Car not ready to drive message

[Swanthecat]

Occasionally since I have owned my 1.2 petrol Corolla TS I had seen a car not ready to drive message. Just re turning the ignition key usually sorted this out straight away. However, this evening I drove about 2 miles to a local shop and when I tried to start the car to drive home it would not start for about 10 attempts with just the car not ready to drive message displayed. I even got out of the locked and unlocked it but it still did the same until it eventually started. Yes the seatbelt was engaged and the clutch depressed. Nothing any different to all other occasions. Anyone any thoughts on what is going on?

[flash22]

Do your reverse lights work ?

[Swanthecat]

17 minutes ago, flash22 said:

Do your reverse lights work ?

Sorry no idea. Why do you ask?

[Catlover]

Do you drive the car much ie often and for how many miles?

[Swanthecat]

2 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Do you drive the car much ie often and for how many miles?

Recently just shopping trips around 10 mile round trip plus every 2 weeks a slightly longer run of around 30-40 miles

[TonyHSD]

Low Battery sounds like 👍 

[Swanthecat]

Will check the Battery tomorrow.

[Catlover]

As FLASH22 asked, do check the reversing lights.

I haven’t a clue why he is asking, but Flash (Bob) is a very knowledgable guy, he would ask you to do it if there was nothing behind the request.  Just switch ignition on, slip into reverse and go to back of car see if the reverse light is on.

[Swanthecat]

2 hours ago, Catlover said:

As FLASH22 asked, do check the reversing lights.

I haven’t a clue why he is asking, but Flash (Bob) is a very knowledgable guy, he would ask you to do it if there was nothing behind the request.  Just switch ignition on, slip into reverse and go to back of car see if the reverse light is on.

I just checked and the reversing light (singular) is illuminated. Should there be 2?

[Catlover]

The reverse light will be on the near side and a fog light will be on the offside as required.

[Swanthecat]

46 minutes ago, Catlover said:

The reverse light will be on the near side and a fog light will be on the offside as required.

Looks like all is working as it should then

[Catlover]

But you going to check the Battery.

[Red_Corolla]

Supposing you tried to start it WITHOUT depressing the clutch? Do you then see a different message? Just trying to rule that out by deduction.

[flash22]

I was thinking Neutral/reverse switch, a weak Battery will make the electronics freak out voltage may be fine but as the current rises the voltage drops below the threshold

a short trip means the Battery will not of had enough time to charge to replace the energy used

[Swanthecat]

So put the car on charge for over 48 hours last week, since then a couple of 30~40 minute drives, one of which was a good burn on the motorway and then today same message. Car booked in Thursday with the dealer for diagnostic. According to the Toyota technician via the receptionist last week, this message usually comes up if the emissions tests are running..

[beeblebrox]

Low Battery is not the cause of this particular problem.(Of course low Battery will cause loads of other problems).

Have a look on a topic I posted earlier "Starting 2019 petrol 1.2 corolla icon tech HB/TS".

You seem to have similar problems to me with confidently starting this model first time.

The "Not ready to drive " message is explained by Cyker's message. It's not ready to drive because the engine is not running thus not ready to drive. Soon as engine runs message goes away.

As for the 10 attempts..........me too.....system gets into a tizwas sometimes, however following a set start-up procedure now works for me. 

Key in, EPB on, gear neutral, momentary press break pedal (to build up some pressure), clutch in, then turn on ignition all the way. Seatbelt connection is not necessary as I start engine OK.

I have disabled auto EPB as I prefer to manually operate it. By the way, there is a function to operate the EPB twice....Press up for as normal, press up second time results in extra braking pressure on rear brakes.

Let us know how your corolla diagnosis went. I'm really interested on result.

[Swanthecat]

59 minutes ago, beeblebrox said:

Low battery is not the cause of this particular problem.(Of course low battery will cause loads of other problems).

Have a look on a topic I posted earlier "Starting 2019 petrol 1.2 corolla icon tech HB/TS".

You seem to have similar problems to me with confidently starting this model first time.

The "Not ready to drive " message is explained by Cyker's message. It's not ready to drive because the engine is not running thus not ready to drive. Soon as engine runs message goes away.

As for the 10 attempts..........me too.....system gets into a tizwas sometimes, however following a set start-up procedure now works for me. 

Key in, EPB on, gear neutral, momentary press break pedal (to build up some pressure), clutch in, then turn on ignition all the way. Seatbelt connection is not necessary as I start engine OK.

