Toyota Corolla Verso Engine Light Problem; Light Not Working....

[iiroh]

I have a 2003 Corolla Verso (1.6 petrol, 3ZZ-FE engine, Japan made car).

The engine light is not working at all. Meaning that it does not turn on when

ignition is turned on before starting the car. I suspect the previous

owner has somehow deactivated the light although I have no idea how

the car has passed annual inspection before my ownership. Well, now it did not

pass the inpection because of the light....

The reason why I believe the light has somehow been deactivated is that the

car was also giving OBD code P1349 (vvti problem) which I believe is now fixed.

I cleaned vvti Oil Control Valve (OCV) and the related filter and at least on

a short ride the code did not come back. OCV is working when removed from car and

also works when installed. Engine stalls and shuts down when OCV is actived by

connecting 12V directly to OCV during idling. According to test instruction this

is what should happen when OCV-vvti gear control is working correctly.

Anyway, now the main problem is the engine light which is totally dead.

I have checked the wiring diagrammes and have also checked that correct

voltages arrive from fuse box and engine ECU. So, it seems the problem is really

in the combination meter unit. I opened it far enough to check that there

are no cut wires or removed components on the backside of the combination meter printed

circuit board (PCB). The meter unit looks like it has not been opened before.

I think the combination meter is same or very similar to E12 Corolla. Part

no is 83800-13110.

I tried to search for instructions on how the deactivate the light so that I could

activate it again. No success. Of course, it is possible that combination meter

is really faulty but I doubt it. I think the light has been deactivated on purpose

although I do not now how.

The combination meter warning lights and illumination are based on LEDs assembled

on the printed circuit board. LEDs are obviously on the front side of the meter PCB and

I could not access them because of the difficulty/risk is disassembling the whole unit.

There are no light bulbs to remove....

The combination meter is not easy to completely disassemble, you cannot access the

LEDs without removing meter needles and all parts. I would not like to do that unless

I am sure I can safely/succesfully assemble all parts back....

Any advice ??

PS. Is there a way reprogramme the odometer reading if I buy a second hand combination meter ?

My car has 215.000km. I found one second hand unit with 60.000km odometer reading and I would

like to program the correct 215.000km reading in it if I buy the unit. Can dealer do that ?

[oldcodger]

As I just mentioned in another post there is a 6 page spread in this months UK Car Mechanics magazine about repairing instrument Clusters.

It does say getting a s/hand unit can be more trouble than its worth because it may need recoding; though perhaps thats for the more hi tech cars ?

Looking at the diagrams for my UK built 1.6 3z it does show a separate wire running from the ecu to the engine check light.

If there actually is one on your model and you can find it I would try -

Though you have said there are no cut wires, have you tested for continuity along that wire with a test meter ; has one of the connectors/wire fractured or someone carefully hidden a break in the cable connector Shell.

Again with a meter, if you connect it to that cable, can you measure and voltage or current running though ?

It probably will not show anything if the ecu/check light has been cleared, but if you disconnected some sensor to force a check light, does the meter then show a voltage coming out of the ecu ?

That should prove if its the ecu, wire or led thats faulty.

Edit according to my UK diagram the led wire connection is A 33 wire colour White ( red /yellow)

[iiroh]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I found a matching wiring diagramme from haynes manual of

Corolla E12.

There is a red/yellow wire than runs from ECU directly to the engine light input of the

combination meter. Colour of the wire changes to sky blue on the way but it´s a direct wire anyway.

Normally this signal is +1.5V when LED is on, that is when ignition is on but the car has not been started.

When car starts and if there are no OBD fault codes, this signal goes to Battery voltage, that is 12-13V.

If there is a fault, signal remains at +1.5V.

This signal from ECU goes to the cathode of the engine light LED. Anode of the LED is connected to

Battery voltage through a resistor and the fuse box. So, when engine light is off, both anode and cathode

are at Battery voltage -> no current -> LED is off.

I checked both the signal from ECU and the anode voltage. Nothing wrong there. So I figured the problem

must be in the combination meter. I have worked with electronics all my life so I thought that it is very

unlikely that the LED would be burned. I though that I could disassemble the combination meter even

if it would break, since I would need to replace it anyway....

I started diassembling the meter and

just before causing permanent damage to it I bent the black back panel of meter and I noticed

something strange between the back panel and the white plastic frame of the meter.... 2 layers of

black tape just where the engine light LED is located !!!

I felt relieved, stupid and angry at the same time.... seems some people are ready to do anything to sell their

car further. I am usually very careful when I buy cars but I have to admit I did not check the operation of

the engine light when I bought this car.

The fault code my car was and is sometimes giving is P1349 which is malfunction of VVti system. I checked the

OCV valve, works fine both when disassembled and when assembled. As instructed in some Toyota

document, engine stalls at idle after a few seconds when I connected +12V to the OCV. OCV oil filter was pretty

clean but I washed it anyway.

The code was off for one day (and the car passed inspection...), then it came back following day, now it has been

off for two days. I thought the light would not reset without an OBD reader/cleaner but it seems to do that. Code

was on yesterday, but today when I started the car it was gone. Strange.

In my opinion my car works perfectly, I have driven several E12 Corollas with the same engine and I do not find any

difference. After the inspection the light has now turned on twice, both times it was very humid weather, engine

was cold and running at low RPM. It would be interesting to understand how ECU decides that there is something

wrong in the VVti system. ECU electrically controls the OCV which is just a simple solenoid valve cutting oil pressure

on and off with some frequency. In my understanding the ony way ECU could notice that something is wrong is that

it would compare OCV control to camshaft angle sensor signal and find that the camshaft advance is not what it should

be ? Does anybody know how P1349 is generated ?

Thanks, Iiro

[iiroh]

Hi,

As explained above, the light is now working but I still do not know the cause of the P1349 code. OCV and related filter have been cleaned and checked. OCV works fine when operated directly from the Battery. I would assume the actual VVti actuator on the cam works as well, since engine stalls when 12V is connected directly to OCV.

If I clear the code, its takes anything been 15min to 2h of driving before code comes back. So it does not necessarily turn on the same day after clearing.

Did anyone fix the root cause of this code in the 1.6 petrol (3ZZ-FE) engine ?

In my understanding at least the following roots causes are possible:

- VVti actuator on camshaft is really faulty

- camshaft or crankshaft angle sensor is faulty but works most of the time

- ECU is bad

- camshaft chain is stretched which causes timing errors resulting in code P1349

- someone suggested that the oil pressure drops with an aftermarket oil filter. I have used german

brand mann filters, not OEM, but I will try OEM next....

By the way, sometimes my code reader gives two error codes, P1349 and P1349P

Any idea what P1349P means, I could not find explanation for this ?

[avetoy]

I raise an old topic here...

My friend has Corolla (-04) with 3ZZ-FE engine and error code P1349 appears too from time to time.

The OCV valve has been renewed and its filter checked and cleaned and all possible tests has been done also.

I think the vvt actuator might be the problem but before any actions I´d like to hear your opinions/experiences.