For the most part, we love our cars, but they're rarely ever perfect. We asked our readers last week what the nagging issues with their cars were. The problems aren't enough to make a car undrivable, but are annoying enough to be impossible to ignore. For one owner, Apple CarPlay loaded into a BMW X5 would disable the Sirius satellite radio. Meanwhile, the owner of a 1988 Honda Prelude is just living with broken pop-up headlights.
The pair of problems doesn't even scratch the surface of what people are just living with. One driver is dealing with a leaky wheel. No, not a tire. It's a leaky wheel. The engine in one Toyota Tundra won't even start with the doors closed.
You don't have to live like this. I hope on my life that they consider taking their pickup to a mechanic. Without further ado, these are the worst nagging issues that just won't go away.
Ryan Finnie / Wikimedia Commons
"My nagging issue about my car (2007 Toyota Prius) is that occasionally, the digital gauges and dashboard warning lights fail to turn on, posing risks of speeding (due to you being unable to see the speedometer) and running out of fuel (due to you being unable to see the fuel level). I actually have to do somewhat of a procedure to get the warning lights and gauges on whenever I get in the car and the door open light isn't illuminating when the door is open, which involves pushing the power button (without the brake) to accessory mode, then pushing the brake pedal and holding it, then turning the headlights on after the Bluetooth connection status appears on top of the touchscreen, then after a second or two pushing the power button with the brakes still applied to turn on the hybrid system and hope that the gauges turn on."
Submitted by: Joey Wagers (deathpallie325)
Vauxford / Wikimedia Commons
"We have a 2019 X5 that I love. Best all-around car that I've ever owned. One weird thing – if my wife drives it, Apple CarPlay connects to her phone and then later when I drive the car, it connects to my phone but something breaks with the connection to Sirius. Like it just flat-out does not play. I have to hold the volume/on-off button to shut down iDrive and let it come back up. Very bizarre. I have to bring my car in for service in a few weeks, so I'll let them know and if there's something that can be done or that we can do differently."
Submitted by: Mike V.
Dracolnyte / Wikimedia Commons
"2010 A4 quattro. On the surface interior looks nice. But now that it's 15 years old and 160k on it. The interior is falling apart sagging headliner, the "brushed steel door handle is just thin sheet metal that is sharp af, "leather" shift boot has ripped. Leather seats are cracking. I can live with all of that, but dang, the driver's side window/door makes a low clunking noise. It's driven me crazy since 2010."
Submitted by: Slumpdogmillionaire
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
"Pretty much every BMW (mine is an E60 with the N54 engine) will have oil leaks at the gasket where the oil filter housing meets the block. I've never had a car before with that problem and it is so annoying and expensive to fix. If you don't, you run the risk of throwing the accessory belt into the crank pully/harmonic balancer and causing major damage to the engine
Honorable mention to the reoccurring sunroof leak I currently have on the same car."
Submitted by: Aerogrp
IFCAR / Wikimedia Commons
"My '03 Tundra won't start if the driver's door is closed.. Backstory: I went to replace headlight bulbs a couple of years ago. When I pulled the bulbs, I noticed that the sockets and wiring was fried. So, I bought new harnesses with the intention of clipping out the old, splicing in the new, and sealing the connections with heat-shrink. As soon as I started pulling wire back, things got weird. I found a bunch of wiring that was associated with a dead, aftermarket alarm system (not installed by me). So, I clipped the wires on either side of the alarm controller, clipped off the wires to the annunciator, and made my connections as if the alarm had never been installed. I made my connections, reconnected the battery, fired up the truck, turned on the lights and voila, everything worked. I crimped my connections, sealed everything in heat shrink, and disposed of the junk. So far in this little project, I hadn't closed the driver's door. Later that day, I got in the truck, closed the door and turned the key. Not even a click. My first thought was that something wasn't grounded properly and I'd drained the battery. I stuffed a multimeter probe into the sockets. Everything seemed fine. I reached into the truck (with the door open) and turned the key to the accessory position, turned the headlights on and they came on. So, the battery was fine and the wiring was fine. I reached back in and turned the key to the start position and the truck started. So, that's how I have to start my truck."
