what is the cause of the vsc light going on. can I still drive the car
A fault detected by the Vehicle Stability Control system, is the check engine light on?
Yes you can drive the car, the VSC system won’t work if you plan to do some stunt driving.
Is the Tire Pressure Monitoring System and/or the Antilock Braking System light(s) ‘ON’? If so the VSC system will also be disabled.
You can motorvate safely if you don’t drive or turn aggressively especially in wet, snowy, or otherwise slippery conditions.
Lots Of Hits On This Topic When I Googled It. This Seems A Common Complaint. Toyota And Other Car Repair Forums Have Many Discussions And Suggest Causes And Solutions.
Many owners are advised to try resetting the system themselves before spending bucks to have a mechanic get hold of it. Many are thankful for the advice that fixes it.
CSA
I’ve been on several Toyota forums…and the complaint about the VSC light is that it comes on when-ever the ECU detects a fault - EVEN IF IT’S UNRELATED TO THE VSC. Toyota disables traction control and ABS if ANY faults.
There have been several complaints about the VSC light going on without another code…and it all seems to be related to AFTER a OBD-II reader was hooked up.
Directly from the web-site.
Cause: The code reader or other OBDII device has attempted to communicate with the 4Runner using the CAN protocol (involving pin #14) and this has caused the 4Runner to erase the “zero point calibration” numbers in its memory. Without these numbers it can’t get accurate information from the yaw rate and deceleration sensors (in the center console near the gearshift) and so it disables traction and stability control functions.
The fix: Perform the “zero point calibration” procedure as described in TSB BR001-04. This procedure can be performed without special equipment such as a hand-held tester or OBDII reader. You only need the equivalent of a jumper wire to short together two pins of the OBDII connector at the right time and the right number of times between switching the 4Runner on and off. More detail is included below, leveraged from my other posts.
+1 to @MikeInNH