Please help~!

I have a 2008 Toyota 4Runner and yesterday randomly the VSC started to engage while driving straight/turning. It was bad to the point that I lost control of the car and ended up in a ditch. The brakes were only functioning at 50% power no matter how hard I mashed on them the vehicle wouldn't slow. (dry asphalt 54 degrees outside!)

I then got out of the ditch 4x4 helped. And while driving on a residential side street my system started engaging and it felt like the vehicle was lurching and pulling to the side of the road.

I need some help. Please give me input or who and what I should do about this. Any help is appreciated

-Mica

It's either a electrical fault or something is triggering a honest VSC deployment. Are any of the tires under/over inflated?

Wow, I'd have that thing towed to a Toyota dealership immediately.
Tell em to test drive it.

One possible cause for the VCS to engage is if one or more of the wheel rotation sensors is not reporting wheel speed correctly (could be caused by excess mud/debris in the area of the sensor). But, I don't think that would have any effect on the braking system. I would get it to the dealer as soon as possible and have it checked out. It might be a problem with one of the ECU's.

What made you think the VSC engaged??? Why did you suspect it?
What did it feel like other than going into the ditch??
Are you saying that the car accelerated out of control??? or did it suddenly turn to the right or left??

Can you please provide some details???

All the tires have 32 PSI including the spare.
It was definitely a full on vsc deployment, typical rapid firing of brakes (abs) as well as loss of firmness of the Brake pedal. I read about a GX470 having a similar issue on another website.

VSC engaged because of the loud repetitive sounds of ABS engaging. There is was a change in the brake pedal feel. The car also was pulling off to the side of the road. It felt like the rear right wheel was braking spontaneously. No acceleration was noted, only under-steer and strong pull to the right.

This is a really weird thing. Its almost difficult to even describe, I will post a YouTube video when I have a chance. Thank you for all of your help.

- BTW I did take it to the dealer, we checked all 4 sensors and sensor wires no issues. OnboardDiag was normal also. I don't know where to go from here.

Youtube vid to follow...

Thanks -
Mica

Here are the Vids of the overactive VSC

YouTube - 2008 4runner 4th gen Vsc problems (vehicle stability control) overactivity part 2 of 2

YouTube - 2008 4runner 4th gen Vsc problems (vehicle stability control) overactivity part 1 of 2

Please help

Thanks

Something may be wrong with you car but in the parking lot videos I could tell you were flooring the car and turning... Thats going to activate vsc. It doesn't have anything to do with only going 25 miles an hour, it activates if the tires are starting to slip and I could hear them slipping.

Toyota's Vehicle Stability Control (VSC) by Bosch on Yahoo! Video

Anyone of these parts could be acting up causing you problems if there really is an issue.

Thanks for the input.

I assure you that I was NOT flooring the vehicle in the parking lot and you can also tell that i was not flooring it when we moved the video camera to the interior (flooring the vehicle would send the RPMs well above 2500 RPM which they were not). In addition, I did not have enough room in the parking lot to floor it safely. And the sound you are hearing is the VSC engaging and making the tires slip.

I also agree that it doesn't have to do with going 25 mph, however, take a 4th gen 4runner and depress the brakes to 50% at that speed, NO VSC should come on, where it does in my vehicle.

This recent behavior of my vehicle is completely out of the norm in comparison to how it behaved for the first 10,200 miles I put on it.

So far I am confident that it is one of the wheel sensors.

thanks for all the help so far.

Toyota Repair: VSC problem on 2004 Toyota 4Runner, smooth road, exact problem

Expert: Ted Ritter - 4/24/2009

Question
I have a problem with my 4Runner locking up the brakes for no apparent reason and without warning. There's no rhyme or reason to when it occurs - it's been 30 degrees, 70 degrees, rain, no rain, up hill, down hill, engine warm, engine cold, any speed, etc. Anyhow what happens is the brakes slam on, sometimes at highway speeds. When this happens it tends to pull to one side - can't recall if it's always the same side but I think it pulls to the right. When this happens, it beeps rapidly - the same beeping you hear if the truck is on a hill and starts to roll back while in drive. This is normal from what I understand. When rolling back, the brakes come on a little so the truck doesn't roll backward too fast. The random braking seems to happen about once every week or two and has been happening for months. One thing to note is I was in a small accident that involved my passenger side front quarter panel and wheel. The alignment was out so much that my steering wheel was off by 90 degrees. I took the truck to the dealership after the body work was done and after the problem started but didn't tell them of the accident. They couldn't find any problems - no lights were stuck on and no trouble codes were logged. Any insight would be appreciated!

Peter wrote at 2009-05-31 17:24:46
I have the same exact problem with my 2003 GX 470. The VSC engages at random, the brakes slam on two or three times and the VSC light and beep come on. It's happened going straight on a smooth road, it's happened in all weather conditions, it's happened anywhere from 30-80mph. Only once every couple weeks but it's very dangerous and nerve-wracking. I also had an alignment done that corrected the steering wheel that was off by 90 degrees as well and it started after that. I have no idea what to do and neither do the Lexus guys. Help!

Melisa wrote at 2009-09-29 22:00:07
I have the same exact problem with my 2002 4Runner. It happens like 7-9 times a week... and I have no idea what the problem is!

http://townhall.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0fa178/53

This is the exact problem I have.
I have 2004 AWD SIENNA. A week ago, when I started the car in a freezing morning and drove in subdivision road, the slippery light and beep came on and the break acted here and there on the wheels. At the very beginning, I thought the road was slippery. But it was not the case. There was no way my van was skidding all the time. I was only driving at 10 MPH. Then I realized the VSC was wrongly activated. Whenever I get to more than 10MPH, VSC got activated and broke the speed down to 5 MPH. I could only drive at 5MPH without getting VSC activated.

