My ‘Check Engine’ light came on the other day, and I borrowed a friends OBD-II reader to get the code and reset the light. So far so good, but for the life of me I can’t find a web site that tells what the code means.
Car: 2000 Toyota MR2 Spyder
Code: 0171
So far (40 miles) the light has not come back on.
Anyone know a good site with Toyota diagnostic codes?
TIA
Aren’t all OBD-II codes standardized?
I went to this site and found this:
P0171 System too Lean (Bank 1)
Too much air, not enough gas. (Or is it the other way around?) Might have worked itself out, if the light’s off and all seems to be running well. I’m not enough of a tech to tell you where to look first if it comes back, but that at least gives you an idea. Find a good Toyota board and post there if it pops up again.
According to this page, your engine is running to lean.
Just did this on my car, oxygen sensor.
So, the codes here should tell ya.
P0171 System too Lean (Bank 1)
CMC fnord!
Is that the message that’s generated if you don’t get the gas cap on tightly enough? My ex had this happen with her 2000 Eclipse and it required a trip to Advance or O’Reilly to reset it.
Thanks guys. Didn’t realize the codes were all standardized. Hopefully the light will stay off and this was just a transient situation. The car was running fine (as best as I could tell) even when the light first came on.
Don’t know a whole lot about Toyota’s stategy when it comes to setting this code, but in my experience it probably will return.
System too lean is usually an air leak either on the intake side (bad gasket, vacuum hose leaking etc) or on the exhaust side (bad gasket, crack in the manifold etc)
I had this exact same code on my 1998 F-150. Checking online forums resulted in a bunch of suggestions (many of which cost $$$) however one quick and cheap one was to clean the MAF (Mass Air Flow sensor).
I don’t know if your Toyota has one of these but it was pretty simple to do and resolved my problem. On my truck the MAF sits just downwind of the air filter. Required a high-security Torx bit to remove ($2 at the hardware store) and a can of electronic contact cleaner ($5 at the Kragen). Very carefully remove the sensor (dropping it is a $150 mistake), spray it with cleaner, let dry and reinstall. The MAF has two teeny, fragile wires on it that detect airflow, crud eventually builds up on them causing incorrect readings.
Anyhow, this took me 30 minutes and was very inexpensive, might be worth a go on your Toyota.
Sorry if this is a hijack, but I just wanted to echo this question. I’ve always been told you have to twist the gas cap on until it clicks, or your Check Engine light will come on and you’ll have to pay to get it reset. Is that true? Wouldn’t this be the error that you would get? Why wouldn’t the light just go out when you tighten the gas cap?
The engine/comp has to cycle through various conditions. Ratchetting down a once-loose cap won’t automatically let the comp check off on the condition it originally experienced. The condition is now ripe to surface with the cap tightly secured, and once the right condition(s) are cleared, the light will go off.
Securing the cap enables the right conditions to exist. Once they do, the light goes off.
Yes, but driving it for about 4 trips to and from work would have reset it for her if she had retightened the gas cap.
The dealer told her that the light would stay on until it was reset (and it appeared that that was the case). But Advance (or O’Reilly - I don’t remember which) doesn’t charge for resetting it, so it was no big deal.
and
The answer here is maybe depending on the system. Again I am not an expert on Toyota systems, but on others it may take 1 or 2 reasonable drives or it might take 2 drive cycles from hell to reset the light.
Not knowing exactly how the system in question works to turn off an intermittent light, I can’t make a blanket statement that x number of trips to work will turn off the light.
Good point. My drive to work appears to include the whole range of styles the systems look for…
If your check engine light comes back on, don’t ignore it like I did. I just assumed is was some pollution control device. I was due for a pollution test in a few months, so I decided to wait.
Well, it was a pollution device, it was the O2 sensor. Not good, it caused my engine to burn the gas way too rich. One day going to work the engine simply wouldn’t start.
It turns out the valves and valve guides were completly carboned up.
1400$ for cleaning the valves and 400$ for car rentals later… I’ve now followed my honda civics manual to the letter.