8th Dec 2008, 10:40

I have 2002 Rav4 (56,000 miles) and the check engine light went on a few months ago. I replaced the plug and reset the computer, the light went off for a few months. The light went on again now. I also have 2000 Camry (67,000 miles) and the check engine light went on about 6 months ago. I replaced two sensors and reset the computer, the light went off and it did not come back so far. I am thinking to replace the sensors for Rav4.

26th Jan 2009, 21:02

Another unhappy 2001 Rav4 owner. My check engine light came on, my car started surging and died. I took the Rav to a mechanic and it was showing nothing stored on the computer so he was going to look up some information. Two months later I received the reprogramming notice from Toyota so I had the rav towed to Toyota. They told me that the control module would not accept the program and they could not save anything to it. They told me it was going to be expensive to replace and could not have been caused by the recall. What do you think. I work with programs on real computers on a daily basis and I know that if the wrong code is being sent it can damage the whole system. Attorney general here I come.

16th Mar 2009, 10:12

I have a 2001 RAV4, and my check engine light came on. It stated that 01 and 02 banks (regarding the oxygen sensors) needed to be replaced. $400+ later the engine light came on after 60-70 miles. I had the reading checked and it was the same stated problem.

Apart from getting a new car, does anyone have any advice out there?

14th Jul 2009, 15:19

I am the owner of a 2001 Toyota Rav4 in the UK. My vehicle has just done 156,000 miles. Started seeing the fault light lit on my car about 2 years ago. The Toyota dealer said it was an O2 sensor and replaced it. About 2 weeks later the fault light came on again, and after analysis the Toyota dealer said that it was the O2 sensor or catalytic convertor. The O2 sensors are approx £170 to replace, and had a quote of £700 for the catalytic convertor.

I was not impressed and decided to think about the cost, and whether to get the work carried out. shortly after this the car passed its MOT and emission tests, so I assumed that the catalytic convertor was OK. After poor service with my local Toyota garage, I went to another Toyota certified garage 12 miles from my home. They carried out a service and highlighted an O2 sensor problem; when I queried it they said that there are actually 4 02 sensors in the catalytic convertor. They replaced another 02 sensor, and whilst testing it said that another had failed, so that was replaced as well.

4 weeks later the fault light came back on again.

Having had the fault light on for months; anyway, I decided to drive the car as it was, rather than throwing money at it. The car passed another MOT test.

Recently my brother bought a device that we used to look at the faults on my Rav4.

They were:

P0420 catalytic convertor system efficiency below threshold bank1.

P0430 catalytic convertor system efficiency below threshold bank2.

Cleared these codes down and within a day the fault light was back with the same codes. Decided 2 years after initial diagnosis of possible catalytic convertor problems to get it replaced. To save £300-£400 in costs I purchased the catalytic convertor from a motorparts company and replaced it myself. It is a fairly simple job that involves replacing the unit that attaches to the engine block and exhaust pipe. Took around 4 hours from start to finish.

Cleared down the codes and drove the car for a day before the fault light came back again. The next day it went out and the next day it came back on again. Today there was no fault light, attached the fault code analyser and saw the following code.

P1349 undefined code.

BUT no references to catalytic convertor system efficiency.

Deleted the fault code and will see if it comes back.

Googling the P1349 code led me to this page.

Overall I am very happy with my Toyota Rav4, and didn't realise that there was an issue with the O2 sensors, catalytics convertors and P1349 codes until I found this page.

Paulart - Chelmsford, near London England.

29th Jul 2009, 05:37

I own a 2001 Toyota Rav4 that has 137,000 miles on it. Since the day I bought it 8 years ago the check engine light has come on only about 7 times. The cause every single time it came on??? CHEAP GAS!!! This cheap gas is the reason your engine revs and stalls, clogs the Cat. Converter, sensors, fuel lines and needs the gas tank to be refilled so often. These "running hot", little 4 cylinder engines just can't take gas from questionable sources like "Neighhood Gas" and "Stop, Shop, Fill and Go".

The other day I happen to drive by my Toyota dealership when the engine light came on after years of being off and the first question out of the dealer's mouth was: "Did I just recently fill the gas tank?" Why yes I did - with cheap gas!!! (I was late for a job interview.) Use Gulf Oil gas or some other big name gas station (avoid Mobile and Citgo). And by "cheap gas" I don't mean you have to buy high octane. I buy the lowest octane always, just make sure the gas is from a large, well known gas refinery.

Hey, you have to get gas anyway. See if this helps (make sure the gas cap is on tight too, just another cheap fix). Give the bad gas a few fillups to work out of your fuel lines. If this works for you please plaster it all over the internet for other Toyota Rav 4 "engine light on" sufferers.

1st Nov 2009, 20:34

I own a 2001 RAV4 which I purchased in 2004 from a dealer with an extended warranty. I drove across the country 3 days after purchase and the check engine light went on. The mileage was under 50k at the time of purchase. The code that the light was emitting was an emissions code. Did you know that the "recall" for this was to wipe the EMC (computer) and the real issues is the catalytic converter and sensors.

If your light went off before 80k mileage and Toyota wiped your EMC, that's emissions tampering, when it doesn't pass emissions. Trying to find people for a class action lawsuit. I can't pass emissions in my state, and this should have been fixed by Toyota and the dealer. The dealerships (all part of a chain) told me it was no big deal, there wasn't emissions in my state, but moved back to Colorado and it won't pass. Now neither corporate Toyota and / the dealership (a GIANT chain, not sure I should name there here) refuse to fix although I have mountains of paperwork to make my case. Also having trouble with the transmissions, which is an issue for many 2001 Rav 4 automatic and standard drivers.

You can contact me @corebodypilates on twitter, send me a direct message.