PSA: Check Engine Light Madness

[Markintosh]

Once again, it's our government and Toyota engineers trying to make sure life is better for all of us..

On the way home Monday, we suddenly had 4 warning lights display at once on our 2010 AWD Toyota Matrix. The lights that displayed were Check Engine, AWD, VSC and Traction Control. This led us to believe that there was something seriously wrong with the transmission (odd at 60K miles).

So we finished driving home and then did the 35 mile trek to the Toyota dealer in Reno to do a night drop off....and here was the verdict:

- Dirt had gotten on the gas cap, causing a poor seal. That caused the Check Engine light situation. It's common knowledge that a loose gas cap can cause the Check Engine light to come on in all cars. The solution is to tighten it and drive a few days and the light goes away. Here's where things get wacky...

- When the Check Engine light gets activated, it now automatically disables all other "special systems"...like AWD, traction control and VSC. This is not a good situation when you live in snow country and rely on those systems! We have 2 feet of snow in our forecast this week!

- Once those other systems are disabled, they will not reset automatically. It requires a dealer visit to "check things out." (Not sure if disconnecting the battery will cause a reset for those other lights)

Ugh...what a stupid piece of engineering.

[kap]

My wife thinks the world of Toyota. Her fav cars are Matrix and Rav4.

[mrlynn]

I hope it doesn't require "a dealer visit." Your local mechanic with a scan tool ought to be able to reset those functions. And you too, with a service manual.

But it is odd that Toyota would disable them for any random Check Engine light.

/Mr Lynn

[M A V I C]

Wow, that sucks. The CEL in my car can come on if the gas cap is loose, though that's all that comes on. It requires something like three restarts of the car to reset.

The traction control, ABS and CEL come on if the brake light switch is acting up. Makes sense though as they all rely on that switch.

I've learned that the CEL, for my car at least, is the catch-all for many issues. It's only something to worry about if it's been on for a while or if it's flashing.

It's also handy to have a tool to pull codes and know exactly what's wrong.

The CEL is somewhat like Mail.app's password prompt.

[Markintosh]

My local mechanic insists on being paid...he fails to accept responsibility for stupid engineering by Toyota.

[dad@home]

FREE easy fix.

Got to local auto parts store (NAPA, O'Reilly, Shucks, Autozone) and they will loan you a code reader.
Plug it in.
Make note of the codes (to look up the fault in the store).
Press the delete/reset button and you are done.

The other fix (doesn't always work) is to disconnect the battery for a few minutes to reset everything. Unfortunately you lose all of your radio presets.

John

[cbelt3]

How nice .. Limp home activated not because of engine failure , but because its possible you might offend the EPA.

[Chakravartin]

On my car, there is a sequence of door-opening/closing and lock/unlocking that can be used to reset the check-engine and service lights.

If you get a dash light after doing the reset then you probably have an issue that should be checked out by a service tech.

[Markintosh]

In California, auto parts stores are no longer allowed to loan or rent code readers...

[Black]

Markintosh wrote:
Once again, it's our government and Toyota engineers trying to make sure life is better for all of us..