mbasko

Hi All,

I had a strange day and wonder whether there is any link between the items.

1) Low tire pressure warning came on - checked all 5 tires, added about 3 PSI to meet recommended cold start pressure, noticed that spare time was very low. Started car to confirm the warning went away.

2) Tried to start car a second time to go wash it and it wouldn't start and the break pedal was very hard (could not depress it). Read some forum info and saw some mentioning of tightening the gap cap. I tried this and it started but the VSC warning came on.

3) Read some more forum info and determined the VSC warning is sometimes linked to the gas cap. So I removed the gas cap again and put in back on. The car started with no warning.

I did a quick experiment. I removed the gas cap and left it off. I started the car with no issue and no warning light.

I expected the car not to start or at least get a VSC warning but I had no issues? What if anything should have happened when I removed the gas cap? Do you think the low tire warning was just a coincident with the other issues?

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mark

rominl

iTrader: (4)

i am not 100% sure on the gas cap and vsc light

but on the tires, so far i am pretty sure the spare has NO tpms in it

Valley101

Do not know year of your car. However, if 2007 or later and you have a full size spare it would have a sensor. If you have runflats, then naturally you do not as you do not have a full size spare.

mbasko

2007 GS350 w/ Yoko's 18" tires. The spare appears to be full size to me.

GS350Lexus

iTrader: (5)

Is it colored yellow? If yes its a donut not a full spare, there is no room in 3GS trunk for a full spare.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

no 3gs has full size spare, ever. all donuts.

and on my, i only see a rubber valve stem, unless any of the valve stems on the other wheels

BinaryJay

Donut only on mine and rubber valve stem. No TPMS in there for sure.

TWong350

iTrader: (8)

3GS's do not have a TPMS in the spare. And, they're donuts. The TPMS configuration allows for two sets of four sensors each set. That's it.

steviej

iTrader: (1)

On the tire pressure:
Did the outside temperature drop drastically overnight?
Say you had your tires set to 32 psi and initialized the tpms system when the temperature was say 80°F. If the overnight temperature dropped to 40°F your tire pressure would be about 28 psi. Once below 28psi, the low pressure tire light will come on. Just air the tires back up to your desired psi. I reinitialize when it starts to get warm and when it starts to get cold.


I definately think the rogue idiot lights are emission related. I find I have a few Check VSC's and yellow (!) light's occasionally when I try to force fill the gas tank. If I fill the tank and remove the nozel when the pump autoshut-off engages the first time then I never get the lights. If I try to "top off" to the nearest dollar then I can expect the lights. Turning the car off and then restarting usually removes the lights. There have been reports also that the rubber gasket in the gas cap gets old and cracked quickly and that sometimes leads to nonspecific lights as well. I will say that in all the times the Check VSC and (!) lights came on, the MIL (yellow engine symbol) never lit up once.


Can't help you with the stiff brake pedal. Never had that.

steviej

peewhy

iTrader: (1)

Had the same problem a few times and my Check VSC and afs came up so i just replaced the fuel cap with a 6$ from autozone with the locking key and everything went a away... didnt feel like paying 30 something for a oem cap..

BinaryJay

Stiff brake pedal will occur if you have the car out of park with the engine off, and pump the brakes. You pressurize the brake lines and there is nothing to relieve it with the engine off.

I've only done this by accident once when I was installing my mp3 kit when I manually disengaged the shift lock. I had to press the pedal very hard so that I could get it to depress enough to start but after the car was started it returned to normal.