Check Vsc

chaz87 · January 10, 2016

I've recently had the "Check VSC" come up on my display. It happened a little while ago so took it to Lexus and they said something to do with the oil sump solenoid, but also found a loose connection. At one point though of having this fault I had a tyre changed and the warning sign went off but came back after a few mile. anyone able to help? feel they might be trying it on.

ChumpusRex · January 10, 2016

Check VSC means that there is a malfunction in the engine, car electronics, gearbox, brakes traction control or VSC system.

You need an OBD 2 code reader to take things further.

johnatg · January 10, 2016

Did they read the fault codes? Or explain what an 'oil sump solenoid' is? That's a new one on me - unless they mean a solenoid in the gearbox.

We need more info before we can offer any advice, as Mark says. And where was the 'loose connection'?

chaz87 · February 13, 2016

Yeah sorry they ment the solenoid in the gearbox, but they told me that after saying they found the loose connection on the ecu. I've tried to find online where the ecu is fitted, but difficult to know as keep getting american stuff pop up.

Although i probably shouldn't i have driven the car a few times and had no problems at all with gear changes in fully automatic mode.

johnatg · February 13, 2016

There are umpteen ecus on the car - at least 17, but I've pretty much lost count. Without knowing which one they meant it's hard to move on with that.

But often 'Check VSC' is caused by some temporary glitch and it will often go away by itself. eg It can flash up if the Battery voltage is a bit low for some reason.

If it hasn't recurred, don't worry about it. If it does, you need fault codes reading.

Shahpor · February 13, 2016

19 ECU's I counted last time I looked

I also had a random Check VSC message appear while driving. Stopped, turned car off and on again and the message disappeared. No fault codes logged. That was 6 months ago and nothing has happened since.

chaz87 · February 14, 2016

Well i has reaccured, it went for about a fortnight, but i wanted to see if i coukd find the ecu's rather then them charge me over £500 saying it needs a part when it could just be the loose connection again. Are any of the ecu's easily accessable?

johnatg · February 14, 2016

The main body ecu (which controls basic transmission functions) is behind the left hand end of the dashboard. It may or may not be transmission related, and so you really shouldn't start there - you need to get the fault codes read with a Techstream unit. Dealers have that and will just read the codes for a (substantial) price, or quite a few of us have one, but as you're in GL, I should wait for someone there to pipe up. Or look on eBay.

Er...£500 is a bit optimistic if it is an ecu or transmission fault - but it's not likely to be.

I don't really buy the loose connection theory. The plugs in to the ecu are very secure and you absolutely must not try and dismantle the ecu itself - I had one replaced when my door locking packed up, followed by multiple other failures. I tried to dismantle the old unit - I won't go into details but it had a weird array of interconnected flat metal strip wires which came apart when I opened the box (which was extremely difficult to do) and they were absolutely impossible to put back.

toffee_pie · February 14, 2016

there is no way this is ECU related, blindly changing ECUs is nuts as John said. Why on earth would you go changing ECUs.

Out of interest, my car has been fantastically reliable in the almost 2 years of ownership but on one occasion that VSC light came on, it was when I removed the air intake sensor during my intake install. A quick Battery disconnect later and all was well.

is200 Newbie · February 14, 2016

On ‎13‎/‎02‎/‎2016 at 1:01 PM, chaz87 said:

Yeah sorry they ment the solenoid in the gearbox, but they told me that after saying they found the loose connection on the ecu. I've tried to find online where the ecu is fitted, but difficult to know as keep getting american stuff pop up.

Although i probably shouldn't i have driven the car a few times and had no problems at all with gear changes in fully automatic mode.

Chaz - I had this last year - I have looked for the post I made on the forum but cant find it ... I came to the conclusion after doing a bit of snooping around on the web that it was condensation within the gearbox that the sensor picked up. I am pretty sure it was on a couple of USA posts I found.

It LED me to look at if it was possible to change the gearbox oil but there wasn't a clear answer as to whether this could be done. I have wondered about the oil again as I saw a gearbox on a Porsche on wheeler dealers being done (I know its a different car) but it made a hell of a difference to the car when it was in "auto" mode.

Anyway - I drove mine a bit in the manual option and the fault disappeared. Every cars different but may be worth you giving it a go.

chaz87 · February 14, 2016

The code they gave me is on the invoice, i'll check later, but it did state on the invoice that it was to do with the soleniod it the gearbox.

I have no interest in changing any ECU's, done that on a previous car and its a pain, all i want to do is find them to make sure there isn't a loose connnection again and get charged £144 for the pleasure when taking it to Lexus for them to do that again.

The £500+ is what they want to change the soleniod plus labour, and if it is just a loose connection i dont wanna get mugged off.

I'll give it a go on manual and maybe check the oil, cheers.

chaz87 · February 15, 2016

Code P0983, assuming its the right code that they got.

johnatg · February 15, 2016

Sure enough - this is the symptom header: P0983 Shift Solenoid "D" Control Circuit High (Shift Solenoid Valve S4)

Here's a the repair sequence - hope it helps! http://tinyurl.com/j8ew65y (It might be hard to read in your browser - suggest you copy the image into a jpg viewer such as Irfanview - then you'll be able to enlarge sections)

It could easily be a fault in the wiring harness connected to the solenoid. It's not going to be easy to check all of that, unless you are lucky and it's somewhere obvious. You might do best to consult an auto electrician and get him to check the wiring - that will be cheaper than going to a Lexus dealer, where they'll just bang in a new solenoid at vast expense and if it's the wiring the fault will still be there.

chaz87 · February 15, 2016

Well according to their report the wiring was fine, but then they also said there was a loose connection to the ecu, hence why i wanted to check them

chaz87 · February 15, 2016

Where do i find those connector plugs that are descibed in that link you sent me?

johnatg · February 15, 2016

I think behind the glove box. IS250 wiring is quite unbelievably complex and I can't identify exactly where these particular connectors are on the multitude of electrical parts location diagrams.

My old Sunbeam Rapier wiring diagram all fitted on one page and wasn't particularly crowded. Not sure that the car did a significantly different job.... Those were the days!