It may be you are applying too much brake pedal pressure and hill assist is activated and then releasing when you accel off the stop?

 

Interesting suggestion. But it happened to me on level ground. I will note if I am using too much pedal. Mostly I worry that this is unsafe?

 

Bruce, What nhcycle is telling you is it will happen even on level ground when you push hard/very firmly on the brake pedal.

Try this on level ground with the car in drive, push hard on the brake pedal for a moment and you will see the slip indicator come on. This is because it was activated when you held the brake pedal down.

 

Thanks Doc;
I tried that and the light did not come on. Will keep at it.
Bruce

 

So then what you are saying is that , when in drive, you push the brake pedal hard & hold it, after 10 or 15 seconds the light does not come on.

If that is so you should show your dealer that the hill assist feature is not working, or if it is working it is not working correctly.:facepalm:

 

OK I will try that as you suggest.

 

Yoda? Is that you?

 

BrucePL The slip indicator can be sensitive sometimes. Could the streets you drive have a lot of oil on them? Could they have rainwater on them? Could you be a little heavy footed on the take off? Lots of things can make the car slip a little. I can see why you might be concerned about it. I don't think I have seen this issue come up on this forum except involving winter roads. I hope you can get a more serious answer out of your Toyota dealer. Wyovenza

 

??

Hello. Did you ever find out why that happened to you? Its happened to me today. Thanks

 

Yes;

It's caused by pressing too hard on the brake pedal at a stop - and holding at a stop with too much pressure. Try minimal pressure when stopped. Should go away. Let me know.

 

I've done this a few times accidentally at stop lights. You get bored and push to hard on the brake and it engages. What it is really for is stopping, then starting on a hill. The way you use it is to press on the brake way firmer than you usually do. A little display comes up on the screen in front of you, telling you that it is engaged. Now you can take your foot off of the brake and the car won’t roll back. It is only disengaged when you press on the accelerator pedal.

 

Thanks for getting back to me. Unfortunately, we were driving on the highway when this happened. So it was not a brake issue for us. I ended up going to Toyota and they said to replace the struts and rack/pinion ($2,500).

 

Hey there,
I'm getting this light too. no hills around me, but have hit the breaks a bit harder in the past day; so, this kind of makes sense.
question though...is it a safety issue, or more of an annoyance?
either way, will have it checked monday, but should I not drive it until then?

 

If you press hard on the brake, as already described, Hill Assist should engage, this is perfectly normal and there are no safety issues. It is a feature that was added to help drivers on hills, especially when towing.