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2019 Toyota RAV4 Problems: What Owners Reported

November 7, 2026 · Runtime 11:50 · Watch on YouTube

The federal government gave the 2019 Toyota RAV4 five stars. Owners have filed 887 complaints about it. Both numbers are real, and neither one tells you what to do about yours.

Chapters

  1. 0:00 Five stars, 887 complaints
  2. 0:52 What the stars measure
  3. 1:39 A report is not a finding
  4. 2:09 Is 887 a lot? Per thousand sold
  5. 3:43 What owners wrote
  6. 4:05 The fuel tank and program 20TE04
  7. 5:58 The coolant bypass valve
  8. 7:10 Hesitation, and program 20TE03
  9. 7:58 All seven recalls, opened
  10. 9:38 What the VIN search won't show
  11. 10:24 What to do today
  12. 11:31 Next: Theta II

Transcript

Five stars, 887 complaints 0:00

The 2019 Toyota RAV4: what 887 owner complaints say. The federal government gave this car five stars. Owners have filed 887 complaints about it. Both numbers are real, and neither one tells you what to do about yours.

So we did the slow part. We downloaded all 887 from the federal database, set them against Toyota's sales, and read the reports behind the biggest numbers. And at the end, there is one sentence on the government's own recall page that every owner of this car should read.

Toyota calls the RAV4 the best-selling SUV in America, and the 2019 is where a new generation starts. A new platform, a new 2.5-liter engine, a new eight-speed automatic. The gas models were due in December of 2018. The hybrids followed in late March.

What the stars measure 0:52

Start with the stars. In March of 2019, NHTSA, the federal safety regulator, tested this car. Into a rigid barrier, head on, at 35 miles an hour. Hit from the side by a moving barrier. And sideways, at an angle, into a steel pole.

Overall: five stars. But open the record. Frontal crash, four. Side crash, five. Rollover, four. The five at the top is a combined score, and two of its three parts are fours.

And look at what a star measures. One new car, one impact, instruments inside the dummies. It tells you how this car protects you in that crash. It says nothing about a fuel gauge, a coolant valve, or a lurch away from a stop sign.

A report is not a finding 1:39

That is what the other number is for. Anyone with a car can file a report with NHTSA, online or by phone. It goes into a public database, with a number and a date, in the owner's own words.

A report is not a finding. Nobody has verified it before you read it. NHTSA's booklet for owners says its staff review reports to judge whether they are isolated, or a trend. And how many does it take to open an investigation? The booklet says: there is no established number.

Is 887 a lot? Per thousand sold 2:09

So is 887 a lot? On its own, that number means nothing. Here are its neighbors. Model year 2018, the last of the old generation: 333. Model year 2019 drew 887. Model year 2020, 640. Model year 2021, 389. And another 22 sit under the separate label, RAV4 Hybrid.

Now divide. Toyota sold 427,170 RAV4s in calendar 2018, and 448,071 in 2019. That is under one report per thousand for the 2018, and about two per thousand for the 2019. Calendar years are not model years, so read that as scale, not precision.

The new generation drew about two and a half times the rate of the old one, even though the older car has had a year longer to collect reports. So is two per thousand high? For a ruler from outside: Honda's CR-V, model year 2018. 2,165 reports, on 379,013 sold that calendar year. About six per thousand.

That is not a verdict on the Honda, and it is not a ranking. It is how you learn that two per thousand is not the top of the scale. So the count alone does not condemn this car. To learn anything, you have to read them.

What owners wrote 3:43

So we searched all 887 by word. Those counts are approximate: a report that says the tank is fine still counts. Owners marked 25 of them as involving a crash, three a fire, and they declared 22 injuries and no deaths. We followed three subjects with a paper trail, and the first is at the pump.

The fuel tank and program 20TE04 4:05

April of 2020. An owner writes: the dispenser clicks to stop when only 9 to 10 gallons are in the tank. The stated fuel tank capacity is 14.5 gallons.

About 200 reports talk about the tank, the gauge or the gallons. 95 cite that same number, 14.5. And only about 70 of them use the word hybrid. Hold on to that.

Here the record moves, because the manufacturer answered. November of 2019, a tech tip to Toyota dealers: on 2019 hybrids, the gauge may read around three quarters or seven eighths when the pump shuts off. If the tank checks out, no repairs recommended. Concern is under investigation.

February of 2020: Toyota tells dealers it believes the cause is primarily a variation of fuel tank shape. October of 2020: a customer support program, number 20TE04. About 143,600 hybrids. A new tank and a new fuel sender, covered for eight years from first use, or 100,000 miles.

Now the limits. Every Toyota document we found on this is for the hybrid. For the gas model, we found nothing. And eight years from first use means a hybrid first driven in 2019 reaches that limit in 2027.

You may have read about a settlement that stretched this to 15 years. It was announced, and it did not hold. Both class actions were reported dismissed in 2022, and in California, 39 named plaintiffs settled on their own. We found no extension.

And notice what 20TE04 is not. It is not a safety recall. Toyota's own notice calls it a customer support program. That label is going to matter.

The coolant bypass valve 5:58

The second subject barely existed for years. April of 2025, an owner writes: Engine Maintenance Required warning came on. Took car to dealership, diagnostic informed the issue was the coolant bypass valve. The repair cost about 781 dollars, plus 160 for the diagnostic.

