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What Does the Check Engine Light Mean?

One of the most mostly misunderstood lights or indicators in your 2017 Toyota Camry is the check engine light. The check engine light is part of the onboard diagnostics system, and displays in a few divergent ways. It can say "Check Engine", it can be a symbol of an engine, it can even be a combination of both. This light illuminates in either an amber or red color and is part of the diagnostics system found on your vehicle. Onboard computers increasingly have controlled and monitored vehicle performance since the 80s and do a variety of things for your 2017 Toyota Camry. Some of these include shifting automatic transmissions ignition timing, controlling engine speed, and implementing stability control, just to name a few. With that being said, the check engine light can mean a collection of contrasting things. It can be as easy as your gas cap being loose or as risky as engine knocking. If your check engine light is on in your 2017 Toyota Camry, contact Nalley Toyota Stonecrest. Our Toyota service department can help you find out what code is turning your check engine light on or audit why your check engine light is glaring. Contact Nalley Toyota Stonecrest today!

What could cause the check engine light to come on in a 2017 Toyota Camry?

When your check engine light comes on, this could be as pure as tightening or replacing your gas cap. Likewise, the check engine light could also be a warning of a risky problem that could cause risky wear and tear to your engine and come with a considerable repair bill. Depending on your make and model, the check engine light will illuminate or blink. A persistent glow normally means something less risky but a glaring check engine light indicates that your vehicle’s engine is in risky trouble and service is fundamental rapidly. If your check engine light is glaring in your 2017 Toyota Camry, we exceedingly recommend not to drive the vehicle and schedule Toyota service today. Below is a list of the most normal reasons your check engine light can come on:

  • Your 2017 Toyota Camry has a vacuum leak. Every Toyota Camry has a vacuum system that performs a wide variety of functions. The vacuum system also helps lower bad emissions by routing the fumes as gasoline evaporates through the engine. If you notice that your RPM is high in idle or randomly surges, a vacuum leak could be the cause. Over time, vacuum hoses can parched out and crack, especially if they’re exposed to intense heat or extreme cool.
  • One of the most natural and frequent cause is that your 2017 Toyota Camry gas cap is loose, damaged or missing. The gas cap for your 2017 Toyota Camry serves multiple purposes. It prevents gas fumes from being released when you aren't driving, it seals the fuel system and helps maintain pressure within the fuel tank. What happens if you have a bad fuel cap? If your gas cap is old or has a ruptured seal, you can lose fuel through evaporation which will result in more trips to the pump. Luckily, to replace a gas cap isn't costly. If your check engine light turns on now after you put gas in your 2017 Toyota Camry, first thing you should check is to make satisfied the cap isn’t loose — or that it's still on your car’s roof or at the fuel pump.
  • Issues with any aftermarket items. An aftermarket alarm, exhaust or supplemental item can wreak havoc on your 2017 Toyota Camry if it’s not installed properly. These aftermarket parts and accessories can drain the battery, trigger the check engine light, or even impede the vehicle from starting. If these issues sound commonplace, bring your Camry to Toyota and have our team of certified mechanics ensure that your aftermarket items were installed correctly and aren't causing any issue. Getting accessories, especially aftermarket parts and accessories, or using OEM parts first place might price a small bit more but could save you money from having to get poor work and damage caused by poor installation work corrected.
  • The battery is low or dead. The battery in your 2017 Toyota Camry is every crucial. Without a car battery, your car won’t start, light up the road ahead, play the radio or charge your phone. Today’s car batteries last much longer than they did a lot decades ago, and they don't really require maintenance. The price of a new one depends on the type of Toyota you drive, but check our current service coupons and specials.
  • New Spark Plugs or Plug Wires are essential for your 2017 Toyota Camry. The spark plugs are the part of your engine that ignites the air/fuel collection in the combustion chamber of your vehicle. This explosion is what moves the pistons and makes the engine run. The spark plug wires bring the spark from the ignition coil to the spark plugs. If your spark plugs or spark plug wires are bad or old, you will experience poor performance and reduced power. In some extreme cases, your engine will have trouble starting or continuing to run. Worn spark plugs and plug wires can cause clogged catalytic converter or damage to ignition coils and O2 sensors, considerable to more costly repairs.
  • Your mass airflow sensor (known as MAF) needs to be replaced. The mass airflow sensor in your Toyota Camry is what determines how much fuel is essential to run your engine efficiently by measuring the amount of air entering the engine. As a part of the engine management system, the mass airflow sensor helps adjust to informed changes, like altitude. If your Toyota Camry is having trouble starting, idling rough or has a hasty change in the position of the throttle pedal, this could be a sign of a bad mass airflow sensor.
  • Your O2 Sensor (Oxygen Sensor) needs to be replaced. The Oxygen sensor, acknowledged as the O2 sensor, measures the amount of oxygen in your exhaust system. If there is excess oxygen in your exhaust system, fuel burns faster and your vehicle will be less active when it comes to fuel economy. So what happens if I don’t replace your O2 sensor? A faulty sensor can not only affect your miles per gallon, but it can cause damage to your catalytic converter and your 2017 Toyota Camry's spark plugs. The O2 sensor sends data to the vehicle’s onboard computer to learn the right collection of air and fuel that enters the cylinders in your engine. A bad O2 sensor can also cause a car to fail an emissions test.
  • Your catalytic converter is bad or going bad. The catalytic converter is a part of your 2017 Toyota Camry’s exhaust system. The catalytic converter's function is to turn the carbon monoxide created by the combustion process into carbon dioxide. A damaged catalytic converter is regularly caused by neglected maintenance, which is why Nalley Toyota Stonecrest offers a complimentary multi-point inspection with every Toyota service. If you have an issue with your catalytic converter and don't get it repaired, your 2017 Toyota Camry will not pass an emissions test, show a lack of engine performance and will negatively affect your fuel economy. Your car may run at a higher temperature, too, which can cause supplemental problems from overheating.

