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2008 RX350 VSC OFF, Traction Control Off, CEL On

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Old Oct 11, 2021 | 12:32 PM
  #1  
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Default 2008 RX350 VSC OFF, Traction Control Off, CEL On

He everyone,

I am the proud owner of a 2008 RX350 I have owned for a year now. A month ago, I was making a 2000 mile drive across the country towing a 2000lb trailer. Before the drive, I changed the front wheel bearings, and all the spark plugs. The car drove beautifully for the first 1500 miles. Then when i stopped for about my tenth fillup of the drive, when I started the car, the CEL, VSC OFF, and traction control light came on. I unplugged the battery for 10 minutes to reset the electronics and drove another 100 miles and the lights all came on again. I did not believe that me changing the wheel bearings had anything to do with this. So I looked at the intake manifold and everything I had to put back together after changing the spark plugs. I have scanned my car with an OBD II code reader. I am getting P0441 (Evaporative Emission Control System Incorrect Purge Flow) P0455 (Evaporative Emission Control System Leak Detected [Gross Leak]) I did not notice anything unusual, everything appeared to be hooked up correctly. I did some research and got a new gas cap. This did not fix the issue.

Now when I reset my battery, the car consistently goes 50 miles and then the lights all come on. I noticed that my gas mileage is not as good as it was. Also sometimes I smell gas outside my car right after cold starting.

I understand that there could be an issue with my charcoal canister or my purge valve. If someone has any insight on this issue that would be appreciated before I buy a new purge valve in hopes of fixing the problem.
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Old Oct 11, 2021 | 05:08 PM
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I had that same issue earlier in the yr, I just swapped out the evap canister using a Dorman #911-653 canister. Jack up the rear of the vehicle using jack stands, drop the exhaust to get to it. Deleted the mil & good to go.....My wife mentioned not to top off the fuel, LOL. This was my fault as I topped of the fuel as I do w/ Diesel trucks. As far as the tc light, I'd think possibly a abs tone ring or the abs connector. Was there a issue w/ the front wheel bearings?
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Old Oct 11, 2021 | 05:45 PM
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Originally Posted by Felix
I had that same issue earlier in the yr, I just swapped out the evap canister using a Dorman #911-653 canister. Jack up the rear of the vehicle using jack stands, drop the exhaust to get to it. Deleted the mil & good to go.....My wife mentioned not to top off the fuel, LOL. This was my fault as I topped of the fuel as I do w/ Diesel trucks. As far as the tc light, I'd think possibly a abs tone ring or the abs connector. Was there a issue w/ the front wheel bearings?
Hey Felix, thanks for getting back to me, I do not believe that there were any issues with the front wheel bearing installation, I did press out the old bearing out of the hub and pressed the new bearings in with a 20ton press. However, I was very careful to make sure that the opening for the axle speed sensor was lined up properly. Like I said, 1500 miles and 1 week after I did the maintenance, all the lights I mentioned above came on at the same time leading me to believe there is 1 problem causing these lights to come on.

I have researched online that some EVAP problems can cause all these lights to be triggered leaving No ABS, No Traction Control and No Cruise Control. Perhaps I will drop the muffler and inspect my EVAP canister. I have also heard the fuel filler neck or the charcoal canister purge valve could be the issue.
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Old Oct 12, 2021 | 12:38 PM
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Its the gas cap..... clean around filler neck and clean cap seal wd40.... if in doubt replace it
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Old Oct 12, 2021 | 01:10 PM
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Originally Posted by uksparky
Its the gas cap..... clean around filler neck and clean cap seal wd40.... if in doubt replace it
I truly believed it was the gas cap originally. I already changed it out with a new one and reset the battery and the lights all still come on.

I think I am going to go to a shop so they can do a smoke test on my EVAP system. I don't want to change out every part if I don't have too. I am hoping its the purge valve, I am worried its the filler neck.
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Old Oct 12, 2021 | 01:49 PM
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When you have some condition that causes the check engine light to come on, it will also cause the VSC and traction control lights to come on. Toyota programmed the ECU to do this. Their thinking is that if you are having some kind of engine problem, it could interfere with the VSC and traction control. So the ECU will disable those functions and turn on the lights to let you know that those function are no longer working in case you happened to be using them.

So when you hook up a code reader to see what codes you have, fix everything else first and the VSC and traction control lights will go away.
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Old Oct 12, 2021 | 02:45 PM
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https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...21-solved.html
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Old Nov 1, 2021 | 08:12 AM
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Hey everyone,

Just thought I would provide an update to close out this thread. Last week, I inspected under the car and saw that my charcoal canister was melted with a massive hole in it. There was no heat shield over my muffler and when i drove for three days straight, i am guessing on the third day the canister just melted off.

I ordered a new canister from Toyota (OEM Part #: 77740-0E020) and already received it and installed it. Process was simple enough, dropped the exhaust and pulled the 4 hoses and cables off, then undid the 3 nuts that were holding in the canister. Swapped the new one in and called it a day.

I am going to self fabricate a new heat shield for it today, I already devised a way of doing this, I will share photos.

Thanks everyone for the help and input.
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Old Nov 1, 2021 | 06:57 PM
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Originally Posted by john117
Hey everyone,

Just thought I would provide an update to close out this thread. Last week, I inspected under the car and saw that my charcoal canister was melted with a massive hole in it. There was no heat shield over my muffler and when i drove for three days straight, i am guessing on the third day the canister just melted off.

I ordered a new canister from Toyota (OEM Part #: 77740-0E020) and already received it and installed it. Process was simple enough, dropped the exhaust and pulled the 4 hoses and cables off, then undid the 3 nuts that were holding in the canister. Swapped the new one in and called it a day.

I am going to self fabricate a new heat shield for it today, I already devised a way of doing this, I will share photos.

Thanks everyone for the help and input.
Nice job and thank you sharing your fix.
Looking forward to the pics.
Did you find out why your heat shield was missing?
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