Check Engine Light Flashing W/check Vsc & Traction Control

[PJStyles]

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

[clay1]

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

Humm...that happened to me once. I was driving the car hard on an exit ramp - shifting down and then bang the same thing happened. That was about three weeks ago. I am going in for an oil change in a fe weeks and was going to see if it had registered a code I was told anytime the check engine light came on it registered a code... I too turned off the car shortly after the lights came on hoping to "reboot" which it did. I'll let ou know what happens to me. In 2 years a 60,000 miles that is the first mechanical issue to ever happen. .. I recently bought the 7 yr/100000 mile extended warranty for $1005 US so I am not as worried about it...

[bartkat]

Sounds like trac is kicing in for some reason. That can happen if one rear wheel drops in a low spot or hole and momentarily loses traction. If it comes right back running ok within seconds or when you let off the gas then it's really not a malfunction.

[foxwiz]

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

Humm...that happened to me once. I was driving the car hard on an exit ramp - shifting down and then bang the same thing happened. That was about three weeks ago. I am going in for an oil change in a fe weeks and was going to see if it had registered a code I was told anytime the check engine light came on it registered a code... I too turned off the car shortly after the lights came on hoping to "reboot" which it did. I'll let ou know what happens to me. In 2 years a 60,000 miles that is the first mechanical issue to ever happen. .. I recently bought the 7 yr/100000 mile extended warranty for $1005 US so I am not as worried about it...

I see you have the IS 250 and you just got the 7/100k warranty for $1005? I just purchased an IS 250C and bought the same warranty for $1365. Where did you get your warranty?

Thanks,

Gary

[clay1]

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

Humm...that happened to me once. I was driving the car hard on an exit ramp - shifting down and then bang the same thing happened. That was about three weeks ago. I am going in for an oil change in a fe weeks and was going to see if it had registered a code I was told anytime the check engine light came on it registered a code... I too turned off the car shortly after the lights came on hoping to "reboot" which it did. I'll let ou know what happens to me. In 2 years a 60,000 miles that is the first mechanical issue to ever happen. .. I recently bought the 7 yr/100000 mile extended warranty for $1005 US so I am not as worried about it...

I see you have the IS 250 and you just got the 7/100k warranty for $1005? I just purchased an IS 250C and bought the same warranty for $1365. Where did you get your warranty?

Thanks,

Gary

First of all ..my BAD... it was 5 yr /100000 at $1070. I bought it after I drove the car 49000 miles. I first called the guy in Greenfield MA at Toyota of Greenfield - it's listed somewhere on this site althought you can use the search function to find it - I think his name is Troy he quoted me $1070. Then I got the quote called Lexus Corp to ensure it's for real, although they did say that although Toyota can sell it ..they shouldn't be doing it!. Then went back to my dealership in Central MA and asked their price which was $1750 - I asked them to meet the price and they did! $1365 is still a good deal for 7/100,000. Because I drive the car 25K a year by year 4 I will have 100,000 so 5 years worked for me.

[bartkat]

I bought my 02 IS300 used from a Toyota dealer and also got the platinum warranty. I don't think there's any problem with who sells it. Lexus honored it.

[jaytee]

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

I had the same problem. My local Lexus dealership was stumped as well. The dealership determined that they caused this problem when they did some recall work on my vehicle. In essence my cylinder # 6 was miss firing and the engine was cutting off gas to that cylinder. My dealership had my car a total of 3.5 weeks over a 6 week period before they called in a Lexus engineer. I have have my car back for two weeks without the problem arising. " Knock on Wood". Have your dealership contact mine for the resolution. My dealer is Tom Wood Lexus in Indianapolis, IN. My service tech is named Shanan Jackson. I drive a 2007 IS250 AWD. I hope this helps.

[PJStyles]

Interesting because my problem started happening after they did some regular service on my car as well. The crazy thing now though is that the episodes are very infrequent...maybe once a month. They told me that the next time it happens, keep the car running and drive it into the dealership and they'll do a scan while the car is running - problem though is I have to hope and pray it happens during normal hours of service at the dealership.

THanks for the info, I'll definitely make them aware of it...

PJStyles

I'm having an issue that the Lexus dealership simply cannot track down and find the cause. Essentially, I will be driving along and without any warning, the check engine light starts flashing and the traction control light stays on with the message Check VSC. I also feel a loss of power, presumably because one of the cylinders is misfiring.

The dealership can't pinpoint the problem because when they go to pull the error codes from my car's computer, there's nothing there - it's blank. The car doesn't register any error codes. I'm assuming this happens because when I turn the vehicle off and back on again, the warning lights go off and the car is operating normally.

This problem occurs maybe once every 3-4 weeks and usually while driving on the highway. I will be driving along at a reasonable speed and then I may give it a bit of gas and then boom, it happens.

Anyone have any suggestions? I really need to track this down because I believe the warranty on my car is good for 60,000km's and it currently has 45,000km's. I also plan on keeping the vehicle after my lease is up.

