Engine check and vsc light staying on

[Frankielexus]

After stupidly washing my engine bay both the orange engine check and vsc light staying on..........is there an easy fix?

[Guest]

I would:

disconnect Battery

Undo one plug at a time, spray with contact cleaner and compressed air then reconnect. 

Once all plugs done reconnect Battery and use an OBD tool to clear codes. 

[Jaystar77]

Hopefully just a bit of water in a connection - check the fault codes and that should give you an idea of which to attack with electrical cleaner.

 

[sorcerer]

Complete guess but I'd say that the short answer is no, no quick fix.

I'd say you've got water in the electrics somewhere so you need to wait for it to dry out and pray that no permanent damage has been done. The only other thing I'd suggest is to get some electrical contact cleaner and spray that into all the connections that you managed to get wet. WD40 do a special contact cleaner but DON'T use standard WD40 because this leaves an oily residue that goes gooey and attracts dirt.

I repair computers for a living and people sometimes bring me their laptops after spilling drinks on the keyboard. It's not so much that the liquid conducts electricity and causes short circuits, more the impurities and minerals that leave behind corrosive substances when they dry out, so a good cleaning with contact cleaner is essential to get rid of that.

[katabrontes]

I get this quite often (2005 RX 350)(and I haven't cleaned the engine)  when I stop the engine and restart it it clears.  I have checked the OBD codes with a small module checker (and so has my garage with a laptop) and we have never had any fault codes come up.  Everything works OK.  I did have a fault on the VSC only when the height sensor on the rear suspension failed but this was Ok when it was replaced (about £80 from USA without the linkage which was OK).  If the OBD codes don't show a fault I guess you can ignore it.

[welland]

What does VSC mean? 

[NemesisUK]

3 minutes ago, welland said:

What does VSC mean? 

Vehicle Stability Control - a form of traction control

[iwonder]

If it's due to water ingress. Easy fix is to get codes read and hope the code gives an indicator of what connector is causing the issue

[Frankielexus]

Many thanks for all your responses guys..........just called the AA as now car will not tick over. Hopefully they’ll read the fault codes for me..

[sorcerer]

I know the OP asked for "a quick fix" and I know that having the codes read will point him in the right direction of that but it sounds like water has gotten all over the place, maybe from pressure washing the engine bay rather than sponging down, so my advice to the OP is, don't be so blinkered and only look at the connectors that are involved with the OBD system.

There really is no shortcut for this sort of thing, assume that ALL connectors are water damaged and even if they aren't causing problems now, they may well do in the future - and I speak as a time-served, fully qualified electrician in the early years of my career, the vast majority of which has been spent as a telephone engineer (cable jointer) on BT, and now self-employed computer technician, all in the field of maintenance; in other words, someone who's been around connectors of one sort or another, in all sorts of harsh environments, all my life.

[Frankielexus]

Wise words John.........thanks

[Frankielexus]

AA just finished and he found the following error code, cleared it and all is fine.........for now. I have taken heed of the sorcerers comments.

[Frankielexus]

Hahaha.............both warning lights are now back on. 

This was the fault code, does this make sense to someone and does it need replacing.

Thanks again in advance.

 

[Frankielexus]

Engine control - 37Q / TCCS II V3P0037 - Oxygen sensor heater (bank 1, sensor 2). Error Message : Signal too low.read and clear code