Check engine light

Hi! Suddenly I see "Check engine light".Toyota Camry CE 1999, 45,000 miles. Starts and drives with no problems. All oils/liquids are OK What is that? How much is to fix? Thank you.

Reply to
EugeneN
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Did you recently get gas?.....did you get the gas cap on tight? Check that first.

If you want a quick answer, Autozone will read the codes for free.

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Reply to
Curtis Newton

Hi!

Thank you for your advice.

I went to Autozone and they found error po441 (evaporation system control) - something wrong with charcoal canister.

Is it true that Toyota covers canister for more than 10 years or I'm too naïve?

Thank you.

Reply to
EugeneN

Yesterday the "check engine" light came on. I dropped whatever I had planned to do and drove to the nearest garage to get it checked. When the guy restarted the car, the light wasn't there. He said the computer can only diagnose when the light is on, so I had to drop the idea.

What could this be? Well, anything I suppose. I'll try again if it comes on. (I wish they would just flash the error code on an lcd display instead of this ckeck light.)

What is a good cheap place (Chicgao area) for this kind of diagnosis?

Reply to
RPS

Pep Boys will hook the car up to their machine and give you the diagnosis codes and tell you what it means for free.

Call ahead.

Reply to
kenji

drop the idea.

This is not true. Error codes are stored in memory and by hooking up the computer, you can see what happened.

Reply to
Dan J.S.

So will AutoZone. Or you can buy one of these:

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I was VERY glad to have one a few yeas ago when I was driving to Washington State.

The MIL code will still be stored in memory when the light turns off. My scanner can read it, maybe his couldn't. It is stored until you re-boot the car (pull the battery cable).

Read your owner's manual. With my car, if it is serious, the check engine light will blink and the car will go into "limp home mode" where it won't go faster than 25mph. That's what it did on my road trip. I pulled out my laptop and found out that it was just a misfire in cylinder 3. Turned the car off and on, everything re-set, and we were on our way :)

-Ian-

Reply to
Ian S. Salisbury

did you do the basics of check the oil and check the radiator? how old is the battery?

Reply to
barbie gee

geek.

Reply to
kenji

RPS wrote in news:200820041337113289% snipped-for-privacy@null.void:

If you want to do it yourself, search online using keywords like OBD2, diagnostic, scanner, schematic, standard, and maybe your car. Maybe you'll find error codes, and instructions for making a scanner.

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sheila
Reply to
sheila miguez herndon

I had the same problem with my Camry 2000 CE 50000kms. I replaced the "VSV for EVAP" as described in the Haynes repair manual. Everything came back to normal. The manual describes ways to check what component may be defective on the Evaporative emission control system. It even shows how to determine whether a VSV or other component is good or bad. Chances are the charcoal canister is OK. The VSV for EVAP located adjacent to the charcoal canister is the component that usually goes. Jean

Reply to
Jean-Guy Paradis

diagnosis?

Washington

computer

My

the

engine

won't go

the

Guilty :)

Reply to
Ian S. Salisbury

What year car? Are you the same guy with the '92 camry? In that case it's likely a fuel mixture related problem. Could be O2 sensors. Hard to say. Maybe some other bit of emissions control. I don't think anyone used the check engine for the oil pressure by that time...

Thank your federal government for it not displaying the code. The federal government decided it was better to scare people into thinking something major was wrong all the time. Their logic was people wouldn't get minor stuff fixed if they got actual codes. The automakers actually were for giving people actual codes or descriptions.

Autozone. Free. They'll hook it up to a scanner give you the code and definition. Don't expect anything reliable beyond that.

Some make/model/year cars can spit back codes if you do the right squence of steps. If it's a older than model year 1996 odds are it can. 1996 or later odds are it doesn't.

Reply to
Brent P

Not sure on that one....I will wait for one of the Toyota techs to cover that one. Now that you know what it is, you can always clear the code (pull the negative battery cable) and see if the light comes back on.

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Reply to
Curtis Newton

The check engine light reacts to a bunch of things. The Oxygen sensor, and a few other sensors that don't come to mind at the moment. When they get out of whack, the light comes on. In my car, I had that problem and whenever I stopped at the garage, it wouldn't come on, so I had to come back...as they could only read the thing with the light on.

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Clarance
Reply to
Clarance H. Balwebber

Kenji, a dork who plays with remote controlled toys, calling someone a geek becuase they have the ability to troubleshoot, fix their own cars and save money is wrong. What software do you use to read your OBD(?)?

Reply to
humble user

The check engine light in my 2000 Subaru Forrester kept coming on if I didn't get the gas cap turned just right. Eventually it just stayed on. When I had the head gasket changed at 90,000 miles, they changed the Oxygen sensor and that fixed it for about a month. It stayed on all the time untill I traded the Forrester (with 170,000 miles on it and no further problems) for a 2004 Camry this week.

Sometimes the best fix for a check engine light is a piece of black tape over it so you don't have to see the thing.

David

Reply to
Dyhibb

Sounds like you need to drop your mechanic instead - he's quite ignorant.

Your engine computer will store the trouble codes for the condition that caused your MIL to flash. You can plug a device into the diagnostic port and retrieve the code. Your mechanic should have known this.

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Reply to
Scott en Aztlan

My MIL flashed the other day. Turned out to be a misfire on cylinder #5, but my Acura TL never went into limp-home mode. I cleared the code using my Autotap OBD-II interface and everything seems to be fine.

WTF is a misfire?

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Sloth Kills!
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Reply to
Scott en Aztlan

Happily he isn't "my" mechanic (unhappily I don't have one). It was just the first garage I saw after the light came on, I think it was a Goodyear.

Reply to
Kishore

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