Check engine light - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Ehsan97 · 01-05-2012, 12:37 AM

Hey everyone, I have a 2011 I4 camry. I recently ran out of gas and decided to keep trying to see maybe if the car would turn on. After all that i gave up cranking the car on and decided to push to a gas station. After putting in gas (93 octane) I realized i have my check engine light on and another light which depicts a car with 2 swiggly lines. I have no idea what that light means but its to the right of of lcd display which shows your mileage. Im taking the car tomorrow to the dealership but I was wondering is there any way i can check the codes without an obd scanner(the thing that checks for codes). Do you think I ruined my engine after trying to start the car multiple times without gas? Any help would be appreciated.

leakyseals · 01-05-2012, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ehsan97

Hey everyone, I have a 2011 I4 camry. I recently ran out of gas and decided to keep trying to see maybe if the car would turn on. After all that i gave up cranking the car on and decided to push to a gas station. After putting in gas (93 octane) I realized i have my check engine light on and another light which depicts a car with 2 swiggly lines. I have no idea what that light means but its to the right of of lcd display which shows your mileage. Im taking the car tomorrow to the dealership but I was wondering is there any way i can check the codes without an obd scanner(the thing that checks for codes). Do you think I ruined my engine after trying to start the car multiple times without gas? Any help would be appreciated.

Traction control light is the squiggly one. should be a button for that, look around. Perhaps pushing the car with the ignition engaged triggered something. Bad to run a car low or out of gas for a lot of reasons. Put a bottle of Techron concentrate cleaner in a full tank of gas to clean the junk that was sucked through the system allowing the gas to run out. Then drive for a couple of days, other CEL lights should go out. If they dont then head to the dealer. Only way you would ruin the engine would be let that run out of oil.

Donald E. George · 01-05-2012, 03:15 PM

The fuel pump in the tank is lubricated by the gasoline so you might have fried the pump.More likely,you sucked up the crud in the bottom of the tank and contaminated the pump inlet filter. Pump should put out about 40# plus psig Regards

Mike Gerber · 01-05-2012, 05:58 PM

You do need a scanner to check for OBD codes. You didn't ruin your engine. I wouldn't be surprised if both lights go out on their own in a couple of days.

One more thing. Stop using 93 octane gas. You are just wasting money. Your car is designed to run on 87 octane regular gas. You receive no additional benefit by using higher grades of fuel.

Mike

hardtopte72 · 01-05-2012, 08:01 PM

Most likely you have a P0171 lean code from you running the car out of gas. The Traction control light is probably on because I think it turns on automatically when the check engine light is on. A 2011 probably doesn't have much if any gunk in the bottom of its tank. I have ran a few cars out of gas and after fill up I haven't had any problems. The gunk issue is generally for much older cars.

And yes stop using 93 octane. You are getting zero benefit.

Ehsan97 · 01-09-2012, 02:24 AM

Thanks for all the replies and yes the lights did go off by the next day on the way to the dealer. I always thought higher octane would be cleaner and more refined gas as opposed to 87. Anyways thanks and i guess ill jus use a lower octane from now on. It just feels more responsive when using a higher octane hence why i put in 93.