Originally Posted by joegreen
I have a 2000 Lexus es300 and it has a cel for evap leak. This also disabled the traction control so Toyota has been doing this for at least 19 years.
Would not have bought a Toyota for the spouse if I knew this.
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Same on my 2008
My base Toyota Yaris 3 door with a 5MT put the traction control into fail safe mode when I put winter snows on with no TPMS. I Couldn't disable TC with the button on the dashboard. Couldnt get up my drive way hill (25ft rise over 150feet) in snow.. Any Slipping of the tires Killed engine output - slid down hill backwards into traffic. I need some tire slip to make it up my hill. Was going to pulll ABS fuse but it was tied in with another major circuit.
Sold it before next winter.
But - I bet MOST cars will put the engine /trans into limp mode with a major sensor failure. So the grass may not be greenner somewhere else.
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
Buying a Toyota for AWD was your first mistake
I recall on our 2008 Honda Odyssey, if the TPMS light was on, you could not disable the traction control / vehicle stability control. This would leave you dead in your tracks if you needed to get up our driveway in the snow if it hadn't been cleared yet. A super annoying "feature".
We've had several minivans since and none of them will disable things because of the TPMS light being on.
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I know it's a bad comparison, but the xB with Conti Extreme WinterContact studless anows & no TSC or ABS is WORLDS better in snow & ice than it was with the OEM GY garbage tires were with everything working. IMO, AWD/4WD just makes vehicles MORE dangerous if the tires aren't good enough!
My 2002 Honda Accord disables TCS when a CEL is set such as P0401 EGR clogging issue. I tend to think it's to make you fix the emissions issue, dunno though.
Go to this link on Toyota Nation with folks that had similar issues with the Highlander. From P0305 Cylinder #5 random misfires to poorly designed crank position sensor mountings affecting the AWD.
https://www.toyotanation.com/forum/...42890-check-engine-check-awd-system.html
Good luck and please keep us posted.
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My 07 Acura MDX does this when the code is thrown. However on restart the AWD/Stability is renabled except for cases like a speed sensor failure.
Originally Posted by i6pwr
Maybe I'm late to the game, but after driving GM vehicles for many years and a few Toyota's...this is something that would have made a big decision in my vehicle purchase.
We picked up a lightly used 2014 Highlander XLE AWD last summer and all has been great. I bought this for my wife to haul the kids and have a reasonable level of safety features to aid her in most driving situations.
A good part of my decision was that if she was caught in some bad weather....i.e...snow, that with good tires and AWD, her commute would pose less of a risk of being stranded.
What really caught my attention to all of this, was if there is...say.....an oxygen sensor issue, or basically an emissions related issue, that the vehicle
DISABLES THE AWD SYSTEM!
Are you freaking kidding me?!
If I'm still able to drive the vehicle, why does the AWD system and stability control need to be disabled?
I can understand a transfer case or differential issue, but this is not acceptable.
I've been around vehicles a long time, I can see one arguement that the system may not function up to it's full capacity..maybe, but if I can drive it with no other restrictions, why does the AWD and traction control have to be disabled.
I'm very seriously re-thinking this purchase and sell the vehicle. I DID NOT buy this to help keep my wife and kids safe, to have this possible situation lurking beneath.
Just some info for anyone that may have the same concerns.
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It can be an issue. My MDX Awd after chucking a CEL happened to do this after going to someone's home with an icy/snowy hill to climb to get back to road.
It was stuck until wife called and I mentioned restart in my case and she drove out.
Modern day traction control/stablity control uses DBW control of the throttle via CAN to cut engine power. First generation systems(Bosch ASR and Denso/Toyota TRAC) used either an auxillary throttle linked to the ABS system or throttle closer in the cruise control actuator to close the throttle. There is also a spark retard as well. I think Toyota's logic if there's a fault that affects driveablity, it's best to disable control of the engine via the ABS/VSC(Toyota's name for ESP)/TRAC(ASR) systems.
Since the functions of ESP/ASR were built on ABS, and it doesn't make sense at first to disable ABS when the additional functions of ESP/ASR are logically separate, think of ESP/ASR as braking individual wheels/drive wheels to help a driver keep control.
http://www.lwta.net/photos/Corvette%20C4%20ABS-ASR%20Operation%20and%20Diagnosis%20Manual.pdf - this was a good read into ABS/ASR operation.
Originally Posted by Chris142
...I wish that I could disable the traction control permantly. Its terrible in ours.
Toyota has been doing this kind of thing going on 20+ years. My 2001 Sequoia shut off my traction control and stability control because of a bad bank 1 front oxygen sensor. As far as why Toyota shuts off these systems for seemingly unrelated reasons, yea I have no idea. They arent alone though, others do it too. I'm sure there is a reason somewhere.
Originally Posted by Miller88
Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
Buying a Toyota for AWD was your first mistake
I no longer have a true 4x4 since I sold our F 150 a few years back, but we did own a 2002 CRV AWD for about 5 years and though it did well in snow our Forester seems to react a bit faster than the CRV on snow. But not sure if it was due to Subaru awd reacting faster or due to having a true snow tire (General Altimax arctic) tires. I never ran true winter tires on our CRV I had Cooper C-3 all seasons. I am guessing that had I ran with true snow tires that CRV would have done much better. this recent snow storm dumped an inch of rain followed by 10 inches on Lincoln Ne and I had no issues with Forester and Altimax tires while I saw many AWD suvs struggle for traction with just all season tires. FWD and even RWD cars with snows tires seemed to navigate just fine. I certainly like the Forester and aim to keep it for at least another 100K.
Originally Posted by anndel
Go to this link on Toyota Nation with folks that had similar issues with the Highlander. From P0305 Cylinder #5 random misfires to poorly designed crank position sensor mountings affecting the AWD.
https://www.toyotanation.com/forum/...42890-check-engine-check-awd-system.html
Good luck and please keep us posted.
Originally Posted by i6pwr
I will surely get on a Toyota forum, but there's a lot of people here that are passionate about their vehicles and I feel it's a good place to start.
She was driving it and called me that the AWD system is disabled and displayed on the screen. Took it to the dealer and they told us the oxygen sensor was showing a faulty reading and turned out to be a loose wire in the connection in the wire harness.
We were then told that this is normal. I said...this is not normal from a safety standpoint.
[quote=madRiver]It can be an issue. My MDX Awd after chucking a CEL happened to do this after going to someone's home with an icy/snowy hill to climb to get back to road.
It was stuck until wife called and I mentioned restart in my case and she drove out.[/quote
oh thank God, she could of been stuck till spring.....
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How about carrying one of those OBD-2 code readers. You could clear codes, and get the system functional for a time, for instance, if you get stuck.
My PA home has a very steep driveway with ice continually forming on top of the gravel from underground water. In the winter ya ain't getting out unless AWD is functional. That can be a real emergency.
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