The word bypass appears in 143 reports. Through the end of 2022, there are four. In 2023, 40. In 2024, 78. Then 18, and three so far this year. Several owners put it at around 50,000 miles.

47 of those reports state a price. The median is about 890 dollars, from 536 up to about 1,280. That is the owners' figure, not an invoice we have seen.

Now look for that valve in the official file. It is not in any of the seven recalls. We found no Toyota support program on it for this car, and the federal record lists no investigation on this model year. None of that proves a defect, or rules one out. It says owners are paying, and the file has no answer yet.

Hesitation, and program 20TE03 7:10

The third subject got its answer early. An owner, in 2020: continues to lurch when suddenly accelerating from a rolling stop. But Toyota had already published a bulletin, in August of 2019: hesitation from a slow roll, at six miles an hour or below, right after a downshift.

The fix is a new calibration for the engine computer. The bulletin lists it under the Federal Emission Warranty: 96 months or 80,000 miles. Eight years again.

And one more, for the Adventure and Limited with all-wheel drive. Program 20TE03: a buzz or groan from the front transfer case, between 20 and 30 miles an hour. About 36,900 vehicles, covered for ten years or 125,000 miles.

All seven recalls, opened 7:58

Now the number that makes headlines. The government lists seven recalls on the 2019 RAV4. Seven sounds like a lot. So we opened all seven.

Two of them are about a label. Regional distributors, Gulf States Toyota and Southeast Toyota, put out load capacity labels that were illegible or wrong. A third covers 46 vehicles, across two model years: a steering gear with a screw that may not have been tightened.

The back-up camera: 14,215 vehicles, and Toyota estimated about 0.2 percent actually had the problem. A front suspension arm: 9,502, built in about five weeks. The engine block: 44,191 across several models, with about 250 receiving the affected blocks, and the RAV4s in scope built from September to November of 2019.

And one that is big. The fuel pump: about one and a half million vehicles, across Toyota and Lexus. If the pump fails, the engine can stall while driving. RAV4s built from October of 2018 to October of 2019, with specific pumps. 99 reports in our search mention stalling, shutting off or lost power. We cannot tell you how many are this pump.

So seven is true, and it is not what it sounds like. By the build dates in these filings, most of them reach a narrow slice of the cars. The useful question was never how many recalls a model has. It is what applies to your VIN.

What the VIN search won't show 9:38

So you go to NHTSA's recall page, and that is the right tool. Seventeen characters, from the lower left of your windshield. It answers with a line like this: zero unrepaired recalls associated with this VIN.

Now scroll down that same page. There is a question there: what won't the license plate and VIN search show? And the answer is the sentence we promised you. Manufacturer customer service or other non-safety recall campaigns.

Think about what that means. A hybrid owner whose tank stops at ten gallons runs the search, and gets a clean result. By NHTSA's own description, a customer support program is not what that search looks for. The page is not wrong. It told you. It is just a search for a different thing.

What to do today 10:24

So here is what to do today, and it takes three steps. One: run your VIN at nhtsa.gov slash recalls. That settles the safety recalls, including the fuel pump.

Two: call a dealer's service department with your VIN, and ask one specific question. Are there any open customer support programs on this vehicle? If it is a hybrid, say 20TE04. If it is an all-wheel-drive Adventure or Limited, say 20TE03. And get the answer in writing.

Three: if something is wrong with your car, file your own report, at that same site, or at 1-888-327-4236. There is no established number. But a trend is made of reports, and every count in this video got there that way.

Five stars and 887 complaints were never competing answers. One measures a crash. The other counts what happened after the sale. Neither is a verdict, and none of this is legal advice, or advice on what to buy. It is the record, as of November of 2026.

Next: Theta II 11:31

Next time: an engine, Hyundai and Kia's Theta Two. Recalls the federal regulator called untimely, on more than 1.6 million vehicles. 210 million dollars in penalties, and more than 24 million paid to the person who told them.

Description and sources

We downloaded all 887 owner complaints NHTSA holds on the 2019 Toyota RAV4, set them against Toyota's sales, and read the reports behind the biggest numbers. A report is not a defect finding, and this episode treats none of them as one. What the record shows: what the five stars measure, what the count looks like per thousand sold, a fuel tank program for hybrids (20TE04, eight years or 100,000 miles), a coolant bypass valve with no recall and no program we could find, a hesitation bulletin, an all-wheel-drive program (20TE03), and what each of the seven recalls actually covers. And one line on NHTSA's own recall page: the VIN search does not show manufacturer customer service campaigns.

PRIMARY SOURCES

ARCHIVE PLATES — public-domain documents, with author, date, archive and licence.

  • 2019 Toyota RAV4 side barrier test: NHTSA, public domain | Public domain
  • Toyota RAV4 Hybrid, same generation: 4300streetcar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 | CC BY 4.0

... and 10 more plates, each credited on screen in the video and listed in this project's manifest.

The Lemon File reads the federal record on the car you own or want to buy: owner reports, recalls and crash tests, with a number, a date and a denominator.

Owner reports are unverified statements made to NHTSA, not defect findings. Counts change daily; these are as of November 2026, and counts by keyword are approximate. Not legal advice, and not advice on what to buy. Not affiliated with or endorsed by NHTSA, the U.S. DOT or any manufacturer.

About the material. Crash test photographs and films: NHTSA, public domain. Other images and footage: Wikimedia Commons, public domain, CC0 or CC BY, credited on screen.

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