Hi everybody
I just bought a beautiful Magna Solara TL LS 04. I live in Cairns and I am new to this forum. It's a real pleasure to drive this car, but something strange started to happen. Randomly the amber "Engine system warning" and "TCL OFF" lights turn on. I understand, that there seems to be something with the Track Control and a code set in the engine management self-diagnostic system. Strangely though it doesn't happen all the time. There are days, where everything is fine. Sometimes when I switch off the engine and then start again the lights are gone. Is it still safe to drive, or should I let the car be checked immediately? Did anybody else experienced this problem?
thanks

its definately worth getting it looked at, TCL is your traction control. Engine system warning is odd too, it may indicate a wiring issue (loose plug somewhere) but I read that its worth checking the inlet control side of things. Ensure the MAF sensor isn't damaged, it sits behind the airbox and is a large square item with a honeycomb centre. Although I have no idea why that would effect the TCL, its easy enough to pull off the car and check. Does the car stutter or hesitate at all?

Thank you Cybermonkey. The car doesn't stutter or hesitate at all, it actually drives very smoothly. You are right, I will let it get checked. Do you think I still can drive it though? I read somewhere, that it is alright to drive, but there could be a loss of performance.

i would get the alternator and battery checked at a free test place. (i think most battery stores do it)
other than that, check all vacuum lines.\

I had a mates commode do that and it turned out to be a loose wire off the battery terminal, that when he hit a bump his check engine and ABS light would come on

Hi everybody
I just bought a beautiful Magna Solara TL LS 04. I live in Cairns and I am new to this forum. It's a real pleasure to drive this car, but something strange started to happen. Randomly the amber "Engine system warning" and "TCL OFF" lights turn on. I understand, that there seems to be something with the Track Control and a code set in the engine management self-diagnostic system. Strangely though it doesn't happen all the time. There are days, where everything is fine. Sometimes when I switch off the engine and then start again the lights are gone. Is it still safe to drive, or should I let the car be checked immediately? Did anybody else experienced this problem?
thanks


Guess what! I have identical issue with my TW. It's under warranty so it's going in tomorrow to have that and some other things fixed. I just hope they can fault it because it's real confusing. My battery is good and I'm assuming the alternator is also good as the battery charge seems fine and there's no flaring of the headlights in regards to engine rpm. Mine started a few weeeks ago now. It was a rainy day and I spun the wheels , TCL did not activate and then the TCL OFF light (amber) came on and stayed on, could not be reset with the dash switch. It reset itself after the car was turned off for a while. Same thing happened again next time, and then the check engine light would come on too with it. Car is running fine. Then this week in the wet TCL actually activated(green light) breifly then stopped again even though the wheels were still spinning. Then next morning(still wet) nothing at all then after 5-10 seconds TCL OFF and Check engine lights flashed on??

If they fix it I'll try to post the info

This happened to several people here, all cases to date have been faulty diodes in the Alt, the alt will give a bad charge and sometimes even try and over charge and send the rest of the car nuts

Can also be the TCL solonoids on the fire wall however is usually only the TCL off that will come up and not the engine light

This happened to several people here, all cases to date have been faulty diodes in the Alt, the alt will give a bad charge and sometimes even try and over charge and send the rest of the car nuts

Can also be the TCL solonoids on the fire wall however is usually only the TCL off that will come up and not the engine light

i'm probably hijacking the thread here but Thanks mate, I'll keep that in mind when I chat with Klosters tomorrow. I really don't want to hear the no fault found routine. If you lose a diode though, would this most likely cause a low volt/low charge scenario? Are you saying that the voltage regulator tries to compensate this and overvoltages the system? Last time I had a diode fail in a car I ended up with an under charged battery. One way or another I'm sure I'll learn something new from this.

I've had a quick look at the vacumn solenoids connectors and reseated these. I am expect these to be the problem or the control unit but maybe I have 2 issues going on here??

