The Petrol Situation

[mobeyone]

Well.... I thought the north was not affected but my eml has come on! after I filled up at a Shell station on wednesday...

Car is driving fine, economy seems to be normal but the light is on... I had an mot two weeks ago and got a full print on the emissions and all was fine and well within limits...

Any advice anyone? is it the petrol? or possibly something else?

tia

[Red Yaris 54]

Well.... I thought the north was not affected but my eml has come on! after I filled up at a shell station on wednesday...

Car is driving fine, economy seems to be normal but the light is on... I had an mot two weeks ago and got a full print on the emissions and all was fine and well within limits...

Any advice anyone? is it the petrol? or possibly something else?

tia

Possibly something else.................as reports of contaminated fuel have been confined to the South and not at any Shell stations.......................yet.

[Mike O]

Had my eml come on this morning - same thing car seems fine/no different. Toyota dealer said it could be one of 115 things! Can only find out what it is by running diagnostic check - takes about an hour and £50.

Having it don on Wednesday with service.

Last filled up at Somerfield, in Gillingham, Kent, on 24th and done about 150 miles, also hoping it's something else.

[Red Yaris 54]

Had my eml come on this morning - same thing car seems fine/no different. Toyota dealer said it could be one of 115 things! Can only find out what it is by running diagnostic check - takes about an hour and £50.

Having it don on Wednesday with service.

I thought that a diagnostic check was carried out as part of a "normal" service not an extra £50 on top of the price.

It may be an idea to check exactly what you will be paying for.

[mobeyone]

Thanks for the replys guys.

Same here, been out today, car says around 130 miles gone so far and just under the 3/4 mark on the fuel gauge which is normal. Again no signs of what people are saying but worries me a little....

Mine is in for a service in april....... see what happens. Happened once before after I filled up but then went off again when i refilled..... fingers crossed.

When I had my MB, i used to pay near £80 and that woudl only take 30 mins.....

[Philat32]

Well.... I thought the north was not affected but my eml has come on! after I filled up at a shell station on wednesday...

Car is driving fine, economy seems to be normal but the light is on... I had an mot two weeks ago and got a full print on the emissions and all was fine and well within limits...

Any advice anyone? is it the petrol? or possibly something else?

tia

Possibly something else.................as reports of contaminated fuel have been confined to the South and not at any Shell stations.......................yet.

This is not true as the problems have been reported as far north as Dundee and even in Belfast.

And whilst not named it is not only tesco and Morrissons that are affected.

See this link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6407447.stm

[mobeyone]

Light has gone off!

Wierd... again no change in performance or usage etc....

[1bloke1dog1mr2]

I thought that a diagnostic check was carried out as part of a "normal" service not an extra £50 on top of the price.

It may be an idea to check exactly what you will be paying for.

Not true, my eml came on, and after lots of decent advice from TOC I cleaned the MAF sensor. No light since and that was a couple of weeks ago.

The same week that happened I had a full service at Mr T, and asked whether they did a diagnostic check as part of the the service, but they don't.

Needless to say I didn't bother. :D

[munawar amiri]

it seems this is a reocurring problem with the "eml" it could be a number of things but none of them, it would cost you at least £50+ just for half an hour diagnostic. Best thing to do is if it becomes annoying is to unplug the Battery for about 15 mins and a presto the light goes out. It is anyone guess when it may come back on.

[propnut]

All modern vehilces (1997 and up) have an OBDII port (onboard diagnostics) into which the Toyota mechanics plug in their tester which in turn gives them code readouts. These readouts give an indication as to what has gone wrong. However the same information can be gained via the engine warning light on the dashboard. All modern vehilces will have a way of getting this code to appear. Consult (or if you don't have one buy, beg, borry or steal) a Haynes/Chilton workshop manual specific to your car. It will tell you which two pins on your ECU port to short out in order to get the MIL to flash. It will typically flash in a series of two code i.e. two flashes pause followed by five flashes = code 25. The manual will then have a code chart against which you can correlate this output and it will tell you which sensor is dodgey. The only cost required to do this is a paper clip BUT you need to be 100000% sure you short out the correct pins.