I have disabled auto EPB as I prefer to manually operate it. By the way, there is a function to operate the EPB twice....Press up for as normal, press up second time results in extra braking pressure on rear brakes.

Let us know how your corolla diagnosis went. I'm really interested on result.

What you are describing is the normal way of starting the 1.2 petrol manual model apart from pressing the brake pedal which is only necessary for the automatic. Following the ‘normal’ procedure as I have always done is now occasionally not starting the car. For some bizarre reason (or possibly coincidence) the last couple of times it happened, keeping the clutch depressed and selecting a drive gear made it start. Once this gets sorted out it’s bye bye Toyota for me because this has definitely been one of the worst cars I have had the misfortune to own. 

[beeblebrox]

As your normally successful starting procedure is now intermittently failing and the neutral/reverse gear lever switch proven to be OK, then someone else 

can suggest cause of problem. But again inform this topic with result of fix.🙂

[Cyker]

I'm surprised nobody's suggested this yet, but could it be the clutch pedal switch being faulty?

I see posts about this come up now and then, where the clutch detection switch gets a bit iffy and the car doesn't get the signal that the clutch is being pressed in, so it doesn't start the car and just puts it in Aux mode or doesn't do anything.

Sometimes it just needs a good clean with some electrical switch cleaner, sometimes it has shifted and just needs to be moved back into its proper position, a few times the switch has needed replacing due to some sort of damage.

 

[Red_Corolla]

22 minutes ago, Cyker said:

I'm surprised nobody's suggested this yet, but could it be the clutch pedal switch being faulty?

 

On 2/25/2022 at 1:22 PM, Red_Corolla said:

Supposing you tried to start it WITHOUT depressing the clutch? Do you then see a different message? Just trying to rule that out by deduction.

I have tried 😊

[Cyker]

Ah, I did see that, but figured it wouldn't do anything as, past about 2005-ish all Toyotas required the clutch to be pressed in to start the car (Found that out the hard way with my Mk2   I usually start my cars with the clutch pressed in as a matter of course, ever since my first car where I found it started much easier ( e.g. 1-2 cranks instead of 3-4) than just starting them in neutral, but one time I was trying to start it through the window from outside the car to check something, and thought the car had broken because it wouldn't start!!  )

 

[Red_Corolla]

16 hours ago, Cyker said:

Ah, I did see that, but figured it wouldn't do anything as, past about 2005-ish all Toyotas required the clutch to be pressed in to start the car (Found that out the hard way with my Mk2   I usually start my cars with the clutch pressed in as a matter of course, ever since my first car where I found it started much easier ( e.g. 1-2 cranks instead of 3-4) than just starting them in neutral, but one time I was trying to start it through the window from outside the car to check something, and thought the car had broken because it wouldn't start!!  )

 

I just figured that if it did anything different (including nothing) then the switch could probably be ruled out. Most cars would come up with something like, 'Depress clutch when starting,' IME.

Like you, I've always done it as standard practice. Less load on the starter because you're not driving the gearbox input and it also provides a failsafe should you forget to select neutral. I do the same with bikes, it's better than having blind faith in the neutral switch.

[TonyHSD]

It is likely to be connected to the clutch switch or something to do with the electronic parking brake. What else can it be?! 🤨

[Swanthecat]

Update- it’s been in the dealers today. Diagnostic showed absolutely nothing. Battery is fully charged and in good condition and no fault warnings in the system. They did send me a video where the technician said the system had lost contact once or twice which he said was symptomatic of the car stalling but I have never stalled this car. I asked if this was date stamped but apparently not. So no clearer and no resolution to the problem which will happen again. Apparently the only thing I can do is video it when it happens again

[TonyHSD]

10 minutes ago, Swanthecat said:

Update- it’s been in the dealers today. Diagnostic showed absolutely nothing. Battery is fully charged and in good condition and no fault warnings in the system. They did send me a video where the technician said the system had lost contact once or twice which he said was symptomatic of the car stalling but I have never stalled this car. I asked if this was date stamped but apparently not. So no clearer and no resolution to the problem which will happen again. Apparently the only thing I can do is video it when it happens again

Thanks for updating us. Does your car has a rev matching function when changing  gears up or down similar to the 2.0 manual available in US? If yes you can try disable that function and see if makes any difference. Button should be near gear shifter. 👍