Thanks to everybody, all your posts are very helpful for me to get a better picture. TW2005 I really appreciate that you will send some info after the fix. Is it ok to drive the car for a couple of days before I can bring it for repair, or would it be better just to fix it first?

i would say that it is fine to drive, just check you connections on the alternator and battery. make sure the battery terminals are clean.

bad alternator diodes can cause a "noisy" or "spiky" power supply too , which may be upsetting the ECU.

NO it is not fine to drive as half of your cars safety systems are not operational when it is in this state, secondly, if you have a bad diode pack you can also damage your battery not to mention get spikes that can eat other components

Get it checked asap

I agree with madmagna 100% I wouldn't even drive it to a dealer, I'd get it towed

he has obviously already been driving it, i would just drive it to a mechanic if you cant change the alternator yourself, and you have already checked all the other things.

he has obviously already been driving it, i would just drive it to a mechanic if you cant change the alternator yourself, and you have already checked all the other things.

Why risk it even more though? He might break his nice car on some advice on here that "it will be safe to drive to a mechanic" next time it turns over he might fry the loom!

Why risk it even more though? He might break his nice car on some advice on here that "it will be safe to drive to a mechanic" next time it turns over he might fry the loom!

Or the BEM, ECU, ABS Module etc etc

Personally I would not drive it, I would get it done. I know many who have taken the car for a drive to a dealership but that is as far as they have gone, agian I would tow it if not fixing it myself

isnt that where fuses come in? couldnt he drive it without an alternator for a bit? i dont know about magnas, but most cars you can take the belt off and drive for about 50 kms with no lights on. just something to think about before you pay someone to tow it

I recommend to unplug the abs ecu a few times and also may be hose down the calipers around the sensors. Worked for me.

I just made an appointment with my mechanic for coming Friday. I will let you know what they had to fix. I am still not sure whether I should drive (about 8 km) to the mechanic, or whether I will get it towed. This morning when I switched on the engine the warning lights didn't show up. Everything seemed to work alright, no strange noise. It makes me believe, that it can't be anything serious. On the other hand, I am absolutely not familiar with anything under the bonnet of a car and some of your comments let me hesitate to drive. Thanks again for all your helpful and supportive comments.

I would say you are ok to drive the 8km to the mechanic, most of the time in the Magna it is a warning about the alt being on its way out, could be over or under charging, these cars do strange things when the alt is on its way out lol

Razorjack, appreciate you trying to assist mate but your idea is way off the mark, has nothing to do with wheel sensors etc etc, this is an issue coming up with other systems as the engine light will not come on with the abs system fault, you would get tcl off, abs light on and handbrake warning light on

I would say you are ok to drive the 8km to the mechanic, most of the time in the Magna it is a warning about the alt being on its way out, could be over or under charging, these cars do strange things when the alt is on its way out lol

Razorjack, appreciate you trying to assist mate but your idea is way off the mark, has nothing to do with wheel sensors etc etc, this is an issue coming up with other systems as the engine light will not come on with the abs system fault, you would get tcl off, abs light on and handbrake warning light on

I had engine light and tcl off light at the same time come on randomly over a half year span , it got more frequent after a while, after fiddling with the connector and hosing down the calipers with a pressure cleaner it has completely disappeared. So while it may not be the same issue the symptoms are exactly the same. Hence my post.

Hi everyone, as I promised here the results of today's visit with my mechanic.They actually didn't do very much as you can see on the following statements on the invoice:

- Vehicle bought in with "TCL OFF" light on dash.
- Scanned vehicle on diagnostics tool and found Error Code 71
- Appear. relates to TCL Vacuum Solenoid.
- Erased Error Code and test drove vehicle
- Re-scanned vehicle on diagnostics tool and Fault Code did not appear.
- If light re-appears, need to return vehicle.
- Road Test Ok.

Apparently the costs to repair could become very high, if it the light should come on again to indicate that there is a definite problem with the TCL. So, I hope not and keep my fingers crossed. The mechanic meant, that this could even have been the reason for
sale. I appreciate any comments, hopefully some promising ones too. Razorjack's solution might work with me as well, because his symptoms were definitely exactly the same.