As for the fuel. If you had put silicon contaminated fuel in your car the silicon may have coated the oxygen sensor(s) rendering it/them useless. It is sometimes possible that if the contamination was not to bad that the heat from the combustion of subsequent clean tanks of fuel cleaned off the sensor and it started to work again.

From personal experience I have found that in the case of a contaminated sensor it is possible to clean the sensor using a standard butane blow torch which you can get from B&Q. Heat up the sensor until it is read hot and kep doing this until all traces of white have gone. 9 times out of 10 the sensor comes back to life and it is certainly cheaper than buying a new one. You can also use this method to test that the sensor is working. As you heat the sensor it have a volt meter attached to the positive and negative terminal of the sensor. If working, after about 20 secs of heating you will see that the sensor will start producing a voltage which should peak at around 0.9 - 1.2 v. If you move the flame away the voltage should fall to around 0.1 v within 1 second. If it does this your sensor is fine. You should test for continuity between the heater circuit of you sensor if it is a 3 or 4 wire unit but you need to establish which are the correct pins. DO NOT MEASURE THE RESISTANCE BETWEEN THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TERMINAL ON THE SENSOR.

DISCLAIMER NOTE : - This only works on Zirconium sensors, Titania sensor works on the priciple of varying resistance. YOU MUST try the recommended tests as outlined by the workshop manual before trying any of the above. Once you are 99.9% sure that your sensor is shot based on these tests then you have nothing to lose by trying to revitalise your old one and try and save £120. I see no reason why the heat test should not work on a Titania sensor but you would be measuring for changes in resistance rather than the presence of voltage but I have not had the opportunity to test this. You need to ask Toyota what type of sensor you have. All though in my experince most modern Toyota (and other) mechnics seem to be becoming glorified part changes rather than real mechnics and so probably will not know. As such judcios searching on the Internet will be your other option.

Unless erased the ECU will retain the code so even if the light is not on now you can still retrieve the error code to see what went wrong.

[littlebillyj]

All modern vehilces (1997 and up) have an OBDII port (onboard diagnostics) into which the Toyota mechanics plug in their tester which in turn gives them code readouts. These readouts give an indication as to what has gone wrong. However the same information can be gained via the engine warning light on the dashboard. All modern vehilces will have a way of getting this code to appear. Consult (or if you don't have one buy, beg, borry or steal) a Haynes/Chilton workshop manual specific to your car. It will tell you which two pins on your ECU port to short out in order to get the MIL to flash. It will typically flash in a series of two code i.e. two flashes pause followed by five flashes = code 25. The manual will then have a code chart against which you can correlate this output and it will tell you which sensor is dodgey. The only cost required to do this is a paper clip BUT you need to be 100000% sure you short out the correct pins.

As for the fuel. If you had put silicon contaminated fuel in your car the silicon may have coated the oxygen sensor(s) rendering it/them useless. It is sometimes possible that if the contamination was not to bad that the heat from the combustion of subsequent clean tanks of fuel cleaned off the sensor and it started to work again.

From personal experience I have found that in the case of a contaminated sensor it is possible to clean the sensor using a standard butane blow torch which you can get from B&Q. Heat up the sensor until it is read hot and kep doing this until all traces of white have gone. 9 times out of 10 the sensor comes back to life and it is certainly cheaper than buying a new one. You can also use this method to test that the sensor is working. As you heat the sensor it have a volt meter attached to the positive and negative terminal of the sensor. If working, after about 20 secs of heating you will see that the sensor will start producing a voltage which should peak at around 0.9 - 1.2 v. If you move the flame away the voltage should fall to around 0.1 v within 1 second. If it does this your sensor is fine. You should test for continuity between the heater circuit of you sensor if it is a 3 or 4 wire unit but you need to establish which are the correct pins. DO NOT MEASURE THE RESISTANCE BETWEEN THE POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TERMINAL ON THE SENSOR.

