2021 Toyota Venza Hybrid

This report covers 2 events for the same problem. The first occurred in the spring of 2025 and I did not document the date or time. The second one occurred on November 10, 2025 @ about 10:15 a.m. (1) Last spring my wife was driving the Venza up the street to our residence going a slow rate of speed. As she approached the house, she took her foot off on the gas and coasted toward the left curb so she could back into our driveway. At that point, car suddenly surged forward and accelerated toward the curb. My wife rapidly applied the brake and averted any problem. (2) The second event occurred on November 10, 2025 @ 10:15 a.m. My wife was starting to park at a parking lot in the Tanasbourne Town Center. She was going to back into a parking spot so she drove forward going slightly left. Then, with the car still in drive, the car surged forward. She quickly stepped on the brake and the car stopped abruptly. (She was angling the car and was about ready to stop and put the car in reverse when this happened) Again, with her quick response braking, she was able to avert hitting person or thing. As to which component or system failed, there appears to be a random malfunction of sensors or perhaps the CPU...something that is calling for full throttle when the gas petal is not pushed. The safety risk is possible harm to the driver, outside property, or the worse situation would be harm to pedestrians that might be in the way of the car. We have not been able to reproduce the problem. The same maneuvers have been repeated 100's of times without incident. As of this writing, the vehicle is being taken to the Toyota dealer to have the oil changed and at that time they will be asked to do a thorough inspection of the systems that might cause this, check for any recorded malfunctions, etc. To the best of our knowledge, there were no warning lamps or messages that appeared.

Vehicle at operating temperature, running, in gear and at a stop. Making a left turn into traffic. I release the brake and apply the accelerator, the car rolls out into traffic but no power, I press more and more until it is 100% throttle, all the way to the floor. Then after about 5 seconds the vehicle moves forward. Complete loss of response/power for 5 seconds. Thankfully no traffic coming. This happens a second time with the same circumstances, different location. Press the accelerator, no response, sudden loss of all power, then after 5 seconds it responds. This time there is traffic coming to my driver's side at 50 MPH, I was trying to press harder but it wouldn't respond. There were no warning lights, MIL, sounds or messages. Toyota wants $169.99/hr plus tax to investigate.

When accelerating from a stopped position, the car fails to go forward. This incident has occurred six times and often seems to be at the worst times, such as pulling into a busy road from a stop sign. The car will start to accelerate and stop with no response from the gas pedal for 3-5 seconds. There have almost been a couple of accidents with this vehicle because of this issue. No check engine light or any light at all came on in the car when this incident occurred. This vehicle has been taking to the dealership and the problem has been mentioned to them, however with no codes to read for the OBDII they claim there is nothing they can do about it.

On a trip out of town, after cruising for 3 hours on I-65, The drive power suddenly stopped and stuttered. The announcement screen started flashing a jumble of messages which only added to the hazard. First message was " Your feet are on the brake and accelerator." My feet were on the floor. We were on cruise control. I put on the emergency flashers to warn traffic not to run into us. The highway ran through a water filled swamp with the shoulder too narrow to be safe. I eased off on the power and pulled off the next exit which was a half mile away and coasted to a stop in a parking lot. It appeared to be overheating in the motor drive so we let it cool while locating a dealer. We struggled to get to the dealer, half mile at a time with pauses to cool. Dealer tech found the coolant for Motor drive was gone. Said there was a pinhole in the radiator. Said they did not have a replacement. Called all over. No replacement in US. Discovered there was a national back order for this part. A number of these radiators had failed. We were stranded, our trip aborted and 200 miles from home. The tech resorted to a JBWeld repair of the radiator & supplied us with 2 gallons of Toyota pink coolant and we made it back home. The local dealer reported the national back order had increased. We have had no further problem until today. Checking under the hood, we found that the motor drive coolant was down near the danger point. We filled it back up and will be checking it daily until it is repaired. This incident brought to light the following engineering deficiencies: No warning of loss of coolant. This is a critical system point of failure which could cause a fatal incident which would be attributed to "Loss of Control." False and distracting messages flashed on announcement screen, compounding the danger of sudden total and erratic loss of drive power in highway traffic. The Vehicle Diagnostic Report stated "Coolant Pump"A" Component Internal Failure." Obviously false also.

- Vehicle was operating as normal. Slowed down to a complete stop as normal. When attempting to accelerate from stop, vehicle had no throttle response and slowly idled into the intersection. Would press pedal down and nothing would happen. About 5 seconds later, vehicle gained throttle response and took off quickly. Unable to duplicate issue at this time, appears to be intermittent. - Safety was risked due to inability to take off from a stop and being stuck in the intersection for a brief period of time. - Unable to duplicate problem for dealer to confirm. - Called the dealer and they stated they needed to do a diagnostic, but it needed to be in a failed state. It is not currently in a failed state. If it was in a failed state, I’m unsure how I would get it to the dealer for inspection as the issue is lack of throttle. - No warning lamps or other symptoms prior to the failure.

The contact owns a 2021 Toyota Venza. The contact stated that upon entering her garage at a low rate of speed, her brake pedal failed to operate as needed. The vehicle independently accelerated and crashed through the garage drywall and struck a water line. The air bags did not deploy upon impact. There were two unknown warning lights illuminated. The contact suffered back, head, and neck pain and sought medical attention from her doctor. A police report was filed. The contact's dry wall and water line were damaged as a result of the failure. The vehicle was towed to an independent mechanic where it remained in their possession and had yet to be repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and an inspection was performed on the vehicle; however, the results of the inspection were unknown. The failure mileage was approximately 18,000.

I was at an intersection. Right turn lane, waiting for a green or a hole in traffic to turn right. The light turned green and I lifted up on the brake, turned the wheel to the right, and tried to accelerate into the turn. The car started rolling, and I heard an electric noise (hybrid car), but the car did not accelerate normally. I applied more 'gas' on the pedal, and nothing happened; the car continued to lightly roll. Usually if you press the gas pedal past a point, it will kick in the gas engine with the electric drivetrain, but this did not occur. After approximately 2 seconds, the pedal felt 'normal' and the electric drivetrain accelerated normally. I was OK because traffic had turned green, but if I had tried to find an opening in traffic and turned on the red, after a complete stop, having the acceleration pedal not correctly functioning for 2 seconds would have been highly problematic and not safe at all. No warning light or beeps. The only noise was an odd electrical sound which was 'not' the normal sound that I hear from the electric drivetrain. I have not told the dealership yet, but I will during my next appointment. I did find one other posting online which was the exact same description that I experienced. https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/no-acceleration-from-stopped-position.1713347/

While steadily accelerating on a freeway onramp, the vehicle suddenly accelerated, surged and gained speed rapidly without my control. I took action by braking and slowing the vehicle to a safe freeway speed. Thankfully no one in my vehicle was hurt and no other vehicle was near during the incident. There were no warning messages. The first time I experienced this unintended acceleration was the first month when this brand new vehicle was purchased from a local Toyota dealer. I was turning into my driveway from a residential street , the car suddenly accelerated while I was in the middle of turn. I immediately/emergently stopped by stepping on the brake, I could have crashed into the power pole if I did not stop. Because this was a new car, I convinced myself I was unfamiliar with its controls. But since the second occurrence, I am greatly concerned about this random "unintended acceleration". The Toyota Venza had been dropped off at our local Toyota dealer for inspection and hopefully repair.