Toyota warning light meaning

[Garfeild]

hi all
We have a 2003 Toyota Corolla verso, the mrs has informed me that the yellow, engine shaped warning light has come on.
Can anyone tell me what it means, the handbook just say take it to a Toyota dealer, but then it says the same for anything more serious than a dirty window.
We are just about to get a new car, and the bl00dy thing is only worth about £250 so I don't want too much expense.
TIA

 

[Burnerman]

Its the engine management lamp which has stored a fault in the cars on board computer, which can be read in due course.
The lamp indicates a problem with the ignition, fuel or exhaust system and if the car seems fine (no misfire or whatever) it probably means that the exhaust catalytic converter is grumpy.
Have you done some short, slow runs lately?
John

 

[Garfeild]

The car only does about 5 miles each way to work, usually in slow queues.
Just found a similar thread, pointing to mass airflow needing cleaning, or some other sensors, I may invest in one of the orange code readers (£10 eBay)
Apparently the car runs fine.

 

[Burnerman]

Yep, that's a good move....get the engine nice and hot, clear the code and see if it comes back.
Be lucky!
John

 

[Garfeild]

Just an update on this for anyone who may have a similar fault.
I bought a code reader off eBay, about £10. The fault was an
"Idle speed air flow" took out and cleaned the mass airflow sensor, but the fault returned after a couple of days.
I planned on stripping the throttle body and cleaning it, as a preliminary, and as it was getting dark, I pulled out the air filter, and found it was quite dirty
(It's overdue for a service) so I blew it out with my compressor air gun, and the fault has not returned thus far, so it looks like it could simply be a dirty air filter that caused it.

 

[DaveHerns]

Nice one.

 

[Garfeild]

Well it looks like I was telling porkys, the light has come back, just the mrs never bothered to tell me, I never drive it, I have the van,so wouldn't have known, so next step is to strip and clean the idle air control valve on Saturday, I'll report back once I've tested it.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Are you trading it in?

 

[Garfeild]

I was going to keep it and use it instead of having private use of my van, it's racked out and I can't fit anything in it.
It was the idle air control valve, but I had to do it twice, I gave the throttle body a good clean, along with removing the idle control valve.
But whe I tested the car it was actually worse!
I had to remove the idle valve again, and remove the electric motor, and found the spindle was sticking, once cleaned and rebuilt, the car runs perfectly again.