Sequoia Lurching Forward

[5KyL1N3]

Hello, I have a 2002 Sequoia limited with a little over 20000 miles on it. Once in a while when i press the brakes and come to a stop, while still holding the brakes in, the car feels as though someone has hit me from behind and goes forward a bit.

But the thing is, no one has hit me and i am still holding in the brakes.

I have talked to my dealer and they say it is normal for the sequoia to do this.

I am wondering if anyone else has this kind of problem.

[tneff]

I think this happens as a result of not pressing down on the break pedal hard enough when you're at a complete stop. What you're discribing has happened to me once or twice (when I first got the vehicle). Since that time I have made a slight adjustment to my driving style (I press the break pedal like I'm trying to hold back a 5000+ lb. vehicle whenever I'm sitting in traffic). It hasn't happened to me again.

Hope this works for you.

[+Steve]

check that you do not have the air conditioning on.. this will cause the car to lurch.. well anoying.

[5KyL1N3]

So you guys are saying that I should always hold in the brakes as hard as I can? I dont know but according to the techs at my dealer,

"the car is letting go of transmission slack from going from other gears back to 1st gear"

i dont know if that was BS from the guy or if that is true but i really dont like being stopped, then the car moving forward a couple inches by itself even though i haven't let go of the brakes a littel bit.

And no, my AC is off. Windows and sunroof is open to try and save some gas...

[tundraboy]

Try bleeding your brakes. You may have air in your brake lines.

[5KyL1N3]

ok, thank you for the info.

I will try bleeding my brakes.

[EricJ]

Don't bother bleeding the brakes. I have a brand new 2003 Sequoia and it does the same thing.

[5KyL1N3]

hey eric, thanx for telling me this. it helps me out a lot. so its supposed to do this.....

[markschoen]

Lurching once coming to a hard stop is a simple fix. Crawl under your Sequoia w/ a grease gun in hand (they are cheap at your local parts store). There is a grease fitting at the forward end of the main driveshaft where it slips into the transmission. This grease fitting lubes the slip fitting. Hook up the grease gun and give it a few good pumps until you see grease start to seep fromt he slip fitting. Waalaa! no more lurch. It worked like a charm on my 2001 Sequoia w/ 81,000 miles.

[TOYO95]

It's called axle wrap, when you come to a stop there's still torque stored up in the axle. When you let off the brakes the torque is released and sent through the drive shaft feeling like someone hit you from behind. It's perfectly normal...

[toodlums]

Don't let the dealers or others BS you about this 'lurch problem'. It is across the board on the big Toyota models and Toyota is fully aware of it.

I have a 2003 Tundra V8 f.i. 4.7 liter and a Lexus 2003 400GX (Toyota parts) and both have this same lurching problem. I have finally gotten the dealership to admit that there is a Toyota repair directive to fix this problem and am scheduled for repair as soon as the new 'transmission parts' (whatever THAT means) are received here. I have been waiting over 2 months so far. Apparently, there are LOTS of these problems in Toyotas and the backlog to fix is huge. Apparently Toyota is keeping it hush hush to avoid a major recall.

Get your dealer to put you on the FIX list ASAP as you will wait until parts are available. Be persistant and contact Toyota USA or the top dogs in whatever country you are in if the dealership blows you off. Its your money they are messing with.

This is a real but repairable problem.

toodlums, USA

[jamesholden]

And no, my AC is off. Windows and sunroof is open to try and save some gas...

You actually use more fuel by having windows open than using the air-con.

Air-con tends to use about 5% more fuel, opening windows ruins the aerodyanmics and causes huge amounts of drag and can use upto 20% more in fuel.

Whenever they come out with the drag figures of say 0.32 by reducing this to .31 can help increase the MPG by upto 10% which is why hybrid cars like the Honda Insight and Toyota Prius have to have very low drag ratings.

Basically, close your windows and put the A/C on, it's cheaper (it's been proven numerous times).

As regards your lurching, I take it you have an automatic, if it's causing a problem why not put it into Neutral? It's common practice in the UK when say stopping at traffic lights to knock them into neutral thus causing less strain the box by trying to creep forward with the brakes on and this too will save a bit of fuel.

[Master_Simon]

My Hiace does lurch a bit if I don't have the brake pedal down quite hard, not all my weight, just a firm press, and it also lurches when putting it into gear if I don't do the same, the bit about torque being stored in the axle seems unlikely more like the box set up doing something strange, have you tried changing the button settings, ie sport mode etc to see if this changes it, to prove the mechanics theory you could manually change it down through the gears as you slow down, as you roll to a stop snick first, if you then don't get a thump it is the gearbox selecting first, and I think in retrospect this maybe the answer.

Rgds

Simon