Dash Light Error Decoder

Another blind 12v replacement? That doesn't ever fix anything other than a bad battery

You need to read the codes, hundreds and hundreds of them. No list.

 

There is no list based on just the light. The only thing the lights tell you is that the system identified by the light has one or more codes to report. You could get the lights to blink its codes without anything special except a piece of wire to connect two pins on the OBD-II port. Use the 'Advanced Search' feature using the keywords "Blink code" for further help.

 

Absolutely, positively WRONG.
It sometimes does eliminate bogus trouble codes caused by low battery voltage.
And if you have never seen that, it doesn't mean that it does not happen.

 

It has to be pretty low for that to be an issue, like less than 8 V, 9.5 V, or 10.5 V (those tipping levels depend on the system) to really matter so what JC said is pretty accurate. A battery with those voltages would be a bad battery.

 

Well, to be less gloomy about it, of course they're listed, right in the Repair Manual (more info), which is a great place for them, considering that's also where you find out what they mean and what to do about them.

It's just that putting together any other list would be a whole lot of work to not much purpose. It would either be a bare list of the codes and fortune cookies, and pretty much not useful, or it would have enough info to be useful, and end up comparable in size to the Repair Manual diagnostic sections anyway.

Time-saving hint: if you've got a PDF of the repair manual, do a search for a two-digit blink code with a slash in front. The codes are listed in the manual as the five-position DTC, slash, two-digit blink code, so a slash with the blink code usually takes you right there in one or two.

 

You'd be quite correct if the OP was asking about blink codes or the full DTC.

I took the OP's request to be a list of if this and this light are on, it means this; or if this and this light are on but not this light, it means this. There is no such list nor could there be - the lights themselves do not have enough information.

 

Hey, there could be such a list, and it would be very short:

	If this	Do this
1	Some dash lights are on (not brake ABS VSC ((!)) or airbag)	Use a scan tool to find out the trouble codes
2	Some lights are on including brake ABS VSC ((!)) or airbag	Use a scan tool to find all the codes; or get blink codes for brake and/or airbag right away and scan tool when available to see if there are others
3	Brake ABS VSC ((!)) or airbag lights are on and my non-Techstream scan tool thinks there are no codes	Take the weird scan tool out of the puzzle by using the blink method to get the codes (or get Techstream)

There, I've just made the list. No charge.

Edit: added row 3 since that's a common PriusChat thread-starter.

Then once the codes are in hand, the next step is to find out what those mean, as already covered elsewhere.

 

most auto parts stores can read some of the codes, but it often doesn't tell the whole story. if you don't want to pay a good shop, get set up with tech stream

 

Well of course it is. But that is NOT what he said.

 

I am actually surprised that Toyota kept blink code functionality- that's just so 80's.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I find it really handy. I can get the codes on any trip where warning lights have come on, whether or not I packed a laptop or other code reader. I can read them right away. I can read them in case of some communication failure with the diagnostic port.

Many PriusChat posters put up threads about "I have warning lights and no trouble codes" because they are using scan tools that aren't showing them the trouble codes, and the blink codes get the weird scan tool out of the picture and provide a way to get information and move forward.

Out of all the ECUs in the car, only a few of them can do blink codes. The number keeps dropping across the generations. I think it's kind of a shame each time one loses that ability. Surely it doesn't cost much code space in a modern embedded controller.

In Gen 1, even the Body ECU could give blink codes. It would blink the Door Open light. Of course that light's in the combination meter, so the Body ECU was really sending messages to the combination meter to blink the codes out. If it detected that it wasn't communicating with the combination meter, it was supposed to go to plan B and blink the codes out on the dome light instead, which it directly controlled.

The Gen 1 steering ECU could do blink codes, and there was even a wire in the wire harness for a steering warning light, going all the way to the combination meter, but there was no LED installed there. If you added an LED of your own on that pin, you could get blink codes for steering issues.