Is it safe to drive your 2017 Toyota Camry with the check engine light on?

If the check engine light is flashing, this means that there is a threatening issue and it is recommended to service your Toyota Camry shortly. This question is not very compelling because it all depends on the severity of the issue. If the cause is a minor issue, such as a loose gas cap, it should be safe to travel to work. This is mostly indicated by a consistent glow of the check engine light. If you notice a difference in the performance of the vehicle, it could be an indication of a more perilous problem. Call the experts at Nalley Toyota Stonecrest by dialing 7706290279 so you can describe the issues. Or reduce your speed and bring your 2017 Toyota to our certified mechanics as soon as functional.

Will the check engine light reset itself?

The check engine light on your 2017 Toyota Camry will usually shut itself off if the issue or code that caused it to turn on is serviced. For example, if the cause of your check engine light coming on was a loose gas cap, if it's tightened, the light will turn itself off. Likewise, if your catalytic converter is going accurate, and you did a lot of stop-and-go driving, that may have turned on the check engine light due to the high usage of the converter. In most cases, your 2017 Toyota Camry light will go off after about 20-40 miles. If you drive over that fee and the light is still on, you will need to bring it in to Nalley Toyota Stonecrest so the light and code can be double-checked and reset.

2017 Toyota Camry Check Engine Light Codes

The check engine light turning on can be quite intimidating to see that miniature light on your vehicle’s dashboard quickly illuminates, but in reality, it is not something that should cause you to shut down in fear right away. If you hear the term, diagnostic trouble codes (DTC), these are just another name for check engine light codes. These are automotive computer codes stored by the ECM, also commonplace as the OBD (on-board computer diagnostic system) in your Camry. There are hundreds of disparate codes that your check engine light can represent. While that sounds daunting, with a miniature patience, tackling essential diagnostics will give you useful knowledge about your vehicle and will also allow that Check Engine Light to do what it is really supposed to do: be your guide. Unfortunately, clear and positive vehicle symptoms do not always accompany an illuminated Check Engine Light. Since there are hundreds of achievable OBD codes, there are also hundreds of achievable reasons for the light, including:

  • Old Battery
  • O2 Sensor
  • Transmission issues
  • Emissions controls issues
  • Bad Spark Plugs
  • Ignition system faults
  • Loose Gas Cap or Missing Gas Cap
  • Computer output circuit issues
  • Fuel and air metering systems problems

This is why it is intense for someone who does not have a lot of automotive knowledge to not assume what a code means. If the engine light comes on due to a hazardous concern, you risk damaging your car supplemental by not repairing the issue right away. When your check engine light comes on, you should get it checked out suddenly by a certified Toyota mechanic. Call Nalley Toyota Stonecrest at 7706290279 now or schedule your check engine light service online today!

How many miles can you drive with the check engine light?

