exiledicon

Its been a year since I've had my 2007 Lexus IS 250. I love the car, its run well, no problems whatsoever, but a few days ago, the VSC light came on out of nowhere. I had recently received a notification to come in to the dealer and get a periodic full vehicle maintenance, and wanting to take care of whatever problem it was, decided to take it in within the hour. After paying for an hour of work, and mentioning the problem of the check VSC light came on, the lexus technician came back and said the car was 'running rich'. Now I've researched this term like a mad man on these forums but have never truly found a problem that reflects my situation. He showed me the test results and the brakes, engine, battery, tires, literally every check box on the tests showed a perfect score (the car has and is currently running fine after driving it around), and no lights, no check engine light, no nothing has come on since leaving the lexus dealership. However, before I left, the technician recommended getting an oil change and resetting the ECU. The problem and concern I'm having and hoping to have answered is this.....I've researched 'resetting the ECU' and found equal arguments saying it does work, it doesn't, its not that bad running too rich, etc. etc. etc......i guess i'm having trouble coming to a conclusion. Spend 80 bucks for them to reset it, or just take in the fact that there's no smoke, no smell, car runs fine, no difference in gas....PLEASE HELP

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

Did they wipe the code for you/take a note of the code number?

Get some CRC MAF Cleaner and clean your MAF. Unplug the battery for 30 minutes and then plug it back in. See if it persists.

exiledicon

From what I see in the results they gave back to me there are some codes they seemed to have taken note of. Truth of the matter is, I don't notice a problem with the way the car runs or anything, and as i said, no warning lights have come on in the couple days since i took it to get it maintenance. Still recommend cleaning the MAF?

Zmon

iTrader: (2)

I'd do it, but that's just me. If it's dirty, it can be causing you to run rich. Make sure you unplug the battery, as I mentioned above. It'll reset the ECU and how the car runs. It'll idle a bit weird at first as it learns where to idle again, and it'll shift/drive a bit weird for a short amount of time, but it'll be fine after an hour or so of driving.

This is assuming it's just a dirty MAF of course, which generally isn't a problem most of the time unless you use an oiled filter or don't change them often..

Bichon

If you want to reset the ECU, there is no reason to spend $80 or even a penny to do it. Just pull the EFI and ETCS fuses from the fusebox under the hood, wait a minute, and then re-insert them. Pulling the battery cable as allstar319 suggests would also work, but you'll lose presets, have to reset the windows, etc.

Tro209

Dont listen to the Dealers!! They LOVE to make money off the simplest things i swear it. They wanted like $70 to change my cabin air filter when I took my car in for the fuel sensor recall, I ended up doing it myself in less than 2 minutes and only paid the price of the filter ($15). So $80 for a reset you can do yourself by simply disconnecting the battery? That is in no way worth it. Shoot, if you want, I can do that for you for just $60 lol.

But seriously though, just disconnect the battery and wait a bit. Then re connect and turn the car back on. The NAV screen (if you have it) should show that its attempting to load the whole system again and your windows will no longer be automatic. And the car will idle funny at first but that goes away after driving for a few minutes.

See if this helps correct your issue and check your MAF sensor while your at it. As for the windows not rolling up and down automatically the fix is easy. You just roll all the windows all the way up manually by each door switch, Then all the way down and all the way up again. Once you've done that for each window your car should be back to normal again. Good luck and I hope this helps.

exiledicon

Appreciate your guys responses. Probably saved me 80 bucks and with my car payment a month, thats a pretty penny. lol as i said the car runs pretty much the same way as the day i got it, no problems or warning lights whatsoever so i'm pretty much just going on the dealers 'word for it' that the reason those warning lights came on that one time was running rich, but this sounds like more concrete insight. I will def try the things you guys recommended if I notice a problem or obviously if the lights come on again. Right now though, not really gonna touch anything if it aint broke or acting broke. Really appreciate the responses for easing my concern, never doubted the reliability of Lexus, don't want to start now.lol

Bichon

Pulling the EFI and ECTS fuses is easier, and you won't lose your seat and mirror pre-sets, and have to reset the windows and sunroof.

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UPDATE: So the VSC light came back on, three weeks after they went off after a scehdualed maintence was performed....so this time im thinking of pulling the EFI and ECTS fuses to see if that does anything as suggested in the earlier posts. However I can't seem to find where they are, looked in the box below the battery on the passenger side but can't seem to find anything identified by EFI or ECTS fuses. Can someone please point them out? And also, to confirm, i pull them out for a min and then plug them back in? I have a lexus is 250 2007 if that helps

AND ANOTHER UPDATE, managed to find them, sorry if my question was a little noobish....but pulled both the EFI and ECTS fuses, was really just hoping at one point that the car would turn back on again, and wow!.....lights are gone, everything runs good (not that anything was running bad) but the check VSC light and engine light is all gone. Thank you! For now, it seems to have worked, if it happens again I know what I'll be checking and doing. Still curious as to what the problem was though; hoping that one fix was enough to put it to rest, at least through the holidays.