Submitted by: JohnnyWasASchoolBoy
Calreyn88 / Wikimedia Commons
"2019 C63 AMG, bought new in 2020. The auto-close trunk lid sometimes fails to close, as if it has hit an obstruction. It just stops. Happens more often on hot days (common here in California) and has caused me to leave it open in a parking lot on multiple occasions. I had Mercedes look at it a few times while in for service and they tried everything up to and including replacing the latch mechanisms. Still happens.
I've learned to listen for the clunk sound of a properly closed lid, but it always seems so unnecessary on such an expensive car. Luckily, that's the worst thing about the car, everything else has been a joy over the past nearly 6 years."
Submitted by: rdbillz
HJUdall / Wikimedia Commons
"VW power seats will not stay in the all-the-way-down position. They always creep upward over time when the car is off, sometimes nearly an inch. Whenever I get in, I always have to move it back down to the bottom. Happens in my '19 GLI, and also did in my '03 Passat."
Submitted by: Michael Smith
Rutger van der Maar / Wikimedia Commons
"Squeaking/stiff clutch pedal – 08-14 WRX.
There are two main issues:
1. – The firewall spot welds that hold the pedal assembly on. The extended warranty on this, however it is an uphill battle for the dealer to actually perform the work and acknowledge the failing welds. Not to mention this caused a large amount of clutches to wear out prematurely (I'm talking 10k miles in some instances). The best shade tree mechanic solution is to buy the Humble Rumble firewall fix for <$200, and you can avoid ripping out the dash to get a welder in there.xtagstartz/blockquote>
HJUdall / Wikimedia Commons
"This is, as nagging issues goes, pretty minor. It doesn't affect the way my car drives, it's basically unnoticeable once I sit down.
Subaru used a really inferior grade of faux leather on the Gen-5 Outback's seats. The actual leather? bulletproof. The faux leather on the left side of the driver's seat? Find me a Gen-5 Outback with leather seats that doesn't have tears in the bolsters on the driver's seat. It's ANNOYING. It nags at me because honestly, I equate ripped seats with not taking care of my car. And if the internet is to be believed, this is a thing on pretty much ALL the Gen-5 Outbacks with leather seats. It's a common enough problem that, were it something other than a seat-tear, it'd have been recalled by now.
Worst is, to fix it means paying around 1k to a dealer or disconnecting the battery, removing the seat and then several hours of careful surgery to unhook the old seat cover and reattach a new one, all the while hoping it doesn't set off the seat-based airbags when you reinstall it."
Submitted by: Buckfiddious
HJUdall / Wikimedia Commons
"There's a rattle that seems to come from within the dash on my 2022 Maverick. Super well-known issue. Ford's TSB didn't fix it. Internet/Forum fixes don't seem to help. One of these days, I'm going to have to tear into it and see if I can quash it — assuming I don't snap first."
Submitted by: BuddyS
maradon 333/Shutterstock
"I have a slow-leaking wheel. Yes, WHEEL. The tire shop verified the leak was in the wheel, not the tire.
I took it to a wheel shop once to get it repaired. That repair did hold for like a year, until the wheel started leaking again. So I just top it off about once a week, before the TPMS light comes on, and I'm good."
Submitted by: DynamicPresence
OSX / Wikimedia Commons
"Ok, this isn't my current car, or the car before that, or the Jeep before that, but back in college I had an absolutely BEAUTIFUL 1988 Prelude Si. Bright red, 5sp, upgraded stereo (because of course). I loved that thing to death, but..... It had been in an accident at some point, right around where the fuse box was (front right quarter panel), and had been repaired. Mostly.
99% of the time it was fine. Drove well (although I had to replace various suspension parts while I owned it), ran straight, no issues. But when it rained, well, the car's pop-up headlights would short out and raise and lower, alternating left and then right. Left, and right, back and forth. The only solution at that point would be to pull over, jump out (in the pouring rain), pull the fuse (got really good at knowing which one it was), and hand-crank the headlights until they were fully up. Then I'd get back in my car, soaking wet, and mutter to myself how I'd just keep the headlights up from then on out.
But it looked SO MUCH BETTER with them down. So I'd plug the fuses back in, lower the headlights, and then just dread the next time it rained."
Submitted by: Dante
Mikkel H. Petersen/Shutterstock
"Driver's side window won't roll up if rolled down on a hot day unless you wait a minute or two for the motor to cool down. Normally not a problem, but I had it stick down when I tried to tip someone at the car wash and it shut down the machine for a couple minutes while I was flapping the door like mad trying to cool off the motor."
Submitted by: hoser68
