Bought this '05 Gene about 4 years ago for my sis-in-law to commute 25 mi. ea. way out in farm country, and it's been great. Initial rebuilt the old battery, but about 3 yrs. ago rebuilt it again w/ NexGen lithium modules & it's been 55+ mpg goodness ever since, until yesterday. Just moving it in her driveway it suddenly popped a Red Triangle, along with the amber Maintenance Required light. Oil, air filter & PCV valve were changed 1,500 miles ago, and she swears she never tries topping it off when gassing up. Bi-directional scan showed nada, and Torque app was the same. Showed emissions system tested fine, but evaporated system test wasn't able to run for some reason. Incerter cooling pump is running strong & all fluid levels check. Car runs great, brakes great, and no excessive brake booster pump run on after shut down. I do not know, I'm at a loss as to where to look next, any ideas? I have several Gen2s that I maintain for family, but I've been spoiled after years of trouble free service, so I feel as though I've lost my diagnostic edge. Gettin' old truly does suck. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. No lift, but from above & below there are no leaks or drips in evidence as well. Gonna swap out gas caps, just 'because, but I'm out of ideas. Even though the scans showed no codes, I asked Torque to erase ECU codes, and the triangle disappears, but only until the engine turns over on restart. Also tried a couple of 12 vdc resets, also no joy. Also, car had 169,000 mi. on it four years ago & now has 225,555, and the 3 yr. old 12 volt battery showed 12.4 volts under load. Gonna swap that out next as well, just in case.
You've mentioned Torque by name, and also some "bi-directional scan" that "showed nada", but I'm not sure what tool you used for that. The usual explanation when you have the triangle light (and not intermittently, like low oil pressure around corners) and the scan tool you're using shows nada, is that the scan tool can't show you the corresponding trouble codes. Techstream will, and so will a few other alternatives. Autel AP200 gets mentioned a lot. I myself wouldn't spend a lot more time thinking about lifting the car or swapping and checking lists of things, before giving the car a chance to tell me what it is going on about.
For anybody wondering where that came from, Tom frequently talks about the green car turning red. Has to do with the way every one of the gen 2 MFD screens (except the map itself) has a different icon in the top left corner that identifies the screen. On one of the dozen screens, the "Energy Monitor" screen, the icon happens to be a green car. No matter what screen you happen to be on, if there is a problem to report, a problem display will cover up a top portion of the screen, and have a little red car icon at the left that ends up roughly where the icon of the original screen happened to be. Depending on the vintage of your MFD, it looks like one of these: In both cases, you can clearly tell this is just covering what was on the screen beneath and drawn over it. In the top version, they even gave it "3D" shadows to really make that point. Even in the bottom version, you can tell it has blanked out a top strip of the screen that was showing under it. So the real question is just, do you have the red-car problem icon showing on your MFD? It will show regardless of what MFD screen you have up. If you happen to have the Energy Monitor screen up, and you're not paying much attention, then yeah, it can look like a "green car" "turned red".
are you using the OBD2 mode on your scanner? you have a very capable scanner and I think you're just using it wrong. Get the Toyota module (instead of OBD2) and use it for scanning. Don't do the parts cannon approach, waste of time and money.. your scanner is definitely better than the Autel AP200, just learn how to use it.
Right you are. Went looking around for an appropriate cable & clear info on TS install, but that was pretty useless. Meanwhile I was running the hundred or do updates that I'd missed for the scanner, which included a variety of Toyota specific optimizations. Figured I'd give it another lash this morning before heading down the techstream trail. I had read somewhere that an issue w/ the interrupted or incomplete evaporated system testing could cause problems, but that can often clear up after a few drive around & reset sessions (which I had already been doing, but not for that reason). Didn't do anything else, but bright and early this morning it started & ran w/ no red triangle anywhere in sight. Put 50 miles on it since resting the maintenance required light & all is well, but thanks, I will be putting in some study time on the scanner, for the inevitable next time.
