ECU issue in Toyota Vitz

[HaeylM]

This might be a little of a noob question but any support will be appreciated!

a few weeks back my car started dropping in the fuel economy and within city traffic at times it used to get stuck on higher gears for some reason so it felt like it was on LIMP mode as i could not get past 35KMH even with the foot fully down. So i went to A*W to get it checked by them. They tried an OBD scan several times and failed to diagnose it for some reason as none of the OBD scanners they had could read the ECU. they did some manual testing like racing the engine and the typical garage bass diagnostic and told me that there is some lock in the ECU and only toyota company will be able to read the ECU with their OBD equipment and that standard OBD2 scanners garages have dont work. I have a Toyota DBA-KGC30 with the 1NR-FE engine (M600 Second Gen) with ISO CAN 11bit ID ECU 2 protocol. 

They told me Allion, Axio, Vitz and all have an older ECU model and so they have done scans in them. Apparently as toyota has used a more complicated ECU for post 2013 Cars. 

Can anyone tell me if the whole A*W story is complete BS so that they could get away with their inefficiency or is it worth for me to try buying an ELM327 off Alie*press to diagnose the problem by myself at home? 

Toyota charges a hefty bill since they take 25K just to service the KDH201, so im sure i can buy 10 scanners off Ebay and give them away rather spending an hour there with a big bill to get a report on my hatch. 

Any expert advise on what i could do is appreciated. Also if you know what may cause such a LIMP mode in a toyota?

[Hyaenidae]

12 minutes ago, HaeylM said:

This might be a little of a noob question but any support will be appreciated!

a few weeks back my car started dropping in the fuel economy and within city traffic at times it used to get stuck on higher gears for some reason so it felt like it was on LIMP mode as i could not get past 35KMH even with the foot fully down.

2

No CEL?

[Crosswind]

12 hours ago, HaeylM said:

This might be a little of a noob question but any support will be appreciated!

a few weeks back my car started dropping in the fuel economy and within city traffic at times it used to get stuck on higher gears for some reason so it felt like it was on LIMP mode as i could not get past 35KMH even with the foot fully down. So i went to A*W to get it checked by them. They tried an OBD scan several times and failed to diagnose it for some reason as none of the OBD scanners they had could read the ECU. they did some manual testing like racing the engine and the typical garage bass diagnostic and told me that there is some lock in the ECU and only toyota company will be able to read the ECU with their OBD equipment and that standard OBD2 scanners garages have dont work. I have a Toyota DBA-KGC30 with the 1NR-FE engine (M600 Second Gen) with ISO CAN 11bit ID ECU 2 protocol. 

They told me Allion, Axio, Vitz and all have an older ECU model and so they have done scans in them. Apparently as toyota has used a more complicated ECU for post 2013 Cars. 

Can anyone tell me if the whole A*W story is complete BS so that they could get away with their inefficiency or is it worth for me to try buying an ELM327 off Alie*press to diagnose the problem by myself at home? 

Toyota charges a hefty bill since they take 25K just to service the KDH201, so im sure i can buy 10 scanners off Ebay and give them away rather spending an hour there with a big bill to get a report on my hatch. 

Any expert advise on what i could do is appreciated. Also if you know what may cause such a LIMP mode in a toyota?

Once upon a time, there was a guy named <insert your favourite name here>

His child was suffering from fever. He took the child to a gynaecologist, because the gynaecologist charged less than a physician.

The gynaecologist also tried his best to examine the child, took the money and finally said, you should take the child to a physician, because he has a newer digital thermometer than me.

Now <insert your favourite name here> is wondering whether to buy the latest thermometer from aliexpress and asking his neighbours what's causing the fever.

[GayanR]

1 hour ago, Crosswind said:

Once upon a time, there was a guy named <insert your favourite name here>

His child was suffering from fever. He took the child to a gynaecologist, because the gynaecologist charged less than a physician.

The gynaecologist also tried his best to examine the child, took the money and finally said, you should take the child to a physician, because he has a newer digital thermometer than me.

Now <insert your favourite name here> is wondering whether to buy the latest thermometer from aliexpress and asking his neighbours what's causing the fever.

This is a car not a living being

[thou1584]

15 hours ago, HaeylM said:

This might be a little of a noob question but any support will be appreciated!

a few weeks back my car started dropping in the fuel economy and within city traffic at times it used to get stuck on higher gears for some reason so it felt like it was on LIMP mode as i could not get past 35KMH even with the foot fully down. So i went to A*W to get it checked by them. They tried an OBD scan several times and failed to diagnose it for some reason as none of the OBD scanners they had could read the ECU. they did some manual testing like racing the engine and the typical garage bass diagnostic and told me that there is some lock in the ECU and only toyota company will be able to read the ECU with their OBD equipment and that standard OBD2 scanners garages have dont work. I have a Toyota DBA-KGC30 with the 1NR-FE engine (M600 Second Gen) with ISO CAN 11bit ID ECU 2 protocol. 

They told me Allion, Axio, Vitz and all have an older ECU model and so they have done scans in them. Apparently as toyota has used a more complicated ECU for post 2013 Cars. 

Can anyone tell me if the whole A*W story is complete BS so that they could get away with their inefficiency or is it worth for me to try buying an ELM327 off Alie*press to diagnose the problem by myself at home? 

Toyota charges a hefty bill since they take 25K just to service the KDH201, so im sure i can buy 10 scanners off Ebay and give them away rather spending an hour there with a big bill to get a report on my hatch. 

Any expert advise on what i could do is appreciated. Also if you know what may cause such a LIMP mode in a toyota?

The issue is about a toyota vitz right???

Then why did you take it to A*W to scan it????

[HaeylM]

23 hours ago, Hyaenidae said:

No CEL?

