[scion_guy]

So I have only had my tC a few months and have just 1900 miles on it. I went to my Toyota dealer about a week ago and had my first oil change and everything checked out fine.

On my way to work today the check engine light came on. Car still drove fine, everything seemed normal.

I made an appointment to have it checked out and they can't see me till Thursday morning.

Anyone else have something like this happen or know what it could possibly be?

I'm not too concerned, price wise, since it's all under warrenty for a long time still, but this hopefully isn't an indicator of big problems ahead. My baby is hurt!

 

[LIscionTC]

Did you get fuel recently?

 

[scion_guy]

Yeah about 2 days ago. Put in 13.3 gallons from 76 Station. I've been driving on it for 21 miles. Light came on around 18 miles into the tank.

 

[Geneo]

Originally posted by LIscionTC@Jan 10 2006, 04:28 PM
Did you get fuel recently?

The reason he asked is that if the fuel filler cap is not installed properly...tight until it "clicks" ...it can trigger the check engine light to come on. I believe it is in the owners manual. I believe that it will reset the light after a while if the gas cap problem is corrected. Short of that..it is a trip to the dealer.

 

[LIscionTC]

Yea a loose gas cap is most likely your problem, see if its loose, turn it till it click a few times

 

[scion_guy]

I went and checked the gas cap; retightened it and everything. I then started the car but the light stayed on. Might it take like 30 min of driving to re-seal the tank or whatever the term is? If not, then it wasn't the gas cap.

 

[LIscionTC]

If the car was fueled up while the engine was running, it could set the engine light also,

 

[LIscionTC]

If the car was fueled up while the engine was running, it could set the engine light also,

 

[zoltiz]

It takes several trips or on-off cycles to get rid of the CEL caused by the gas cap. It should disappear by the time your dealer appointment is due.

 

[scion_guy]

Originally posted by LIscionTC@Jan 10 2006, 04:54 PM
If the car was fueled up while the engine was running, it could set the engine light also,

Haha. No my car wasn't running. I try to avoid potentially explosive situations.

 

[scion_guy]

Originally posted by zoltiz@Jan 10 2006, 04:55 PM
It takes several trips or on-off cycles to get rid of the CEL caused by the gas cap. It should disappear by the time your dealer appointment is due.

Excellent. I'll go drive around a bit and turn the car on and off periodically to see if that clears it up.

I'll update later tonight.

Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[LIscionTC]

Just had to ask, some people don't know

 

[LIscionTC]

Good luck, But the EVAP system need to sit and built pressure for it to run the system check, might take a few days

 

[user1234]

I would call another dealership that could check that right away. You know you can go to any dealership right ?

 

[basilisk4]

Wouldn't he also have to disconnect the battery cable to reset the CEL even if the gas cap thing did the trick?

 

[LIscionTC]

Maybe, If so your better off trying to pull out the No.1 EFI fuse for about 30sec. to reset the check engine light, before disconnecting the battery and losing all your setting. I know it works on older Toyota model's not sure on the new stuff, If not u'll need a OBDII scan tool to clear the codes.

 

[Geneo]

Originally posted by basilisk4@Jan 10 2006, 06:01 PM
Wouldn't he also have to disconnect the battery cable to reset the CEL even if the gas cap thing did the trick?

It should reset for that problem in the course of normal driving..a few drives and sitting off in between. The only reason I did not suggest the disconnection of the battery is that if a loose cap was not the trouble..it could knock out the problem code that was really there. Unless it reoccured before he went to the dealer they would come up empty on where to start looking. They would get a code for a battery disconnect though..

 

[LIscionTC]

There is no such battery code.

 

[Geneo]

Originally posted by LIscionTC@Jan 10 2006, 06:19 PM
There is no such battery code.

You may be right for sure. I do not have the code book for the car. There is on most other cars I owned, Dodge and Mitsubishi had a disconnect battery code for sure. As I had read the code on tons of them.

 

[Obike]

Removing the battery wouldn't remove the CEL, as all engine codes are stored in non-volatile memory (meaning that it still stays around even when the ECU loses power). Think of it as a mini hard-drive for the ECU. One solution is to take the car to an Advanced Auto Parts or something similar, use their ODB-II scantool, and clear the error code. When I was getting the e-Manage Ultimate working properly (more along the lines of getting it to turn over on cold start), I'd have to make the trip to an Advanced Auto Parts in order to clear the CEL and see if that helped things.