2019 Toyota Highlander Problems

2019 Toyota Highlander problems owners report most

2019 Toyota Highlander problems are documented in public: owners have filed 514 complaints with NHTSA, the earliest in 2018 and the most recent in 2026. Sorting those by the component the filer named puts the powertrain clearly first, at 214 of the 514 complaints, two of every five filed.

A complaint is not a repair bill and not a defect finding. It is one owner telling the regulator something went wrong. What makes the count useful is the concentration: when one component takes 42 per cent of everything filed on a car, the pattern is doing more than chance.

Against the 2018 car, this model year has drawn 85 per cent more complaints (514 against 278). Both years are led by the powertrain, so this is a fault that carried over rather than one introduced with the 2019 car. A rise is worth more attention than a fall here, because a newer car has had fewer years on the road to accumulate reports.

Of those complaints, 22 describe a crash and 1 describes a fire. Filers reported 18 injuries.

Recalls on the 2019 Toyota Highlander

A recall means the manufacturer or the regulator found a safety defect, and the repair is free at a franchised dealer however old the car is. There are 3 recalls on this model year. Your own car may be covered by some, all or none of them, so check the VIN rather than the model.

In owners own words

These are complaints filed about the powertrain, quoted as written. They are one persons account rather than a diagnosis, and they are here because a symptom described by a driver is easier to recognise than a component name.

Around Halloween 2025 my Toyota’s Transmission started slipping. I called a few places and no one except Toyota would address the issue except a local shop in [XXX] , Ridge Auto Repair who after checking out the vehicle said they can’t repair it because the parts are not available November 6th, 2025, The Shop LAG LLC was recommended to me by a family member, and they came to check out the Toyota, and they were convinced it was the Torque Converter and wanted $1300 to fix it. I paid them and after a few weeks they claimed it was the Transmission and wanted more money which they were paid

This vehicle safety complaint is regarding my 2019 Toyota Highlander XLE, VIN [XXX] . A Toyota-authorized dealership, Sansone Toyota in Avenel, New Jersey, documented that the front driver axle is prone to freezing in the differential. This is a serious safety concern because if the axle seizes while the vehicle is in motion, it could cause sudden loss of control. This vehicle is used regularly as our family vehicle, including to transport our family of 6 with our young children. I am extremely concerned about continued operation of the vehicle while this documented condition remains unresolv

Our 2019 Highlander xle ( VIN [XXX]) is currently at the Lonestar service department. Service Rep ([XXX]), Assistant Sales Manager [XXX], and [XXX], were fully advised of the stall problems of our vehicle on 9/13/2031. Our paperwork on previous tall repairs were left with [XXX]. On 9/13/2021, we left our 2019, Highlander XLE in the Toyota Lonestar Service department, Lewisville, Texas, for stalling (would not drive) repairs. They were fully notified of several stall episodes. The most recent stall was while driving, 30 mph in Denton, Texas, in heavy traffic, in the middle of an intersecti

I am writing to you as a deeply loyal Toyota customer who is facing a distressing and financially significant situation with my 2019 Toyota Highlander. Our family has been committed Toyota owners for several decades. Over the years, we have owned a Toyota Corolla, Camry, and multiple Highlanders — and we currently drive two Toyota vehicles. We have consistently chosen Toyota over other brands because of the trust we place in your engineering, reliability, and the value Toyota stands behind. We even replaced all of our Honda vehicles with Toyotas because of that trust. We purchased our 2019 T

Every component, by complaint count

The full breakdown of what owners named when they filed. Components below the top ten are grouped out of this table.

How other model years compare

The same nameplate across the years we hold. Complaint counts fall naturally for newer cars because fewer of them have been on the road for long, so read the column as a rough signal rather than a ranking. In this set the 2021 Toyota Highlander has drawn the most complaints and the 2016 Toyota Highlander the fewest.

What to check on the transmission and driveline

Powertrain reports usually describe a shift that arrives late, lands hard, or hunts between gears, often worse when the car is cold or towing. Some describe a shudder at a steady cruise rather than a bang between gears.

Buying a used 2019 Highlander

Drive it from cold. A transmission fault that hides once warm is the most common thing a short test drive misses. Take it to highway speed, let it settle into top gear, then slow and accelerate again to make it downshift under load.

If you already own one

Get the fluid condition checked before anything else, and ask for the transmission control software level at the same time. Several of these complaints were answered by the manufacturer with a reflash rather than a rebuild, which costs a fraction as much.

• Test drive from cold, not after the seller has warmed it up.
• Ask whether a transmission software update exists for the VIN.
• Check the fluid condition and when it was last changed.
• Get any rebuild quote itemised into parts, fluid and labour.