Engine Malfunction Light In Yaris

[melmyo]

Hi, my Yaris is a 5 door GS, year 2000. Its done just over 100,000 miles and was doing fine. I had it in for a full service a few weeks ago and shortly after this, the engine malfunction light came on. I took it back to my usual garage which isn't a Toyota garage and they reset the light and told me that if it comes back on it will cost about £290 to get a new bit. The bit in question was a valve which is apparently stuck. They said the light came on because of something to do with the oxygen fuel emissions. So, a few days later, the light came on again. I took it to a Toyota garage and they again reset the light and put some engine cleaner in. They said that this valve kept jamming and wasn’t allowing the air to get out of the engine so the engine was starting to get full of carbon. Again I was quoted a few hundred to get this fixed. The light came back on again yesterday, less than a week after I was at the Toyota garage.

Does anybody know of a cheaper way to fix this problem? Could the valve not just be cleaned? A bit WD40 maybe? If so, where on earth is this valve?! Has anybody had the same kind of problem? I'm only planning on keeping the car for another 10 months or so, so I'm not wanting to spend a load of money on it (again)

Any help would be appreciated!!

[Black Knight]

Is your driving style very slow and gentle/lots of short (less than 5 miles) journeys?

It might be getting a bit gunnked up with carbon if it is. You could try giving it a good run. Lots of full throttle acceleration to red line. should burn off a lot of carbon in the engine if thats what the dealer getting at.

Alternatively they could be on about the O2 sensor which could cost a bit to replace.

To be honest though from your description (i.e very uncertain about what the dealer is talking about) it sound like they're trying to take advantage of you. Try and get a detailed and written description of what they suspect and post on here. Might give a better chance of diagnosing it

[melmyo]

Is your driving style very slow and gentle/lots of short (less than 5 miles) journeys?

It might be getting a bit gunnked up with carbon if it is. You could try giving it a good run. Lots of full throttle acceleration to red line. should burn off a lot of carbon in the engine if thats what the dealer getting at.

Alternatively they could be on about the O2 sensor which could cost a bit to replace.

To be honest though from your description (i.e very uncertain about what the dealer is talking about) it sound like they're trying to take advantage of you. Try and get a detailed and written description of what they suspect and post on here. Might give a better chance of diagnosing it

Thanks for your reply :)

I dont really do that many shot journeys and usually do a few 50 mile trips a week. But I do usually keep the revs fairly low. Just gave it a good run & tried to give it lots of acceleration, but the light is still on. Would it go off by itself if I did manage to burn off a lot of the carbon?

I dont think that my usual garage would try to take advantage of me tho, as I've been with them years and they have always been really good & usually give me freebies ;) They were the ones who said that it was something to do with the oxygen emissions, but they dont really deal with a lot of Toyotas.

I'll try and take it back to them next week & get a written description of what they think is wrong.