No CEL...ever

Just purchased a 2001 Tacoma, 92K, runs great, no issues but what bothers me is that the CEL does not come on when the ignition is turned on (without starting) as it should. There are no codes stored and the truck runs very well. All the other lights work appropriately. I suppose it could simply be a bulb but Im not excited about tearing the dash apart. Is there some way i can diagnose this short of tearing the dash apart?

thanks

 

welcome to tacomaworld!

 

Welcome to TW.
Maybe they removed the bulb or it burned out.

 

I would guess the bulb has been removed or burnt out, like stated above. Not sure what state you are in, but it probably won’t pass emissions without an operating light.

 

Well that's part of the puzzle, this car did pass a CA smog test a few weeks ago. So I'm inclined to thing that the seller wasnt trying to cover anything up as there was nothing to cover up. I did read somewhere that some vehicle scanners will activate the CEL and "service soon" circuits as part of their tests - does this sound right and if so which ones, what is this feature called? Would be great as it would at least eliminate the bad bulb hypothesis. The dash lights behind the fan knob and the climate zone selector also seemed to be burned out so I guess I'm going in either way.

 

I'm sure if any codes were popping they would have caught it at the smog shop. This is a good lesson for the future though.

I went to buy a ford ranger once, guy had it running when I pulled up (somewhat weird) First thing I did was cycle the ignition and noticed there was no CEL. Upon plugging in my code reader 6 codes popped up and I walked.

 

Looks like it runs of the 10A gauge fuse. If that fuse is good, which it sounds like it is, then its probably the bulb.

I haven't pulled the cluster, but there is a howto floating around here somewhere, I don't think its all that difficult.

 

it is cake to remove the cluster and check the bulb

 

Yeah 10A fuse is good, thanks for the encouragement about going in. i've gone into the dash done with twice before with older cars and 20 yr old plastic is always iffy. Nice warm day so hopefully that helps.
Ironically, Firechicken i did specifically notice that the CEL did not come on when cycling the key- was the first thing I checked when looking at the car. The condition of this this car however was stellar (and unmodified) and it runs great and passed smog so i really couldnt see someone going to great lengths to hide this. Well. I could still be wrong

 

functional MIL is required for smog check... so someone let it slip by...

at any rate if OBDII sez no codes, no codes. probably bulb

 

I California dies it have to pass smog before transfer?

 

the vehicle does need to pass smog before transfer in CA, which apparently it did without a CEL light as 127 noted above, go figure.
Anyway the next time i see a Tacoma instrument cluster in the junkyard i'm cleaning out all the bulbs- these things are costly, $16-18 each! It would make sense to change all the bulbs in my vehicle while I'm in there but not at these prices.

 

OK so check it out. I tore apart the dash and successfully replaced two burned out HVAC bulbs on my way to the CEL. Got to the CEL bulb and when i pulled out the old one it more or less crumbled, glass separated from base. Went in to remove the glass pieces and started pulling out small pieces of crumbled up pink paper. Once it was all out i put in the new CEL bulb which lit up with the key in the on position and went out when the truck was started, no issues.
So what's going on here? What was that paper doing in there? I would note also that one piece of the pink paper sort of looked like it was torn from a computer print out/invoice and had a logo on it with hood of a car. Had someone repair place gone to the bother of stuffing paper in the bulb hole to pass some inspection and then at some later point gone back and fixed whatever caused the CEL to go on in the first place? As I said the truck runs great, passed CA smog inspection, no codes, everything AOK. Really baffled

 

yup, someone bypassed mil lamp

 

OK here's the bizarre and sad twist end to this story. I turns out that this 2001 Tacoma with 91K miles on it in fact, by Carfax and CA smog records, has well in excess of 300K miles on it. This fraud was accomplished by replacing the instrument cluster that read 300K with one from a donor Tacoma that read 91K. The donor cluster likely came from a truck that was having CEL problems that were dealt with by stuffing paper in the bulb hole, after which the bulb burned out. When the donor instrument cluster was transferred to my truck, which is not sending any codes, it read 91K but had a non-functional CEL. Replacing the bulb and removing the paper resulted in a functioning CEL that had nothing to report.

So good news: my CEL now works and my truck is not sending any codes
bad news: my Tacoma has 300K+ miles on it

A word in parting which was touched upon by Fire Chicken above:

if you turn the key to the on position, the airbag, ABS, oil pressure, and check engine lights must come on. Upon starting the car, these lights must turn off. Period. If not there is something fishy going on that could possibly be just a bulb or fuse, but more likely is something much worse.

 

Bummer. I hope karma has her way with the asshat who pulled this.

 

I believe it's *after* transfer. New owner needs to make that happen.

 

Damn man sorry you had to experience this. While shopping for a taco before I left LA, I checked out a green 99 single cab 4wd off Van Nuys in the valley at a somewhat sketchy auto repair shop. The short of it was that they advertised 130xxx CA truck when in fact it had 318k+ and lived in the rust belt for last ten years via carfax/autocheck. Hopefully you can get some justice but as long as the truck runs well and the frame looks good you should be good to go.

 

For future reference the W terminal in the check connector under the hood comes form the CEL bulb, so if you ground it to E1 (like with a bent paper clip) it will test the CEL bulb. You need the key in the ON position and GAUGE fuse working.

I'm not sure if Toyota stopped putting this terminal in the check connector at some point. The label might be there, but the metal terminal may be missing. Toyota had this in the 90's in models, so you'd have to check your particular model/year to see if it's still there.

I didn't check this in my 96 Tacoma, but maybe someone else can verify if it's true and works on Tacomas.