The safest bet is to decipher the code and then plan your strategy accordingly. If you check engine light is flashing, we advise that you pull over and contact Nalley Toyota Stonecrest to help select if your vehicle is safe to drive in or if we advise a tow truck. It could be anything from a bad sensor to plug wires needing to be replaced. Since each check engine code has its own level of severity, it is troublesome to predict how copious miles you can drive with the warning light on.

Check Engine Light Service 2017 Toyota Camry

What do you do when you’re driving along in your Toyota Camry and abruptly, a yellow light flashes on your dash and says "Check Engine". If you’re like most Toyota owners, your heart sinks a little because you have little idea about what that light is trying to tell you or how you should react. The fear of the unknown (or the cost of the unknown) can be just as stressful. But take a deep breath and realize the light coming on doesn’t recommend you have to pull the car over to the side of the road and call a tow truck, but it is recommended that you get your 2017 Toyota Camry checked as soon as functional. Ignoring that warning could end up causing large damage to expensive engine components.

When your 2017 Toyota Camry's ECM (electronic control module), which is the vehicle's onboard computer, finds a problem in the electronic control system that it can’t apt, a computer turns on your check engine light. This amber or yellow light is constantly labeled ā€œcheck engineā€ or ā€œservice engine soonā€, or the light may be nothing more than a picture of an engine, or a picture of the engine with the word ā€œcheck.ā€

When the light turns on, the ECM stores an engine code or ā€œtrouble codeā€ in its memory that identifies as the issue, whether it's a sensor or a failing engine part. This code is read with an electronic scan tool that is used by our Toyota auto repair mechanics at Nalley Toyota Stonecrest. There are also a number of relatively inexpensive code readers that are designed for do-it-yourselfers, should you choose that route too. While this code will tell you the issue that is detected, a true diagnosis still requires an experienced professional to determine the issue and repair it.

How much does it cost to get the engine light checked?

The check engine light warns of issues ranging from a gas cap that's not appropriately tightened to a more hazardous failure like a bad catalytic converter or a problem with one of the car's oxygen sensors, so it superb to get the fitting code reading and diagnosis. The middle cost for a check engine light diagnosis & testing is frequently between $88 and $111. The superb news, Nalley Toyota Stonecrest offers complimentary multi-point inspections and free diagnostics, in most cases, to help determine the cause of your check engine light.

2017 Toyota Camry Check Engine Light Flashing

Although there are countless achievable causes of an illuminated Check Engine Light, we know from years of providing Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that there are several plain causes including something as classic as a loose gas cap. Different plain reasons for a Check Engine Light are a malfunction with the fuel injection system, dirty mass airflow sensor, faulty emissions control part, faulty head gasket, damaged oxygen sensor, or defective spark plugs to name a few. No matter what is the root cause of the Check Engine Light, we have the Toyota Certified Technicians and the certified service protocol to isolate the root problem and repair it as needed to restore factory specifications. When this happens, the Check Engine Light turns off, and you can leave the service center knowing that your Toyota issue was fixed.

Every 2017 Toyota Camry was designed with a high-technology performance monitoring system with a computer, and a series of sensors positioned strategically throughout the vehicle on its laborious systems. The sensors are continually detecting conditions while sending data to the electronic control unit. If the electronic control unit detects that the data is out of factory specifications, the Check Engine Light illuminates telling you that there is a problem. However, that is the limitation of the Check Engine Light – it won’t tell you what strictly is remorseful nor what to do about it. That’s where we come in; Nalley Toyota Stonecrest provides a Check Engine Light Diagnosis Service that isolates the core problem and gives you a recommendation on what to do next from a Immensely Qualified Service compelling.

2017 Toyota Camry Check Engine Light

A flashing light indicates that the problem is strict and if not taken care of suddenly may result in major damage to the car. If the check engine light in your 2017 Toyota Camry starts flashing, that means that the problem needs fast attention and your Toyota should be brought in suddenly. This blinking light frequently indicates a harsh engine misfire allowing unburned fuel to be discarded into the exhaust system. There it can rapidly raise the temperature of the catalytic converter to a point where wear and tear is achievable, requiring an expensive repair. Some owners ask if spark plugs cause the check engine light to flash? This can completely be the cause. A aggressive, classical or dirty spark plug can cause the engine to misfire. If your check engine light is flashing, please contact our team of automotive experts at Nalley Toyota Stonecrest abruptly by calling 7706290279. If the problem is ignored or you continue to commute, this can spread to the spark plug wires, catalytic converter, or ignition coils which can lead to a very expensive repair.