DISCLAIMER NOTE : - This only works on Zirconium sensors, Titania sensor works on the priciple of varying resistance. YOU MUST try the recommended tests as outlined by the workshop manual before trying any of the above. Once you are 99.9% sure that your sensor is shot based on these tests then you have nothing to lose by trying to revitalise your old one and try and save £120. I see no reason why the heat test should not work on a Titania sensor but you would be measuring for changes in resistance rather than the presence of voltage but I have not had the opportunity to test this. You need to ask Toyota what type of sensor you have. All though in my experince most modern Toyota (and other) mechnics seem to be becoming glorified part changes rather than real mechnics and so probably will not know. As such judcios searching on the Internet will be your other option.

Unless erased the ECU will retain the code so even if the light is not on now you can still retrieve the error code to see what went wrong.

I had my light go on after a long drive to southwest france. Toyota dealer said cat and all four sensors needed changing - at £1500. I took it to my local garage and they did a gas check - emissions were only slightly over the limit. They ran some cat clean through it. Cost £50. My light went on again after another trip to France - maybe it's the long journey or something in French petrol? I just ignore it now - it's off at the moment.

[Parts-King]

More than likely French fuel, most manufacturers are suffering umpteen different problems with Diesel in Europe. The D4D engines will not run on chip fat, unlike older Diesel engine cars! I know your running a petrol engine, most likely cause is a faulty oxy sensor, shorting out the diagnostic pins is not for the faint hearted and should not be undertaken lightly, neither is blow torching the sensor! the new OBD tools at your dealership just plug in, it is NOT part of a standard service, you cant fit in a diagnosis test during a 0.8 hour service Kingo

[propnut]

You did not say what year your Previa is but if it is a 1990 - 2000 also known as the Mark 1 then here is a full online workshop manual for it.

http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/09008...irInfoPages.htm

NOTE!!!!!!! If your Previa is 1994 or on it will be fitted with an OBDII diag port. As such you will need access to a proper OBD II scanner to get the error code from the ECU. If you are unlikely to ever need the tool again GET THE AGENT TO DO IT. If you intend to keep the car and work on it yourself go out and buy one (plenty on Ebay) and read on.

If you are good with your hands and understand cars and how engines work then don't be put off trying to fix it yourself. Whilst there is no substitute for experience a car is nothing more than a large jigsaw puzzle. Armed with the correct documentation, some intelligence, natural ability and MOST importantly an INTEREST then working on a car can be a lot of fun and extremely rewarding. Either use this online manual or buy yourself a Haynes or Chilton manual. READ the relevant pages to ensure you FULLY understand the procedure. The emphasis is on the INTEREST followed by ABILITY as just trying to do it to save cash may well end up costing you more. THERE IS NOTHING HARD ABOUT SHORTING OUT TWO PINS AS LONG AS THEY ARE THE CORRECT TWO!!!!!!!!! AND YOU USE AN APPROPRIATE DEVICE.

Don't assume it is the O2 sensor, you will only really know once you get the code from the ECU.

Just remember that if working on cars required superior intelligence mechanics would be paid the same as doctors. My father was diesel/petrol mechanic and wasn't the sharpest tool in the box but ran his busniess for 50 years and never had a comeback. I am 40 and have NEVER and will NEVER pay for someone to fix my car. I have had everything from a Morris Minor to a 1200BHP 429cuin, supercharged Ford Mustang that ran on a mix of petrol, methanol and nitromethane and have rebuilt these and all the other over 50 cars and 200 motorcycles in between. I taught my wife how to work on cars by getting her to strip down and rebuild a 1976 Ford Escort 1.6GL. Her next complete rebuild project was a 1979 Ford Escort RS2000 which she did 100% herself and changed out the 4 cylinder 2L Kohln engine for a V6 3L Essex engine and uprated the entire front suspension, breaking system, engine mounts etc etc. She worked out how to mate up the new engine with the bell housing of the old gear box using an adapter plate, fitted a smaller lighter flywheel etc and did a hell of a lot more. IT ALL CAME DOWN TO INTEREST AND INTELLIGENCE.

Best of luck.