5 Things You Didn't Know About Your Modern Toyota and Lexus

hello and welcome to the car care nut channel so folks in today's video i want to share with you five things that you did not know about your toyota these are things that i think every toyota owner should know their little stuff but they make a big difference in your ownership but before we get started with the first one if you're new to the channel welcome consider subscribing to the channel check out some other videos if you are alternative subscriber well thank you so much for watching another one of my videos without further ado let's get right so the first one is are for those that park their cars in a garage and for those that actually have frequent access to their garage so you leave your toyota parked in the garage two three hours after you parked it you walk in the garage to grab something and you hear the car buzzing or some kind of motor is running and this is actually the number one thing that my viewers asked me about and they're concerned about it if you park it outside you're not going to hear it let's take a listen to the noise real quick so you know exactly what we are going to talk about because i'm going to explain what that is now that we've heard the noise i want to say one thing this noise is completely normal it's actually a good sign that means your evap system is working what is the evap system you ask evaporative emissions system you remember in the olden days you step into a garage and the garage smells like gasoline that's just how cars all cars smelled like gasoline back in the day and that was because of gas vapors every gasoline you put in a container it's going to create vapors and those vapors will go to the atmosphere and hurt the environment and hurt you actually as well newer cars 1996 and above and some before that as well capture those vapers and when the engine is running it routes it to basically burn it again so would not go to the atmosphere beautiful system but in order for that system to work 100 it needs to be sealed so those vapors would not escape so the noise you hear in modern toyotas somewhere around mid 2000s and up all the way to today have a vacuum pump that draws a vacuum when the conditions are right to test the system to make sure it is sealed and there are no leaks but that test will only run when the car have sat the temperature of the fuel got to a certain point then the test will run so that noise you hear is a little vacuum pump in a in a part called the charcoal canister what stores these vapors and that's the noise you hear there's a vacuum pump running running the test and the next one is filling your car with gas everybody does it some people every day some people every week some lucky ones every month but you open your door you take the gas cap you fill your car with gas but you can't hold the cap and the gas pump at the same time so what do most people do they just let this thing dangle over and over and over eventually you wear out the clear coat here and now you have scratches all over the place well if you actually take a peek at the door the fuel door you're gonna see this most modern toyotas have a place to put the cap right here so you take it out instead of pushing it down just hang it right there life is great right now and while we're talking about gas caps let me mention this everybody knows if you leave your gas cap off or loose the circumstance will eventually come on but it actually doesn't come on immediately because just like the test we talked about the car needs to test the system and then it will detect this leak and then set a trouble code and your check engine light will come on but what's more important is and i see people make this mistake all the time jack angela came on they checked their gas cap oh my god i forgot it loose tighten it good chuck angela is still on they actually take it to a mechanic and end up paying money to for someone to tighten their cap but remember the system needs to run that test in order to determine if you fix the issue or not so if you forget your gas cap and your check angela comes on tighten the cap reset the chuck engine light or just drive normally it will eventually shut itself off and life is good don't go to a mechanic when you know you left your gas cap off because you'll be spending money unnecessarily the next one is for owners of smart keys let's say your car is running you shut off the car it'll just continue beeping like that and it's super annoying if you just want to keep your door open and sit in the car for a bit it'll just continue beeping at you but here's what you can do to actually stop that just close the door or reopen it and if you don't want to do that you can actually just reach here this is the courtesy switch this is what gets pushed to let the car know that the door closed and or opened so if you just reach here and push it and let it go the beeping will stop but i want you to notice one thing that actually happens other than that i'm gonna turn on the car again i'm gonna shut it off now it's beeping away the steering wheel is unlocked when you push this button and let it go you can actually hear the motor engage and now my steering wheel is locked that beep as annoying as it is is just reminding you that your steering wheel is unlocked your car is still not shut off completely you have to take the key with you close the door then it will finish powering off and your steering wheel will lock and now the car is ready to be locked and walked away from that is the reason for that beep doesn't make sense it's super annoying but you don't have to close the door and reopen it you could just reach in here push the button and life is great and the next one is for models with electronic parking brake there are two modes two electronic parking brakes that most people are not aware of there's automatic mode and then there's manual mode but before we get into that most people are confused which direction the parking brake is to apply or disengage to apply the parking brake remember you're pulling a lever you're pulling it up so you pull that button up you do want to disengage it you are putting the lever down so you push it down let's keep that in mind automatic mode every time you put it in park it engages the automatic parking brake so when i take it off park parking brake is disengaged i put it back in park it is engaged now that automatic engagement is actually customizable so if i press and hold the break and push the parking button down and continue to hold it it just said a message it's deactivated the automatic function and now when i put it in drive and then go back in park it doesn't engage on its own so if you want to put it in automatic mode you're going to do the opposite you're going to push the pedal on the brake with the car running you're gonna pull up on the handle to engage the parking brake and continue to hold it until you get a message that it's been activated let it go and now when you put it in drive it disengages on its own and when you put it in park it engages on its own this is really helpful because this will help you not think about the parking brake it will always be engaged and disengaged as needed there are certain scenarios where you do not want it to engage for service for whatever the case may be you will park this car in extreme cold weather and you're worried about the parking brake getting frozen if you're going to leave it for a long time then disengage it so it wouldn't keep engaging on its own but otherwise my recommendation