2004 T4 Computer Won't Show Miles

[JWL]

The alternator failed 20 miles from Portsmouth when heading off to holiday in France. So, instead of a holiday we come home on an RAC tow truck. The rest of the family managed to go ahead the next day and I got to stay home to fix the car. I already hated it but now . . .

Well, of course, the car was without power for a while and this has had a couple of odd effects.

1. The windows will no longer auto open / close with a single button press. I read on web that I should hold it in the close position for several seconds. I have not had a chance to try this yet.

2. The computer will only show km. When I got it back from the garage, the computer was showing a select language message (fair enough). I selected English and then was asked for km or miles and I selected miles but I got km. I have tried again a few times but I can't get miles. I can switch into other languages and I could cope with some of them but no other language offers miles. Not the end of the world but it's annoying. I now have to get used to things such as whether 8 l/100km is good or bad and do some mental arithmetic when I check the range. I have not tried navigation yet.

Any ideas, anyone?

Does everyone here love their Toyota? I don't. I hope that won't discourage you from helping me if you do.

[jumbojake]

seems a bit harsh when it's just 'gone metric'.... details for both should be in the user manual... changed both of these after I had a Battery swap.. nothing to worry about.

If I recall, the window, you just hold down the button to open fully, then close fully. I don't recall what button to press to set the mile/km, but don't recall it being difficult .. in the user guide.

I'd recommend living with a Vauxhall or worse a French car for a while, they are always good to re-adjust perspective.

for me, my 2004 Avensis is the best car I've ever owned, by a very long way (never go back to Euro cars)

[Druid Boy]

Mine is a 2006 model but the book says:

Press & release the 'Ent' knob and the units (km) will flash

Turn the knob to select miles or km

Press & release the knob to set the unit

hope that works

[JWL]

seems a bit harsh when it's just 'gone metric'.... details for both should be in the user manual... changed both of these after I had a battery swap.. nothing to worry about.

If I recall, the window, you just hold down the button to open fully, then close fully. I don't recall what button to press to set the mile/km, but don't recall it being difficult .. in the user guide.

I'd recommend living with a Vauxhall or worse a French car for a while, they are always good to re-adjust perspective.

for me, my 2004 Avensis is the best car I've ever owned, by a very long way (never go back to Euro cars)

Thanks, I got the windows sorted, I closed the window and held the button in the close position for a few seconds and this sorted it. I had to do it for both from windows separately. I have not checked the back windows yet. The computer is in km still, see below.

I don't hate the car just because the computer is stuck in km, in fact that is one of its few amusing faults. I don't even hate it just because the alternator died while we trying to go on a holiday but it did increase my hatred. I have owned variety of cars over the years: Ford Escorts, several BMWs, a VW Golf, and a Volvo. This is the first time that I have even been towed home. I have only called out the RAC or AA a few times before and in each of those cases, they managed to fix the fault on the spot.

I hate the car because I thought that it was the sensible choice but it has been the most unsatisfactory car that I ever had. My previous car was a Volvo V70 which I failed to appreciate since it followed my BMW 525 which I loved. I changed the V70 since the office moved and I could no longer walk to work. I would be doing more miles and be more dependent on the car. The Volvo had given no trouble (no RAC call outs at all) but was poor on fuel and expensive to maintain. I decided to go sensible for a change and get something boring, cheap, and reliable. Research led me to the Avensis. It achieved one of those three expectations (guess which). I bought it as an approved used car from a Toyota dealer, 3 years old with about 50,000 miles. This is similar to how I bought the Volvo. As I said, the Volvo never gave any trouble and I never called on its guarantee. The Toyota gave loads of trouble from the beginning. Admittedly, all the early faults were fixed under guarantee but it was a lot of hassle and required many trips to the garage and quite a lot of complaining in some cases. I would need to go to my records to get the full of items changed but here are a few: steering rack, steering wheel wiring loom, and the ignition key mechanism. The last fault that I managed to claim under guarantee was the housing for a headlamp. The headlamp blew and knowing that it would be hard to change, I went to a garage to get it done. They could not, the housing around the lamp had melted! Toyota managed to use a plastic that could not cope with the heat of the bulb.

