Avensis Engine Management Light

[scottmcnair]

Hi, I have a 2001 Avensis GS and the engine management light is blinking on and of the vehicle idles but it is rough. The whole vehicle vibrates when idleing and is losing power. There are no visible leaks or wear and tear and the vehicle is regulary serviced. I am stumped as to what the problem may be. I would be grateful for any suggestions as to what the problem may be. Thanks

[t-spiritpete]

Hi, I have a 2001 Avensis GS and the engine management light is blinking on and of the vehicle idles but it is rough. The whole vehicle vibrates when idleing and is losing power. There are no visible leaks or wear and tear and the vehicle is regulary serviced. I am stumped as to what the problem may be. I would be grateful for any suggestions as to what the problem may be. Thanks

Hi mate, it "may" be the MAF sensor faulty which is just after the air filter, this can be removed and cleaned using electrical cleaner. If it isn't that are you sure that the car is not just running on 3 cylinders, you can check this by taking one plug lead off a time (stop the engine whilst you do this or you may get a HV shock), when the engine note doesn't change then this is the plug that's not firing so the spark plug or HT lead is faulty which is common on your type of car. Back to the MAF sensor, the MAF sensor has a tube that sticks into the air flowing to the throttle body, in simple terms it has a fine piece of wire that heats up due to resistance in the wire, this changes the voltage flowing but when you rev the engine the larger amount of air passing over the wire cools it which changes the voltage this in turn tells the ECU to adjust what the fuel to air ratio should be and adjusts it accordingly. You could just try disconnecting the plug from the MAF, this should make the engine run really bad, if it doesn't then more than likely it is faulty. Have you also tried disconnecting the Battery for a while or pulling out the EFI fuse in the main fuse box to try and clear the flashing light.

Regards, Pete.