is you always leave in an automatic because it really helps the transmission so you wouldn't rest the weight of the car on the parking pole and the next one is for hybrids specifically the noises they make the additional noises they make rather something that my viewers always ask about on hybrids when you let them sit for a little bit and you lock the doors and you walk away from the car every time you open the driver's door you're going to hear a noise that sounds like this and the first thing i want you to realize is that noise is normal that is actually the abs actuator charging the accumulator because on hybrids the brakes are actually not immediately connected to the mechanical brakes because you have regenerative braking so the computer actually uses pressurized hydraulic fluid brake fluid to apply the brakes when it needs to and sometimes it will not apply them it'll just use regenerative braking so every time you open the driver store the computer wakes up and knows that you're going to commence driving so it sees that the pressure is low in the accumulator which is normally will drop over time it's going to charge it to be ready for driving because you're going to start using the brakes that's what that noise is and the other noise you will hear on hybrids is when you are in ev mode like we are right now or when the engine is not running when you put the car in reverse [Applause] you're gonna hear that homing sound or what i like to call the ufo sound that noise is called proximally alert all that noise means is you're trying to alert people around you that the car is moving the car is in motion it is a lot louder in reverse than it is in drive it still happens in drive but it's a lot louder in reverse intentionally folks this is a safety feature there's a speaker different locations and multiple models but there is a speaker outside that makes that noise is usually in the front of the car some people have asked about disconnecting that because the noise bothers them look this is my personal car i own this car i hear that noise every single day and sometimes it doesn't bother me but remember there is a safety feature that noise is completely normal there is nothing wrong with the car that is designed to alert people around the car that you are actually moving when the engine is off as soon as the engine comes on that noise actually stops because now you can hear the engine running and people associate an engine noise running with a car moving but when there's no engine running that's where the problem is and that's why we have the proximity notification alert and lastly this one is for the diy mechanics the under the hood warriors although this is a beginner's tip but hear me out majority of people when they start working on their own car the first thing they do is start checking their oil level more frequently you should actually do this even if you don't work on your own car because something very simple and it could actually avert disaster majority of people incorrectly check their oil level and usually they take it back to the mechanic that did the last oil change blame them you overfilled my car you under filled my car or worse they take things into their own hand and adjust the oil level and now things are completely wrong because they didn't check it properly to begin with so here is the guideline number one never check your oil level when the car is cold and worse when it has sat overnight you always want to circulate the oil then check your oil level but when you check it when it's cold expect it to be low that is normal because oil as it warms up it's a fluid it's going to expand so you should expect your oil level to be halfway when the car is cold this is going to depend between the models but halfway is about normal when it's cold 60 degrees fahrenheit you should check your oil level when the car is completely warmed up let's define that when your car has been driven at least 15 to 20 minutes or five miles or more that is fully warmed up in modern cars you're gonna shut off your car and not immediately run and check the oil level you're gonna wait for one minute then you're gonna check your oil level because you want your oil level to be correct when the engine is at operating temperature because that's where this engine is gonna spend the majority of its time not cold and definitely not parked overnight i see this mistake so many times and people come to the shop and they ask to correct the oil level and we check it it's correct but then the next day they go check it in the morning it's low or worse it's overfilled because they didn't run the engine so don't fall for this mistake and as a bonus to this video i will say this lifetime transmission fluid define the lifetime please the lifetime transmission fluid or the sealed transmission there is no such thing there is nothing sealed about toyota transmissions they don't have a dipstick but there's actually a procedure to replace the fluid and check the fluid level it is not a simple procedure is a little bit more involved i will leave a video in the description for that step by step but don't fall for the lifetime fluid or the sealed transmission do yourself a favor please because i love you replace your transmission every 60 000 miles or 60 years using original fluid only and you will not have issues with your toyota transmission and as a bonus for you watching this video this long i will add one more thing and this comes from my experience as a toyota master diagnostic technician if you change your wheels or if you notice that your speedometer is not very accurate it's a few mile an hour off there's actually a procedure with the toyota scan tool to adjust for that four miles an hour up or four miles an hour down not more than that that procedure needs a very capable scan tool or the toyota scan tool it's a customization that can happen and it is there from the factory because the same car like this 2022 camry xse has 19 inch wheels but if you go to the led it could have 17 inch wheels that's quite a difference in wheel size from the factory so they made this small adjustability possible so you can actually calibrate it and get it very correct just thought i'd throw this one in there if you have this situation you can go to your toyota dealership and believe it or not and this is unfortunate many toyota technicians actually are not aware of this now this doesn't work on every single model of the toyota lineup but the majority of them has this function thought i'd let you know in case you have a speedometer that is not a hundred percent accurate folks i hope this video was helpful informative i hope you learned something new if you like it consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 506,851

Keywords: things you didn't know about your modern toyota, toyota hidden features, toyota mechanic, toyota technician, toyota, lexus, lexus hidden features, toyota noise, buzzing noise toyota, toyota problems, top 5 toyota, best toyota models, toyota parking brake, toyota gas cap, toyota hybrid noise, toyota hybrid, toyota education, how to, the car care nut, car care nut, toyota tundra, toyota corolla cross, toyota corolla gr, gr corolla, scotty kilmer, toyota corolla gr 2022

Id: kj1-V2Rkqt8

Length: 15min 30sec (930 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 09 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/JonboatJohn]

Thanks for explaining the beep getting out of the car. This has been driving me nuts for almost 2 years!

[u/samthemander]

This is great. Thanks!