Multiple warning lights when slipping on ice.. VSC system??

Let me start off by saying this is my first Tacoma and first vehicle with VSC system..
We got a little snow and ice down here in Georgia last night. I took my neighbor to the store and I'd been driving in 2wd most of the time. When I was almost home I turned the corner and the hill near my house had iced over. The layer of snow on top had melted and re-froze.

Anyway, i was almost to the top of the hill and my rear wheels started spinning. I only had a short distance to crest the hill and thought I could just power my way the last few feet. Well, what I think happened is the VSC kicked in. The slip indicator light started blinking, then a buzzer went off and all kinds of warnings popped up. . See pictures below, there was an oil pressure warning light as well but didn't get a picture of that... I stopped the vehicle and there was no power going to the drive train when I pushed the gas.. I backed down the hill, shut off the engine. Started it back up and put it in 4WD and went up with hill no problem. I read in the manual when I got home if you get stuck in the snow the VSC may reduce power from engine to the wheels..

Are all these warning lights normal if you get stuck with VSC system on? If driving in mud or snow where your wheels may slip should you proactively turn of VSC?

My old Dodge Dakota 4x4 you could just power up the hill in 2wd or engage the 4wd.. The incident discribed above is like the system shut everything down until I restarted the truck.

Thanks in advance for any input

 

Take to dealer!
This should not have happened
Show the dealer the pics and this post!

 

In the future turn off the VSC when on ice/snow, I learned this with my Gen2 truck.
I imagine you spun the tires more than you thought and did overheat the trans fluid.
There's a LOT of gloom & doom folks on this forum . . . . but there's also a lot of good people that'll help when you ask.
I'm in Canton & got the same weather you did.
Mike

 

Ok, thanks for the info... I called my dealership this afternoon and they recommended I bring it in.. So I'll update next week after I see what they say.

Edit: My wheels were only spinning for 4-5 seconds before things went south and I stopped the vehicle.

 

The VSC-failsafe was probably normal.


The trans temp and charging system MILs, if related, could be the ECU interpreting a short of either temp sensors.

What was the temperature outside and how short/long of a trip was it?

 

Outside temp was mid 20's, total round trip was 8-10 miles.. It happened about 100 yards from my home on the way back home. The roads were not really that bad even in 2wd, only put it in 4wd for very short distances when stopped on a hill at a red light 2 or 3 times. When driving in 2wd I noticed very little wheel slipping or spinning. So I would not think the TRAC, or other systems would have been used excessively

 

Was it a labored effort for the truck ascending the hill?

 

I thought I had enough momentum to get me to the top without needing 4wd, so I was literally 10ft from the crest of the hill before my back tires started spinning. In my old truck it would have just spun for 10 ft and made it up the hill no problems. But when VSC system kicked in, after 3-5 seconds of wheel spin the buzzer and warning lights went off. So I would say no it was not a labored effort. It's not like a started spinning at the bottom of the hill and tried to make it the whole way spinning. Hope that answered you question?

 

While I have it at the dealership I'll have them check the AT and differential fluids.... And U-bolts

 

Yes it did.

If it was a true overheat it takes at least 5 minutes to cool sufficiently.
If it was a short, it doesn't clear on restart.

I think you get those MILs with a bad CPS; but you have a 2017, so...

Lot of systems tied together...

Definitely take it to the dealer and please keep us informed.
I'm genuinely curious if the MILs are normal or not.

 

Will do... Thanks

 

That doesn't sound normal at all, hope its not some intermittent problem that they can't reproduce, at least you took some pics of the dash to show the dealer.

 

Next week when the snow and ice is melted, not sure how they'll reproduce it? Hopefully my explanation will be sufficient?

 

This is more than likely.
Still think all that shit shouldnt of happened. Because it could of caused some serious shit.
Although all the right sensors went off.

 

I'm here at n Canton, too and drove down Sixes Rd to hit Blankets Creek from Bridgemill. While I didn't have the issues that you described, I have to say that I was very pleased with how the truck handled the snow(ice) covered roads. Very confident on the hills of Sixes.

Good luck with your truck. I've had great service at Cherokee County Toyota - my service advisor is Davey. He drives a '17 Tacoma, which helps when explaining things as he seems to understand better.

 

UPDATE:

I took my truck to the dealership Monday evening on way home from work and they hooked it up to the computer and found no error codes were saved or logged from the event that happened a few days earler on the ice. They ran a complete diagnostic / health check on the system and everything tested OK. They did not question the event happened, I had pictures, but they just couldn't repeat it.

In the rear parking lot of the dealership there was a hill still covered in ice and they drove it up and down the hill several times in 2wd with VSC on, no problems. They called me over and we went together to the hill, and went up and down the hill 4 or 5 times more, wheels spinning the whole time, slip indicator light going off like crazy, and nothing. Vehicle performed as it should.

I asked about the VSC fail safe mentioned above by @splitbolt and based on the amount of time / distance i drove that day and the limited amount the VSC system was engaged, they doubted that was the issue. They said i would really had to be dog'in hard for something like that to kick in...

The problem was noted in the system, so hopefully it was a one time fluke. Still loving my truck.....

 

Hopefully its a one time thing, its funny that nothing stored away as a fault or error code.

 

Battery thing is normal with engine off. There is no way you overheated your trans in 5 seconds...bug. trying to power through axle deep mud for several minutes....thats when transmission s can get hot!

 

This just happened to my truck this morning same thing but with everything off I tried starting my truck after because I lost all power same lights came on. After a few minutes my truck started up like nothing happened and was fine. Thinking I should bring it to the dealer as well 2020 sr5