Isn’t it annoying when your car that you depend on day in and day out works fine for months, even years, without problems, then one day you start it up and this happens? Arggg!!! Life used to be so good, and now this! Why me?? !! …This happens to me too, I understand your pain. But things are probably not as dire as you may be thinking.
When the CEL comes on, that automatically turns on the VSC by Toyota’s design probably. So the VSC problem will be resolved once the CEL problem is fixed, and that might be as simple as replacing the gas cap. Suggest to not over-worry. Take care of it at your earliest convenience.
$200 is a reasonable price for checking and doing some preliminary diagnosis why there’s a CEL. That can take some time for the techs to figure out. There’s no need to use a dealership btw, especially true for a 7 year old car. You’ll likely get as good or better results and a less expensive invoice at a local inde shop. Ask friends, coworkers, relatives who they use to fix their cars, if you haven’t yet established a relationship with an inde shop that specializes in Toyotas or at least Asian cars.
If the CEL starts flashing however, stop driving asap, and tow the car to the repair place.
No harm asking for warranty coverage on the $1900 gasket problem … lol … but I don’t see it happening. The price of the actual gasket is pretty much unrelated to the cost to replace it. That’s true of any car. In fact your Corolla is probably considerably less expensive to replace that gasket than other cars. That’s an advantage of purchasing a Corolla. Gasket replacement is sort of like replacing a rotted sill plate on your house. That’s the piece of 2x4 at the bottom of the wall, which might cost $5 for a 16 foot length. But to replace it, there’s thousands of dollars of expense b/c the wall has to be somehow supported while the old one is removed and the new one installed, which could also damage the wall and require repainting. That’s where the expense is, the labor to do it.
Presuming you have the 1.8 L engine. There’s close to a dozen recalls, none for gaskets that I can see unfortunately. But if you go to a dealer, good idea to ask them to verify all have been done. One is related to the power brake booster, so that’s important from a safety point of view. If you have the other engine, 2.2 I think, ask the dealership to check if there’s a recall or customer interest bulletin for the gasket. Worth a shot anyway. Usually they’d volunteer than info if it applied, but sometimes they’ll not double check. Best of luck.