Then I realized I could not drive this van on the road. I parked it back in garage. The next day, my wife drove it out of the garage and got the same symptom. We put the van back to garage for another 3 days before I was about to call a tow truck to tow it to a dealer for examination. I tried it again. Miraculously, the problem went away.
I went to the dealer and talked to the service adviser, he said he knew nothing about the problem (recall etc.) and asked me to bring the van back for service once the problem happens again.

I have to correct the title of this thread. It was not the ABS (When break peddle pressed, break pulses when wheel blocks, no light or beep in this case) that was activated, it was VSC (slippery light and beep comes on, break activates). It was not traction control either (only light will come on, no beep). All three features are controlled by the same module.

My van appears to be working correctly now, but I dare not drive it far away from home. I know the problem is not gone. It will come back at the most inconvenient time. I do not want to be stranded in a snow storm at -30 degrees F that I can only drive at 5MPH (That is what the weather is like here in Chicago at this time of the year). I do not want to be thousand miles away from home when the problem happens again.

I read someone wrote that the dealer cleaned wheel sensors and recalibrated the system and got the problem fixed. I went under my van and inspected the 4 speed sensors (The only sensors that are exposed to the outside). I did not find visible unusual dirtiness, snow, ice etc.

I would be more than happy to get the VSC feature disabled when it false activated so that I could drive the van to the dealer instead of getting it towed, or I could drive home. VSC is just a nice to have feature, not essential to the van. I have been driving a car with no ABS, Trac control, VSC for more than 10 years. The dealer and Toyota 800 number told me there was no way I could disable VSC.

I did some reading and found there were 2 VSC related relay blocks in the fuse box under the hood. They have "VSC MSR" and "VSC Fail" printed on them. I tried to remove one of them and then both of them. The ABS and VSC light passed the start up test and went off. They come on once I drive for about 50 feet. Now the van can drive without ABS and VSC. Mission accomplished.

After I put the VSC relay blocks back and drive for about 50 feet, both ABS and VSC light went off. The ABS and VSC are back again.

I have to make a disclaimer even thought I am not claiming anything. You do whatever you do to your car/van at your risk. I am not telling you what to do. I am just sharing what I think I would do when the problem occurs.

After I found out how to disable VSC, I drove my van 200 miles away to Wisconsin Dells for 3 days. It made the round trip no problem.

I have to be cautious to see when my Sienna will fail again.

2000 Toyota Landcruiser 3 times at interstate speed going downhill in a slight right hand turn the vehicle "VSC" vehicle skid contol activates and almost jerks me off the road. I took it to the dealership and they replace the front rotors and pads and repacked the hubs to cure the problem. The next time I was on the interstate after 300 miles the VSC spontainislly activated again. All 3 times I was driving in dry weather. Dealer took the vehicle overnight and drove 50 miles on the interstate with a laptop computer hooked up with no reaccurance of the malfunction. Any suggestions or other owners have the same issue?
Submitted: 154 days and 6 hours ago.
Category: Toyota Value: $15 Status: CLOSED +Read More
Accepted Answer

Dead wrong.
Have them test the battery.
Have them perform a zero point calibration on the yaw rate/deceleration sensor.


Read more: 2000 Toyota Landcruiser 3 times at interstate sp... - JustAnswer

Great videos. Thanks for all the information. This should help anyone that may develop the same or similar problems.

My 2008 T4R SR5 V6 4WD has a button to disable the VSC system.
Does you car have such a button. If so, disable the VSC for safe driving until you get it fixed.

If my memory serves me right, I think there are two operating procedures for this button. A quick push activates LSD (limited slip) to help get out of mud or a ditch. To totally deactivate VSC, I think you have to hold the button for a minimum of 3 seconds. Best to check the book.

Also, I have read where the VSC does not activate until the speed reaches ~10 mph. Sounds like your failure may occur when the VSC is activating at the 10 mph point.

There is another auto feature called Active Traction (TRAC). This one is activated anytime the key is on. However, it might also deactivate when VSC is turned off.

Please let us know what the problem turns out to be.

PS: Mine is just now at 10,000 miles. Hope this prob does not show up on it.

A few questions for you:

1- If you accelerate lightly, will the system ever kick in? Or do you have to be accelerating moderately or hard for it to happen? I'm not really talking about your speed or even your RPM, I'm talking about pressing the gas pedal lightly and accelerating slowly. Under those conditions, will the system kick in at all?

2- If it doesn't happen while accelerating lightly, can you get it to kick in during braking (without first causing it to kick in while you accelerate)?

3- Do you still have the original tires? None of them were changed to a different tire? Did you recently change a flat?

4- Have you had the vehicle scanned for codes? Keep in mind that just because your check engine light isn't on doesn't mean you can't have code information stored. My scantool can read "pending" codes, which basically means it will tap into the PCM to see if any parameters are even slightly out of spec, even if they are not out enough to trigger the MIL (check engine light)

5- If you put your 4Runner in neutral on a slight grade, will it roll easily? Do you use your parking brake often? Are you sure that it is not slightly engaged or sticking a bit? This question probably seems a bit out in left field, but I'm trying to cover all the bases.