2019 Toyota Highlander

My 2019 Toyota Highlander with 56K miles has a whining noise whenever the accelerator is pressed. The noise stops when you release the gas pedal. This was confirmed by my Toyota dealership service department. The transmission does need to be replace. They said this is a common problem with this vehicle and yet there has been no recall. Fortunately my vehicle is still under warranty. I found manner similar complaints about this transmission on the Toyota Highlander Forum. I don't understand why there has not been a recall. Going forward I am also concerned that the replacement transmission could very well have the same problem.

The CPO vehicle was purchased at 60k miles 11/5/2024. The vehicle started bogging down accelerating from a stop, while pulling into traffic, and decelerating randomly at 62k. The vehicle went in to the dealership at 64.5k on 2/20/2025 where they stated the transmission needed replacing due to a transmission whine and incorrect acceleration/deceleration. Toyota corporate will not acknowledge the dangerous problem with the UA80 transmission that 1000's of customers are having. This transmission is in many models with similar issues from 2017-2019.

The contact owns a 2019 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle started shuddering, prompting the contact to pull over to the shoulder of the roadway where the failure persisted. No warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the transmission. The contact was informed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 88,000.

The contact owns a 2019 Toyota Highlander. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, there was an abnormal burning oil odor coming from the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who informed the contact that the failure was related to the transmission. The mechanic referred the contact to a certified transmission mechanic. The vehicle was taken to Leon's Transmission Services, where diagnostic trouble codes indicating an internal transmission pump failure were retrieved. The vehicle was then taken to Integrity Transmission & Auto Repair, where the same assessment was made, and the mechanic determined that the transmission needed to be replaced with a used, new, or rebuilt factory transmission. The dealer was contacted for parts and informed the contact that parts were not available. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 92,000.

Vehicle started making intermittent whining noise around 75,000 miles but Toyota service advisor at the time told me it was normal and since my transmission had been serviced on schedule, it was nothing to worry about. Around 135,000 miles the vehicle sometimes would operate completely normal, and at other times would suddenly seem to struggle to get up to speed especially on the highway somewhere between 20-60 mph. Also sometimes difficult to go at stoplights; but then would resume completely normal operation. The risk to us was we could have easily been hurt in an accident had the vehicle not been able to operate normally at normal speeds, leading to a collision. There were no warnings nor stored codes; the vehicle had received all routine maintenance on schedule including all major maintenance such as transmission services performed by a Toyota dealership. When taken in for this problem, they claimed that they were not able to replicate the jerky/intermittent issues during their test drive, but the whine was indicative of transmission failure and the transmission would need to be replaced. The remanufactured transmissions were on backorder with no ETA, which I was told could be 6-10 months of a wait due to a parts shortage. My service advisor recommended I trade in the vehicle instead because they could not guarantee the vehicle would be safe to drive and I could not continue to drive fearful of a wreck, so we had to do that, and the vehicle was traded in.

Transmission whine stated on or around 52000 miles. Whine progressively increased in volume over the next 2000 miles. Toyota dealer analyzed the noise and recommended the transmission be replaced. Transmission out of warranty. Independent transmission shop confirmed transmission internal pump was failing and could cause transmission lockup at speed.

automatic transmission makeing a whinning noise.Many other customers complaining about same problem. Car has 72,000 miles on it which puts it out of 5 year/60,000mile warranty.Customers feel that toyota should cover replacement or repairs cost knowing they have had same problem with 2017/2018 models and have not corrected the problem with the 2019 model.Very unprofessional for such a high quality company.