Yup Check engine light was up. No other warnings or indicators were on.

[HaeylM]

10 hours ago, Crosswind said:

Once upon a time, there was a guy named <insert your favourite name here>

His child was suffering from fever. He took the child to a gynaecologist, because the gynaecologist charged less than a physician.

The gynaecologist also tried his best to examine the child, took the money and finally said, you should take the child to a physician, because he has a newer digital thermometer than me.

Now <insert your favourite name here> is wondering whether to buy the latest thermometer from aliexpress and asking his neighbours what's causing the fever.

These forums are to help people and not mock them. 

If you were a Toyota owner you would know what happens at Toyota Lanka and why many owners don't go there. I honestly don't talk big about my daily ride or defend it cuz its just an asset that supports my day trip up and down to work. Forums are where People with prior experiences can share a deet or two to help each other rather wasting time and money by looking out for each other as motorists and citizens of this country. If you have no suggestion or knowledge in this topic please let other kind hearted experts support.

Be a man and help people without making lame jokes pl.

Thnx

 

[HaeylM]

7 hours ago, thou1584 said:

The issue is about a toyota vitz right???

Then why did you take it to A*W to scan it????

I do my regular full car service there so i since i know them i asked them to scan it for me. They work on Prados and Other toyotas on a daily basis so i really didn't mind taking mine since i got used to this place when i had my Sunny.  Eitherway is there any recommended places if any of you have prior experience on doing an OBD scan at a reputable place?

[hrm]

Recommended place is Toyota Lanka as you might need a proprietary scanner and they won't cost that much just to do a scan. So the title says Vitz but the car in question is a Passo? 

[nagaya]

May be JDM cars don't use " ISO CAN 11bit ID ECU 2 protocol." as you mentioned (is it mentioned in the your manual itself?) and uses a propriety protocol which cost more.

I have a 2011, CS3 with 4G18 which doesn't work with ELM327 even though it is an export model. But agents do the scanning and tuneup at the 40000km service intervals

[trish_auto]

Well, take it to the agents. First you can tell your problem and get a quotation. If you are not happy you can return home without paying anything. I am sure they don't charge unrealistic price from you.  

Other than that, there are couple of technicians, who used to work in toyota before and now operating their own garages. If you are not qualified to diagnose an engine fault, highly advised not to attempt those things by yourself. 

[kush]

1 hour ago, trish_auto said:

Well, take it to the agents. First you can tell your problem and get a quotation. If you are not happy you can return home without paying anything. I am sure they don't charge unrealistic price from you.  

Other than that, there are couple of technicians, who used to work in toyota before and now operating their own garages. If you are not qualified to diagnose an engine fault, highly advised not to attempt those things by yourself. 

There are number of reliable Toyota specialists around, some are ex Toyota and they still have access to error codes. There is one in Kotte one at Malabe PM me if you want details

[kadsa98]

On 1/11/2019 at 10:42 PM, HaeylM said:

These forums are to help people and not mock them. 

If you were a Toyota owner you would know what happens at Toyota Lanka and why many owners don't go there. I honestly don't talk big about my daily ride or defend it cuz its just an asset that supports my day trip up and down to work. Forums are where People with prior experiences can share a deet or two to help each other rather wasting time and money by looking out for each other as motorists and citizens of this country. If you have no suggestion or knowledge in this topic please let other kind hearted experts support.

Be a man and help people without making lame jokes pl.

Thnx

 

Owned a 2012 Allion before and serviced it at the maharagama TL since new. Never had any issues and for an oil change + extras service it costs max 16k. Go in and ask how much it is to get a scan usually they won't charge just to scan it, I've had CEL's checked for free there plenty of times.

[iRage]

Taking a Toyota car to a Nissan/Mitsu/etc... for servicing and prelim diagnosis is okay. Many people all around the world do it. But you are missing a point @Crosswind brings up...

fine lets, say you bought 100 scanner from ElephantExpress and did the scan...lets say you managed to clear it up as well. You do realize that the car would have gone in to Limp mode or acting the way it is acting right now because something was wrong with it right ? So at the end of the day you still need to take it to a reputable garage to get it fixed. Waiting for your cheap scanner also means you either leave the car at home ununsed or use it with what ever is wrong (potentially making it worst). So why not just take it and get it fixed ?

As for people complaining about Toyota Lanka....well....in SL none of the agents are good and up to standards of their international counterparts. No one...period. But to be fair, most of the people complain about their agents and take it to 3rd party garages because they want to take short-cut fixes (legitimate or illegitimate ones). Agents have to follow strict and specific ways of doing repairs. So when something needs to be fixed (at most times) just fitting that part alone does not work and they have to check/fix/replace other parts as well. And in certain cases they are required to change the entire part as opposed to a component of the part (for example, control arm bushes..outside garages will pack a new one in...for most cars the manufacturer requires the entire arm to be swapped which the agent is obligated to do). Also, when agents do a service or a repair and do an inspection of the car ; they might give you a whole list of things that need to be attended to as it does not meet manufacturer's recommended thersholds (fine some are excessive but still). Most people not understanding this complain saying that when their car was taken in the agent carried out more repairs than that was needed or made up a list of issues with the car just so they can make money. Not always the case.

Then there is the issue of people complaining about not being able to be with their cars during service. The issue is a matter of safety and also people getting in the way. True, some mechanics at the agents are not very trustworthy or diligent. So you are supposed to check the car BEFORE you drive it out of the workshop (unfortunately not all agents have waiting rooms where you can see the car from). Also, you do have the right to complain right up to the Japanese head and if nothing happens right up to the manufacturer themselves (as long as it is within reason and legitimate).

Discussion about maintaining and servicing at the agent has been moved here.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Davy
Added link to split thread.