That's reliability but it is also disappointing on cost. It does use less fuel than the Volvo or the BMW but considering how much engine and power that I have lost and that I have gone from auto to manual, the savings are disappointing. The listed service charges are lower than the Volvo but the dealer would always find loads of extra things to do. So, the actual bills were actually more than the Volvo. The most extreme was my last service with an official Toyota dealer, the expected bill was £200 but they claimed that loads of other things needed changing and they wanted £1000. I declined the work, took the car to an independent dealer who said that most of these extra items were unnecessary. Things have been a bit better since I I started using the independent dealer. In 3 years, I have actually spent less than £1000 on services. This alternator is the first fault since I switched to independent servicing. The alternator was not one of the extra items in that £1000.

[JWL]

Mine is a 2006 model but the book says:

Press & release the 'Ent' knob and the units (km) will flash

Turn the knob to select miles or km

Press & release the knob to set the unit

hope that works

My manual says to go to settings. I first get a choice of languages and I can select a variety of languages and this works. For English only, I then get a choice of km or miles but whichever I choose, I get km. I'll try you way just in case it works.

That won't be until Sunday. The rest of the family went on holiday without me and I got to stay at home to get the car fixed. My holiday now is a couple of days of not driving the hated Toyota (see above). My next expected trip will be to collect them from the station when they come back on Sunday.

[+robster+]

id disconnect Battery to clear memory and try again tomorrow

[Gabaunion]

Hi Rob,

I have had the Battery off a few times, and always get quirks from the control electronics after. They have always cleared by themselves after a day or so.

I don't know why you don't get the millage out of yours, I get over 60mpg (actual checked, the computer says 80+ on the average display).

What I save on fuel though, I do seem to be using on parts, it always needs a linkage or a bearing. It was bought second hand though so it is hard to judge.

Mines a 54, bought at 75,000 now has 160,000. So exactly 1 ton of fuel, and it feels like 1 ton of parts too, but I didn't weigh them before fitting.

[JWL]

Druid Boy & +robster+, Thanks for the suggestions. I won't try them today, as the family is still away, I will take a day away from the car and just use the bicycle. Alternatively, I may just set it on fire. On seconds thoughts, I won't; it would make a horrible mess of the drive and upset the neighbours (*).

Rob, Mine is a 2.0 petrol, what is yours? If I drive in super boring mode, which I actually do most of the time, I can get around 40mpg. This is both by the computer and actual measurements on full ups. My best ever was 44mpg on a fill up but that was a couple of years ago and despite significant effort, I have not managed to reproduce it. Sometimes it drops to the low 30s. Recently, it seems to be worse than usual. I can get the computer to report 40mpg for most of a tankful but the actual measurements don't confirm it. At the same time as the alternator change, I asked the garage to check the idle speed which has been erratic recently. The diagnostics showed nothing so he cleaned the throttle body. Plenty of muck came out and the idle speed is more regular now. I am hoping that is the explanation of the poor recent mpg as well. I won't have that answer for a while. I have 3/4 of a tank left so I will need to use that up and then another whole tank to get even the first measurement since this cleaning. Unless some extra trips come up that could be nearly a month.

Parts have not been too bad since I started to use an independent dealer. This alternator, fan belt and fan belt tensioner is the first unexpected item. Otherwise only disc pads and spark plugs.

(*) For those who fail to realise it, this is a joke.

[+robster+]

mines a 2.0 d4d

i get good mpg but i dont count it and just compare to some of my previous guzzlers.

i just get a sense of how often i stick 20 quid in the tank and the d4d is doing well

your erratic idle sounds like your idle control valve was gummed up or you had an air leak and it was rectified with the throttle body cleaning process

this wouldnt cause high consumption due to a petrol regulates its revs with air intake as opposed to a diesel which regulates its revs with fuel intake.. hence an air leak or sticking icv will have your idle speed high or if stuck shut will stall when decelerating at a junction etc.

also you say you drive in super boring mode. id give it a good thrash to clean out the cats, see if mpg comes back the way in your favour

[JWL]

I give the car an occasional thrash and the son is a bit wilder than me (but hasn't driven it recently) but it is not a car that encourages wild driving. To be fair, I did not expect that; as I said above my expectations were: boring, cheap, and reliable. I intended a bit of a thrash using an alternative route home from work on Thursday but two things worked against me. The speed limit had been dropped from 60 to 50 since I last used it and it was wet. The car seems to lose traction disappointingly easy in anything less than perfect conditions and the feeling is not nice. It has more engine that the old BMW 318 that I used to have but much less fun to drive. I grew up with RWD and still have a preference for it.