Thanks

PJStyles

I had the same problem. My local Lexus dealership was stumped as well. The dealership determined that they caused this problem when they did some recall work on my vehicle. In essence my cylinder # 6 was miss firing and the engine was cutting off gas to that cylinder. My dealership had my car a total of 3.5 weeks over a 6 week period before they called in a Lexus engineer. I have have my car back for two weeks without the problem arising. " Knock on Wood". Have your dealership contact mine for the resolution. My dealer is Tom Wood Lexus in Indianapolis, IN. My service tech is named Shanan Jackson. I drive a 2007 IS250 AWD. I hope this helps.

[countryguy]

I have a 2008 IS250 AWD and I have had the same problems - several times. The first time it happened was in March/09. I would drive home from work about 25 km, leave the car running while I ran into get the mail and when I got back in the car the Service Engine light, traction control light, information warning light and Check VSC would all be on. I took it to the dealer the next day and they could find nothing wrong and just reset the diagnostic computer. Then a couple of weeks later the exact same thing happened again under the same circumstances. This time the dealer did find a code (they didn't tell me what it was) which indicated something wrong with the fuel (I only use premium). For the next several months everything was OK. Then on 12/28/09 I drove about 25 km, stopped at a traffic light and the same diagnostic lights came on again. Over the next 2 days which included several engine start/stops the lights remained on. Then on the 3rd day the lights did not come on after starting the car. All OK for about a week and then the lights came on again. Took the car to the Toyota dealer (no Lexus dealer where I live) and they got 2 codes out of the computer P0172 and P0175. They called Lexus and were told Lexus knows about the problem and they need to make a program change to the computer. So now I have to drive 3 hours to the Lexus dealer in Toronto to get the fix done.

[countryguy]

I have a 2008 IS250 AWD and I have had the same problems - several times. The first time it happened was in March/09. I would drive home from work about 25 km, leave the car running while I ran into get the mail and when I got back in the car the Service Engine light, traction control light, information warning light and Check VSC would all be on. I took it to the dealer the next day and they could find nothing wrong and just reset the diagnostic computer. Then a couple of weeks later the exact same thing happened again under the same circumstances. This time the dealer did find a code (they didn't tell me what it was) which indicated something wrong with the fuel (I only use premium). For the next several months everything was OK. Then on 12/28/09 I drove about 25 km, stopped at a traffic light and the same diagnostic lights came on again. Over the next 2 days which included several engine start/stops the lights remained on. Then on the 3rd day the lights did not come on after starting the car. All OK for about a week and then the lights came on again. Took the car to the Toyota dealer (no Lexus dealer where I live) and they got 2 codes out of the computer P0172 and P0175. They called Lexus and were told Lexus knows about the problem and they need to make a program change to the computer. So now I have to drive 3 hours to the Lexus dealer in Toronto to get the fix done.

** Update **

The warning lights have come on 2 more times and I have had the Toyota dealer here resest the computer each time. Yesterday, they were finally able to download and apply the software fix which previously they could not do for some reason. Apparently one of their mechanics has now reachd 'master tech' status so he was allowed to apply the fix. Hopefully this has solved the problem and I won't have to make the 3 hour trip to a Lexus dealer in Toronto.

[Nagoo]

Hey all -

Were you all able to get the problem fixed?

I have an 2006 IS 250 and had a similar issue with my car. Last Oct/Nov the check engine and check VSC lights came on. I also started noticing that my engine felt like it wanted to cut out intermittently when I would come to a stop (slow or fast, didn't matter).

When I took it in to have it looked at, they told me nothing showed up on the diagnostic tests. But interesting enough, my service rep said he was going to "send a report to corporate to see what the next step would be". I didn't question it at first - I was just happy to hear my car was fine. But then in the 2-3 weeks I spent waiting to hear back from him - the lights came on again! Needless to say, I was peeved - I demanded to work with another rep... come to find out, corporate gave approval for replacement of all my engine valves since they were faulty. If this was the case - why didn't they tell me that from the get go instead of saying everything was normal! Luckily I was still under warranty so it was all covered - but that major repair would have cost 6K+.

But guess what, now 6 months later, I'm having that same shuddering in the engine!! I'm taking it in on Monday - so we'll see what they have to say.

Oh BTW - I had to press them on the problem and apparently the 2nd rep was honest enough to tell me this was a problem they were seeing with some frequency in the 2006 IS 250 models. Any one else have a similar experience??

[georgijoe]

hallo im new in this forum i have 2006 is 250 i bouth it a month ago and my check engine light came on with check vsc. i just went to auto zone and checked it and the codes that show are P0051 and P2197. can somebody help me what these mean. i know that one is the oxigen sensor but i dont know what is the other. thank you.

[HoustonTexan]

I have a 2016 Lexus ES 350 and I just got the 5k mile service.  My car just started doing exactly the same thing when I started it this evening.

[Murfin401]

my 09 IS250 AWD  does this quite often. Dealership said try new gas cap ( also found same advice online). Problem continued. Dealership did diagnostic tests and said spark plugs must all be changed to a particular type. 
cars goes in on Thursday let’s see what this costs and if it works.