 2008 Limited and from day one the sliding doors have issues, the problem was that when you try to close the sliding door it reopens, after searching a lot of sites and writing about this issue in a forum another user told me that Chrysler has released a software fix, I go to the dealer two times with two updates until the sliding door almost never failed.

Because my minivan was the first one we only open the sliding door using the remote control, reading this post we will also do this all times to avoid any issues with the sliding doors of our new sienna.

If there is one company that build cheap and bad cars is Chrysler, I bet that any issue that the Sienna has could it be fixed very easily and the problem will be over.

Until we have our Chrysler minivan there were times that the door still reopens.

The sliding doors of the Sienna work very smoothly and the ones from Chrysler work like and old cheap car, also that doors have one issue where there is a possibility that the wires from the door could cause a fire.

 

I went to the dealer today for my 15k service and I mentioned the slider door popping sound. (Only happens when you manually pull the handle rather quickly) He said it was a two-stage mechanism and they all do that. Regardless, unless the door does not open I can't really complain about the noise or aesthetics of the noise it makes as it opens, and it has never not opened for me. I have an XLE with electric motors on both side doors and rear hatch.

I guess most owners have the standard warranty period, (What is that, 3 yrs/36,000 mi?) I have the Platinum 6 Yrs/125,000 warranty. (I had a 1991 Previa that blew an AC Compressor at 90k miles and it cost $1500, so I am wary of unexpected repairs)

So I think the sliding door problem will be an issue long term, I am trying to use the remote more than the handle.

I hope Toyota does the right thing and issues a TSB and a fix so we don't have to file a class-action suit 5 years from now!

 

I went to my dealership a month ago and told them about that same popping noise on the sliding doors. The service manager told me a TSB had already been issued but that there was no fix yet. Also most people don't seem to complain about that problem, which would indicate only some cars have it... I agree with you it's just a noise and as long as the doors open I don't really care. Just don't let go of the handle too fast and there will be no noise anyway.