Check Engine Light on 3 times..only 9 days old

that is a strange one. if it's intermittent, they may need it for a bit to be able to reproduce the problem. if they can't see it, they can't know whether they fixed it, know what i mean?

i'll ask the hubby about it when he wakes up... might not get back to this till tomorrow.

in the meantime, coming up with the diagnostic code they found would be helpful.

 

Wow. That sucks. No problems here. I got my 06 in mid-January 06 and have 6600 miles on it so far.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 1 2006, 09:40 PM) [snapback]264422[/snapback]</div>

I recently bought a 2001 prius and also have had the death ray lights come on a few times. The car rides fine and then they go off. The first time I took it to a dealer they said just ride around awhile and see what happens. The other day I finally took it in again. Turns out it was possible water vapor in the gas tank, the lights were coming on when it was especially hot outside . In my brief experience and rookie opinion, including getting much helpful advice from the other members of this group, it seems clear that the prius warning panel lights are a blessing and a curse. The alert system is super sensitive to just about anything, loose gas cap, open door, crappy song on the radio (kidding) etc. and of course actual mechanical issues minor or major. The bad part is that there is no way to differentiate between nothing and the real thing. It's like crying wolf-- So what are we supposed to do? I don't know other than just relaxing a little when it happens.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Leslie @ Jun 2 2006, 05:18 AM) [snapback]264569[/snapback]</div>

Leslie, I can't remember if we've talked about this before. Is your Toyota service shop able to detect any diagnostic trouble codes, and if so which? I think they should be looking for soot on the accelerator butterfly, or engine oil in the intake maniford underneath it. But these are just guesses until you get some competent eyes and hands involved.

Oh, if they are somewhat sure about water in the fuel tank, this would be an appropriate occasion to get a bottle of "fuel dryer" from the auto parts store. We had a recent discussion on this topic, where some people felt that water could not get into Prius. But of course it can, if the fuel came from a contaminated tank.

 

About a week after I got my Prius, the check engine light came on. This was after a few short trips.

After leaving the car off for about 10 minutes and restarting, the light was gone and has not returned since.

My very helpful Toyota salesman said he had heard of this. He thought it might have something to do with the sensitive fuel bladder, etc. At the time, I think I had 2 pips showing, and there had been a significant change to warmer weather.

Unless it comes on again, I'm not going to worry about it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(galaxee @ Jun 1 2006, 09:57 PM) [snapback]264441[/snapback]</div>

Just what does a Toyota Dealer charge ot read the code. Biggest problem with my present VW has been that the check engine light comes on and then the dealer charges $100 to clear the light and tell me there is no problem. Now I just drive with the light on most of the time...

 

well if it's 9 days old, it should be covered by the warranty... of course depending on whether it's a customer-caused problem.

i think DH's shop charges 0.5 hr for scantool diagnostics at their labor rate, so about $40. if it's a huge issue, there may be some discretionary diag time (aka he's not going to dig around inside your car for 5 hours to find a problem for free) however, if he finds a code it won't leave his hands until it's fixed right, unless the owner decides not to fix it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 1 2006, 09:40 PM) [snapback]264422[/snapback]</div>

I picked up mine last Thursday (5/25). I went out of town over the holiday weekend (not in the new Prius) and then drove the new car to work this week. Wednesday I was coming back from lunch when my check engine light came on. I went straight to the dealer and raised enough hell to get them to look at it right then. The diagnostic computer showed a similar to yours - something about the cooling system. It turns out there was a bent pin in the connector to the cooling cylinder valve. They were able to fix it by the following morning.

You might want to ask them to check the connector. My service guy kind of implied they made a lucky guess about it.

Oh, and it was completely free of charge, including the xB they gave me as a rental.

EDIT:

I found the card that the service guy used to write down the diag code. The code was P-1121; the text of the diag was "Coolant flow control valve position sensor"

 

I had same thing occur in <1000 miles. Code read same. Part was ordered and replaced with no problems since. Figure 3 hours for the repair.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 2 2006, 04:55 PM) [snapback]264864[/snapback]</div>

Yep, that's the cylinder the service guy talked about. Apparently keeping the coolant at a higher temp is an efficiency factor. Ambient temp, maybe? Just a guess.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MoreMiles @ Jun 2 2006, 04:55 PM) [snapback]264864[/snapback]</div>

Odd. I'll let my service guy know too. My company's a vendor for Toyota, so maybe I can get a word up the chain somewhere.

 

No, that valve is part of the system that *saves* hot coolant off
to the thermos bottle [under the left corner of the front bumper]
for the next restart. The valve has to switch to one of three
ways to allow glycol to flow the correct way. It's related to
that little motor-running noise you hear just before the engine
starts when you power up the car ... still-warm coolant gets pumped
back into the engine around the cylinders to give them a nice
pre-warmed startup environment.
.
The valve is electrically operated, and the position sensor attached
to it confirms what position it's in and that it successfully moved
to the next commanded one. If that position sensor itself goes
bad, the car can't really tell the state of the multi-way valve and
issues that error code to get you to please fix it.
.
_H*

 

The only thing I can think of is that YOU mentioned the gas cap...are you sure you are tightening it all the way? It does tighten kindof strange, and a non tightened gas cap will make the engine light come on ....please post what the final outcome is....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(B Rad @ Jun 2 2006, 09:36 AM) [snapback]264687[/snapback]</div>

Driving with the light on could be a bad idea. Some auto parts stores can hook up their reader and tell you the error codes. If your VW is out of warranty, instead of spending $100 each time, it might be better to invest in one of these instead. I've also seen some really basic (cheaper) readers are auto parts stores.
http://www.obd-2.com/
http://www.autotap.com/products.html
http://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/index.html

You can read more about OBD II at http://www.obdii.com/.

Loose gas cap causing a check engine light is by design. I believe it's part of a check for a leak in the evaporative emissions systems.

See http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/index.php for an example of codes if you have never seen them. Without retrieving the codes, it's just a wild guess. It could be any number of hundreds or thousands of possible causes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hobbit @ Jun 3 2006, 12:29 AM) [snapback]265056[/snapback]</div>

That makes sense. Great info, thanks!

 

I just got my Prius and it's in the shop for a check engine light coming on. The mechanic said the valve in the cooling system wasn't working. They said the signal was being sent for the valve to work, but the valve was not responding. I will the Toyota know that this is a multiple person problem. I hope that's all that happens! 06 Prius #7, barcelona red

 

interesting. if the technical people up at toyota see enough of these come up, they might issue a TSB- basically a heads-up to the techs in the shop that there's a common problem and here's how to fix it. very very unlikely that there will be a recall- that's just a buzz word at the moment because of the current one... anyway let us know how it goes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tochatihu @ Jun 2 2006, 11:22 AM) [snapback]264673[/snapback]</div>

Yes, the code indicated possible moisture in the tank. One possible explanation is that the previous owner had only put 24,000 miles on it in five years so it's possible it sat around a lot and that was responsible for some moisture in the tank. I've got the bottle of gas dryer ready and waiting and it will go in my next fill-up. Leslie