Toyota - Sienna :: ABS And Tire Light Comes On / Goes Out When Reboot The Car

Well, a serious problem may be pending on my 2002 Sienna. I get a lot of flats, and usually lose a tire on average each year, due to lots of junk on the roads and streets. So, in the last couple weeks, sometimes the tire light comes on, and I assume I have another leak. But, then it has gone out again after a while and the pressure is okay.

Yesterday, moderate temperatures, I drove only 3 miles or so, to visit friends. The car sat an hour or more. When I started it, the ABS light was blinking and the tire light was on.

I stopped the car, and re-booted, that is, turned it off, and started it again. Lights were okay. Today, I started it, and the ABS and tire lights were on, and not blinking. I re-booted the car, and they were okay.

Three things come to mind:

- Computer
- Bad or intermittent connections somewhere in the light system. The fact a re-boot fixes it tends to preclude this, but with electronics, there is no such thing as 100% sure anything.
- Ambient conditions. I normally park at the end of the house, but workers first put a dump truck load of sand there. Then, they moved in a couple pickups of laja (flagstone) with pieces from very small to maybe 150 pounds each piece.

So, I have parked along the house, and there is a roof drain which drains 500 square feet or more, with a 13 foot drop. I park with the driver's door maybe 3 to five feet from the place it hits. And, it has been raining lightly for the last couple weeks, and heavily the last three days. No water in the car body, but who knows what happens underneath.

I stopped typing and moved enough stones to park there again, and will be telling the workers they need to keep my parking place open for me.

I know we used to have problems with our electronics in private airplanes, and the fix was to install a liner inside the electronics access door. Electronics does not work well when submerged. I also checked with my new scanner, and no DTC; and no history at all.