Help an aged couple with their Rav4

[Popsy]

having bought a Rav4  2005 3 door automatic  a few weeks ago mainly to ease the problem of getting in and out of the vehicle, the huge width doors help.

we panicked when the engine warning light came on with the TRC/VSC light. The AA could find no problem, the car was running perfectly, he deleted the lights.   A few days later they came on again car still driving perfectly, we are assuming it may be a faulty sensor but for two oldies who worry about everything how do we get these lights to go off please.

[PaulinhoT]

Hello Shirley, welcome to the Toyota Owners Club, hopefully another Rav 4 owner will be able to give you some answers soon.

[Catlover]

On 12/12/2020 at 9:41 AM, Popsy said:

having bought a Rav4  2005 3 door automatic  a few weeks ago mainly to ease the problem of getting in and out of the vehicle, the huge width doors help.

Welcome to the Forum.

3 door cars usually have bigger doors due to requiring rear seat access. However on tight parking spots ie supermarket parking, you will find them not as advantageous due to this width. 
Sorry can’t help with your other problem.

[Gerg]

On 12/12/2020 at 9:41 AM, Popsy said:

we panicked when the engine warning light came on with the TRC/VSC light. The AA could find no problem, the car was running perfectly, he deleted the lights.   A few days later they came on again car still driving perfectly, we are assuming it may be a faulty sensor but for two oldies who worry about everything how do we get these lights to go off please.

When the warning lamps come on like this, error codes will be stored in the car's computer.  These will give specific details which should point to a particular sensor or engine problem.  With the dash lights you have displayed this could still be caused by several, quite different, engine problems.  Trying to guess what is causing your problem at this stage could be counterproductive, sadly.  You do need to get these error codes read.

The TRC/VSC error lights are almost certainly lit because there is an engine problem, and the computer is programmed to turn these particular 'driver aids' off if the car engine is not running entirely correctly.

Reading the error codes can be done with various tools, some of which are very reasonably priced at around £12 or so upwards, but you will need an Android smartphone to allow make this particular suggestion work, and you will have to buy an 'ELM 327 Bluetooth OBD2 dongle' (best to google this).  People on here will happily suggest a specific one if you choose to DIY diagnose using this device, but be warned, a garage will certainly want to check your diagnosis for themselves (chargeable!?) before undertaking any repair, even when you've already done this yourself beforehand.  And you won't be able to fix your problem with a code reader, you'll just have a greater understanding of what is likely going wrong.

Alternatively, any decent garage can access these error codes to allow an insight to the problem, but the charge for this can vary from nothing (fairly rare, but certainly not unheard of), to around half an hours labour charged.  It is worth finding out what you are going to get charged beforehand!

With regards the engine warning light itself, it will come on when an engine design error threshold is exceeded, but even if the problem has temporarily gone away, it will not go off until a pre-determined number of ignition key cycles or an amount of engine 'on' time has passed (or both) without any further errors, so even if the light stays lit, it doesn't mean the problem isn't intermitant - this can seem counter-intuitive!

It is fairly unlikely that the error logged will fix itself (apart from if you've just bought some 'duff' petrol or something else exceptional has happened!). 

Be aware that the error lights being lit will cause the car to fail an MoT test!

Hope this offers some clarification.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

Moved to the Rav4 forum.

[IanML]

Had the same problem.  See this post, and this one.

In my case, it turned out that the problem was caused by a "cough" when operating the starter, i.e. the engine did not start until the second attempt.  No defective parts.  The second time it happened, I just cleared the codes, and all was well.

If you repeatedly get the problem, but no fault codes are stored, try the Italian tune-up - drive for a few miles at 3,000 to 4,000 rpm.  Use "L" position on the gearshift to keep the road speed down.

[IanML]

Amendment to above:

Sorry, I should have said use "2" position, only use "L" if you need to keep the speed really low.

[Grumpy stumpy]

Petrol or diesel?
if petrol may just be a Oxygen sensor , about the only thing that goes wrong with the petrol Ravs, around £70-£90 for a denso one. You do need the fault code as said above to help with the fault. Again as said a code reader off eBay around £12 is worth its weight in gold and can save you loads. The oxygen sensor you can change yourself too .

[battleaxe]

on my 08 this happed when the brake switch failed, fitted new one same again after about 1yr, now strip it cleane it and been fine ever since. no fault showed up on test.