Toyota Sienna Recall: 228,367 Hybrid Minivans Get a Software Fix for Unlocking Seatbacks

Toyota is recalling 228,367 Sienna Hybrid minivans in the US because the second-row seatbacks can pop out of their locked position in a frontal crash. Most owners will get a software update; about 200 vans will need new seatbacks. It is the third seat-related Sienna recall in 20 months, and it lands less than a week after Toyota's Land Cruiser fuel-leak recall.

The campaign covers seven-passenger 2022–2026 Sienna Hybrids built between September 16, 2021, and July 20, 2026, according to the recall report Toyota filed with NHTSA (campaign 26V690). Only vans whose seat belt pretensioners came from one specific supplier are included, which is why the count stops short of every Sienna built in that window.

What goes wrong

The second-row captain's chairs in the Sienna use integrated seat belts, with the belt anchored to the seat rather than the body. In a hard frontal impact, the pretensioner yanks the belt tight in milliseconds. Toyota told NHTSA that the force can set up an oscillation between the cam and the pawls inside the outboard recliner, the toothed mechanism that holds the seatback at its angle. Under certain combinations of crash type, seatback angle, and pretensioner timing, the cam can rotate far enough for the recliner to let go.

A seatback that moves mid-crash means the belt cannot hold the occupant the way it was designed to, and in a minivan that occupant is often a child. Toyota reported no field complaints and no warranty claims tied to the problem in the US as of October 12, which fits how it was found: the automaker says sled tests on a modified seat and belt assembly, run between January and November 2025 as development work for future seats, were the first to show a recliner disengaging. An investigation from December 2025 through August 2026, including seats pulled from customer vehicles, pointed to friction inside the recliner, and crash tests in September and October confirmed the sled results.

Software for most, new seats for a few

For nearly every affected van, the fix is a reflash of the SRS (airbag) control unit that changes how the pretensioner is controlled. Roughly 200 2022–2025 vans built with Toyota's Mobility as a Service package get both second-row seatbacks replaced with units that use a different recliner. Toyota has not said why those vans need hardware rather than software. Either way, the repair is free, dealers have already been told, and owner letters are due to start going out on December 7.

The same defect reaches across the border. Transport Canada posted a recall on October 20 for 24,454 Sienna Hybrids from the same model years, with the same SRS software fix, and CTV reports that the Canadian notice goes a step further than the US filing: it advises owners not to carry passengers in the second row until the update is done. Toyota's US report contains no such interim advice.

Three seat recalls in 20 months

Sienna seats have kept Toyota's recall desk busy. In February 2025, the company recalled 167,802 vans from 2021–2025 because third-row seat bolts may not have been torqued to spec (NHTSA 25V086). In October 2025 it recalled about 55,000 2025 Siennas for second-row seat rails that may have been improperly welded (25V668). Today's campaign is a different part and a different failure mode, so a van already repaired under one of those recalls still needs this one. As our piece on why recall counts mislead argues, the tally matters less than how the problem was found, and in this case Toyota found it in the lab, not after a crash. That is the right order, even if it leaves open why a design on sale since 2020 took until 2025 to show the flaw. Rear-seat protection has been a sore spot for Toyota lately in another way, too: the 2026 RAV4 missed IIHS Top Safety Pick on its back-seat result.

Owners can check a VIN at nhtsa.gov/recalls or toyota.com/recall. Toyota has not said whether eight-passenger Siennas with the bench second row are affected (the report describes only seven-seat vans), nor whether it will issue interim advice for US owners like the Canadian notice. We will update this story when it does.