Hi all,

I had a bad accident for which i replaced the whole rear suspension.. I repaired all the things down.. For the first time when i start the car. The abs and trac lights were popping out.. I tried to read the codes with the engine on idle and trnny at parking gear... but unable to get the codes, it shows communication error...

Any method to read the codes, since its my first time that im trying to read the codes.
I checked the lexls.com meethod, but 90-94 has obd1 and 95+ has obd2. so not sure if the method works the same,,,

 

How many days did your car need to repair?
What I want to know is that how long the ECU is not powered.

 

try it with the car off and in the key in the ACC position.

 

Yamae, what happens if the ECU is not powered for a long time? And what year cars does that effect?

 

i had the same issue with my 98 model, i took it into the dealer in the end, it seams that a lot of non us models can only be read by specialist software

 

Too long time causes malfunctions especially older ones.
The ECU is like a girl friend. If you don't meet her often, she will be forgetting you.

 

The OBD-II is only due in the USA, not in most of other countries. Your car needs to use a scanner which can communicate with Toyota cars. A S2000 manufactured by Denso or one of compatibles is needed to read codes and send commands to the ECU.

 

What kind of malfunctions happen? What is breaking down with the lack of power? I have 2 cars I leave without power for 2 to 3 weeks sometimes.

 

>What kind of malfunctions happen?
Different kinds of. It depends on the condition of the ECU.

>What is breaking down with the lack of power?
It would be lucky if only the power lack was the problem. Sometimes the board is breaking down and you need to replace the ECU.

Generally speaking, analogue signals are not properly processed causing malfunctions. In a worst scenario, the bus communication is interrupted and the scanner can't talk with the ECU at all.

 

It took only 2days to get the job done...

I purchased a ELM 327 cable to diagnose it myself, i installed the software on laptop.. again no errors were found, but it was showing everything of the engine, like the rpm, speed, coolant temp...

When i tried to read the codes, its say no DTC detected, but the abs and trac off light are still popping.. I thought to remove the mass airflow sensor, by checking the system this way.. malfunction light came up and it detected the code for mass air flow sensor, however i am still unable to diagnose the issue of abs and trac off issue...

One of my friend told me that when the accident happened, the axle was broken out, maybe the abs speed sensors got damaged, replace the speed sensors... but i dont know which speed sensors are likely to replace... since there are too many abs sensors on front tyres, on rear tyres on differentials.. messed up with it...

 

I have had similar issues with the Check VSC message on my '99; it turned out to be an alternator issue that was not fully charging the battery, even though it would crank and start okay. Found out that whenever the battery voltage would drop below a certain level as the engine started, the message light would come on, and stay on, with no OBD2 codes. Only after I got the alternator to put out the proper voltage, then my problem went away.

 

ABS and traction control codes will NOT be read by a standard OBDII reader. You need the toyota-specific tool and software, which is beyond the OBDII standard.

You need someone with a big boy snap-on or similar manuf. specific scanner to read the ABS and Trac codes.


The ABS and trac lights flashing are completely independent of the common "VSC-off" message that shows up in '98-00 cars.

 

Ok, So finally in have found out the code...
I manually set a jumper in OBD1 connector TC and E1, and set the ignition to on..
Like, LexLs.com what he wrote. I did step by step.

Finally, ABS light is continuously ON and TRAC light displays the code 43.
Which states that there is a mulfunction in ABS ECU as LexLS.com guy gives the list of code and TRAC is having malfunction in TRAC control system, but the code 43 is falling under ABS list, not the TRAC list.

The second thing, I noticed is that there is some whistling noise near the engine air filter area. Seems like there might be some air line leakage in the ABS actuator or not (just assumption)...

What could possibly be the problem??

 

I'd rather think your problem is related to one or both of rear ABS sensor.
I'd check the signal is properly sent from those to the controller.